The Testimony of Christ is Confirmed by the Wonderful Life of the Church — Part II: Sanctity, Fecundity, Unity and Stability

Rationalists object: the constancy of martyrs can be explained by natural causes. Other instances of the same constancy are shewn by soldiers in battle, by the heroism of men like Regulus and Scævola. Again, until recent times, widows in India mounted the funeral pyres of their dead husbands and sacrificed their lives. The Montanists and more modern Anabaptists died for their religious opinions. Recently (in 1885-1886) Protestants in Uganda died for their Christian beliefs.

Answer: The Church teaches that those who in good faith and good dispositions die for their religion are martyrs in the sight of God. In the examples cited above, fanaticism, enthusiasm, military prestige explain the bravery and constancy manifested. The argument based upon the supernatural constancy of the martyrs of the Church includes (1) number of martyrs up to the present time; (2) their social condition and condition of age and sex; (3) the horrible character of the torments physical and moral; (4) the cheerfulness and serenity wherewith they suffered, joined with charity, humility, meekness, prayer for persecutors; (5) miracles wrought in confirmation of their sanctity.

III.—The Church produces unceasingly heroic saints.

(1) To write down a catalogue of the Saints would require too much time and space. Only a few names can be given:

(a) Great doctors of the Church: St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Cyril, St. Chrysostom, etc.

(b) Great Apostles of the Faith: St. Patrick in Ireland, St. Augustine in England, St. Methodius in Russia, St. Boniface in Frisia, St. Willibald in Germany, etc.

(c) Saints in the chair of Peter: SS. John I, Felix IV, Agapitus, Sylvester, Gregory the Great, Martin I, Eugenius I, Vitalianus, Agatho, Leo II, Benedict II, Sergius I, Pius V, etc.

(d) Great founders of religious orders: St. Benedict, patriarch of the West; St. Bernard (Cistercians); St. Norbert (Premonstratensians); St. Dominic; St. Francis, etc.

(e) Great scholastics: St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, etc.

(f) Great preachers of the Faith: St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Bernardino of Siena, St. Anthony of Padua, etc.

(g) Great women Saints: St. Gertrude, St. Hildegarde, St. Clare, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Catherine of Genoa, etc.

(h) Saints and Kings: SS. Louis, Henry, Leopold, Stanislaus, Elizabeth of Hungary, etc.

After the so-called Reformation, the Church has been glorified by SS. Ignatius, Theresa, John of the Cross, Francis of Sales, Francis Xavier, Louis Bertrand, Philip Neri, Charles Borromeo, Vincent of Paul, Paul of the Cross, Alphonsus Liguori, Margaret Mary Alacoque, Curé of Ars, etc.

Compare with these men Luther, Calvin, Zwingle, Henry VIII, Elizabeth—lights of the Reformation!

Compare with the Saints of the Church Photius, M. Cærularius, Georgius Cyprinus, Marcus Ephesinus, who were responsible for the Eastern Schism.

(2) Pastoral Clergy, Religious Orders and Institutes.

The Catholic clergy, bound to celibacy, win, now as in the past, the respect and affection of their people throughout the Church.

Religious Orders and Institutes are so many schools of perfection for the attainment of sanctity through the practice of the Evangelical Counsels and earnest endeavour to imitate the example of Christ. Some devote themselves to the active life, e.g., Sisters of Charity, Teaching Institutes, Jesuits, Redemptorists, etc. Others choose the contemplative life, e.g., Trappists, Carthusians, Carmelites, Poor Clares, etc.

(3) The Christian virtues are cherished in the Catholic Church.

No Society cherishes the Christian ideal as the Catholic Church does both by word and example. Père Lacordaire has written on the effect of the practice of Chastity, Humility and Charity. Chastity represses lust (which corrupts the sources of life) and preserves the sanctity of matrimony. Humility expels ambition, boasting, arrogance. Charity conquers egoism, and observes not only the law of justice, but goes far beyond justice in its care of the infirm, the indigent, the fallen, etc.

Luther made the acknowledgment that “the world has become worse. Men are now more desirous of revenge, more avaricious, more remote from sentiments of mercy, more immodest and undisciplined than they were under the Papacy” (Postilla in Evang. dom. 1 Adv.). Scandals amongst Catholics occur in the case of those who do not practise their religion, and do not avail themselves of the means of sanctity offered by the Church.

IV.—Inexhaustible spiritual fecundity of the Church.

(1) The Church’s influence upon individuals.

The Church has liberated individual men and women from errors regarding God, the world, morality; has strengthened them against materialism, determinism, utilitarianism. It preaches the Gospel and offers the means of sanctity to all—to the unlettered and poor as well as to the rich and learned.

(2) The Church’s influence on family life.

The Church has protected and protects the dignity of woman, and the indissolubility of marriage. Luther, Bucer and Melancthon allowed Philip, landgrave of Hesse in 1540, to live with Margaret of Saal, whilst his lawful wife Christina was alive. “The most efficacious means of raising man,” so wrote de Maistre (Le Pape, Book III., c. 2) “is to ennoble and exalt woman.”

