1. The State of the Church today.
There are many ways to analyze the ‘state of the Church.’ We can analyze it from its psychological point of view; it is going crazy. From its economic point of view; it is getting richer specially in Germany. From the sociological point of view; it is getting jollier. And population wise; it is getting bigger. But those are all useless bases for analysis. If there is anything that should concern us, it should be to find out if it is Catholic or not.
As we have shown, almost repeatedly in the past posts, there is only one way, and absolutely no other way, to find out if the Catholic Church is Catholic or not……. that is through her official four visible signs mentioned in the Nicene Creed when we recite the words; ‘I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.’
The most relevant analysis that can be made today and the most important analysis is for us to find out if today’s Catholic Church conforms to the visible signs mentioned in the Creed. There is absolutely no other way to do this analysis. It is the only way determined by the Catholic Church’s own theology on how she can check her own pulse. Fortunately that can be easily done……..i.e. checking one’s own pulse……to check if our hearts beat like the heart of the Church.
2. Initial problems in analyzing.
First problem; to analyze the Catholic Church we have to study, not a single person, but an existing community. Then from there we should find out if they have the four visible signs of the Church or not. The difficulty here is that we have to know in some degree each member of the community and, at the same time, have a whole picture of the entire community, i.e. sort of knowing each one together. This is the definition of a Catholic community given by St. John Chrysostom. That means practically living in the said community for some time.
We cannot analyze a community by just cursorily visiting them or merely interviewing them or taking their pictures with our cell phone. Though the four signs of the true Church are visible, their definitions are spiritual; it cannot be photographed.
The second problem is that the definition of the terms used to describe the visible signs are spiritual; it is impossible for most men to understand them fully. Philosophically it will be with great effort to understand the visible sign ‘One.’ It is impossible for most to understand the visible sign ‘ Holy.’ It is possible for one who loves to read to know the sign ‘Apostolic.’ It is physically impossible for most to check on the visible sign ‘Catholic.’
The third problem is this. Every body is ignorant of the visible signs and their definition. Though the signs are taught in the catechism, like in the ‘Compendium of the Catechism of Pope Benedict’ it is not taught well in seminaries or theological schools. The few who have mastered these signs have learned them from personal, private study and meditation.
With the few above mentioned problems, it has become impossible to discuss this topic, ‘Does the Catholic Church have the four visible signs of the true Church,’ with any body, cardinal, bishop, priest or lay person. Understanding an analysis becomes impossible.
3. Let us proceed following the procedure of analysis given by St. Bonaventure in his ‘Theology of History,’ and expounded by Pope Benedict who used Bonaventure’s treatise as his thesis as a young priest. One of his passion was to fully understand the saint’s treatise, that was partially stalled by his busy schedule during his papacy; but now he can pursue during his seeming retirement. His analysis and understanding of events was expressed in an audience in St. Peter’s square where he expounded the teachings of two saints, St. Bonaventure’s teaching on the ‘Ascent of the Mind to God’ as connected with the saint’s theology of Philosophy…… and St. Thomas of Aquinas’ commentary on ‘Collosians.’
4. The State of the Church today. Is it still Catholic?
Since the only way to find out if the Church is Catholic is by applying the four visible signs mentioned in the Nicene Creed on which is the true Church, so we did it that way. Remember, these signs are visible signs which all men can sense and easily apply on anything we wish to analyze. There is no one who can stop any one from analyzing if anything has the four visible signs or not. Both the visible signs and the objects for analysis are realities that can be perceive by the senses and, therefore, we can make a very objective conclusion.
These visible signs were taken from Divine Revelation. They are signs nobody else have except the true Church. So they are fool proof because they were made by God and proposed by the Church to all men to use for that purpose.
We took the four visible signs with their proper definition and applied it slowly. First, to a few religious communities, then to Parishes and Dioceses. Then to a few religious nuns, brothers, priests, bishops and two cardinals. Then lastly, we applied to laymen both in ecclesial organizations and ordinary husbands and wives. We applied the signs, too, to those in far away places, using their works and actions as subjects for analysis.
The subjects for analysis were a random sampling but they were extensive to assure certainty in the conclusions. It is a research on the visible signs of spiritual realities using the method of psychology. Obviously we cannot use spiritual methods in a research. And what is the state of the Catholic Church today basing it on the four visible signs of the true Church as mentioned in the Nicene Creed? The Catholic Church is neither Catholic nor a Church.
This seems to be the state of the Catholic Church in the whole world; whether it is in Europe, the US, in Asia, in Africa, in Russia, in China, in Australia, in the Middle East…..anywhere. This conclusion is possible because through mass communication we can gather information from the whole world and use it for analysis.
5. Double checking through a second opinion.
The teaching of the Catholic Church is very clear and as usual taught with certainly. These four visible signs mentioned in the Nicene Creed are the reliable signs of the true Church. That is it. But there is nothing wrong in double checking; sort of getting a second opinion in medicine. But there is no second opinion or second way of checking which is the true Church.
The closest we can get to is an expanded explanation of the four visible signs. And the Fathers of the Church did not hesitate to contribute in explaining those four signs. Those signs were so important that every saint tried to explain them in the hope that everyone gets to know those signs and use them to find out if they are inside or outside the Catholic Church.
