Relation of Catholic Church With Other Christian Churches

The Catholic Church recognizes that she is joined with all those separated Christian brothers who are baptized and profess faith in Christ, but she regrets that they do not preserve the fullness of Christian faith and are not united with her in the one visible community of love which Christ founded on Blessed Peter and which He wills for all His disciples.

The Church knows that in many ways she is joined with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter... (LG 15-Fl 366)

...Our separated brethren, whether considered as individuals or as communities and Churches, are not blessed with that unity which Jesus Christ wished to bestow on all those to whom He has given new birth into one body, and whom He has quickened to newness of life--that unity which the Holy Scriptures and the ancient Tradition of the Church proclaim...(UR 3b-Fl 455f)

Continue to pray for Christian unity!

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Fullness of Christ's Church

The Catholic Church has always acknowledged that Eastern orthodox churches have valid priesthood, episcopacy, and sacraments. Although the fullness of Christ's Church is found only in the Catholic Church, many genuine elements or endowments of Christ's Church can be found in varying degrees outside the visible structure of the Catholic Church. For example, Holy Scripture, faith in Christ, Baptism, Christ inspired hope and love, preaching of the Gospel, etc.

Although Vatican II did not wish to identify the Church of Christ exclusively with the Roman Catholic Church, it did make it clear that Christ entrusted His entire Church to Peter's pastoral care and that it is in His Catholic Church alone that all the means of salvation can be found.

It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the all-embracing means of salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head that we believe our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who already belong in any way to God's people. UR 3e-456)


Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

More on the Real Presence

Jesus’ words are to be understood in the same way that Saint Paul understood them, and as early Fathers of the Church explained them, and as orthodox Christians, East and West, accepted them down to the Reformation, and as they have continued to be understood in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to our own day, namely, as literally affirming the real presence of Christ’s body and blood under the appearances of bread and wine. The truth of this belief is assured by the promise Jesus gave to His disciples at the Last Supper, that He would send them the Holy Spirit to instruct them in everything (Jn 14.26) and lead them into all truth (Jn 16.13).

Saint Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, says: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily sins against the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself first: only then should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup. He who eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks a judgment on himself.

When Saint Paul speaks of “The Body and Blood of the Lord” against which one would sin he is speaking literally of the sacred humanity of Christ. He is not speaking of fellow members of the Church, nor of the poor in particular, or of any other group of Christ’s “mystical body.” None of these are ever referred to as His “blood.”

Saint Paul also admonishes the Corinthians to take care not to approach the Eucharist in a thoughtless manner but to recognize the body when he says: “He who eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks a judgment on himself.” What is this “body” that Christians must recognize when they eat and drink the Eucharist? Is it fellow Christians, especially the poor, who are the body of Christ? No. In the immediate context the only “body” of which Paul speaks is Christ’s Eucharistic body.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching