One God, one Sa'Yior, and one Lord, 
One faith that binds in sweet accord, 
One Gospel to the nations told, 
One flock, and one protected fold. 
One kingdom with one only king, 
One tru'th to make the angels sing. 
One Christ, one Church-and only one. 
For man y churches equal-none. 

Fi rst printing, November 1948 

ANY FINANC I AL PROFIT m.-zde by the Central OlJice of 
the Sodality w i ll b e used lor th e and'Yancement of the 
Sodali t )' MO'Y eme nt and th e cauJe 0/ Cat holic Action. 

" Printed with ecclesiastica l approva l" 

Copyright 1948 

THE QUEE N'S WORK, INC. 

DaidlRe 



What Catholic~ 5hink 
o/the Church 

Written and designed 

by 

DANIEL A. LORDI SJ 

Designs executed 

by 

Lee Hines 

THE QUEEN'S WORK 

3115 South Grand Boulevard 

St. Louis 18, Missouri 



The Church by Any Other Name . .. 
CHRIST called it "my Church." 

He referred to it often, laid the solid foundation, 
gathered and instructed the men who were to carry it to the 
world. 

But Church was only one word that He used to designate 
H is organization. 

More frequentl y He called it the kingdom of God. 

He loved that name for the organization He was to estab-
l ish, and by that name He referred to it time and again. 

He also called it His sheepfold, of which He was the good 
shepherd. And when He gave His official charge to Peter, 
it was to " Feed my lambs . ... Feed my sheep ." 

He said that His followers would be as unmistakable be-
fo re the . world as is a city seated on a mountain. 

And this kingdom that He was establishing . . . to what 
could it be compared? He used a wide variety of comparisons. 

It was like to a grain of mustard, which would be at first 
very small, hidden away in the earth, yet would grow and grow 
until the earth lived in its shade and the great spirits of the 
air dwelled in its branches. 

It was to be a light shining before the world. It was to 
.be the salt that gave the world its savor. 

It was like yeast, sunk into the loaf and permeating and 
leavening the whole mass . 

It was like a field in which the sower sowed seed. That 
vast expanse of unsown land was the world. The kingdom 
of heaven was the sower who flung truth to mankind-and 
often found his work handicapped by the sowers of error. 

2 



CHRIST'S NAMES FOR HIS ' CHURCH 

- - MV - THE -= 
= YEAST == CHURCH ==kINGDOM= =- ~ ===- OF GOD ..:: 

Church was just one word for what the Lord had come to 
establish. To the Catholic the Church is the assembly, the 
kingdom of God, the protective sheepfold, the vine of which 
men are the branches, the body of Christ to which Saint Paul 
refers, the city upon the mountain, the light, the leaven, the 
salt of the earth. 

All this Christ meant His followers to be. 
All this is implied in Christ's phrase "my Church." 

3 



Christ the Master Builder 

CATHOLICS believe that Christ is God. 

Hence they regard His organization as the work of no 
ordinary organizer. Kings might establish kingdoms ... and 
see them disintegrate into rubble. 

Architects might build mighty structures ... that time and 
defective planning will reduce to mossy ruins. 

But Christ is God, the master bu~~er. 

St. John in his tremendous opening chapter of the Gospel 
reminds the members of the early Church that Christ was the 
divine Word and that "All things were made by Him, and 
without Him was made nothing that was made ." 

So Christ is the God who created the mighty universe. 

Appropriately Christ the man took as His preliminary life-
work the trade of carpenter. Here too He was a builder. He 
learned the principles of good construction-to dig deep for 
the right foundation on which the building was to be set. He 
was a competent workman; He was no builder of jerry-made 
houses. 

So the God who made the universe . . . 

. . . and the carpenter of Nazareth . . . 

. . . was the sam~ as the one who built of and for His 
Apostles this organization the Church. 

The king of kings was the king who established and laid 
down the guiding laws of His kingdom upon earth. 

The creator of the universe was the creator of the Church. 

