In a recent post, Leon wrote, "I believe the last instance of infallibility is when the Pope spoke on the issue of the immaculate conception and the Assumption of Mary." It made me realize that I may not really know what our Catholic docterine really is. For example, The Assumption Of Mary is not in the creed we repeat at Mass, and that is what I had thought of as a concise explanation of Church Dogma.

Anybody know where I could see a concise listing of what the full Dogma of the Church is?

-- Bob Hennessy (bobhen@hotmail.com), April 28, 2003

Answers

topping

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), April 28, 2003.

read the catholic catechism and the bible, its all there

-- paul (dontSendMeMail@notAnAddress.com), April 28, 2003.

I thought I would try a search for materials/sites to recommend to Bob, and came across something I found really amusing... a Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club page!

http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/inquiring_catholics.html

I wonder if you get a badge and hat for joining?

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), April 28, 2003.

I joked in my last past about maybe getting a hat or badge for joining the Carindal Ratzinger Fan Club.

When I went back for another look at that site I discovered they do actually have a 'Gift Shop' with the usual baseball caps, sweatshirts etc!

Tackiness personified?...LOL

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), April 28, 2003.

paul, it is in the cathechism, but not in the Bible. It is in one of those books from the first-second centuries rejected by the Church see this page. Also see < a href="http://wesley.nnu.edu/noncanon/gospels/gosjames.htm'>The Protoevangelium of James .

-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonzalez@srla.org), April 28, 2003.

Elpidio

I wouldn't say it was in a book that was left out, it was just tradition that evolved and was handed down in the customs and practices of the church. The question of Mary's Assumption into heaven or the belief that she was born "without the tendecy to sin" has been with the church from early times. The church is not used to having a bible in every home and on every night stand. The personal bible is only a very recent occurance. All of the churches history until the last couple hundred years has been a truth that was passed on through the customs, the readings in the Mass and the practices of the church. It has been a spirit led church, a living church, rather than an exclusively Bible led church.

That being said, I don't think I will ever have the grace from spirit it takes to have a deep devotion to the figure of "Mary" that "Cradle Catholics" have. It just isn't in me to see "her" as something part divine. I grew up with an image of Mary as completley of this world. She had sin like us, she had doubts like us and she said yes to God and became the wellspring of all that we adore.

If she was somehow divine or above the world, or in some way, apart from the world, if she was born without the tendecy to sin, then for her to say yes would somehow be easier for her than it would have been for us . . . at least in my way of thinking, I'd say, of course she would say yes, she was already without the burden of sin that we all carry. Why wouldn't she say yes?

If she was, as we believe, born without the tendecy to sin. . . doesn't she somehow dimishes the wonder of God made man?

As I said, I have not been granted the "grace" of the "spirit" that is required to follow as most Catholics do . . . and so I wait . . . and pray.

Some would see me as tainted or "less that a Catholic" I am who I am and so I wait and pray.

I've read some of the beautiful tributes to Mary that have been written in some of the wonderful Catholic writtings of the church and I especially appreciate several of the writings here in this forum and truly believe that several comments here have moved me a little closer to the "grace" I need . . . but it's still a reasoned grace, not a grace from the heart.

-- Leon (vol@weblink2000.net), April 29, 2003.

Hey Leon, check out what Bl. Mary of Agreda says about the Assumption; it's incredible reading. It's in The Mystical City of God.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), April 29, 2003.

Thank you, Emerald

Tell me where can I find it, and I'll try it.

-- Leon (vol@weblink2000.net), April 29, 2003.

Hmmm... I have the book here; my friend Larry that died, I found it in his apartment. I don't know if you can find it online or not. It's pretty thick, maybe about two inches. But you can sort of pick it up, put it down, come back to it later because it's about a variety of topics on the life of Christ and His mother.

-- Emerald (emerald1@cox.net), April 29, 2003.

I'll be watching for it.

-- Leon (vol@weblink2000.net), April 29, 2003.

I'm still waiting for the Cardinal Ratzinger bobblehead. Once that's bobbing on my dashboard, I will gladly join his fan club.

-- jake (jake1REMOVE@pngusa.net), April 29, 2003.

LOL Jake, If I see one I will let you know.

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), April 29, 2003.

It doesn't require a page in the Scriptures to believe that Our Lady was truly assumed body and soul into heaven. The New Testament narratives are about Jesus Christ, the early Church and His Gospel.

It happens that our knowledge (not faith; because many things we do not see are accepted on faith,) / knowledge of the Assumption stems from the event. There were witnesses. There was no ''evolving'' later on of a tradition. Nothing to evolve; the disciples and apostles saw the event, and they told the others who didn't know about the assumption. This is the source of the truths we know about Mary.

Late in the history of our faith, many skeptics arose to preach against the historical Church. One of the ways they attacked her was by challenging long-held truths, referring to these as false Papist traditions; since they weren't biblically revealed. The farthest thing from their imagination was, that eye- witnesses would have launched a Church tradition. (Not only this one.)

When the faithful began to fall prey to these protestant and atheistic attacks, one of the most certain of the truths --the Assumption of the most Blessed virgin Mary into heaven both body and soul; was pronounced a dogma by the Pope. It was nothing extraordinary being introduced for the first time as the truth, it was the clear re-affirmation forever. Not open to dispute by the faithful.

ALL dogmatic pronouncements are sent down to us for reasons of reaffirmation of an originally-held truth. It is meant as the final confirmation of a truth not expressly seen in Holy Scripture, but held from the days of the apostles. There is no ''recent'' addition EVER, to the deposit of Catholic faith.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), April 29, 2003.

I had a Ratzinger coffee mug! It sat proudly on the coffee mug shelf of our seminary refectory. Now it's dissapeared; I think somebody here doesn't like ol' Ratzy too much.

-- Skoobouy (skoobouy@hotmail.com), April 29, 2003.

I'm really surprised that no one has been quick to respond to the question, "What's our Dogma?" I thought the Creed covered it all, but when I actually thought about it, (a thought that arose from reading other postings) I realized that I really couldn't answer the dogma question myself. So I asked. And I get told to read the catechism. Amazing... If I go to Mass and recite the creed, maybe I should end the prayer not with "Amen" but with "yaddah, yaddah, yaddah..." Shouldn't our creed be up to date?

-- Bob Hennessy (bonhen@hotmail.com), April 29, 2003.

We have the creeds from the Apostles and the Early Fathers of the Church. In themselves they stand as the God- given truth. Dogma is what the Church re-affirms when the creeds or Holy Bible leave the question. I don't know how MANY dogmatic pronouncements exist. Nor even how many Popes were called to pronounce a dogmatic truth from ex cathedra. Couldn't have been that many.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), April 29, 2003.

The Creed is a quick outline of the most central doctrinal beliefs of the faith. It does not include every single article of the faith, nor does it cover the many facets ("sub-doctrines", so to speak) of those doctrines it does mention. If it did, it would be as long as the Catechism.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), April 29, 2003.

Dear Eugene & Paul, Thanks.I'm sure you are right. If someone was to ask me what I, as a Catholic, believe, the only accurate answer is "I'll read the Catechism to you." I am disappointed in what I've come to realize, though. I would have always said that anyone with an I.Q. of 70 could understand the teachings of Christ; "Turn the other cheek.", Love God with thy whole heart, etc." Something seems wrong.

-- Bob Hennessy (bobhen@hotmail.com), April 29, 2003.

I understand, that that's what the church taught you about the Assumption of Mary, but how do you know that the Apostles were there to witness it?

That's no small detail, seems to me someone would have mentioned it somewhere in the Bible.

As I said before, I just have not been filled with the Grace to unlock my heart to be filled with this part of our faith traditiion. I don't feel like I'm any less a Christian for it, although I'm sure there are some who do.

To me the Biblical account of Mary and her role in the formation of the early church is much more "grace filled" and "grace giving" A young and innocent child, saying yes to God, loving and nurturing the Son of Man as only a mother could. Being filled with the wonder of the astounding miracle that was brought up in her humble home. Encouraging and even pushing him to begin a ministry that would change all the world. Following him on his paschal path, witnessing the most wonderous astounding events which must have filled her with a unquestioned amazement. Finally following him on the path southward to Jerusalem and the sin of the world which awaited him there. Following him all the way to Calvary and watching as the Son of Man, her son was beaten and tortured and nailed to a piece of wood and hoisted up into the ear for all the world to mock.

And then the wonderous events of Easter Sunday morning and the whirlwind of questions that surely tried to make sense of what it was that God was speaking to her and to all the world. The Bible indicates that she lived out her days in ministry and service with John, the Disciple and his followers. I believe he settled on the Greek island of Patmos.

-- Leon (vol@weblink2000.net), April 29, 2003.

Dear Leon;
On the one hand, your objection leads right to the heart of the matter: We believe an event on the word of the apostles; but-- unless those apostles include it in a gospel narrative, why should anyone believe it? It may be fabricated. (Your sense of it.) There are many other truths we have from eye-witness sources. Saint Peter's martyrdom; upside-down crucifixion. No one disputes it, not even protestants. Yet, it's not written. John says nothing in his gospel narrative about the Ascension of Our Lord. His book is still included in the canon.

