The Necessity of the Catholic Church

a) Meaning of Necessity

By the necessity of the Catholic Church we mean both that it is indispensably requisite for man, and that man has an indispensable obligation of belonging to it. We have proved that Christ is God, and that Christ’s Church is the Catholic Church. It follows that Christ’s Church is necessary for man; it is Christ’s established means for man’s salvation. It follows also that man must be required, must be indispensably obligated, to acknowledge and accept the claims of the true Church—the Catholic Church— and belong to it as a true and faithful member.

b) True Membership in the Church

If the Catholic Church is Christ’s true Church, founded to teach and govern all men in the way to salvation, then certainly all are bound to seek and find that Church, to enter it, to live up to its requirements. Now, as we have seen, the Catholic Church is Christ’s true Church, founded to teach and govern all men in the way to salvation. Therefore, all are bound to seek and find it, to enter it, to live up to its requirements. Did Christ do a futile thing in founding and commissioning His Church? Did the all-wise God-man go to the trouble, humanly speaking, to establish a Church for all, and then not require all to belong to that Church? Is it a monstrous claim on the part of the Church to say that she is what she is? Is it a monstrous requirement made by the Church in requiring what Christ made her to require? Is it anything but the plain statement of reason, the inevitable dictum of common sense, to say that those who know the Catholic Church to be the true Church, and yet remain out of it, cannot be saved? And is it unreasonable to assert that all men are bound to show some interest and activity in finding out the true Church, and in investigating the claims of the Catholic Church to be the true Church? The statement, Outside the true Church there is no salvation> means, in view of the many proofs we have offered, that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. Now, who are outside the Catholic Church? Those are outside the Catholic Church, and consequently outside the way of salvation, who know the Catholic Church to be the true Church, yet do not become true and faithful members of that Church. Further, those are outside the Catholic Church who refuse to interest themselves in the quest of the true Church and will not even consider the claims of the Catholic Church to be the true Church. Those who are within the Catholic Church are all her actual members, and also those who are not her members, but sincerely believe that the church to which they belong is the true Church. The actual members of the Catholic Church constitute the body of the Church; non-Catholics who are honestly convinced that their own sect is the true Church are, provided they are in the state of grace, members of the soul of the Catholic Church.

Membership in the true Church—whether of her body of faithful, or of her spirit or soul—are not “saved” by mere membership. Membership in the true Church, the Catholic Church, is prerequisite to salvation, but it is not all that is requisite. The members of the Catholic Church must lead lives in accordance with her teaching, they must avoid sin and keep in God’s grace if they are to be saved. The actual members of the group or body of the faithful have here an obvious advantage over the members of the soul of the Church alone. For the actual members partake of the grace-giving Sacraments; they can have their sins definitely and unmistakably forgiven if they confess them, in sincere contrition and with determination of avoiding them for the future, to Christ’s authorized minister, the priest; they can be actually united in body and soul with Jesus Christ in Holy Communion. Those outside the body of the Church, but members of its soul, have not these advantages. Therefore, let no one say that sincere non-Catholics ought not to be disturbed about their belief, but ought to be left in their sincerity as members of the soul of Christ’s Church. Christ wills all men to enter His visible society for salvation, the bodily group of the faithful; He wills all to confess His faith and His Church before men; He wants all to have the inestimable benefits of the Sacraments and of the graces that flow to the actual members of the Church through her ministry. Let not the Catholic apologist think that he may take his ease in the comforting thought that after all many non-Catholics, many who are actual and bitter enemies of what they think the Catholic Church is, are nevertheless true members of her soul. Let him be alert for the spread and the defense of the truth. For, after all is not a Catholic a Catholic by God’s gift and grace precisely that he may save his own soul and save the souls of others by bringing them to know and to share the great gift that is his ? It is vain for a Catholic to talk of loving his fellowmen if he does not work and pray and give living good example in a tireless effort to bring his fellowmen to the knowledge of the all-necessary truth. The religious unrest of the modern age is clearly a sign that now is the time for the Catholic, especially the educated Catholic, to “rise from sleep,” to become an ardent apologist, to win men’s attention to the Church by deep devotion to her faith and glorious loyalty to her authority, to win men’s minds to the acceptance of Catholic truth by readiness and ability in showing that clear, scientific reasoning justifies every claim of the one, holy, catholic, Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Summary of the Article

This brief Article has indicated to us the meaning of the term necessary as applied to the Catholic

Church, which we have proved to be the true Church of Christ. Further, the Article has explained the meaning of the dictum: Outside the Church there is no salvation, and has indicated the need of ardent apologetic activity on the part of every Catholic, especially every educated Catholic.