1. The Marks of the Church are of the highest importance to Catholics today.
It answers the question; which is the true Church, who belongs to the Catholic Church, who are part of the Mystical Body of Christ, who will go to heaven when they die and who can help their loved ones go to heaven. The answer is those who have the Visible signs of the Catholic church, namely, One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic. These are the four signs we recite in the Nicene-constantinople Creed during Sunday Mass. For Sunday Mass goers they have memorized this but, unfortunately, give little importance to these signs.
Those who have the visible signs of the true Church are those who have the theological virtues of Faith, at least. The signs are clearer when they have all the three theological virtues; Faith, Hope and Charity.
The old practice of examining the lives of candidates for canonization were centered on finding out if they have the three theological virtues or if they have the four visible signs of the true Church of Christ. Without the three virtues nor the visible signs of the true Church, the candidate is just a pagan and, certainly, will not qualify for canonization.
As noted in previous posts, Pope John XXIII and John Paul II, definitely, had the three theological virtues and the four signs of the true Church of Christ. But they were not canonized for those two reasons because the former procedure had lately been abolished. They were canonized for personal political convenience. With these new non-theological procedure, every Tom, Dick and Harry can be canonized; and this already shows in the list of the next candidates.
On the other hand Pope Pius XII and Fulton Sheen are certainly saints by the above old procedure but their canonization had been delayed. Why? Because their magisterial teachings are completely against the teachings of the present Vatican administration.
2. Here, we seem to have a problem in deciding who is Catholic and who is not. What basis shall we use? As we have noted in the past posts, the theological virtues, which is the most dependable signs of true Catholicity, are supernatural virtues. It is impossible for most to use them because most people, if not all people today, are in the natural level only.
But the four visible marks mentioned by the Catechism are visible and natural signs that can be known and used by everybody to analyze everything around; from Pope, bishops and priests, to husband, wives, children and pets.
3. Everybody within the Catholic Church is using the wrong basis for analyzing.
A Bishop publicly declared a group of lay people as non-Catholics because they are not approved by the Bishop’s office. But this group are baptized Catholics and they are living as laymen. Do they need to be approved by the Bishop and officially declared Catholics? Do you mean the rest of the population of lay people in the Diocese are not Catholics just because they do not have a piece of paper declaring they are Catholics by the Bishop? The basis by which the said bishop declared the group as not Catholic was never the official teaching of the Catholic Church. He should have shown that the group did not have the four visible signs of the true Church. He did not because he, himself forgot the basis by which Catholicity must be judged. And probably he, himself, did not have the visible signs of the Church.
Another time, a layman declared a group to be non-Catholic because they were not celebrating the Old Tridentine Mass. The kind of Mass celebrated is never a visible sign of the true Church of Christ. Maybe, if they pray contemplatively, that is a visible sign of the true Church because contemplative prayer is a sign of Faith which is a supernatural sign of the Church. But whether the Mass is celebrated the Vetus or the Novus way had never been a visible sign of the true Church of Christ.
Wearing a Pope, cardinal or bishop’s garment had never been a sign of Catholicity. Neither is a large sign ‘Catholic Parish’. Not even the fact that one holds office in the Vatican is a sign of the true Church.
St. Robert Bellarmine in his ‘notis ecclesiae’ wrote that not even perfect knowledge of Scriptures as many Protestants show, was never a sign of the true Church. Even Satan, Bellarmine reminds us, know Scriptures perfectly.
4 The four visible signs or the expanded 15 marks of St. Bellarmine are the only Catholic basis by which we can know the true Church and the true follower of Christ.
So, I suggested that all Bishop’s conference should first check if they have these signs before they continue their conferences and legislate for the Chosen people of God. And all priest retreats going on now should begin by checking first if they have the visible signs of the Church before going on to their next topics. Specially since news are appearing that many presidents of Bishop’s Conference do not have the visible signs of Catholicity. The last news was that a president of a bishop’s conference is a mason. I wonder what is worse, a non-catholic president or a mason? Both would lead all to hell.
5. We must master the visible signs, preferably St. Robert’s expanded 15 signs. Our salvation and the salvation of many will depend on this knowledge. The laymen must, first, master these signs. We have to begin somewhere. It is impossible to convince priests and bishops to check if they have the signs because they assume they have it. But just as all who study these signs will notice it, almost all those around us do not have it, from Pope down to the cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns. How did this happen? Because Christ had prophesied it. Let us go to the 15th mark of the Church according to St. Bellarmine.
