Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus II (Pars Altera): Demonstratio Catholica

Having established the fact and the end of the institution of the Church, we must investigate the threefold character with which Christ willed to endow his Church. For he willed his Church to be indefectible, so that it might be present in all times; visible, so that it might lie open to all men; and finally supernatural, so that it might surpass all societies. Hence we shall treat of the indefectibility, visibility, and supernaturality of the Church instituted by Christ.

In a twofold way a society can fail, namely with respect to existence and with respect to essence. It can fail with respect to existence, so that it absolutely ceases to be; it can fail with respect to essence, so that it is at least corrupted and consequently becomes unfit for attaining its end. We shall show that the Church of Christ is indefectible both with respect to existence and with respect to essence.

The adversaries of the perpetuity of the Church are not only all the rationalists, but also the Socinians, whose founder Faustus Socinus († 1604)¹ wrote: "That the true face of the Church would exist in perpetuity was nowhere really predicted or absolutely promised … nay, owing to the wickedness of men it could come about that at some time, and that for a very long time too, no visible Church existed."² On the contrary, with nearly all Christians assenting, Catholics have always professed and still profess that the Church will remain until the end of the world. This perpetuity of the Church is indeed proclaimed by Christ, by the apostles, and by the fathers.

1. Christ announces in various ways that the Church will never perish:

a) He equates the Church with the kingdom of God, as we have already shown. But the kingdom of God on earth, according to the messianic prophecies, will stand eternally, until the kingdom of glory in heaven succeeds it.³ Wherefore the angel predicts of Christ, the head of the Church: "He will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."⁴

b) He compares the Church to the field and to the net: to the field, in which the wheat and the tares, evil men and good, grow together until the harvest, i. e., the last judgment;⁵ to the net, into which good and evil fish enter until the consummation of the world.⁶

c) He assigns to the Church the end of saving all men. Since outside the Church there is no salvation, the Church must remain as long as there will be men to be saved. Otherwise Christ would have had to provide men with another way of attaining salvation.

d) He expressly promises the Church perpetuity: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."⁷ Therefore the Church of Christ, built upon a rocky foundation, will be so firm and so stable that it can never be destroyed by any force, even that of hell.

2. The apostles propose the same perpetuity of the Church both by metaphors and by explicit words. a) They describe the Church under the metaphor of the body and of the bride of Christ. The Church is the body of Christ, and Christ indeed is its head.⁸ But the body of Christ certainly cannot be separated from its head by destruction. Likewise the Church is the bride of Christ. But Christ can never abandon his most beloved bride.⁹ b) Hence in explicit words Paul says of Christ: "For he must reign, until [God] puts all enemies under his feet. But the last enemy, death, will be destroyed."¹⁰ But death will not be destroyed before the end of this world; therefore the kingdom, or the Church, of Christ will last on earth until the end of the world. Elsewhere the apostle of the Gentiles opposes the "immovable kingdom" of the new covenant to the "movable" and "translated" old covenant.¹¹ Finally he declares that the Eucharist will be celebrated in the Church "until Christ comes" to judgment.¹²

3. The fathers inculcate the same doctrine. Ambrose: "The Church has its own times, namely of persecution and of peace. For it seems to wane like the moon, but it does not wane. It can be overshadowed, it cannot wane."¹³ Jerome: "Upon which [rock] the Church, being founded, is shaken by no storm, is overthrown by no whirlwind or winds."¹⁴ Augustine: "No one blots out the constitution of God from heaven, no one blots out the Church of God from the earth."¹⁵ Chrysostom: "It is easier to extinguish the sun than to destroy the Church."¹⁶

Therefore the Church of Christ will exist perpetually until the end of the world. It will exist, moreover, substantially or essentially such as it was instituted by Christ.

Those adversaries who admit that the Church will indeed endure perpetually nevertheless contend that it has been essentially changed or can be changed. The Fraticelli "spirituales", condemned by John XXII, asserted that the gospel had been concealed in the Church until now, indeed wholly extinguished.¹ The Reformers contended that the Church under the supreme pontiffs had been so foully corrupted and collapsed that scarcely its ruins remained.² Following in Protestant footsteps, the Jansenists and the Synod of Pistoia reproached the Church for having "grown old" and obscured nearly all its doctrines.³ To these are added the Modernists, lamenting a spirit of the "curia" hostile to reforms and demanding that the Church conform and adapt itself in all things to the ideas of present-day liberalism.