We should realise Mary is a person so unique, though; that any apostle who had personal experience will certainly have passed on word; an oral account.

The most important apostle, by association is John. He wrote nothing for us. But he knows of her final days without a doubt. In some traditions, other apostles and disciples returned to say their farewells to Our Blessed Mother as she was dying. The witness list would have been dependable, or don't you think so?

Tradition has it Mary was living with John in Ephesus, not Patmos.

Finally she died a natural death, and was assumed body & soul into glory, with witnesses to the event.

It's significant no Christian church is found on earth over Mary's tomb. A traditional tomb in Ephesus, or even Patmos, would surely be extant. But the tradition of her assumption into heaven is older than all the churches themselves; and why would the faithful expect to know where a tomb was, if it never existed?

Meanwhile, John was writing the Apocalypse; and why not insert her in the last book he ever wrote? The only clear answer is: He wrote exactly what he was commanded to write. (Chapt 1: 11-- What thou seest, write--'') This was much later, after Mary's assumption. We must assume John never received any command from Christ to write the event down in a book. Oral tradition, however is also inspired. There is the point on the other hand. Dogma is only the re- affirmation of oral tradition, preserved by witnesses over centuries. Never doubted until the '''age of enlightenment'' -- which encouraged scorn for the Church and instigated contoversy.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), April 29, 2003.

Eugene, Is there a difference between what is Dogma and what Catholics believe as a matter of Faith? I always thought of them as one-and-the- same. I can't be the first to notice that our Creed is incomplete, but since it leaves out any reference to the Assumtion, incomplete it is. Or maybe the Creed really is complete and the Assumption is not really Dogma. Which begs the original question. What is our Dogma? Since we all know that popes speak infallably on only rare occasions,hasn't anybody made a list of what the infallible proclaimations are? Am I saying only half the Truth when I rise to make a profession of Faith, "I believe in One God, etc." I must be making a flawed profession of Faith if the Creed leaves out important dogma. The only reasonable explanation is that the Apostles' Creed is incomplete because only the Catechism is complete and that would take too long to read at Mass. Am I straining at a gnat? What is it that I'm supposed to believe?

-- Bob Hennessy (bobhen@hotmail.com), April 29, 2003.

You have the word of Christ's Church on it; both for our Creeds and Sacred Tradition; and all that has has been proclaimed dogmatically.

No, the Creeds are not at fault. In the Creeds, everything is revealed as it pertains to God's glory and the world's salvation.

An event like the assumption of the Virgin has little to do with the salvation of the world, per se. All of Mary's earthly life was within the compass of her Holy Son. It continues that way for eternity. Nevertheless, she is holy in the sight of the faithful and her TRUE story is essential to salvation history. Instead of allowing a variety of odds and ends to circulate about her, the Church draws on the apostolic traditions to show us the complete truth. Particularly when sceptical forces are intent on disproving our faith.

Add to this the marvel itself, that her reward in glory is made immediately manifest for the ages by an act of the Divine Will; and a multitude of blessings this certainty affords us, the faithful. No other role model in this world has such a glory.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), April 29, 2003.

Thanks Eugene, Good response

I'm really not trying to be stubborn or pig headed about this, I want to believe in my heart as you do and your response for me and for Bob was a good one. I'll get there, but it might take some time.

Bob, I'll offer my take on the answer to your question of the creed containing the truths of our faith. The Creed was written by the Council of Nicea (about 300 years after Christ) in response to the question of who Christ was.

There were many in the church who had a very differing responces as to who God was . . . (kind of like my question of the way the Church defines Mary, come to think of it) . . . some felt that he was God and not really man, that he didn't feel pain and temptation as a man would feel. Others felt that Jesus was a great prophet; that God worked through him to perform great deeds. The Council clarified the question and penned their response in the Words of the Creed that is the highlight of the Liturgy of the Word. The Council said that Jesus Christ was the promised one, the messiah of whom the Hebrew scriptures proclaimed. He was both truly human and truly Divine. God made Man! It says that Jesus illuminated for us God in three persons, a triune God. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It says that Jesus gave us the Church through his apostles and the Church is his until the last day . . .

The creed doesn't contain all that we believe, just the essence of what we believe.

-- Leon (vol@weblink2000.net), April 29, 2003.

Leon & Eugene, Thank you. That was one of the better volleys I've seen here.

Still, my original question, "What is our Dogma", is unanswered. I continually see postings that advize people to accept what they're told because it's dogma and the Church is unable to be wrong. It's beginning to look like our Church does not have any concise statement defining dogma. That seems outrageous. Why would the Church be vague on this. The only answer that I can come up with is that the Church wants to be vague.