The Church provides for the education of children by founding innumerable orphanages, schools, colleges, universities. Confraternities have been instituted to help young and old to practise virtue and to persevere therein.

The Church secured gradually the emancipation of slaves. The treasures of the Church, which is no respecter of persons, are offered to the lowest as well as to the highest. Slaves have been admitted to the priesthood. A slave—Callistus—became Pope. Christ by his example ennobled labour.

In the Church’s attitude towards slavery, the excellence of Christian charity over Pagan ethics is shewn: Aristotle maintained that “one man may be usefully subjected to the rule of a wiser man” (1 Polit. c. 3). Indeed before the diffusion of Christianity slavery was regarded as necessary, because the majority of men were not sufficiently wise and rightly disposed to enjoy civil liberty. Religion alone can confer rectitude of judgment and of will on the uneducated, so that they may not abuse their liberty.

(3) The Church’s influence on civil society.

(A) The Church has fixed the just relation between social authority and individual liberty, by teaching that all power comes from God, and should be directed to the common good. In this way authority is strengthened: “He that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God” (Rom. xiii. 2). Obedience is rendered noble, for obedience given to legitimate authority is obedience given to God.

(B) The Church endeavours to provide for the necessities of the poor and the ailing. Its motto has always been: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” The encyclical of Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, defended the claim of the workman for a wage which will secure honesta sustentatio, i.e., a respectable maintenance for himself and his family. On the other hand the Pope, in his encyclical Quod Apostolici Muneris, condemned that form of Socialism which does not recognise private property and aims at community of goods.

(C) The Church has endeavoured to stabilise amicable relations between different countries. It places the law of charity and of Christian fraternity above the individualism of nations. The Church’s ideal is “Christendom”—a much more statesmanlike aim than “Internationalism.” Nationalism, since the so-called Reformation, does not mean patriotism so much as jealousy and hatred of other nations. False nationalism and militarism—evil offspring of evil parentage—have caused the world-tragedy of 1914-1918. Until the “God of peace” who is “King of kings and Lord of lords” is duly honoured and obeyed, there can be no hope for the permanent well-being of nations.

Art. 3.—Catholic Unity and the unshaken Stability of the Church.

If men of all times and all nations, notwithstanding diversities of language, temperament, ideas, governments, are joined in the unity of faith, worship, and ecclesiastical discipline; moreover if this Catholic unity, impediments and causes of ruin notwithstanding, remains in vigour, whilst other forms of religion either split into opposing sects, or stagnate in the immobility of death, such unity is a sign of the special intervention of God, who alone, in the midst of causes that make for diversity, can produce and preserve the extraordinary stability wherewith the Church is endowed.

I.—The Catholic Church alone is one.

1° The Catholic Church is endowed with unity of faith, worship and discipline.

(A) Unity of Faith.

All the faithful, believing what the Church teaches, believe, at least implicitly, the whole body of revealed truth as handed down from the time of the Apostles. They accept the same symbols of faith, interpreted in the same way. In matters which are not of faith, there is liberty of opinion. The Church’s position is expressed by the well-known aphorism: “In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas.”

(B) Unity of worship.

The Sacrifice of the Mass and the Seven Sacraments are accepted and revered by all.

(C) Unity of discipline.

The clergy and faithful (“ecclesia discens”) are subject to the Bishops, and the Bishops to the Pope. Pope and Bishops constitute the “ecclesia docens” and obey the same laws. In disputed matters the decisions of the Roman Congregations, or of the Pope himself, are accepted.

2° Formal unity is absent in other religious systems.

(A) Protestantism.

(a) In matters of faith, there are Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans. The system of “private judgment” is essentially fatal to unity. Some Liberal Protestants do not accept even the Divinity of Christ, except in a symbolic or metaphorical sense.

(b) In worship, some believe in two Sacraments, others only in Baptism, others again entirely reject the Sacramental system.

(c) In discipline or government, there are Episcopalians and non-Episcopalians.

(B) The Greek Church.

There is no formal unity. No patriarch is head of the whole Greek Church. There are now amongst the Greeks some fourteen independent churches.

II.—Catholicity belongs exclusively to the “Catholic” Church.

1° The Church is Catholic.

(A) Virtual Catholicity, or Catholicity de jure, means the aptitude of the Church to universal extension amongst all nations. This aptitude prevails over individualism and nationalism as regards doctrine, rule and worship.

(a) The Church’s doctrine must be preached to all men according to the will of Christ. This doctrine transcends the particular characteristics of individuals, of human social conditions, of peoples, places and times.

(b) In its government the Church is not national but international or supra-national. It is subjected to no State and to no Cæsar. It recognises the authority of all legitimate governments whatever their form may be. Its own government and power are purely moral.

(c) In its worship also the Church is universal. The offering of the sacrificial Victim in the Mass, and the grace of the Sacraments are intended for all.

(B) Actual Catholicity, or Catholicity de facto.

(a) Geographical extension.

