YOUCAT Question n. 129 - Part I. Why can there be only one Church?
(Youcat
answer) Just as there is only one Christ, there can be only one Body of Christ,
only one Bride of Christ, and therefore only one Church of Jesus Christ. He is
the Head, the Church is the Body. Together they form the “whole Christ” (St.
Augustine). Just as the body has many members yet is one, so too the one Church
consists of and is made up of many particular churches (dioceses). Together
they form the whole Christ.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 811) "This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the
Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic" (LG 8). These
four characteristics, inseparably linked with each other (Cf. DS 2888), indicate essential features of
the Church and her mission. The Church does not possess them of herself; it is
Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of these qualities.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment)
Jesus built his Church
on the foundation of the Apostles. This foundation supports her to this day.
The faith of the apostles was handed down from generation to generation under
the leadership of the Pope, the Petrine ministry, “which presides in charity”
(St. Ignatius of Antioch). The sacraments, too, which Jesus entrusted to the
apostolic college, still work with their original power.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 812) Only faith can recognize that the Church possesses
these properties from her divine source. But their historical manifestations
are signs that also speak clearly to human reason. As the First Vatican Council
noted, the "Church herself, with her marvellous propagation, eminent
holiness, and inexhaustible fruitfulness in everything good, her catholic unity
and invincible stability, is a great and perpetual motive of credibility and an
irrefutable witness of her divine mission" (Vatican Council I, Dei Filius 3: DS 3013).
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