-- Bob (bobhen@hotmail.com), April 30, 2003.

Leon, You asked a few days earlier about where you could find the book "The Mystical City of God" by Mary of Jesus of Agreda. The four-volume set is quite bulky and expensive in print format. (My mother has it). But I have recently found and bookmarked a site where it can be read for free. Here it is... http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Ithaca/7194/index.html
(Sheesh, I wish I knew how to create a real link!)
Thanks to this book I have a *much* deeper understanding of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Her important role God has given Her for our salvation. I was amazed at how little the Bible actually does reveal about Her most holy life. God bless.

-- Robert (robertp234@hotmail.com), April 30, 2003.

Jmj

Hello, Bobhen.
Contrary to what you imagined, the Catholic Church definitely does not "want to be vague" about what it teaches. Surely a Church that publishes an 800-page catechism with over 2,000 paragraphs is not being vague!

You have asked for a concise statement of "the full Dogma of the Church." You need to know that each of the Church's teachings is called a "doctrine." Sometimes in her history, the Church has deemed it necessary or very helpful to "define" and proclaim a doctrine in a very formal and solemn way -- either at an Ecumenical Council or by a papal statement. These formally proclaimed doctrines are often called "dogmas."

To my knowledge, the Church has not seen a reason to make a one-page list only of those "dogmas," because they don't have life on their own. Instead, they are embedded in the full range of Church doctrines. As Catholics, we are not "minimalists." We cannot believe only the dogmas. We are called upon to give our assent to all teachings, no matter how formally they have been declared.

As has been stated, a broad and deep summary of Catholic doctrine can be found in the new Catechism.
If you want something shorter, but reliable, you can consider this book by Professor Peter Kreeft.
As you have been reminded, the (Apostles' and Nicene) Creeds of the early Church mention the most central tenets. If you want something relatively brief, from the Church [written by Pope Paul VI], in our own era [1968], please consider the following "Credo":

We believe in one only God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, creator of things visible such as this world in which our transient life passes, of things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels,[3] and creator in each man of his spiritual and immortal soul.

We believe that this only God is absolutely one in His infinitely holy essence as also in all His perfections, in His omnipotence, His infinite knowledge, His providence, His will and His love. He is He who is, as He revealed to Moses,[4] and He is love, as the apostle John teaches us:[5] so that these two names, being and love, express ineffably the same divine reality of Him who has wished to make Himself known to us, and who, "dwelling in light inaccessible"[6] is in Himself above every name, above every thing and above every created intellect. God alone can give us right and full knowledge of this reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light. The mutual bonds which eternally constitute the Three Persons, who are each one and the same divine being, are the blessed inmost life of God thrice holy, infinitely beyond all that we can conceive in human measure.[7] We give thanks, however, to the divine goodness that very many believers can testify with us before men to the unity of God, even though they know not the mystery of the most holy Trinity.

We believe then in the Father who eternally begets the Son, in the Son, the Word of God, who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who proceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal love. Thus in the Three Divine Persons, coaeternae sibi et coaequales,[8] the life and beatitude of God perfectly one super-abound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory proper to uncreated being, and always "there should be venerated unity in the Trinity and Trinity in the unity."[9]

We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. He is the Eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, and one in substance with the Father, homoousios to Patri,[10] and through Him all things were made. He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made man: equal therefore to the Father according to His divinity, and inferior to the Father according to His humanity;[11] and Himself one, not by some impossible confusion of His natures, but by the unity of His person.[12]

He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. He proclaimed and established the Kingdom of God and made us know in Himself the Father. He gave us His new commandment to love one another as He loved us. He taught us the way of the beatitudes of the Gospel: poverty in spirit, meekness, suffering borne with patience, thirst after justice, mercy, purity of heart, will for peace, persecution suffered for justice sake. Under Pontius Pilate He suffered—the Lamb of God bearing on Himself the sins of the world, and He died for us on the cross, saving us by His redeeming blood. He was buried, and, of His own power, rose on the third day, raising us by His resurrection to that sharing in the divine life which is the life of grace. He ascended to heaven, and He will come again, this time in glory, to judge the living and the dead: each according to his merits—those who have responded to the love and piety of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not extinguished.

And His Kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, who is Lord, and Giver of life, who is adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son. He spoke to us by the prophets; He was sent by Christ after His resurrection and His ascension to the Father; He illuminates, vivifies, protects and guides the Church; He purifies the Church's members if they do not shun His grace. His action, which penetrates to the inmost of the soul, enables man to respond to the call of Jesus: Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48).

