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

1. What is meant by the name of member of the Church. In its general notion a member signifies a certain integral part of an organic body, and hence includes two things: α) cohesion with the body; for what exists separated from the body ceases to be an actual member of that body; β) participation in the life of the body; for a dead or wholly withered organ can no longer be reckoned a member of the body. The same is to be said by transferred force of the members of the Church. The notion, therefore, of a member of the Church properly consists in this, that one coheres with the body of the Church and is a partaker of its life, in other words, that he is inserted into the body of the Church and informed by the soul of the Church.

Nevertheless, since the soul of the Church, as we have said, is always and necessarily united to the body, no one remains inserted in the body of the Church or in the visible society of the Church without being informed in some way also by the soul or life of the Church. Indeed, the supernatural life of the Church can have diverse degrees in diverse subjects, inasmuch as one man becomes a partaker of a perfect, another of an imperfect influence of Christ the Head. He participates in His perfect influence who has sanctifying grace with faith, hope, and charity and the other virtues that accompany sanctifying grace itself; he [participates] imperfectly, who, deprived of sanctifying grace, at least keeps faith, which is the root and principle of supernatural life.¹ Nay more, even with faith itself lost, man is not wholly withdrawn from the power and influence of the Church. For as long as he subjects himself to the authority of the Church, professing faith at least externally, communicating with her in sacred things, and submitting himself to her governance, he undergoes the influence of the Church imperfectly indeed, but yet in some true way, because he is not entirely deprived of actual graces and other spiritual goods.² Whoever, therefore, coheres with the body of the Church or with the visible society of the Church is also not without some degree of the life or soul of the Church, and hence remains an organic or proper member of the Church. From this it readily appears:

2. The conditions for one to be a member of the Church. The member of the Church, therefore, is he who a) has duly entered the Church by the reception of the sacrament of baptism, and who b) after his entry perseveres in the Church by profession of faith and union with ecclesiastical authority. To the notion, therefore, of a member of the Church is required:

a) That a man duly enter the Church by the reception of the sacrament of baptism. That baptism is the condition and efficient cause of entry into the Church is taught both by Sacred Scripture and by Christian Tradition.

Sacred Scripture. Christ Himself ordained: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"³, i. e. into the Church. Whence He also enjoined upon the apostles: "Teach all nations, baptizing them."⁴ Executing this command, the apostles already on the day of Pentecost aggregated the faithful to the Church by baptizing them: "They therefore that received his word [Peter's] were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls."⁵ Finally, Paul testifies in general concerning Christians: "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free."⁶

Christian Tradition. The Fathers attest with one consent that catechumens are in the vestibule of piety, have not yet entered the holy places, are to be inserted into the Church, are indeed sons already conceived in the womb of mother Church, but, as not yet born, are to be brought forth into the light by baptism, and that only by baptism is one aggregated to the assembly of the faithful and imbued with the Christian mysteries.⁷ For this reason baptism has constantly been called the "gate of the Church". Thus Eugene IV in the Decree for the Armenians (1439): "Holy baptism holds the first place among all the sacraments, for it is the gate of spiritual life; for through it we are made members of Christ and of the body of the Church."⁸ The Council of Trent also says that "the Church exercises judgment upon no one who has not first entered her through the gate of baptism. For what have I to do, says the apostle, with judging those who are outside? - It is otherwise with those of the household of faith, whom Christ the Lord once made members of His body by the laver of baptism."⁹

b) That a man, after his entry, persevere in the Church by profession of faith and union with ecclesiastical authority. Once regenerated by baptism, he remains actually in the Church, even if he perhaps falls into crimes, provided that he professes the true faith and subjects himself to ecclesiastical authority. That this twofold condition is required in order that one who is baptized persevere in the Church is proved in parts thus:

Profession of faith. We are not speaking of the internal assent of faith, since it is a question of a visible sign by which we are joined to the visible Church. That an external profession of faith is required of the members of the Church is evident from the very name and nature of the Church. The Church is called and is a society of the faithful, i. e. of those who coalesce into a society especially by the Christian faith. But faith which is not manifested by external confession does not join men into a society. Therefore an external profession of faith is required for the notion of a member of the Church. Likewise: Union with ecclesiastical authority. For Christ declares rebels against the rulers of the Church strangers to the communion of the faithful: "And if he will not hear the Church [ecclesiastical authority], let him be to thee as the heathen and publican."¹⁰ And indeed the very social character of the Church forbids that the obstinate remain members of the ecclesiastical body. Just as in any human society authority is the formal principle by which the members are gathered into one organism, so likewise in the Church. Therefore communion with ecclesiastical authority is required for the notion of a member of the Church. With these conditions posited, it is also evident:

3. Who are not members of the Church. The Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches concisely: "From this it follows that only three kinds of men are excluded from her [the Church]: first infidels, then heretics and schismatics, lastly the excommunicated."¹¹ Therefore outside the Church are:

a) Infidels or the unbaptized, i. e. all those who do not have the sacrament of baptism. For although baptism of desire or of blood can sometimes supply for and effect the baptism of water, so that a man approaches the Church by desire and is accordingly informed by the soul of the Church, it nevertheless does not impress that character by which we are inserted into the body of the Church. Hence pagans, Mohammedans, Jews, catechumens, or even those invalidly baptized are by no means members of the Church.¹²

b) Heretics and schismatics, "because they have revolted from the Church. For they no more belong to the Church than deserters belong to the army from which they have defected."¹³ For whether they act knowingly and obstinately (formal heretics and schismatics) or ignorantly (material heretics and schismatics), by their very acts they separate themselves from the body of the Church. And indeed heretics, while they adulterate the profession of faith by denying the doctrine of the Church; schismatics, however, while they resist communion by rising up against the rulers of the Church.¹⁴

