If the Church is the body of Christ, it is a living, growing entity. It is what it is, and unlike anyone of us cannot become something else. Just as Christ did not spring into being like Athena from the brow of Zeus, but was conceived, formed in the womb of the Virgin, was born, and grew up, and fulfilled his mission, so the Church, except that he did what he did without sin, and the Church fails, falters and recovers. But even Our Lord faltered under the weight of the Cross.