6. People who know the signs are quiet; Quietly developing those signs in their soul and quietly helping others acquire those same signs. But those who say this or that person is Catholic and this or that are not Catholics is, for certain, one without any visible signs of Catholicity.
A few laymen, nuns, priests, and bishops who had publicly stated that this or that group is not Catholic are completely devoid of any visible signs of the Church. Again, how can this happen? Because the signs or marks of the true Church are natural and visible signs that can be known by all men. And everyone can check if a nun or priest have those signs.
The 14th and 15th Mark of the Church according to St. Bellarmine are still visible but a little more difficult to discern; the 15th more difficult than the 14th. But the 14th is all around to see while the 15th is very rare.
Let us see both Marks. The 14th Mark is that he who opposes the true Church in any way will have an unhappy death and, at length be casts like chaff into the fires of hell. The unhappy death and being cast into hell should be the direct result of its opposition to the truth. Today, since most do not have the visible signs, most will be opposing the Truth. St. Thomas wrote that those without Faith (those without the visible signs) will surely oppose the Church. It is the expected behaviour of unbelievers. Since Christ prophesied that during these days there will be a ‘decay of Faith’ then we should expect the whole world would be opposing the Church; and as a consequence most will have unhappy deaths and be cast to hell. Avoiding this is our intent in encouraging Bishop’s Conference and priestly retreats to begin with finding out if they have the visible signs of true Catholicity. Begin here at least with the hope that the nuns and laymen follow.
Though it is difficult to know how people die and whether they are cast into hell, a little research is often sufficient to discover this because God wants these signs to be visible to all men. That is why all the deadful manner of death of all persecutors of the Church are written down because they were so visible. It is difficult to deny this in the recent events describing the Commissar and the Franciscans of the Immaculate.
While the 14th Mark of the Church is all around us, the 15th Mark is difficult and almost impossible to find. This Mark is the temporal happiness, divinely conferred upon those who defend the Church. This is a rare Mark; first, because very few defend the Church. Secondly, the defenders do not broadcast the temporal happiness they experience. Though this temporal favors are usually visible signs, as noted by St. Bellarmine.
St. Bellarmine recalls the great Catholic princes who defended the Church, were granted by God the temporal happiness of vanquishing their enemies. And he adds the victories of Abrham, Moses, Joshua,Gideon, Samuel, David, Hexechiah, Josiah and the Machabees. In the New Testament, there is the example of Constantine who was filled with so many earthly rewards. And Augustus who overthrew tyrants, lived to a ripe old age leaving behind sons as emperors.
Bellarmine adds Theodosius and Honorius. Then there was poor Justinian the Elder, who when he was a good Catholic conquered all his enemies and restored the Roman Empire. But when he became a heretic he was taken up by a sudden death and the Church was freed from his opposition. Bellarmine enumerated more similar examples of good Catholics showered by God with temporal favors but when they turned away and ended up opposing the Church ended up miserably.
7. The 14th Mark of the Church should fill us with the fear of the Lord because it is God, Himself, who had threatened those who oppose the Church. Unfortunately, due to the lost of Faith these days, the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of Faith, is nowhere to be found. The 15th Mark, to defend the truths of the Church, becomes our hope in attaining eternal life.
With these two Marks of the Church, wherein in the 14th we could end up opposing the true Church without knowing it; and destined for an unhappy death and eternal fire without knowing it…..should’nt we check ourselves if we have these visible signs of the Church before we begin Bishop’s conferences and priestly retreats?
8, All the signs together.
It is more reliable if all the 4 visible signs in the Nicene Creed and all the 15 signs according to St. Robert Bellarmine are present. Both should be present because Bellarmine’s list is just an expansion of the classical 4 visible signs. Bellarmine’s 14th and 15th signs are not obvious in the 4 classical visible signs but they are expansions of the 4 signs. And they are found in Scriptures and mentioned by the Fathers of the Church.
Anyone, however, who knows and understands one or two signs can, already, know if a person or a parish or a diocese is Catholic or not; or for that matter if your husband, wife, priest, bishop, cardinal or even if a pope is Catholic or not. The Marks are the only God-made basis by which we can know, in the natural level, the true Church and who are its true members.