A. Christ gave to His Church the triple office of teacher, priest, and pastor, comprised in the twofold powers of Orders and Jurisdiction.
By power we here understand not only a passive right, but also an authority, which men are bound to respect and obey. Thus the Apostles received the authority as well as the right to
preach the Gospel without let or hindrance; and consequently, those to whom they preached were bound to accept their teaching.
The charge entrusted by Christ to His Church comprises the threefold office and threefold power of teacher, priest, and pastor (or king). In virtue of the first the Church communicates the truths of revelation; in virtue of the second She administers the means of grace; in virtue of the third She efficaciously directs the faithful to their last end.
The threefold office and its attendant rights are reducible to two chief sources: Orders and Jurisdiction. The former (potestas ordinis) confers upon the priesthood of the Church the power of administering the Sacraments, of dispensing the graces necessary for salvation; the latter (potestas jurisdictionis) confers the power of efficaciously directing the faithful to the attainment of salvation – guiding the understanding by the light of revealed truth, and the will by law and precept. The power of Jurisdiction is required in the priest for the valid administration of the Sacrament of Penance, and for the lawful exercise of the other ministries; wherefore Orders without Jurisdiction are insufficient for the dispensation of the means of salvation.
I. That Christ gave extensive prerogatives to His Church appears from the fact that He conferred on His Apostles the same power that He Himself possessed:
All power in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them...
etc. (Matt. 28: 18-19)
Christ was announced by the prophets as teacher, priest, and king. As such He proved Himself by His preaching, by the unbloody sacrifice instituted at the Last Supper, and the bloody sacrifice on the Cross, and by the institution of the New Law. Hence those to whom He transmitted His power are invested with the same prophetic, priestly, and kingly dignity.
II. As in the words quoted He summarizes the authority conferred on His Church, so on other occasions He describes it more in detail. He conferred on His Apostles the priestly office
when He said to them at the Last Supper: Do this in remembrance of Me
(Luke 22: 19). The words, As the Father has sent Me, I also send you... Receive the Holy Spirit;
whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained
(John 20: 21-23) refer likewise to the priestly office. The pastoral office
in its most comprehensive sense was contained in the words to St. Peter: Feed My lambs… feed My sheep
(John 21: 15-17) and ...I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven...
(Matt. 16: 19). Christ, moreover gives His Apostles the charge to preach the Gospel to every creature;
whence the obligation for all to accept it: ...he who does not believe shall be condemned.
(Mark 16: 15-16). In this charge is, therefore, contained the teaching office, i.e., the right to teach with authority.
III. The power thus indicated in the Gospel was exercised by the Church from the earliest times. The Apostles discharged the teaching office by preaching the Gospel,
and demanding its acceptance in the name of God. They exercised the priestly office as often as they acted as the dispensers of the mysteries of God
(I Cor. 4: 1),
ordaining priests and bishops (Acts 14: 22), celebrating the sacred functions of the Church (I Cor. 10: 16-29). They exercised the pastoral office as often as they issued laws or precepts
(Acts 25: 29), or excluded criminals from the Church's communion (I Cor. 5: 5; I Tim. 1: 20). Doubtless the Apostles, who with the assistance of Christ and the light of the Holy Ghost propagated
the Church, must have known the extent of the authority committed to them. We must, therefore, conclude that the authority exercised by them as rulers of the Church was actually given to them by Christ.
B. The Apostles, not the faithful, were directly invested by Christ with that power which He conferred on His Church.
The power possessed by a social body may reside collectively in the members, to be deputed by them to appointed rulers; or it may be vested in one or several individuals independently of the action of the inferior ministers. The question here arises, whether Christ conferred His power on the Church at large, or on individual members to be exercised independently of the will of their inferiors. Luther, Calvin, Febronius, and the Gallicans maintained that Christ conferred His power on the body of the faithful. Whence they concluded that the Pope was subject to a General Council, as the latter represented the voice of the entire Church, as against its deputy. The Catholic doctrine, contained in Holy Scripture, is that Christ conferred His authority immediately on the Apostles, to be exercised by them independently of the faithful; consequently, that the Church is, by divine institution, an unequal society, consisting of superiors and subjects.
I. It was to the Apostles (and their successors) alone that the power of binding and loosing was promised, since it was to them only that Our Lord addressed these words:
Amen I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in Heaven
(Matt. 18: 18). Now, if we are naturally led to
conclude that the authority in question was promised to those, and those only, whom Christ addressed, this admission is forced upon us in the present case; for it is a well-known fact that in the Synagogue,
the type of Christ's Church, not the people, but the high-priest, was invested with the governing power. Hence the words: ...appeal to the Church, but if he refuse to hear even the Church...