Catholics, on the contrary, have always held and hold that those things which are of human institution in the Church can indeed be changed according to the various necessities of the times, the essence of the Church instituted by Christ Himself remaining nevertheless unharmed.⁴ This immutability of the Church follows from its perpetuity, its end, its promise, and its infallibility.

1. From the perpetuity of the Church, or its indefectible existence. For the dogma must be applied to the Church: "Let it be, as it is, or let it not be." A Church essentially changed would no longer be the Church of Christ. Hence at the very moment at which the Church would fail with respect to essence, it would already have failed with respect to existence. But, from what has been said, it is indefectible with respect to existence; therefore it is also indefectible with respect to essence.

2. From the end of the Church. The proximate end of the Church consists in this, that through it the work of redemption be rendered perennial, i. e. that the Christian religion be preserved and administered; the remote end of the Church, however, consists in this, that in it and through it men may be saved, i. e. may attain eternal life. It is evident, moreover, that both the one and the other end would be impossible of attainment if the Church were essentially corrupted.

3. From the promise of the Church. For Christ promised the Church so great a stability that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.⁵ But the gates of hell would altogether prevail against the Church if they corrupted it essentially. Moreover, Christ promised that He would be with the Church even to the end of the world: "Behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world."⁶ But the assistance of Christ must most efficaciously prevent the Church from failing in its essence.

4. From the infallibility of the Church. In the second section of the Catholic demonstration we shall show that Christ instituted in His Church an infallible magisterium, which neither errs nor can err concerning the deposit of revelation, i. e. concerning all those things which are of the essence of the Christian religion. But since the Church adheres, and must necessarily adhere, to this magisterium, it is itself rendered infallible. Whence it cannot be changed or corrupted.

The indefectibility of the Church having been vindicated, the question is raised whether the Church is visible by the institution of Christ. On this question there is bitter controversy between Protestants and Catholics.

The Reformers, following in the footsteps of certain heresies of the Middle Ages,¹ declared the Church now invisible, now visible. For when the Catholic innovators were asked where their little church had been before the sixteenth century, they replied that the Church is invisible.² They affirmed that this Church consists in justice and predestination alone and embraces none but the just and the predestined.³

Since, however, other sectaries also maintained that they too had the Spirit of God, Luther, Calvin, and other heresiarchs suddenly set over against them a visible Church.⁴ Their disciples followed the ambiguity of the Reformers,⁵ and to the present day Protestants waver uncertain between a visible and an invisible Church. They indeed teach an invisible Church; yet they admit a visible one, whenever it has been necessary or opportune. They teach, quite commonly, that the "mass of the faithful" forms a visible Church, though less correctly so called; but that the just and holy faithful constitute the invisible Church, which alone is the Church strictly so called.⁶

Catholics, however, constantly hold that the Church is visible by the institution of Christ. By this affirmation they do not insist that the members of the Church are visible, since no one denies that the faithful are visible men; but they contend that the Church of Christ as such is visible or conspicuous, so that it may easily be established where it is, what it is, and who belong to it. This visibility of the Church is proved by an argument both direct and indirect.

1. Christ himself indicates that the Church founded by him is visible: a) By the form which he gave to the Church. From the thesis on the institution of the Church¹ it is clear that Christ founded the Church in the form of a true society. But no society worthy of the name can be conceived among men unless it is visible. Therefore. b) By the end which he fixed for the Church.² The end of the Church consists in this, that it render the work of redemption perennial (proximate end) and save individual men (remote end). But this twofold end is attained only by visible acts, namely by the acts of preaching, ministering and directing on the part of superiors, as well as by the acts of professing the faith, receiving the sacraments and obeying the commandments on the part of subjects. Therefore. c) By the parables with which he describes the Church. He describes the Church as: the kingdom of heaven, which throughout the whole Old Testament is understood as conspicuous, and which indeed by its very diffusion is conspicuous to all nations and times; a field, in which the weeds grow and are seen together with the wheat;³ a net;⁴ a wedding feast;⁵ a sheepfold of sheep under the shepherd Peter;⁶ a house to be built upon a rock foundation;⁷ a city set upon a mountain.⁸ All these parables denote a visible Church.

