No doubt about it, the recent statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith about what constitutes "church" has caused a bit of a ruckus. On Wednesday, while driving home from work, I heard a local talk radio host bring up the subject and in listening to him talk, I immediately was moved to call in and provide some corrective to what I believe were incorrect statements. Essentially, the main error of the host was the claim that this new statement insists that outside the Catholic Church, nothing else is really "church"; added to this were snide remarks about how this means that Catholics believe that if you aren't Catholic, you are going to Hell.

I pointed out that the document in question doesn't say that and, indeed, such a statement would be absurd. First off, no one knows who is going to Hell and who isn't - that is not anything for any human being to make a judgement on. We can suspect that some people are in Hell, but none of us know, for certain, who is there. As a matter of fact, even discussing such a subject is unprofitable and may cause division over something that doesn't matter to us here, right now, alive on earth. One day, we'll all know where everyone is, and that is enough for any man to know on that subject. Secondly, while people can only come to the Father via the Son, we are not in full knowledge of all the ways a person can get to the Son in order to come to the Father - what we Catholics believe is that the Catholic Christian faith is the most true and has more of the things decreed by God to assist mankind to salvation than any other organization on earth.

I think that the passage which caused most of the trouble is this:

Fifth Question: Why do the texts of the Council and those of the Magisterium since the Council not use the title of "Church" with regard to those Christian Communities born out of the Reformation of the sixteenth century?

Response: According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called "Churches" in the proper sense.

I can see why this would cause some heartache - I can easily imagine some of my evangelical brothers and sisters saying, "what do you mean I don't belong to the Church? Just who do you think you are?". It is good, however, to pay attention to words - "ecclesial" means something: it means, pertaining to a church or its functions, teachings, or organization. Our brothers and sisters are in ecclesial Communities - they pertain to the Church in as much as they adhere to the Church founded by Our Lord while he lived on earth as a man. What we Catholics say, however, is that there is only one Church - Our Lord did not found a plurality of churches. Only one Church can be in existence, and Our Lord promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against it - the Church which has been around since Our Lord established it on the rock is the Church which is headquarterd in Rome and headed by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.

And so we can't say, for instance, that the Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Church - its not possible; there is only one; we say the ELC is the Church, and we've just said there are two churches. The ELC is an ecclesial community - and, like so many other such communities it has played a vital role in bringing men to salvation; may God continue to bless all such communities who proclaim Christ, who do good works and who help men to their Savior - but there is only one Church and in the fullness of time, Our Lord will return and take direct control over it, and all men shall belong to it.

No disrespect was meant and we Catholics are as ecumenical as anyone can wish - but we won't say things which violate the Word of Our Lord. We know that many will disagree with this statement - but, then again, those who are disagreeing make many statements we disagree with. There still remains the need for all who follow Christ to unite with each other as all Christianity is under siege, internally and externally.

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