The Essential Nature and Task of the Church | Joseph
Cardinal Ratzinger | From God and the World: A Conversation With Peter
Seewald (Ignatius Press, 2002)
The Essential Nature of the Church
Let's stay with this rebirth. What is the Church supposed to be? What kind
of body is she meant to be? Her nature is always specified as being apostolic
and catholic. What does that mean?
Apostolic signifies the horizontal cross-connection of the Church through all
the ages. She is first of all fixed to the historical origin in the eleven men
whom Jesus chose (eleven were left, plus Matthias, who was elected to the
office). This is not just some mythology or other, an invented piece of ideology,
but is truly anchored in the historical events concerned with Jesus Christ and
can always at any time be renewed from these apostolic origins. At the same
time, this expresses not only fidelity to the witness, to the faith of the
apostles, but also a sacramental dimension. Because of this, we cannot simply
rethink the Church whenever we like; she stands rather in an unbroken
relationship with her origins, in constant continuity with them. The sacrament
of ordination to the priesthood expresses this relationship to something we
have not ourselves invented and, at the same time, refers to the Holy Spirit as
guarantor of this continuity.
And Catholic?
The translation of Catholic is "including the whole"; it signifies
"relating to the whole". It is a way of expressing the fact that the
Church belongs to the whole world, to all cultures and every age. That is quite
essential. For the Church must never shrink to being a national Church. She is
always there to ensure that boundaries are transcended. She is to prevent the
occurrence of Babel. The Church is there to prevent the confusion of opposition
and contradiction from dominating mankind. She should, instead of this, bring
the whole wealth of human existence, in all its languages, to God--and should
be thereby herself a power for reconciliation among mankind.
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