2. The Apostles likewise teach that the Church of Christ is visible: a) By the metaphors with which they describe the Church: a flock, in which the Holy Spirit placed bishops as pastors;⁹ a body, in which there are many members joined together and mutually dependent upon one another;¹⁰ a household, of which the apostles were divinely appointed ministers and stewards;¹¹ the house of God, in which the bishops are bound to conduct themselves worthily.¹² All these things plainly proclaim a visible Church. b) By the acts with which they propagate the Church. For they themselves, going into the whole world, preached the Gospel everywhere; they united believers into visible particular churches; they set elders and ministers over the churches; they sent letters to the ministers and to the churches themselves; they cast unworthy men out of the Church. And by these and very many other acts they bear witness to the visibility of the Church.

3. Christian antiquity excludes an invisible Church both by its manner of speaking and by its manner of acting. a) By manner of speaking. The ancient writers extol the visibility of the Church in many ways. Thus Cyprian: "The Church of the Lord, bathed in light, extends its rays throughout the whole world."¹³ Athanasius: "The Church of Christ, shining and illuminating the world and abiding forever like the sun and the moon."¹⁴ Chrysostom: "Where is the Church? It shines more brightly than the sun."¹⁵ Ambrose: "Above all assemblies the Church of God shines forth."¹⁶ Augustine: "The true Church is hidden from no one."¹⁷ b) By manner of acting. Heretics were always separated by excommunication from the visible Church. Schism, i. e. a severing from the visible Church, was always and everywhere regarded as the worst crime. Finally, the history of almost all religious bodies that declared themselves to be the Church of Christ was written down, although only the fortunes and deeds of a visible institution can be written down. Therefore the consensus of Christians knows nothing of an invisible Church, or of that congregation of the saints known to God alone, such as the adversaries dream of.

To the direct argument thus far proposed there is added an indirect argument, by which are in fact blunted the reasons by which the adversaries wish to defend their opinion concerning an invisible Church.

The defenders of the invisible Church themselves appeal to certain texts from the mouth of Christ, the apostles, and Christian antiquity. And indeed:

1. From the mouth of Christ they cite these words: Mt 13, 44: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in a field." But it is not the external organism of the Church, but the internal worth of the Church or of the messianic kingdom that is compared to a hidden treasure. That the Church herself is visible is evident from the antecedent and consequent context, where the kingdom of heaven is likened to the grain of mustard seed and to the net.¹ But even in the text the kingdom of heaven is presupposed to be a visible treasure, albeit hidden; for in what way could it be found, if it were invisible?

Lc 17, 20. 21: "The kingdom of God does not come with observation (μετὰ παρατηρήσεως); neither shall they say: behold here, or behold there. For behold, the kingdom of God is within you (ἐντὸς ὑμῶν)." The meaning is that the kingdom of God was not to come with that external apparatus with which the Jews expected the messianic-political or -eschatological kingdom; rather, Christ announces that the messianic kingdom had already come without noise and was in the midst of the Jews, since the Messiah stood among them, as John the Baptist had already affirmed: "There has stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not."²

Io 18, 36: "My kingdom is not of this world." Pilate thought that Christ was thinking of founding a political messianic kingdom. That Christ denies with the cited words, without, however, saying so much as a word about an invisible kingdom or Church.

2. From the mouth of the apostles they bring forward these words: Hebr 12, 18. 22. 23: "For you have not come to a palpable mountain, but you have come to Mount Sion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem ..." In these words Paul certainly opposes the Church to the synagogue; yet not as the invisible to the visible, but as the spiritual to the earthly, as the perfect to the imperfect.

1 Petr 2, 5: "Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."³ With these words Peter inculcates only this, that Christians should be bound to Christ not only by the external bond of society, but by the internal bond of love, and so build themselves up not only into a material house, but into a spiritual one, offering not bloody and carnal sacrifices, but spiritual sacrifices of virtues.