We should as a consequence be justified in looking for a 

-4 



kingdom beyond all other kingdoms, for a Church so con-
structed as to be not unworthy of the creator of the universe _ 

The Church IS, the Catholic believes, the work of a master 
builder_ 

That master builder is God, the creator of heaven and 
earth, by _appropriate symbolism Christ Jesus, the expert car-
penter of Nazareth_ 

5 



Good and Mad Builders 

AGREA T many men in the course of history have tried to build. 
There was the mighty empire that Augustus assembled, the 

greatest yet known. The Roman Empire came to rule---or so 
it thought-the peoples of the world. 

Charlemagne gathered together into his realm the nations 
of Europe. 

The Holy Roman Empire planned to unify the peoples of 
the Western world. 

Genghis Khan briefly-by force of his military genius-
brought most of Asia and some of -Europe under his control. 

The Mohammedan empires rose one after another, each 
briefly making one empire of scattered peoples. 

But each was reduced to insignificance or passed through 
a series of changes. 

The Roman Empire, the empire of Charlemagne, the Holy 
Roman Empire, the vast conquests of Genghis Khan, the 
various Mohammedan empires (and today the British Em-
pire) lasted a few years or generations and then fell to pieces, 
were divided, torn apart. 

Was the kingdom of Christ to be of this same pattern? 
Of all the builders of monuments on world record the 

greatest were the Pharaohs. Somehow they managed to hit 
on a vast pile that defied the rush of winds or the gnawing 
of the ages, the rubbing of sand and the tramping feet of 
conquerors. But what they built were monuments for the 
dead, not cities for the living. 

All human buildings are judged by the way that they stand, 
serve those for whom the buildings were erected, defy storm 
and strain, and retain their noble dignity for the inspiration 

6 



of the ages. The cathedrals dose to our times seem to do 
this best. 

But what do we think of a builder, an architect, an engineer 
whose building is so badly constructed that it promptly falls 
apart? or instead of one structure a d9zen piles of formless 
rubble? What do we think of a supposed master builder 
whose house is soon cut up into a shamble of tenements? 
whose beautiful building is destined to be an ugly ruin? 

Was the master builder Christ this 'kind of builder? 

7 



According to the Protestants 

I F THE Protestants argue correctly, Christ the master builder must really have been the world's worst. 
Catholics realize that Christ left the human race-even 

the members of His Church-free. 

Even one of the Apostles, Judas, could sell out to Christ's 
enemies. Peter could deny not only the truth of Christ but 
Christ Himself. 

People would actually be free to enter His kingdom and 
take up citizenship-or refuse. They could live in the struc-
ture He called His Church or run off and build little churches 
for themselves. They could dwell in His sheepfold or run 
wild over the hills. 

But surely this was not His inte!"!t. 

He did not want to see the kingdom of heaven split up 
into warring minor kingdoms. He did not wish to see the 
great structure of His Church surrounded by a slum district 
of varied churches all claiming: "We are the true church." 
He surely did not want to see His sheep scattered forever-
as they were scattered that night of His Passion, before His 
Church had been firmly esta.blished to protect and shelter them. 

Scandals were bound to come. There would be false leaders 
claiming that they spoke in His name. He had predicted this. 

But we Catholics disagree with the Protestants-that 
Christ's kingdom was something that could be split up, that 
the great Church was to be cut up into tiny churches, that 

' the sheepfold was to"' be torn apart by conflicting shepherds. 
Much less do we believe that all these churches are more or 
less of Christ's intention, more or less His own. 

Catholics believe that the " king of kings has one kingdom. 

8 



MAP OF TH E KINGDOM 
ACCORDING 

TO CATHOLICS 

THE 

KINGDOM 
OF 
C 
H 
R 
I 
5 
T 

ACCORDING 
TO PROTESTANTS 

Catholics believe that the master builder built firmly and 
for the ages. 

Those who cut into the kingdom, slice away chunks of its 
citizenry, are--intentionally or not-traitors. They rend the 
Savior's seamless robe. 

We Catholics believe that the great Church stands tribute 
to the skill of the master builder, despite the efforts to teal.' 
it down and from its wreckage rebuild shanty churches. 

Both positions cannot be correct. 