Many Fathers, Doctors and saints of the Catholic Church had explained the four visible signs; most of them in explaining the four signs expanded them and separated them into tiny concepts for easy understanding and recall. I have been searching for St. Augustine’s six signs version because his ecclesiology was impressive, but in vain. I have to be content with the 15 Marks of the Catholic Church written by St. Robert Bellarmine, upon whose treatise ‘Lumen Gentium’ the document on the Catholic Church by Vatican II was based on. The work had been recently translated into English just a few months ago.
All the readers of the treatise agreed that it confirmed the findings of the analysis based on the original four visible signs of the Church from the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church, today, with head quarters in the Vatican, does not have a single visible sign of the true Church established by Christ. Even Pope Francis does not have the first visible sign among the 15 signs enumerated by St. Bellarmine, a Jesuit like him.
6. A selected few.
There are a few cardinals, bishop, priest and many bloggers who show the signs of the true Church…..but only partially. Meaning to say; they show little signs of knowing what is ‘Oneness’ Maybe a little sign showing they know ‘Apostolicity’. But their knowledge had not been translated into actual visible sign of the Church. There is a difference between knowing the signs and having the signs. These splendid bishops and bloggers exhibit great knowledge and faithful service to the Church….but the visible signs are not there, especially when they are analyzed as a community in the parish or diocese……..since a good analysis must be in the community level. The African bishops showed orthodoxy during the last Bishop’s Synod but when they were shown with their parishioners during the Papal visit, the visible signs of the true Church could not be found in their communities. There seems to be a problem of translating the visible signs in the Bishops down to their parishioners, which is a problem of evangelization.
It is possible to find out if an individual has the four visible signs but it is more difficult to do so. But it is possible.
7. There, we have an analysis of the state of the Catholic Church today. We checked if the church of Rome have the four visible signs mentioned in the Nicene Creed or the 15 Marks of the true Church according to St. Robert Bellarmine, and we saw the Church headquartered in the Vatican and all its subsidiaries all around the world visibly do not have the visible signs of the true Catholic Church.
We have checked on the state of the Church using the four and 15 visible marks of the true Church. Now, let us look at the state of the Catholic Church using the prophecies from the Gospels specially during the Lenten Season. Instead of studying present reality, we are studying ancient prophecies and see how they are fulfilled in the present; and if they conform to our present findings.
From the parables we have seen how the owner of the vineyard, unsatisfied the vineyard was being run by the laborers took away the vineyard from the laborers. That is equivalent to God removing the Church from the Pope, cardinals, bishops and priests.
From the fishing boat trip in lake Tiberias, we saw the members of the Catholic Church specially chosen. 153 of them from the right side of the boat. Not even Pope Francis would qualify to be part of the 153 fishes as described by St. Thomas. How much more the rest of the bishops, priests and laymen. Well, the laymen would have better chances.
Then there is Good Friday where all the civil authority and all the priesthood, from the high priest down, were all against Christ. And this includes a newly consecrated bishop who turned traitor, a type of a possible anti-pope. Good Friday is akin to the present observation that the visible signs of the true church cannot be found anywhere. On Good Friday, Faith was nowhere to be found.
8. The 5th day.
Good Friday is the 6th day, a type for the Passion of the Catholic Church before her own resurrection. The 5th Day is a preparation for the 6th day. Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI felt that we are today in the foretold 6th day described by St. Bonaventure in his Theology of history. Thus the world had to be prepared with the 5th day with the ‘new’ evangelization.
The ‘new’ evangelization is unlike the original evangelization but essentially identical to it. The Gospel story recalls Christ telling Peter and John to go to a man in town carrying a pitcher
with water. The man had no name but he will do exactly what Christ wished. Who is this man? It is that community that made up the 153 fishes caught from the right side of the boat. They were miraculously trained by Christ. Note his perfect obedience to the will of Jesus who have not spoken to him.
So the man had water in a pitcher symbolizing the Holy Spirit according to St. Thomas of Aquinas.
And the man leads Peter and John to an upper room that was clean and prepared for the Passover. The man leads Peter, a man of action and John, a contemplative man to the upper room. The man leads Peter and John to a life of ‘Ora’ et ‘Labora’, a life of work and pray. This is the motto of St. Benedict. Peter and John, symbols of work and pray were led to a clean and prepared upper room. The upper room is the intellect. And Ora et Labora is the way to clean and prepare the room for what follows.
When all is ready, the rest of the apostles with Jesus Christ comes and Christ teaches them His deeper truths, like ‘Unity’ which is the first visible sign of the true Church; and the Holy Eucharist, the unifying force in the Catholic religion.
Here is a picture of the ‘new’ evangelization. A preacher filled with the Holy Spirit leads Peter and John through a new monastic life that cleanses the intellect preparing it for the personal sublime teachings of Christ.
This is evangelization that takes place within the upper room where it should really take place. The apostles were all inside the Catholic Church. The had all the visible signs of the true Church. Before Christ spoke to teach the sublime truths, He dismisses Judas first.
That is the state of the Catholic Church today. We have not followed the man with the jug of water. We have not found him at all. We have not entered the house with action and contemplation, ‘ora et labora’, we have not cleansed our minds from love of creatures. So, Christ have not spoken to us. We do not know Him. We are all out of the Church.