← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 117: The Church Is Catholic (2026)
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We continue our examination of the four marks of the Church with today’s mark: catholic. Fr. Mike explains that “catholic” means that the Church is universal in two senses. The first is that Christ is fully present in her, and so receives the fullness of the means of salvation. Second, it goes out to all peoples; everyone belongs. Today’s readings from the Catechism are paragraphs 830-838.
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Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we will read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together towards our heavenly home. It is day 117. We are reading paragraphs 830 to 838. I am using the, as always, Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. Of course, you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your free Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and also you can click Follow or subscribe your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today, day one 17, we're starting at paragraph 830 to 838. We're going to talk about the fact that yesterday was the Church is holy Church, days before the Church is one, and today we're talking about the fact that the Church is Catholic. Remember these four marks of the Church, One holy Catholic, coming in a couple days, apostolic. But today the Church is Catholic. So the question is, what does Catholic mean? So the very first paragraph, 830, says the word Catholic means universal in the sense of according to the totality or in keeping with the whole. So, and then it goes on to say, okay, so what that. What's that universality mean? Well, how is the Church Catholic? And there's two ways. First, the Church is Catholic because Christ is present in her. So it is the fullness of the means she received from Jesus, the fullness of the means of salvation. That's universal in totality, according to the whole. Right? Secondly, the Church is Catholic because she's been sent out by Jesus on a mission to the whole of the human race. So it's Catholic in these two senses, universal in two senses. One is it has the fullness that, in keeping with the whole, the fullness of revelation, fullness of grace, gracefulness of the fullness of the means of salvation. Secondly, the Church is Catholic because she's meant to go out to the whole world. Does that make any sense? So that's. I think that's a really important distinction. We're going to hear about those in paragraphs 831 and 830. Going backwards. Then we'll go on to say how each particular church is Catholic. And the Catechism is going to define what particular church means. So in paragraph 833, this is just kind of a heads up as we're coming. The paragraph 833 says the phrase particular church, which is first of all the diocese that's a particular church, or if you're not in the Latin, right, the eparchy. So the phrase particular church is basically for most people who are listening to this, is the diocese. It refers to a community of the Christian faithful in communion, yet united of faith and sacraments with their bishop ordained in apostolic succession. So that's every diocese throughout the world. You're going to find that community of Christian faithful in communion of faith and sacraments. So we profess the same thing. We worship the same way. With their bishop ordained in apostolic succession. That bishop has to be in apostolic succession going all the way back to, you know, of course, the apostles. We're going to talk about that and what that, what that looks like, how they're united with the Pope. Right? That's paragraph 834, how those particular churches are fully Catholic when they're united to the Church of Rome, the Pope in Rome. But going on, there's some really incredible quotes here from St. Ignatius of Antioch, who goes all the way back to like 107, 110 somewhere in there, from Irenaeus of Lyon, who goes all the way back to I think the middle of the first century or second century, like year 130, somewhere in there. And Saint Maximus the Confessor, who's the latest person we're quoting today other than Pope Paul VI, Maximus the Confessor goes back to, I think, the seventh century. Of course, Pope Paul VI is from the 1960s, but we go all the way back, recognizing that from the very beginning the Christians, all Christians, understood that they were united with the Church in Rome. In that one of the quotes here from Ignatius of Antioch, again, 107, 110, somewhere in there was that particular churches are fully Catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church in Rome. And the quote is, the Church in Rome presides in charity. So the Church of Rome is seen as the one that presides. Last note before we start reading, to listen to this, the big question is, well, who belongs to the Catholic Church? And, and we're going to hear that there are three kind of, I might say distinctions or three groups of people who belong to the Catholic Church. But rather than tell you right now what that is listen, and then we'll talk about it after this. As I said, it's. We're at day 117. Let's start a prayer as we dive into these readings today about the Church being Catholic. Father in heaven, we thank you. We thank you and give you praise. We thank you for the gift of faith and hope and love. We ask you to please increase our faith so that we can trust you all the more. Not only trust what you have done, but also trust what you are doing. Give us hope not only to belong to you today, but to belong to you in the future. And give us love, the love that will never end, love that will last and endure and be alive forever in heaven. Lord God, we ask you to give us these incredible gifts of faith, hope and love. Keep us deeply rooted in you, in your heart. Keep us deeply rooted in your Church. