catholic word of the day: fifteen marks of the church, 10-17-14

CCDictionary ^ | 10-17-14 | Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary

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FIFTEEN MARKS OF THE CHURCH

 

The fifteen features of the true Church developed by St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), cardinal, Archbishop of Capua, and Doctor of the Church. As a contemporary of the original Protestant Reformers, he expanded the traditional four marks to fifteen, as follows:

1. the Church's name, Catholic, universal, and worldwide, and not confined to any particular nation or people;

2. antiquity in tracing her ancestry directly to Jesus Christ;

3. constant duration in lasting substantially unchanged for so many centuries;

4. extensiveness in the number of her loyal members;

5. episcopal succession of her bishops from the first Apostles at the Last Supper to the present hierarchy;

6. doctrinal agreement of her doctrine with the teaching of the ancient Church;

7. union of her members among themselves and with their visible head the Roman Pontiff;

8. holiness of doctrine in reflecting the sanctity of God;

9. efficacy of doctrine in its power to sanctify believers and inspire t hem to great moral achievement;

10. holiness of life of the Church's representative writers and defenders;

11. the glory of miracles worked in the Church and under the Church's auspices;

12. the gift of prophecy found among the Church's saints and spokesmen;

13. the opposition that the Church arouses among those who attack her on the very grounds that Christ was opposed by his enemies;

14. the unhappy end of those who fight against her; and

15. the temporal peace and earthly happiness of those who live by the Church's teaching and defend her interests.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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Catholic Word of the Day Ping!

Operating Grace	Degradation	Transitional Diaconate
Canonical Life	Natural Virtue	Vatican City
Hieronymites	Penetrability	Evangelica Testificatio
Requiem	Legend of the Saints	Sacramental Dispositions
Miracle of Grace	Fatalism	Jubal
Whole Christ	Uniat Churches	Bogomiles
Quanta Cura	Guest Master	Zealot
Indefectibility	Antiochene Rite	Knowledge of God
Prosphora	New Testament Names and Titles of Christ	Twelve Promises [of the Sacred Heart of Jesus]
Original Impassibility	Ephpheta	Word and Deed
Novitiate	Gilbertines	Last Gospel
Oil of the Sick	Kevelaer	Brothers' Institutes
Schismatic	Deo Optimo Maximo	Unjust Aggressor
Reformation	Declaration of Nullity	Fifteen Marks of the Church

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