The One Mediator Christ founded and continuously maintains on this earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and love, as a visible union through which He pours out truth and grace on all. However, society, with its hierarchical organs, and the mystical Body of Christ, the visible assembly and spiritual community, the Church on earth and the Church endowed with heavenly goods, are not to be seen as two different things, but as two components of one complex reality formed by divine and human beginnings. Therefore, by an analogy not without deep meaning, it is likened to the mystery of the incarnate Word. For, just as the nature that has been taken up by the Divine Word serves Him as a living instrument of salvation, indissolubly united to Him, so also the social structure of the Church serves the Spirit of Christ, the life-giving Spirit of Christ, for the sake of the growth of the Body (cf. Eph 4:16). This is the one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Savior entrusted to Peter in His resurrection (cf. Jn 21:17) and entrusted to him, as well as to the other apostles, its propagation and administration (cf. Mt 28:18) and raised it up forever as "the pillar and bulwark of the truth" (1 Tim 3:15). This Church, established and organized in this world as a society, abides in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although outside of its composition many beginnings of sanctification and truth are found, which, being gifts peculiar to the Church of Christ, impel to catholic unity. (Vatican Ecumenical Council II, Domgatic Constitution on the Church Lumen gentium, 8 )
Church universal (catholic, catholic)Because Christ is present in it: "Where there is Christ Jesus, there is also the universal Church" (St. Ignatius of Antioch). It proclaims the fullness and totality of the faith: it carries and distributes the fullness of the means of salvation; it is sent on a mission to all peoples of all times and all cultures.
Anything separate church (i.e., diocese and diocese), consisting of a community of Christians in communion of faith and sacraments with their bishop, ordained according to apostolic succession, and in communion with the Roman Church, "which is primus inter pares in love" (St. Ignatius of Antioch), is universal.
All men belong or are intended to belong to the catholic unity of the people of God in different ways. Those who, having the Spirit of Christ, are fully included in the universal Church are united to it by the bonds of confession of faith, sacraments, ecclesiastical government and communion. The baptized who do not fully share in this catholic unity are in some kind of communion with the universal Church, albeit imperfectly.
Approval "Outside of the Church there is no salvation." means that salvation comes entirely from Christ the Head through the Church, His Body. Therefore, he who, knowing that the Church was founded by Christ and is necessary for salvation, does not join or remain in it, cannot be saved. At the same time, because of Christ and his Church, he who without fault does not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but who nevertheless earnestly seeks God and, under the influence of grace, strives to do His will, recognized through the voice of conscience, can inherit eternal salvation.
In the Church, by divine ordinance, there are clergywho have received the sacrament of the Priesthood and constitute the hierarchy of the Church. The others are called laity. There are faithful who belong to both categories, who in a special way devote themselves to God by offering vows of gospel counsel: chastity in celibacy, poverty, and obedience.
Christ has established church hierarchy with a mission in His person to shepherd the people of God and therefore gave it such authority. The hierarchy is made up of the clergy: bishops, presbyters, deacons. Through the Sacrament of Priesthood, bishops and presbyters act in their ministry in the Name and in the person of Christ the Head (in persona Christi Capitis); deacons serve the People of God in the diakonia (ministry) of the word, liturgy, and charity.
Pope, Bishop of Rome and Successor of St. Peter - the permanent and visible beginning and foundation of the unity of the Church. He is the Vicar, the Vicar of Christ, the head of the college of bishops, and the shepherd of the whole Church, over which, by divine ordinance, he has full, supreme, immediate, and universal authority.
College of Bishops exercises supreme and complete authority over the Church in communion with the Pope and never without him. The bishops in communion with the Pope have the duty to faithfully and authoritatively proclaim the Gospel to all, for they are the true witnesses of the apostolic faith, endowed with the authority of Christ. With the supernatural intelligence of faith, the People of God hold fast to the faith under the guidance of the living teaching of the Church.
Every bishopAs a member of the college of bishops, he shares in the collegial care of all local Churches and of the whole Church with the other bishops in union with the Pope. The bishop, to whom the local Church is entrusted, rules it with the authority of sacred power, his own, direct and immediate, exercised in the name of Christ. Good Shepherd, in communion with the whole Church and under the leadership of the Successor of St. Peter.
Own vocation laity to seek the kingdom of God, enlightening and organizing temporal realities according to God's will. In this way they fulfill the call to holiness and apostleship addressed to all the baptized.
The faithful laity participate in Christ's priestly ministry by offering a spiritual sacrifice "favorable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2. 5); first of all, by offering their own lives to Him in the Eucharist, with all their inherent works, prayers, apostolic endeavors, family relationships, daily labor, worldly difficulties (if patiently endured), bodily and spiritual rest. In this way the laity, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, consecrate the whole world to God.
The laity also participate in the prophetic ministry of Christ by accepting, more and more perfectly, the Word of Christ in faith and preaching it to the world through the witness of life and word, through evangelization and catechesis. This evangelization is particularly effective because it takes place in the ordinary conditions of this world.
The laity participate in Christ's royal mission through holiness of life, having received from Him the power of self-denial to overcome sin in themselves and in the world. They perform various kinds of service for the good of society and imbue the earthly affairs of man and social institutions with moral values.
