Last Friday, I had the opportunity to listen to a brief but sound explanation about the recent document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Let's take a few key concepts here.
We acknowledge that Christ founded a visible church on earth and that this Church of Christ "subsists" within the Catholic church. So, what does this mean for other Christians?
We recognize that anyone who is baptized belong to the church and that they can be saved even if they have NO knowledge of the fullness of truth due to invincible ignorance.
There are three ways to be baptized; baptism by water in the formula of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; baptism by desire; and baptism by blood (martyrdom). So this means our Orthodox brethren, some orthodox Protestants and anyone else who baptizes in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit belong to the church.
Jesus has said that he is the way, the truth and the life and nothing goes to the father except through him. Our Christian brethren believe in this and can therefore be saved. However, at the same time, we cannot deny that Jesus established his church on earth.
Now how do other Christians fall into this? First, we must know who we are and then we must know who they are. There is a Latin phrase "Nemo dat quod non habet," which means "You cannot give what you do not have." Example, if we do not have love within us, we cannot give love. Plain and simple.
So what does the word "subsist" mean then? It means that the fullness of Christ's church, that he established on earth, is contained within the Catholic church. This, too, means that we have all seven sacraments in all its completeness. By understanding this, we can share ourselves to our brothers.
Our Orthodox brethren are considered our sister churches. We can receive sacraments from them in the case of an emergency but take note that the Orthodox church does not allow their members to take part in our sacraments.
How about other Christian churches? We cannot call them churches in the proper sense because they lack the key component of being Catholic. And that is the EUCHARIST. We cannot be a Catholic church without the Eucharist. The Eucharist breathes the church and the church breathes the Eucharist. And the Eucharist can only be brought forth through Holy Orders. Without Holy Orders, there is no Eucharist. No Eucharist, no church. This is why we cannot call them churches, rather, we call them ecclesial communities. Again, plain and simple yet hard solid truths.
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