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today is day 117. We're reading paragraphs 830 to 838. The church is Catholic. What does Catholic mean? The word Catholic means universal in the sense of according to the totality or in keeping with the whole. The Church is Catholic in a double sense. First, the Church is Catholic because Christ is present in her. As Saint Ignatius of Antioch said, where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church. In her subsists the fullness of Christ's body united with its head. This implies that she receives from him the fullness of the means of salvation which he has correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. The Church was, in this fundamental sense, Catholic on the day of Pentecost, and will always be so until the day of the Parousia. Secondly, the Church is Catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race. As Lumen Gentium, all men are called to belong to the new people of God. This people, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God's will may be fulfilled. He made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one. The character of universality which adorns the people of God is a gift from the Lord himself, whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods under Christ the head in the unity of His Spirit. Each particular church is Catholic. The Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of the faithful, which, insofar as they are united to their pastors, are also quite appropriately called churches in the New Testament. In them the faithful are gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the mystery of the Lord's Supper is celebrated. In these communities, though they may often be small and poor or existing in the diaspora, Christ is present through whose power and influence the one holy, Catholic and apostolic Church is constituted. The phrase particular church, which is first of all the diocese or eparchy, refers to a community of the Christian faithful in communion of faith and sacraments with their bishop, ordained in apostolic succession. These particular churches are constituted after the model of the universal Church. It is in these informed out of them that the one and unique Catholic Church exists. Particular churches are fully Catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church of Rome, which presides in charity. For with this Church, by reason of its pre eminence, the whole Church, that is, the faithful everywhere, must necessarily be in accord, as Saint Maximus the Confessor states. Indeed, from the incarnate words descent to us, all Christian churches everywhere have held and hold the great church that is here at Rome to be their only basis and foundation, since, according to the Savior's promise, the gates of Hell have never prevailed against her. As Pope Paul VI stated, let us be very careful not to conceive of the universal Church as the simple sum or the more or less anomalous federation of essentially different particular churches. In the mind of the Lord, the Church is universal by vocation and mission. But when she puts down her roots in a variety of cultural, social and human terrains, she takes on different external expressions and appearances in each part of the world. The rich variety of ecclesiastical disciplines, liturgical rites, and theological and spiritual heritages proper to the local local churches unified in a common effort, shows all the more resplendently the catholicity of the undivided Church who belongs to the Catholic Church. All men are called to this Catholic unity of the people of God, and to it in different ways belong or are ordered the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all mankind called by God's grace to salvation, fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the spirit of Christ, except all the means of salvation given to the Church together with her entire organization, and who, by the bonds constituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government and communion are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops, even though incorporated into the Church. One who does not, however, persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but in body, not in heart. The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved the unity or communion under the successor of Peter. Those who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church. With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist. Okay, so there we have it, paragraphs 830 to 838, which is just. It seems so profound. I don't know if it was profound for you, but it is for me. There's so many things that the Catechism here in these brief paragraphs have clarified. For example, what does Catholic mean? Okay, so we recognize that every Apostles Creed states one holy, Catholic and apostolic. And so Catholic means according to the totality or in keeping with the whole. And we already said this in the very beginning of the intro, but what does that mean? Well, the Church is Catholic in two senses. First, the Church is Catholic because Christ is present in her. And this is. This is the key thing to hold on to. You're going to hear this again and again today. You already heard it, but you're going to hear me repeat it a number of times. In her subsists the fullness of Christ's body with its head. Now this is remarkable. Other ecclesial communities, right? Other non Catholic