Such is Catholicism: an affirmation of values along the whole line, a most comprehensive and noblest accessibility to all good,[8] a union of nature with grace, of art with religion, of knowledge with faith, “so that God may be all in all.” Let others be “ever hunting for a fabulous primitive simplicity; we repose in Catholic fulness.”[9] Catholicism knows no other watchword than the sentence of St. Paul: “I became all things to all men that I might save all. And I do all things for the gospel’s sake” (1 Cor. ix, 22-23).

Endnotes

1.      “Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten 3 Jahrh.,” 1916; Vol. I, p. 39, Note 3. Eng. tr., Jas. Moffatt: “The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries,” 2nd ed., London, 1908; Vol. I, page 38, note 1.

2.      Kattenbusch, op. cit., p. 351.

3.      St. Augustine emphasizes this unity in fullness: Corpus ipsius ubi jacet? … Extende caritatem per totum orbem, si vis Christum amare, quia membra Christi per orbem jacent (In. Ep. Joann. Tr. X, 8). The Catholic may proudly claim: Ego in omnibus linguis sum: mea est Graeca, mea est Syra, mea est Hebraea, mea est omnium gentium, quia in unitate sum omnium gentium (En. in Ps. CXLVII, 19).

4.      Cardinal Newman, “University Sermons,” XV (1872, p. 318.)

5.      ibid., p. 317.

6.      “Development of Christian Doctrine,” VI, 2 (1846, p. 352)

7.      St. Augustine repeatedly speaks of the importance of heresies in the development of the Church’s teaching. Plurimum prosunt, non verum docendo, quod nesciunt, sed ad verum quaerendum carnales et ad verum aperiendum spiritales catholicos excitando. (De vera religione, VIII, 15.) Improbatio quippe haereticorum facit eminere, quid ecclesia tua sentiat et quid habeat sana doctrina. Oportuit enim et haereses esse, ut probati manifesti fierent inter infirmos (Confess. VII, 19, 28).

8.      F. von Hugel (The Mystical Element in Religion, II; 118) speaks of the “all-welcoming” spirit of Catholicism.

9.      Cardinal Newman, “Essays Critical and Historical,” Vol. II, Essay XI (1873, p. 233).

Chapter X: The Church Necessary for Salvation

And if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican (Mt. xviii, 17).