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

The Roman Church is one both in symbolical confession and in social communion.

1. Symbolical confession. Everywhere on earth the Roman Church professes the same dogmas. This is evident above all from the same creeds recited publicly and privately by all; from doctrinal books, such as the catechisms of the individual churches, approved books of prayers, received scholastic-theological compendia, liturgical books; from sacred worship, by which with varied rites the same mysteries of the faith, the same sacrifice, the same sacraments are celebrated;¹ from the daily magisterium, by which bishops and priests preach the same faith throughout the whole world; finally from the submission of the faithful, who without any disputation obey the magisterium of the Church in all things that pertain to revealed truth.

Those, however, who pertinaciously resist the magisterium of the Church and publicly profess errors against the faith, by that very fact cease to be members of the Church. The Roman Church tolerates no heresy and no heretics in her bosom. Hence all Catholics assent with a wonderful harmony of faith. For although controversies are also carried on among them concerning theological matters, never however about defined dogmas. Although some Catholics understand the faith more perfectly, others less perfectly, nevertheless with one voice all, learned and unlearned, clerics and laity, confess the same doctrine revealed and proposed by the Church. "This faith", as St. Irenaeus already wrote, "the Church, and indeed disseminated throughout the whole world, diligently guards, as if inhabiting one house... as if having one soul and one heart, and consonantly preaches and teaches and hands on these things, as if possessing one mouth."²

2. Social communion. That the Roman Church is one in law and in fact is evident. By law, namely, or by the essential constitution of this Church, the faithful of the individual parishes are subject to their own local clergy; the local clergy together with the faithful are subject to the diocesan bishop; the diocesan bishops are subject to the Roman pontiff. The Roman pontiff is after the manner of a head, the bishops and their clerical helpers after the manner of joints, all the faithful after the manner of members of an organic body. And in fact it is indeed well known how intimate and continuous a communion obtains between the individual parts of this body. The Roman pontiff exercises the governance of the whole Church continuously; the bishops, joined to and subject to the pope, give continuous care to their individual churches both immediately and mediately through the local clergy; the faithful themselves render obedience to the hierarchical authority and above all to the Roman pontiff in religious matters. And although this obedience is not always perfect; although some sometimes resist the hierarchy (just as they also resist God himself), nevertheless as long as they wish to remain Catholics, they do not resist contumaciously. If, however, any are contumacious and rebellious, by that very fact they are no longer Catholics, but are cast out from the Church like branches cut off from the tree. In the Roman Church, therefore, schismatics neither are nor can be. Hence the Roman Church is truly one flock, one sheepfold, one family, one house, one kingdom, one mystical body of Christ. Indeed, the unity of this Church shines so much that it is an object of admiration to many adversaries, an object of mockery to many.

1. The Greeks indeed from the beginning cultivated the unity of creedal confession in this sense, that, while preserving the other Catholic dogmas, they denied only the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son (Filioque), as well as the primacy of the Roman Pontiff. But in rejecting the primacy they rejected the head of the magisterium instituted by Christ, and consequently the principle of the unity of faith. They proclaimed, to be sure, that ecumenical councils remain the supreme tribunals of orthodox faith. But ecumenical councils without the pope they could neither celebrate, nor did they ever attempt to celebrate them after their separation from the Roman Church. Hence in the course of so many centuries countless dissensions have invaded the orthodox communion. Today the more cultivated orthodox, and even the clergy itself, are more and more immersed in scepticism, rationalism, and nihilism; the people, however, are composed of a few believers, very many indifferentists, countless heretics, indeed atheists, whom the "official" Church can neither expel nor wishes to expel.¹ Those also who preserve the ancient confession, for the most part, do not know what they profess, since the orthodox Church labors under a gross ignorance of religious matters.

There is no need for us to speak of the unity of the orthodox social communion. Once the primatial head was lost, the truncated body gradually dissolved into many parts. Today there exist at least fifteen "autonomous" Churches, or, as the orthodox say, "autocephalous" Churches,² which are united among themselves by no bond. From these autocephalous Churches many little churches have again seceded, which, although not by right, are nevertheless in fact independent; thus e. g. in the Ruthenian or Russian Church before the year 1914 more than two hundred groups were independent of the "holy synod" of St. Petersburg. Once this caesaropapistic synod was suppressed by the Russian revolution, atomism dissolves the Ruthenian Church more and more from day to day.

2. Protestants neither have nor can have unity of confession. They do not have unity of confession. For not only do the greater Protestant groups, namely the Lutherans, the Reformed (i. e. the Zwinglians and the Calvinists), and the Anglicans, differ most widely in doctrine, but each of these groups abounds in an excessive variety of religious profession; indeed, of the members of all Protestant sects it holds: "As many heads, so many minds." Nay, they even glory in the multiplicity of doctrines and of sects daily springing up, and even boast that the intimate essence of Protestantism consists in this, that it simultaneously cherishes diverse and opposed Christian confessions, or even mixes the Christian religion with the Jewish.³ Nor can they have unity of confession. For, as will be shown in another place,⁴ the supreme Protestant principle of faith is this, that each one may, according to his own pleasure, build up or destroy the faith. Protestants, to be sure, keep repeating that sacred Scripture is the sole norm and rule of believing for all the faithful; but in fact each one interprets and tears apart Scripture itself according to his own judgment. The discord of faith born from this they have indeed tried to dissimulate by publishing many symbolical books or even by employing political force; but these symbolical books and the ordinances of civil governments were diverse according to the diversity of regions, and moreover they were unable to win any authority for themselves. Nay, Protestants, having entirely rejected all religious authority, boast of a bare atomism and subjectivism. Hence it is no wonder that they, imperceptibly, have continually varied and diminished the faith and at length have arrived more and more at pure rationalism or even nihilism.

That the communion of Protestants has no unity is evident. Already from the beginning the Lutherans, the Zwinglians, the Calvinists, and the Anglicans existed utterly torn apart and separated from one another. Soon each of these groups broke up into several sects. Today the Protestant little churches, which hold together by no bond, can scarcely be numbered; e. g. in England, which nevertheless, having still preserved the episcopate and the priesthood, to some extent retains a certain social bond, at the beginning of this century more than three hundred sects were publicly enumerated. And although the disparate sects have entered into certain covenants, e. g. the "Prussian territorial church", these covenants are not religious but political, since they were effected and are held together only by civil force.

Hence, with the covenant standing, the individual sects, e. g. the orthodox and the liberals, fight most fiercely among themselves.

All non-Catholic groups are united only by hatred of the pope. And for that reason they are deservedly and necessarily disunited in all things, because they repudiate the principle and center of all ecclesiastical unity.