(Matt. 18: 17) can only refer to the pastors of the Church, not to the faithful at large. In like manner it was to Peter alone, and not to the people at large, that Christ promised the supreme power
when He declared that upon him He would build His Church, and that He would give him the keys of the kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 16: 18-19).
II. The power promised was likewise conferred on the Apostles alone, since Christ in conferring it addressed Himself to them only, not to the people (Matt. 28: 18).
Not without reason does the Evangelist remark a little before: But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them to go.
(Matt. 28: 16).
And certainly the charge of preaching the Gospel everywhere was directed to those who subsequently executed it. It was the Apostles and those whom they called to their aid who carried out
this commission by preaching and founding churches everywhere. Moreover, it was to Peter alone that Christ said: Feed My lambs... feed My sheep
(John 20: 15-17).
III. It was the Apostles alone who transferred this power to others; and thus they proved that it was they, and not the faithful, who possessed it. St. Paul chose and ordained Timothy as his assistant (I Tim. 1: 3). He likewise appointed Titus to the church of Crete, and charged him to ordain priests in every city (Titus 1: 5). Paul and Barnabas on their apostolic mission ordained priests in every church, amid prayer and fasting (Acts 14: 22). Extraordinary power was conferred upon St. Matthias when he was raised to the apostolate in the place of Judas (Acts 1: 26),. The Church, it is true, chose the seven deacons, and presented them to the Apostles; but it was the Apostles who imposed their hands upon them, and invested them with authority (Acts 6: 6).
In like manner, the Church in later times granted the people, or secular power, a voice in the designation of those who were to be promoted to ecclesiastical offices; but it was neither the people nor the secular power, but the Church, that invested them with authority. And as often as this privilege was abused by rulers or people, the Church did not fail to restrict its use, or at least to protest against such abuse as usurpation.
C. Christ's Church, with the power and constitution given to it by its Founder, will endure to the end of time.
If it is once established that Christ has founded a Church, given it a constitution, and invested it with certain powers, the only just reason that could be assigned for its future dissolution would be the positive testimony of Christ; for a society, unlike individuals, is of itself imperishable, provided its end is a perpetual one. If therefore, there is in the teaching of Christ no intimation to the contrary, such as existed in the Mosaic law concerning the Synagogue, we must conclude that Christ intended His Church to be perpetual. But, far from finding any such indication, we have the strongest positive proofs of the perpetuity of the Church, with all its institutions and prerogatives.
I. The end of the Church is, by the maintenance and the dispensation of the Christian religion, to sanctify Her children and bring them to life everlasting. The Church is a means to this end; so are also its authority and its constitution, a means of discharging this mission. The end proposed to the Church will continue, therefore, as long as the Christian religion exists, as longs as there are souls to save. But the religion of Christ will continue to the end of time, and there will always be souls to save. Consequently, the means to this end, i.e., the Church, with its constitution and authority, will continue to exist unless God intends to substitute other means. But God has given no indication to this effect; on the contrary, He has expressly assured us that the Church will continue to the end of the world.
II. After Christ had founded His Church, given it a constitution, and invested His Apostles with authority, He commanded them to go forth and exercise their sacred ministry, and added the words:
Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world
(Matt 28: 20). By the consummation of the world is not meant the death of the Apostles, but the end of time,
the end of the human race on earth; for Christ elsewhere identifies the end of the world with the Last Judgment (Matt. 23: 20). Christ will therefore be all days, i.e., without interruption,
to the end of time, with His Apostles in the discharge of that office with which He invested them; for it is to those same Apostles, thus invested and organized in one body,
that He addressed Himself when He promised His perpetual assistance. But the Apostles died: that promise of perpetual assistance was, therefore, not given them personally,
but to their successors as well; it was given to the Church in its rulers generally, and consequently, the rulers of the Church, i.e., its authority and constitution in the concrete,
as they then existed, will continue to the end of time.
How are we otherwise to understand those words? Our Lord certainly does not address the Apostles here as private persons, but precisely as rulers and representatives of His Church,
as one moral person with their successors. But as a moral person does not die, the words addressed to the Apostles must be extended also to their successors. Thus we are to understand also the words:
I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate (Paraclete) to dwell with you forever, the Spirit of Truth...
(John 14: 16-17; cf. John 15: 26). Not as to private persons,
therefore, but as to the preachers of the Gospel, was the Holy Ghost promised to the Apostles. But the Holy Ghost can abide with the Apostles as the preachers of the Gospel forever only in their successors,
who discharge the same duty.
Neither can the Church lose the doctrine entrusted to it, for (a) the religion of Christ is to last forever; but the Church is that institution by which the Christian religion is to be preserved; whence the doctrine of Christ, being an essential part of His religion, will remain in the Church forever. (b) The Church received its perpetual constitution and power for the continuance of Christ's religion and, consequently, of His doctrine. Therefore Christ's doctrine is no less imperishable than the Church itself, or its constitution and prerogatives.
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