Christians have grace, have truth. I mean, they have many books of the Bible. We have 73, they have 66, by and large. They have baptism. We have six other sacraments. So they have means of grace, right? There is goodness in all ecclesial communities, all non Catholic churches, there is a. There's a reality that there's goodness. But what we're saying when we say the Church is Catholic is that in her subsists the fullness of Christ's body with its head. And I love how it goes on to say in paragraph 8, 30, this implies that she received from him the fullness of the means of salvation which he has willed. What is that? That means correct and complete profession of faith, full sacramental life. Right? So not just one sacrament or two sacraments, but all seven sacraments, ordained ministry and Apostolic succession. One of those pieces here we just have to highlight is the fullness of the means of salvation. I don't know if I mentioned this like yesterday or the day before, but I recently had one of our students who's not Catholic, and she came up to me after one of our classes. We were talking about the faith and she said, so I'm a Christian, I'm not Catholic, why should I be Catholic? I mean, if you're saying I have God's grace, if you're saying that I have the Bible, the word of God, if I can grow in holiness as a non Catholic Christian, why would I become Catholic? And it's a really great question. And the short answer in so many ways. Well, there's a number of answers. One answer is, well, here when it comes to the Catholic Church, we have received from Jesus the fullness of the means of salvation, which means not just the correct profession of faith, but the complete confession of faith. That's really important, right? If you know something about the one you love, but there's more to know about them, wouldn't you want to know more? If you want to be able to say something about God, wouldn't you want to be able to say all there is to say about God, knowing that that is not only complete but correct going on from there you have sacramental life, it's that, yeah, we have access to the Father's heart through baptism. Well, wouldn't you also want to have access to God's grace that he's given to us through the other six sacraments? You know, total seven total in all, Would you want that? And even ordained ministry to the apostolic succession? I mean, there's that sense of, well, do I want adequate means of salvation or do I want the fullness of the means of salvation? That's maybe the first question I have to ask. The second, of course, we talked about before, when we recognize that there are wounds to the unity of the Church and that wound is sin, that it's not a great and glorious thing, that the Church is divided, that Jesus prayer from his heart was that we would be one. So that's another reason to be able to say, actually I want to be part of that one church. Moving on. So the first, first, the Church is Catholic because Christ is present in her the fullness of the means of salvation. Secondly, the Church is Catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race, that there is no one who doesn't belong in the Catholic Church. Every single person belongs in the Catholic Church. In fact, again, that same night when that young woman asked me about, like, why would I be Catholic if I already have grace in my ecclesial community, in my non Catholic church? Someone else had kind of said something similar. They said, so it seems to me that I was raised Catholic. It seems to me that some people don't belong in the Catholic Church. And there are so many misunderstandings. There are so many things that people misunderstand about the Catholic Church. One of them is that we recognize the church is Catholic because everybody belongs everyone. That there's no background, there's no ethnicity, there's no language barrier, there's no temptation towards sin that excludes anyone. There's no history of brokenness that excludes anyone from God's embrace. The church is Catholic because everyone belongs there. Remember what Jesus said about the mustard seed, that it's the smallest seed that grows into this large tree. And every bird of the air can find a home. Every bird of the air can find a nest in its branches. Everyone belongs. So moving on from there, the church is Catholic for those two reasons. Next, each particular church is Catholic. Again, there's something so powerful about recognizing, okay, that phrase particular church means first of all, the diocese. Great. But this is important to understand. A diocese is what is a community of the Christian faithful. Christian faithful in communion of faith, meaning we profess the same thing. And sacraments, meaning that we worship the same way with their bishop, ordained in apostolic succession. Again, that's what a particular church is. That is what a diocese is. Now, 834 highlights particular churches are fully Catholic through their communion with one of them, meaning the Church of Rome, which presides in charity. Remember that that phrase which presides in charity comes back from the very beginning of the 1002 from St. Ignatius of Antioch, knowing from the very beginning they already noted that the church in Rome has a unique role that presides in charity over the other dioceses, over the other churches. And that goes on to say, for with this church, by reason of its preeminence, which the whole church, this church being the church of Rome, the whole church, that is the faithful everywhere, must necessarily be in accord. And that's from a guy named Saint Irenaeus who was living around the year 130. And so going all the way back to the beginning, you have