one, but several societies. In this way we speak of separate Churches, such as the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Nestorian Church, and so on. These are really separate Churches, because there is no mutual recognition between their members; they are not in communion with one another. When we distinguish between the Roman (or Latin) Church and the Uniate Churches, we make a distinction of quite another kind. Really these are all one Church. All Uniates are in full and perfect communion with us Latins, with the Pope, who is their visible head on earth just as much as he is ours. But it is an ancient use, and a convenient one to distinguish within this one Church several parts which, although really parts of the one society, nevertheless have certain customs, local laws, rites, which justify us in calling each a "Church," though really it is only a part of the one Church. So it was once common to speak of the Church of France, the Church of Spain, although the Catholics of these lands were in no way separated from their fellow-Catholics in other countries. The analogy of an army may make this idea clear. The French and British armies are really separate; they obey no common authority, they have even in the past made war on each other. But, on the other hand, the French army is one army; it works together and obeys one common authority. Yet in the time of Napoleon I it was usual to speak of the various portions of this one army, each in itself, as an army. Thus there was the army of Italy, the army of the Rhine, and so on. This, then, is the sense in which we may speak of various Catholic Churches. Really they are all branches of the one Church, real branches, in conscious communion with one another, all joined to the main stem at Rome and so to the one vine, Christ. Catholics have no room in their system for branches cut off from the main stem. A plant made up of such dissected fragments would not be one plant at all. To such branches as are cut off from us we can only apply, regretfully, our Lord's own word about them, that they shall wither.[1] But the one vine has living branches which draw their life, by real visible communion, from the main stem: the one body of Christ has many members, not dissected members, but those which are joined to it, in whom life flows through the arteries from the one Head. These branches or members share the name of the whole. Each may be spoken of as a Church, though there is, of course, only one Church really.
- ↑ John xiv 6.
