The Church is One. One in doctrine, one in worship, one in discipline, and one in government. The unity of government which includes the power of infallible teaching secures her unity of doctrine, worship and discipline. Therefore the Supremacy of the Pope is the one efficacious and necessary means of unity.
The Church is Holy, for she was founded by the Most Holy Son of God, and makes holy all those who live in accordance with her sublime teaching.
The Church is Catholic. Catholic as to time; for she has existed at all times since the days of our Lord. Catholic as to place; for she exists in every part of the world as a matter of fact and as a matter of right. Catholic as to character; for she is not national, but international and supernational. Her charter is: “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost”.
The Church is Apostolic. Our Lord Jesus Christ founded the Church, and His apostles disseminated her doctrines; and it is on the doctrine and tradition of the apostles that the Church of God rests; the Pope and bishops, the pastors of the Church, being the lawful successors of the apostles. Even as the Israel of the Old Testament sprang from the twelve Patriarchs, the sons of Jacob, so does the Israel of the New Testament spring, in a spiritual manner, from the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ.
In the Church alone there is salvation, for she alone was founded by Jesus Christ and is protected and sustained by Him for the purpose of saving the souls of men. She was instituted by God for the salvation of mankind, and all those will be saved who live in accordance with her doctrines and precepts.
Confession of faith. Those members of the Church will be saved who steadfastly confess their faith by word and deed. We confess our holy faith by deed if we live up to its teaching. If we do this, then we are living members of the Church, and so far those words of our Lord apply to us: “Every one that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven” (Mat. 10, 32).
The transformation of the world. In the Apocalypse (21, 1) St. John says: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth was gone.” And St. Peter writes in his second Epistle (3, 10): “The day of the Lord (that is, the day of Judgment) shall come as a thief (suddenly), in which the heavens (the firmament of stars) shall pass away with great violence, and the elements (the matter of which the world is made) shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it shall be burned up”, and (in verse 13): “We look for a new heaven and a new earth according to His promises in which justice dwelleth.” Nature, upon which the curse of God has fallen on account of man’s sin, longs for redemption (“The expectation of the creature waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God”; Rom.