3. From the mouth of Christian antiquity they object with that article of the Creed: "I believe in the holy Church." If it is believed, it is not seen, they say, following Luther. Yet unjustly. For the Church is believed in one respect and seen in another. It is believed with regard to its divine nature (the invisible soul of the Church); but it is seen with regard to its external organism (the visible body of the Church). In exactly the same way man is visible with respect to his body, invisible with respect to his soul.⁴ But just as man, although he has an immediately invisible soul, is nevertheless simply called visible, so the Church is rightly called wholly visible, although it is not visible according to the whole.

The supernatural character of the Church is already evident from those things which we have thus far discussed concerning its origin and end. For that society is supernatural in its character whose not only origin, but also end, and consequently means, are supernatural. But, from what has been said, both the origin and the end of the Church of Christ are supernatural: the origin, because Christ, the Son of God, instituted it; the end, because he instituted it to preserve and dispense the supernatural religion and to work the supernatural salvation of men. Especially, however, the supernatural character of the Church shines forth from its essential relation to Christ. For the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, whose head, namely, is Christ, and whose members are the faithful. This principal thesis is now to be proved, so that afterwards the special corollaries may be deduced from it. And indeed we shall be more ample and more diligent in treating this supernatural character of the Church, since it is of the greatest importance not only for apologetics, but for the whole of theology and the entire Christian life.

The Church is called neither the physical body of Christ nor the moral, but the mystical. It is not called the physical body of Christ; for the physical body of Christ, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary, having suffered on the cross and risen from the sepulcher, consists of flesh and bones, like the bodies of other men. Yet neither is the Church called the merely moral body of Christ, because Christ is the head of the Church not only in that sense in which the presidents of other societies are the head of a moral body. Rather, Christ in a manner full of mysteries exercises upon the Church the same organic-supernatural power which a natural human head exercises upon the human organism. Hence the Church is the mystical body of Christ, whose head is Christ, and whose members are the faithful. The thesis is established:

1. From Sacred Scripture. Passing over those words by which both Christ and the apostles, speaking of the Church, almost always implicitly declare our thesis, we note the explicit doctrine of St. Paul, enunciated thus:

1 Cor 6, 13. 15. 17: "The body ... for the Lord, and the Lord for the body ... Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? ... But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." Author's rendering: Our body to Christ the head, but Christ the head to our body. Therefore not only our soul, but also our bodies are inserted into Christ as members. But if we adhere to Christ the head as His own members, we are also of one spirit, or life, with Christ.

1 Cor 12, 12-14. 20. 27: "For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body: so also is Christ [namely, the mystical Christ]. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free: and we have all been made to drink of one Spirit. For the body also is not one member, but many ... Many members indeed, but one body ... But you are the body of Christ, and members of member." Author's rendering: As the human body, so also Christ, i. e. the mystical Christ, or the Church. Many members constitute one human body, because they are informed by the same spirit. So also the individual faithful are individual members of Christ, but taken together they constitute one body of Christ, because they are imbued with the same Holy Spirit.¹

Eph 4, 11-13, 15-16: "And He Himself [Christ] gave some indeed apostles, some prophets, others evangelists, others pastors and teachers ... unto the building up of the body of Christ: until we all meet into a perfect man, into the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ ... Let us grow in Him in all things, who is the head, Christ: from whom the whole body, compacted and joined together through every joint of supply, according to the working in the measure of each single member, makes increase of the body unto the building up of itself in charity." That is: Christ instituted various offices and functions, that the Church, which is the body of Christ, might be built up and become more and more like the perfect man, Christ. Let us therefore grow according to the exemplar of the head and by the power of union with Christ the head, who joins and gathers together the whole body, and who, through, as it were, joints or channels, supplies ("through every joint of supply") power suited to the individual members ("according to the working in the measure of each single member"), in such a way that the whole body of the Lord is increased in charity.

Col 1, 18. 24: "And He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead: that in all things He may hold the primacy ... Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church."