Which position sounds more reasonable? 

9 



The Church Is a Kingdom 

To THE Catholic the Church is not a building or a series of buildings . 
. It is not merely a skillfully operated organization or a 

well-run society. It is not important because it is big, though 
it is big because it is important. It doesn't belong to anyone 
country, any more than God belongs to anyone country; nor 
is it confined to one particular age, any more than Christ and 
His salvation are confined to anyone particular age. 

The Church is the work and mission of Christ continued 
to the ' end of the world. It is the voice of Christ speaking, 
the hands of Christ working miracles, the truth of Christ 
leavening the world, the bright · light that Christ lighted and 
held aloft for a darkened humanity. 

The Church is the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God, 
the kingdom of heaven on earth and in eternity. 

So Christ called it, and so He constantly described it: 
"And they shall come from the east and the west, and the 
north and the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of 
God." ... "The kingdom of God is come upon you ... the 
Gospel of the kingdom .... " 

Of this kingdom Christ was to be the king. The angel 
foretold to Mary: " . . . And the Lord God shall give unto 
Him the throne of David His father; and He shall reign in 
the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there shall 
be no end." 

So when Pilate, the Roman governor, asked Him whether 
He was a king, Christ used the pat expression for complete 
agreement. But He explained that His kingdom was, not one 
of force, greed, tyranny, but a kingdom that was different. 

10 



His organization was a kingdom, not a series of kingdoms. 
We were to pray for the success of that kingdom: "Thy 
kingdom come." If divided, like any kingdom it was doomed. 
Christ Himself warned: "Every kingdom divided against it-
self shall be made desolate .. . . " It was to be the kingdom 
for all the world: " .. . preach the Gospel to every creature." 

This world-wide timeless kingdom united with Christ its 
head, this is the Church as Catholics see it. 

11 



All for All 

O NCE on a time most Christians understood Greek. So they knew what the word Catholic meant. The word 
Catholic is from the Greek word Katholicos, which means all 
. . . universal. 

So when we talk about the Catholic Church, we are not ~ 
talking about a sect. The Catholic Church was not cut off 
from the kingdom of Christ. What happened historically was 
that when the Lutherans and the Episcopalians and the Bap-
tists and the Presbyterians and the others cut away from the 
kingdom of Christ-called the Church-and when still earlier 
the Greeks left the Church-and even earlier the Arians, the 
Nestorians, the Copts, and others, they ' took with them part 
of Christ's teachings and part of the people who had once 
been citizens of God's kingdom : 

This Church that had existed from the days of Christ and 
the Apostles taught ALL that Christ had taught and did ALL 
that Christ ordered. It believed that the kingdom of Christ 
was intended for ALL people of ALL nations of ALL ages. 

Hence to that Church was applied the adjective Katholicos 
- Catholic. 

It was the ALL-embracing Church. It had AL-ways existed 
since the days of Christ. It did not pick and choose among 
Christ's teachings; it accepted them ALL. 

"Going therefore," Christ commanded, "teach ... ALL na-
tions." ... "But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the 
Father will send in my name, He will teach you ALL things 
and bring ALL things to your mind whatsoever I shall have 
said to you." ... "ALL power is given to me in heaven and 
in earth . Going therefore, teach ye ALL nations ... teaching 
them to observe ALL things whatsoever I have commanded 

12 



CATHOLIC EQUALS ALL ' 
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ••• 

THE ALL-EMBRACING CHURCH ... 
THE .KINGDOM OF ALL AGES AND RACES. 

CATHOLIC: KATHOLICOS •• ALL •• ,UNIVERSAL: 
••• ALL CHRISTS TEACHINGS 

ABOUT GOD ••• 
ABOUT MAN ... 