Before the revolt of Luther, the whole of Europe was Catholic. When Protestantism arose, Catholic missionaries spread the faith to India, China, Japan. The number of Catholics to-day is not far removed from 300,000,000. South and Central America are Catholic. In the United States, Catholics number more than 16,000,000. In Asia there are 3,500,000; in Africa 3,000,000; in Australia 2,000,000; in the Philippine Islands 6,000,000. Even in Protestant countries, the Catholic Church has many adherents: in Great Britain 5,200,000; in Germany 20,000,000; in Holland 1,790,000; in Switzerland 1,380,000, etc. The list is not exhaustive. It is quoted merely to shew the Church possesses a moral universality, i.e., amidst well-known nations, a notable number of men and women have become members of the Church. The super-human mode of diffusion is of greater account than the material number of the faithful, and this mode of diffusion appears from the following characteristic.

(b) The Catholic Church comprises people of all conditions. The poor are evangelised. Lepers, literal and metaphorical, are cared for. Education is encouraged. Sixty-two Universities have been founded under the auspices of the Popes. The Church has been the Alma Mater of the Arts. Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, Poetry, have reached their highest development under ecclesiastical patronage. The Church has favoured scientific research. Only a few of the many Catholic scientists can be given here:

Astronomy:	Copernicus, Secchi.
Biology:	Pasteur, Abbot Mendel.
Crystallography:	Abbé Haüy.
Electricity:	Ampère, Volta.
Inductive Science:	Roger Bacon.
Mathematics:	Cauchy, Le Verrier.
Medicine:	Bernard.
Nature Study:	Fabre.
Physics:	Galileo.
Wireless Telegraphy:	Marconi.
X-Rays:	Röntgen.

2° The note of Catholicity is absent in other forms of religion.

(A) Protestantism.

(1) Even virtual Catholicity is absent, because of the spirit of individualism resulting in divisions.

(2) In some places (e.g. England) Protestantism was propagated by persecution.

(3) In Germany, England, Scandinavia, Protestantism depends on the State and is national.

(4) Protestants, though numbering about 150 sects, are numerically fewer than Catholics.

(5) Protestant missionary work is feeble.

(B) Greek Church.

(1) The Greek Church is not one and therefore not Catholic. The churches at Constantinople, in Russia, in Greece, and in Bulgaria are independent one of the other, and are largely subject to the State.

(2) These churches excel neither in numbers, extension, or power of propagation. They are destitute of vitality.

III.—The Catholic Church alone possesses unshaken stability.

1° It is stable, many persecutions notwithstanding.

The Church has survived:

(a) Persecutions of the first three centuries.

(b) Arianism, which drew many away from the Church.

(c) Julian the Apostate, who used the influence of Pagan philosophy, and the prestige of his position as Emperor to destroy the Church.

(d) The invasion of barbarous nations.

(e) The schism of Photius in the Ninth Century.

(f) The attacks made by Mahomet, Albigenses, etc.

(g) The revolt of Protestantism in the Sixteenth Century.

(h) Philosophism of the Eighteenth Century and the French Revolution.

2° Stability is absent in other churches.

(A) Protestantism.

“Private judgment” is a principle of individualism and change. Even fundamental truths such as the Incarnation, Redemption, Trinity, are sometimes rejected.

(B) Greek Churches.

These churches do not form an organic body. They lie in the immobility of death.

IV.—The foregoing “marks” of the Catholic Church cannot be explained by natural causes. They are the fulfilment of prophecy.

1° These four characteristics—Unity, Catholicity, Sanctity, Stability—found only in the Catholic Church, have not been attained and cannot be attained by the natural means adopted by the other churches for their propagation and conservation.

2° The Sanctity of the Church shewn in its Confessors and Martyrs, shewn in its fecundity, in beneficent works, is extraordinary and implies the special intervention of God. The philosophic axiom (“ordo agentium debet correspondere ordini finium”) stresses the principle that the order of action must correspond to the order of intention, and only as the minister of God could the Church lead souls to sanctity.

3° Catholic Unity is a greater achievement than natural causes can produce. The more universal the society the more difficult the unity. Empires and kingdoms, sprung from natural causes, disappear in process of time.

4° The stability of the Church for nearly 2,000 years should be considered in view of (a) the mutability of human minds, of human institutions, of religious and philosophical opinions; (b) violent and numerous persecutions, unjust demands and confiscations of secular powers, the criticism of Religion based on pseudo-science; (c) the weakness of the natural means available for the Church’s support.

5° In this wonderful life of the Church is seen the fulfilment of prophecy:

“Arise; be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee… . Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising” (Isaias lx. 1, 3).

“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. xvi. 18).

“Other sheep I have that are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd” (John x. 16).

“You shall be my witnesses even to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts i. 8).

“Going therefore teach all nations… . I am with you all days even to the end of the world” (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20).

The declaration of the Vatican Council is justified: The Church is a “perpetual motive of credibility and irrefragable testimony of its own Divine mission” (D. 1794).