2. From the holy fathers innumerable testimonies could be adduced, from which we select these few (others to be added in the corollaries): St. Ignatius: "Through the cross Christ in His passion invites you, who are His members. The head, therefore, cannot be born separately without the members, God promising union, who Himself is union."² St. Irenaeus calls the Church "the great and glorious body of Christ"³ St. Gregory of Nazianzus: "For we are all one body in Christ, but individually members of Christ and of one another. For some rule and preside: others obey and are governed. And although the action of both is not the same, since to command and to be ruled by command are not the same thing, nevertheless both are made one in the one Christ, built and compacted by the same Spirit."⁴ St. Augustine: "The whole Christ is head and body. The head is the savior of the body, who has already ascended into heaven; the body, however, is the Church, which labors on earth. But unless this body adhered to its head by the bond of charity, so that one might be made from head and body, He would not, rebuking a certain persecutor from heaven, say: 'Saule, Saule, why do you persecute me' (Act 9, 4) ... What, my members? The head cried out on behalf of the members, and the members transfigured the head in themselves,"⁵ St. Gregory the Great: "For the whole holy universal Church is one body, constituted under Christ Jesus, namely, its head."⁶ St. John Chrysostom: "He unites us through many examples. But observe: He is the head, we are the body; between head and body there can be no interval; He is the foundation, we the building; He the vine, we the branches; He the bridegroom, we the bride; He the shepherd, we the sheep; He the way, we those who walk; again we the temple, He the inhabitant; He the firstborn, we the brothers; He the heir, we the coheirs; He the life, we the living; He the resurrection, we the rising; He the light, we the enlightened. All these things manifest unity, and do not allow anything empty to lie between, not even the least."⁷

1. Christ presides over the Church and provides for her. For the first prerogative and property of the head is that it preside over all the members and the whole body and be of service to them, while, as from a citadel looking out through the senses, the eyes and the ears and the imagination itself, it keeps evils from the body and likewise provides goods for it. So also Christ, the head of the Church: “Just as the soul animates and quickens our whole body, but in the head it senses both by seeing and by hearing and by tasting and by touching, whereas in the other members by touching only; and therefore all things are subject to the head for acting, while that is placed above for counselling, because the head in a certain manner sustains the person of the soul itself, which counsels the body, for there all the senses appear: so to the whole people of the saints, as to one body, the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is head.”¹ And indeed in each single thing, even to the least, Christ has care of us all: “But our head intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father; some members He receives, others He scourges, others He cleanses, others He consoles, others He creates, others He calls, others He recalls, others He corrects, others He restores.”² Hence:

2. Christ imparts to the Church spiritual life and movement. From the head, which is, as it were, the seat and center of all vital powers, every power is diffused into the body, so that from the head the members have not only that whereby they are nourished, preserved, grow and act, but also that whereby they are fitted together and united among themselves for constituting one body. The same holds of the head of the Church, Christ Himself bearing witness: “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, and he who eats me, he also will live because of me.”³ The parable of the vine, which communicates to the branches all life and power and fruitfulness, splendidly illustrates this influx into the whole Church and all the faithful.⁴ In this sense also the apostle John: “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.”⁵ Similarly Paul: “But doing the truth, let us grow in Him through all things, who is the head, Christ: from whom the whole body, compacted and connected through every joint of ministration, according to the operation in the measure of each single member, makes the increase of the body.”⁶ “From whom [Christ the head] the whole body, supplied and built up through bonds and connections, grows unto the increase of God.”⁷ Whence rightly Origen: “We say from the divine Scriptures that the whole Church is the body of Christ, animated by the Son of God, and that the members of that body, as of a whole, are all those who believe; since just as the soul imparts life and movement to the body, which by its own nature cannot be moved vitally by itself: so the Word, moving and driving the whole body, that is, the Church, to those things which are needful, moves also each single member of those who belong to the Church, so that they do nothing without the Word.”⁸ Thence:

3. Christ is in a certain manner perfected and completed through the Church. For its perfection and completion the natural head needs the whole body and each and every member, that they may serve the diverse operations of the soul and commit to execution those things which are commanded by the head. So also, with the apostle teaching about Christ and the Church: “And Him He gave as head over the whole Church, which is His body and the fullness (τὸ πλήρωμα) of Him who is filled all in all.”⁹ This St. Jerome excellently expounds thus: “Just as an emperor is filled out, if his army is daily increased, and new provinces are made, and the multitude of peoples grows: so also our Lord Jesus Christ, in that all things believe in Him and come day by day to the faith, is Himself filled in all: yet in such a way that He is filled all in all, that is, that those who believe in Him may be full of all virtues, and according to the Gospel make Him to advance in age, wisdom, and grace; not only before God, but also before men.”¹⁰

4. Christ betroths the Church to Himself and loves her with the most ardent love. It belongs to the head to love and embrace the members of the body with the same love with which it loves itself. That Christ pursues the Church with this love is evident from this, that He Himself calls Himself the bridegroom, for whom the heavenly Father made the marriage feast, betrothing the Church to Himself.¹¹

Wherefore John the evangelist celebrates the Church as “the bride, the wife of the Lamb”¹² More explicitly St. Paul: “The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church: He Himself is the savior of His body ... Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the laver of water in the word of life, that He might present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she might be holy and immaculate... For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as also Christ the Church; because we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”¹³ Therefore:

5. Christ constitutes one person with the Church. Just as the bridegroom and the bride are “two in one flesh”,¹⁴ and just as head and members coalesce into one physical subject, so Christ and the Church form one juridical subject. This the apostle Paul expressly affirms: “For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, are yet one body: so also Christ”¹⁵ mystical = Church. To which St. John Chrysostom excellently: “When he ought to have said, so also the Church, for this was the consequence: this indeed he did not say, but in its place he puts Christ, raising the discourse on high and striking the hearer with greater shame. But this he wishes to signify: so also the body of Christ, which is the Church. For just as body and head are one man, so he said that the Church and Christ are one. Therefore he put Christ in place of the Church, so calling His body.”¹⁶ Other fathers also proclaim this same unity of Christ and the Church many times, e. g. St. Augustine: “One man is head and body, one man is Christ and the Church, a perfect man.”¹⁷ “There is made, then, as it were from two one person, from head and body, from bridegroom and bride.”¹⁸ “The Christians themselves with their head, which ascended into heaven, are one Christ: not that one and we many, but we many too are one in that one. One man, therefore, is Christ and the body.”¹⁹ And St. Gregory the Great: “Christ, therefore, with His whole Church, whether that which still sojourns on earth, or that which already reigns with Him in heaven, is one person.”²⁰

1. In what sense it is lawful to distinguish the body and the soul of the Church. The Church, as is clear from what has been said, is likened to an organic body, i. e. a living or animated one. Hence the body of the Church is always and necessarily informed by the soul, just as the human body, in order to be a human body, is always and necessarily informed by the human soul. Therefore the body of the Church in relation to the soul of the Church cannot be distinguished in the sense as if the former existed without the latter, or the latter without the former. The soul and the body of the Church are not two Churches, one invisible, the other visible, but they constitute one Church at once visible and living.

Nevertheless, this notwithstanding, in the Church, as in the human individual, we can distinguish a twofold element: a material, visible, determinable element, which they significantly call the body of the Church, and a formal, invisible, determining element, which is the soul of the Church. If, however, it is asked:

2. What belongs to the body, and what to the soul of the Church thus understood, the theologians answer:

a) Whatever in the Church is external, visible, and as it were determinable is to be attributed to its body, namely: α) the men who constitute the visible assembly of the Church; β) the external bonds and means by which these men are mutually joined into a visible assembly and conspire toward the pursuit of the same end, namely the preaching and confession of faith, the administration and reception of the sacraments, governance and obedience toward superiors; γ) finally, the external manifestation itself of the interior charisms.

b) Whatever in the Church is internal, invisible, and as it were determining must be said to belong to its soul, namely: α) sanctifying grace, which is the formal principle of the supernatural life; β) faith, hope, and charity, which always accompany sanctifying grace and are the proximate principles of the operations of the supernatural life; γ) the other supernatural habits (virtues), as well as actual grace, without which no supernatural operation can take place; δ) whatever gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit, by which supernatural holiness and activity is amplified and rendered more efficacious.¹