Seminario de San Jose

Tiniguiban Puerto Princesa City

5300 Palawan, Philippines

We Catholics believe that it is Christ who established this church. That it is he who will
be the spouse and we, the church, will be the bride. We believe that he will come again, to judge
the living and the dead, and to be with the people gathered for himself. However, while it is true
that we believe that this church was the one established by God, His salvation is not limited
exclusively nonetheless, otherwise we will be like other sects who preach that they are the true
church and hence salvation will only be available for the members of that particular church. How
selfish must their god be? Even Saint Paul gave witness on the non-exclusivity of God’s mercy
and salvation when he preached to the gentiles while being a Jew, the chosen people of God.
There must be certain characteristics that a bride must possess before she must be deemed
compatible with the groom if it is not exclusive?

That would be what we profess when we recite our creed that the church is one, holy,
catholic and apostolic church. These are the marks of a true church. Paragraph 811 states that,
“the church does not possess them of herself; it is Christ who, through the holy spirit makes his
church one, holy, catholic and apostolic”. I shall discuss then the reason why these are
characteristics of a true church and why it can be found in the Roman Catholic Church.

ONE

Paragraph 813 states that, “the church is one because of her source… the trinity of
persons, of one God, the father, and the son and the Holy Spirit.” It is one because the one who
established it is the God whom we profess as the Supreme Being which we believe to exist
beyond the limits of what our reason can comprehend.

One also means being united. The Church has this capacity to assimilate i.e. to gather
unto himself the remnants of truth present in the different religions of the world. God can likened
to the sun, whose rays of truth were scattered unto the different religions. We cannot say that the
other religions are wholly false or their teachings erroneous, because we would become
judgmental, although what they believe will also not be wholly true, what is important for the
church is to assimilate that truth within them.

Aside from mere assimilating, the church is also in continues invitation to those outside
the church to be in communion with her, because through her we can achieve greater merit due
to the fact that this church is the one established by the groom himself. Paragraph 822 states that,
“… but we must realize that this holy objective- the reconciliation of all the Christians in unity of
the one and holy church of Christ.” We can see here how the church, even though it was
established by Christ, still continues to extend its invitation as its mission to those outside it. It is
not exclusive.
HOLY

Since Christ wants his church to be his bride, it is just right that the church should be holy
because He is holy. How would this happen when from our very material self, we tend to turn
toward those which pleases us rather than to God?

When Christ incarnated and died, he gave up himself for us, for our redemption from our
sin so much so that we would be worthy of him. Paragraph 823 state that, “… Christ, loved the
church as his bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her, he joined her to himself as his
body and endowed her with the gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.” That is why the
church continues to invite those outside for it is in the church that the fullness of the means to
salvation has been deposited (p.824) and because it is by the grace of God we acquire holiness.
While it is true that salvation and grace are not limited to the church, we acquire this grace
firsthand because it is the church that he designated for himself.

CATHOLIC

The word catholic means universal. Alol men are called to this csataholic cunity of the
people of God … because all mankind are called by God’s grace to salvation(ccc 836). It means
that everyone, Christian, jewish, muslims and other non-christian religion are still called by God
to be with him in His Kingdom.

The Jewish community, because they are the chosen people of God during the old
testament time and up until now we catholics acknowledge that. The Muslims, because they too
acknowledge that there is a creator which they adore and hold through the faith of Abraham. The
non-christian religion, because they recognize that there is an unknown God, that is neat since
He gives life and breath and all things thus the church considers all goodness and truth found in
this religion as a preparation for the Gospel(ccc 843).

APOSTOLIC

Obviously, the sole reason before a church could be considered apostolic is because it has
been founded on the apostles because they were firsthandedly called and appointed by Christ.
Historically, they are our direct connection between Christ and today’s Pope. That is also why
we have this missionj to preach the good news because we catholics believe that our church is
founded byu christ on the apostles, we participate in that apotolate and mission

Finally, even though all its marks are ever present in the Roman Catholic Church, we are
still not entitled to disvcriminate other religions, “our neighbor”, because as was stated above,
everyone is called by God’s grace to salvation, hence it is not exclusive only for the Catholic
though we benefit from it more.

John Vincent Daryl Velasquez