Nevertheless, only notorious or public heretics and schismatics, i. e. those whose heresy or schism openly becomes known, are cut off from the Church, but not occult heretics and schismatics, i. e. those whose heresy or schism becomes known to no one or to few. For all those are to be reckoned members of the Church, a visible and public society, who once entered the Church by an external act public in itself, and do not likewise depart by an external and equally public manner.¹⁵

c) The excommunicated, who do not indeed withdraw from the Church of their own accord (as heretics and schismatics do), but are cast out from the assembly of the faithful by the sentence of the Church herself. In truth the Church has the power of excluding the unworthy from her bosom. For Christ granted to the Church the right of excluding contumaciously sinning Christians from the assembly of the faithful so completely, just as the heathen were excluded from the synagogue, exiles by themselves, and the publicans, exiles by sentence.¹⁶ Using the same right, the apostle Paul ordered the incestuous Corinthian to be removed from the midst of the brethren and delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.¹⁷ Likewise by a most ancient manner of acting the Church used to excommunicate or anathematize the unworthy, and indeed in such a way that the excommunicated were said to be cut off from Christian communion, proscribed; separated, removed, sequestered from the body of Christ; segregated and cast out from the bosom of holy mother Church. Whence also, with the bond of excommunication loosed, men were affirmed to be restored to the communion and unity of the faithful, inserted anew into the body of Christ, led back and received into the bosom of mother Church.¹⁸

Hence whoever is simply excommunicated is certainly outside the Church. But the Church considers as simply excommunicated only those whom she calls excommunicates to be avoided.¹⁹ On the contrary, tolerated excommunicates still retain a certain social communion with the Church. For according to the older and the most recent canon law, tolerated excommunicates, if they are clerics, retain their jurisdiction over the faithful unchanged; if, however, they are laymen, they are indeed deprived of the principal spiritual goods, but not of all, nor are they wholly excluded from civil intercourse with the faithful.²⁰ Which being so, tolerated excommunicates remain truly and properly members of the Church.

4. False opinions about the members of the Church contend that either the just alone or the predestined alone are to be numbered in the society of the faithful.

a) That the just alone are members of the Church was taught of old by the Montanists, Novatians, and Donatists, to whom in the Middle Ages were added the Cathars, and finally in more recent times Luther, Quesnel, and the Synod of Pistoia.²¹ Against this heretical opinion it must be held that sinners also are members of the Church. And this Christ teaches both by parables and by express words. By parables He compares the Church to a net cast into the sea gathering good and bad fish;²² to a sheepfold in which there are sheep and goats;²³ to the ten virgins, of whom five were foolish and five prudent;²⁴ to a field in which wheat and tares grow together,²⁵ etc. By express words He provided for sinners who are in the Church, bidding them to pray: "Forgive us our debts";²⁶ prescribing the correction of sinning brethren:²⁷ instituting the sacrament of penance for remitting or retaining the sins of the faithful.²⁸ Paul in the epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians rebukes the sins of Christians; to Timothy he also writes: "Them that sin reprove before all, that the rest also may have fear;"²⁹ he compares the Church to a house in which there are vessels unto honour and vessels unto dishonour.³⁰ Likewise the Fathers everywhere affirm that sinners are in the Church. Recall the most serious controversy of the second and third centuries about the manner of the Church's proceeding with sinners. Also St. Gregory Nazianzen describes the body of the Church as composed, as it were, of many beasts, wild and tame.³¹ St. Jerome asserts that as in the ark of Noah all kinds of animals, so in the Church the just and sinners dwell.³² Especially in the fourth and fifth centuries, however, the Catholic dogma was asserted under the leadership of St. Augustine, who in several treatises³³ overthrew the error of the Donatists. Whence deservedly St. Gregory the Great: "In the Church neither can the evil exist without the good, nor the good without the evil."³⁴

b) That the predestined or elect alone are members of the Church the Hussites maintained,³⁵ to whom were added the Reformed under the leadership of Calvin. Against this heresy it must be held that even the non-predestined are members of the Church. This follows both from the preceding thesis and from the absurdity of the contrary thesis. From the preceding thesis the Church contains both the just and sinners. But many are actually just who will not persevere in good; many also are actually sinners who will not remain in evil and hence will be elect. Therefore both the predestined and the non-predestined are in the Church. From the absurdities of the contrary thesis, pagans, Jews, and heretics, if they are predestined, would be in the Church before they approached her, and would have to be thought Christians in the midst of idolatries; on the contrary, Christians who are not predestined would have to be regarded as pagans in the midst of faith and Christian life. But that this is absurd no one fails to see. Whence St. Augustine excellently [says]:

"According to this foreknowledge and predestination of God, then, how many sheep are outside, how many wolves within, and how many sheep within, and how many wolves outside!"³⁶

Finally, from the visible character of the Church it is evident that neither the just alone nor the elect alone are members of the Church. For who are just or elect does not appear to men in any way. Therefore a Church composed of the just or elect alone would be a simply invisible society, whereas the true Church of Christ is simply visible.