We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ,[13] and that by reason of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner,[14] preserved from all stain of original sin[15] and filled with the gift of grace more than all other creatures.[16]

Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption,[17] the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory[18] and likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church,[19] continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ's members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.[20]

We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offense committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that offense, and which is not the state in which it was at first in our first parents—established as they were in holiness and justice, and in which man knew neither evil nor death. It is human nature so fallen stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin, is transmitted with human nature, "not by imitation, but by propagation" and that it is thus "proper to everyone."[21]

We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of the cross redeemed us from original sin and all the personal sins committed by each one of us, so that, in accordance with the word of the apostle, "where sin abounded grace did more abound."[22]

We believe in one Baptism instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Baptism should be administered even to little children who have not yet been able to be guilty of any personal sin, in order that, though born deprived of supernatural grace, they may be reborn "of water and the Holy Spirit" to the divine life in Christ Jesus.[23]

We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church built by Jesus Christ on that rock which is Peter. She is the Mystical Body of Christ; at the same time a visible society instituted with hierarchical organs, and a spiritual community; the Church on earth, the pilgrim People of God here below, and the Church filled with heavenly blessings; the germ and the first fruits of the Kingdom of God, through which the work and the sufferings of Redemption are continued throughout human history, and which looks for its perfect accomplishment beyond time in glory.[24] In the course of time, the Lord Jesus forms His Church by means of the sacraments emanating from His plenitude.[25] By these she makes her members participants in the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit who gives her life and movement.[26] She is therefore holy, though she has sinners in her bosom, because she herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by living by her life that her members are sanctified; it is by removing themselves from her life that they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers and does penance for these offenses, of which she has the power to heal her children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Heiress of the divine promises and daughter of Abraham according to the Spirit, through that Israel whose scriptures she lovingly guards, and whose patriarchs and prophets she venerates; founded upon the apostles and handing on from century to century their ever-living word and their powers as pastors in the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him; perpetually assisted by the Holy Spirit, she has the charge of guarding, teaching, explaining and spreading the Truth which God revealed in a then veiled manner by the prophets, and fully by the Lord Jesus. We believe all that is contained in the word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed, whether by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal magisterium.[27] We believe in the infallibility enjoyed by the successor of Peter when he teaches ex cathedra as pastor and teacher of all the faithful,[28] and which is assured also to the episcopal body when it exercises with him the supreme magisterium.[29]

We believe that the Church founded by Jesus Christ and for which He prayed is indefectibly one in faith, worship and the bond of hierarchical communion. In the bosom of this Church, the rich variety of liturgical rites and the legitimate diversity of theological and spiritual heritages and special disciplines, far from injuring her unity, make it more manifest.[30]

Recognizing also the existence, outside the organism of the Church of Christ of numerous elements of truth and sanctification which belong to her as her own and tend to Catholic unity,[31] and believing in the action of the Holy Spirit who stirs up in the heart of the disciples of Christ love of this unity,[32] we entertain the hope that the Christians who are not yet in the full communion of the one only Church will one day be reunited in one flock with one only shepherd.

We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because Christ, who is the sole mediator and way of salvation, renders Himself present for us in His body which is the Church.[33] But the divine design of salvation embraces all men, and those who without fault on their part do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely, and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized through the promptings of their conscience, they, in a number known only to God, can obtain salvation.[34]

We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence.[35]

Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the change into His body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine,[36] as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.[37]

The unique and indivisible existence of the Lord glorious in heaven is not multiplied, but is rendered present by the sacrament in the many places on earth where Mass is celebrated. And this existence remains present, after the sacrifice, in the Blessed Sacrament which is, in the tabernacle, the living heart of each of our churches. And it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore in the blessed Host which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word whom they cannot see, and who, without leaving heaven, is made present before us.

We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling, she also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform herself to the things of this world, or that she lessen the ardor of her expectation of her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom.

We believe in the life eternal. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ—whether they must still be purified in purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies Jesus takes them to paradise as He did for the Good Thief—are the People of God in the eternity beyond death, which will be finally conquered on the day of the Resurrection when these souls will be reunited with their bodies.

We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in paradise forms the Church of Heaven, where in eternal beatitude they see Cod as He is,[38] and where they also, in different degrees, are associated with the holy angels in the divine rule exercised by Christ in glory, interceding for us and helping our weakness by their brotherly care.[39]

We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are attaining their purification, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion the merciful love of God and His saints is ever listening to our prayers, as Jesus told us: Ask and you will receive.[40]

Thus it is with faith and in hope that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Blessed be God Thrice Holy. Amen.

[The entire text from the pope, including several introductory words, plus all the numbered footnotes can be found here.]

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), May 01, 2003.