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

Catholicity is, by the force of the name, universality.¹ The Church is therefore catholic which is "per totum orbem". Although the catholic Church is in a certain way adumbrated by this denomination, yet it must be more accurately determined and demonstrated.

The mark of catholicity does not admit of a Church that is merely particular, regional, or national, but presupposes it to be, in the strict sense, international or universal. This universality, moreover, must belong to the Church both in right and in fact.

1. Catholicity in right requires that the Church abhor the boundaries of dominions and nations, and indeed essentially, virtually, formally. Essentially, i. e., having regard to its whole doctrine and character, the Church must show forth a universal character of spreading itself to all peoples and parts of the earth. Virtually, it must perpetually exert such effort and efficacy as enables it to propagate itself, to gather to itself as many men as possible, and to preserve catholicity everywhere on earth. Formally, finally, notwithstanding a wide material diffusion, the Church must everywhere show the strictest unity of confession and communion. For just as a vine cannot be said to be widely spread unless it extends its shoots always joined to the stock, so the Church, however widely diffused materially, is not catholic unless it is informed by unity. A Church deprived of unity constitutes not one society, but several or many. To catholicity in right, thus understood, is necessarily joined:

2. Catholicity in fact, which consists in the actually existing universal diffusion of the Church. This actual universality is both physical and moral. Physical (absolute) universality is present if the Church is so diffused that no region of the earth whatever escapes it; moral (relative) universality is present if the Church is conspicuous in most parts of the world known at some time and not closed to access, i. e., if it has "in the world a certain universal splendor, by which its dignity and majesty can be known and distinguished from the crowds of heretics".¹ Physical universality will be present only successively, in the sense that gradually, between the time of Christ and the last judgment, the Church becomes known at some time to all regions and peoples: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world (ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ οἰκουμένῃ) as a testimony to all nations (πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν): and then shall come the consummation (τὸ τέλος)."² Moral universality, however, must always belong to the Church, once it has grown up,³ so that the Church may claim for itself the mark of catholicity. And indeed moral universality seems always to be required not only as successive, but as simultaneous, by which, namely, the Church shines at one and the same time in most parts of the world.⁴

That the Church of Christ is catholic in the determinate sense is demonstrated both by sacred Scripture and by Christian antiquity.

1. Sacred Scripture. "Almost every page [of Scripture] sounds nothing else than Christ and the Church spread throughout the whole world."¹ Indeed:

a) The Old Testament expressly opposes to the national synagogue the universal messianic kingdom, as we have proved in its proper place.² To the texts cited there we add these, by which the catholicity of the messianic kingdom is expressly foretold: "Ask of me, and I will give you [Christ] the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession."³ "And he shall rule [Christ] from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth."⁴ "For from the rising of the sun even to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place there is sacrificed and offered to my name a clean oblation."⁵ And yet more clearly:

b) The New Testament sets forth the universality of the Church. Christ likens the kingdom of heaven to "a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it has grown, it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in its branches".⁶ Whence he commands the apostles: "Going, teach all nations".⁷ "Going into the whole world, preach the gospel to every creature".⁸ "You shall be witnesses to me … even to the uttermost part of the earth".⁹ That this command was fulfilled Paul already affirms: "Their sound [of the preachers of the gospel] has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the whole world … (The gospel) is in the whole world and bears fruit and grows".¹⁰ When the apostolic age had scarcely elapsed:

2. Christian antiquity proclaims the Church catholic in name and in fact.

a) Christians already throughout the whole second century used the name of the catholic Church, with s. Ignatius, s. Polycarp, and the Muratorian Fragment as witnesses.¹¹ This name was attributed to the one true Church of Christ alone, e. g. Firmilian: "The spouse of Christ is one, which is the catholic Church".¹² By this name true Christians distinguished themselves and their Church from the sects of the heretics. Thus s. Pacian: "Christian is my name, catholic is my surname. The one names me, the other shows me; by the one I am proved, by the other I am signified."¹³ S. Cyril of Jerusalem instructs the catechumens: "If ever you are sojourning in cities, do not simply ask where the Lord's house [τὸ κυριακόν] is (for the other sects of the ungodly and their heresies strive to adorn their own caves with the name of the Lord's house), nor where the Church simply is, but where the catholic Church is. For this is the proper name of this holy Church, the mother of us all."¹⁴ The heretics and schismatics themselves were compelled to attribute this same name to the one true Church alone, as s. Augustine testifies: "Willy-nilly, the heretics themselves also, and the nurslings of schisms, when they speak not with their own but with strangers, call the catholic Church nothing else than catholic. For they cannot be understood, unless they distinguish her by this name, by which she is named by the whole world."¹⁵

Therefore the true Church of Christ was called by all by the name of catholic as by a proper name. And indeed she was called catholic because she was catholic, i. e. universal, and was distinguished from all sects by the mark of catholicity. Truly the fathers often repeat that the name of the catholic Church derives from the fact that the Church: b) is catholic in fact. Already the Martyrdom of s. Polycarp makes mention of "the catholic Church in the whole world" and speaks of "all the parishes of the holy and catholic Church everywhere on earth".¹⁶ By these words it expressly declares that the catholic Church is universal in fact and in truth. Likewise of the catholic Church it is read in the Muratorian Fragment: "Yet the one Church is recognized to be spread throughout the whole world."¹⁷ S. Fructuosus the martyr († 239) professes the catholic Church "spread from the east to the west"¹⁸. S. Cyril of Jerusalem writes: "It is called catholic … because it is spread throughout the whole world, from the uttermost ends of the earth even to the uttermost ends … The holy catholic Church alone exists, which throughout the whole world rejoices in boundless power."¹⁹ "For she herself is the catholic Church,"²⁰ says Augustine, "whence she is called καθολικὴ in Greek, because she is spread throughout the whole world"²¹. By all these things the fathers, cleaving to sacred Scripture itself, establish catholicity, in the sense determined by us, as a mark of the true Church of Christ. Therefore Christian communities which are not catholic either in right or in fact do not deserve to be called the Church of Christ; but that community which is called by the name of the catholic Church and is found in fact in almost all parts of the world is the true Church of Christ.