these church fathers who are professing this union. We have to have all the particular churches have to have union with that particular church in Rome, which is just remarkable. I think it's pretty, pretty Important. Now let's move on. Who belongs to the Catholic Church? I said I would talk about this at the very end. I love this. Who belongs to the Catholic church? The first two words in paragraph 836, all men, all human beings, all people. It says, who belongs to the Catholic Church? Well, everyone, all men are called to this Catholic unity of the people of God, and to it in different ways belong or are ordered. And this is just. I think this is beautiful. I think this is powerful. Again, it's Catholic, meaning it's for everyone. So first of all, the Catholic faithful, secondly, others who believe in Christ, and finally, all mankind called by God's grace to salvation. So this is kind of like, I don't want to say three tiers, but three kind of ways in which people belong to the Catholic church. So paragraph 837 says, fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, A, possessing the spirit of Christ, B, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church together with their entire organization. So you've accepted all the sacraments given to the Church together with her entire organization. So the whole Church. Yep. I'm like, yep, I'm on board. And who goes on to say, by the bonds constituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesial government and communion. So these four areas, the profession of faith, we all profess the same faith. The sacraments, we all worship the same way. Ecclesial government, we acknowledge the role of, you know, hierarchy. Essentially there there's a governing order in the Church, and communion are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops, the meaning through the Pope and the bishops. And that's just if you want a definition of, okay, who is Catholic, that, that defines it, that, that's an incredible definition. Now, I might claim to be Catholic, but if I'm rejecting any of those things, I reject some of the sacraments, I reject the profession of faith. And I'm living in this, in this irregular relationship. I'm not fully. I'm imperfectly in relation to the Church. Now, even if I am in perfect relationship right now, I can step out. In fact, that second to last sentence of paragraph 837 says, Even though incorporated into the Church, meaning anyone who's been brought into the Church, baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation, even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not, however, persevere in charity is not saved. Meaning I can turn away, I can leave the Church. In fact, the last sentence is just powerful. It says, he remains, indeed in the bosom of the Church, but in body, not in heart. And I have to ask myself, is that me? Can I find myself? Yep. I show up, but I kind of pick and choose. I show up and I'm kind of. I see the Church as this buffet, and I reject some things I don't like, and I accept some things I do. I can remain indeed in the bosom of the Church, but in body, not in heart. I am called, all of us are called to persevere in love. And if I don't persevere in love, I am not saved. This is really important. All the sacraments are free gifts. Baptism, new life in Christ is a free gift. None of us did anything to deserve it, none of us earn it, but we can reject it. And that's a scary thought we'll talk about later on some more. But the last line I want to highlight is paragraph 838. It says, the Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter. So that would mean, you know, all those non Catholic Christians who are baptized but aren't Catholic, as well as those who have all the seven sacraments but are not Catholic, like, for example, the Orthodox Churches. And it says this, it says, those who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are in a certain, though imperfect communion with the Catholic Church. Meaning, as we said before, all Christians, we see them as brothers and sisters. All Christians, we see them, those who are baptized and have faith, as sons and daughters of the Father. So we're in a certain relationship, but we're not in a perfect relationship. Now, when it comes to the Orthodox Churches, that relationship is so profound that, as it says here, it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist. There is so much similarity between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches that it's just there's little that would have to happen. In fact, I remember hearing something about John Paul II or Pope Benedict both having such a longing for the east and west to be united once again, for the two lungs of the Church to once again breathe fully in unison. And so we pray for that unity. And tomorrow again, we're going to talk about the Church and non Christians. What is our relationship with the Jewish people, with Muslim people, with other non Christian religions? We're going to talk tomorrow about some of those big questions. But today, today we just recognize that the Church is Catholic, meaning God has given the Church the fullness of the means of grace, of sanctification. And the Church is called to go out to everyone. That there is no one who does not belong in the Catholic Church. No one is excluded, no one is disqualified. Everyone is not just welcomed, everyone is invited. Because God longs for us to have the fullness of his grace. God longs for us to say, to be able to say fully yes to him in all that he's revealed about Himself. And so we just pray. I'm praying for. For you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.