• • • ALL CHRIST~ COMMANDS 
ABOUT TEAC.HING ... 
ABOUT TH E WAY TO LI FE ••• 
ABOUT FORGIVENESS OF SINS ... 
A80UT THE EUCHARISTIC REMEMBRANCE 

••• ALL AGES 
.' FROM PETER TO PI US XII 
fROM PENTECOST TO TODAY ••• 

•.•• ALL RACES 
NOT NATIONAL ••• 
BUT INTERNATIONAL ••• 

ALL OTHER CHURCHES •• PARTIAL ••• 
IN TfACHING ••• IN TIME ... IN MEMBERSHIP 
••• IN PRAC.TICES '" IN THE ACCEPTANCE OF 
CHRISt. 

YOU; and behold I am with you ALL days, even to the con-
summation of the world." 

Hence Catholic is a description of the Church for ALL 
ages, ALL people, ALL truth, ALL Christlike practice-in 
other words the kingdom of God on earth. 

13 



God, Christ, His Church Are One 

F ROM the dawn of God's revelation to men believers have known that God is one God. True philosophy proves 
this from pure reason as well. From the dawn of Christianity, 
Christians have known that they had one Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Philosophers have always known that there cannot be two 
truths that cancel each other out. If two and two make four, 
then the "truth" that two and two make five is not a truth 
at all. And if both were right, then neither would be right. 

Catholics have been sure that: 
There is ONE God. 
There is ONE Savior, the Son of God. 
He came to teach ONE body of truth. 
He wanted to lead us all to ONE heaven. 
Therefore He established ONE Church teaching this 

ONE truth and leading us to that ONE heaven. 

Christ prayed that His followers would be - closely united: 
"And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold; them also 
1 must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall 
b e one fold and one shepherd." . .. "For them ... do I pray 
. .. that they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I 
in thee; that they also may be one in us ... . " 

The argument might run this way: 
If Christ was God, what He taught was divine truth. 
If He taught divine truth, that truth could not contradict 

itself. 
If He ordered His Church to teach this truth, His 

Church could not teach contradictory truths . 

14 



So if the churches teach contradictory "truths" or dif-
ferent " truths," they are not Christ's Church. 

So we Catholics believe: that Christ established ONE 
Church the members of which were to worship the ONE 
God and carryon the work of the ONE Savior .. . that it has 
to teach unified truth . . . that its job is to fulfill the prayer 
of Christ and bring all His sheep into ONE sheepfold under 
ONE shepherd ... that its job is to reunite in the ONE true 
kingdom those who wish to be citizens of heaven. 

15 



Too Little, Too Confused 

THE Catholic finds the Protestant churches very fusing. 
Maybe we should say rather 'confused and confusing. 

con-

A Catholic may be wrong on many things, but at 'least he 
knows what he is supposed to believe. And he would rather 
be right in saying one thing that Christ said than be adrift 
in asking himself which one of ten things Christ said. 

The Savior was singularly lacking in the "maybe ... per-
haps ... possibly ... if ... " technique. He did not say, "It 
seems to me . . . " or "Correct me if I'm wrong . .. " or "In 
all probability this is it . ... " 

He was positive. This is the truth. This is the way. This 
is the life. In fact He said, "I am the way ... the truth ... the 
life." 

We Catholics find it strange that the supposed churches of 
Christ should wonder, doubt, consider, change their minds, 
agree to disagree-all in the name of their divine founder 
and teacher. 

The Catholic is sure that if Christ established a teaching 
body it would have His clear way of speaking, His certainties, 
His calm assumption that this and this and this are right. 

So the Catholic would be shocked if his Church stammered, 
asked his opinion on essentials of faith, told him that he has 
as much right to decide what is truth as has the next one." 

To the Catholic the Church is a great and wise teacher. 
It is so intimately associated with its founder that it knows f 
His mind and speaks with His voice. "He that heareth you 
heareth me," Christ said to His Church. And, "I am with 
you all days . . .. " 

16 



I AM - --' 
THE WAV-TKE TRUTH = .:::: 

AND THE LIFE _ .=: -=== 

~:1r 
, bo.t' 

~~1 

The Catholic Church is then as positive as Christ was posi-
tive, certain as Christ was certain, clear in her way of life as 
Christ was clear . 

Truth is one. Christ preached one truth, one way of life. 
The Church preaches and teaches that one truth, one way 
of life. All other ways lead to , chaos. 

Chaos would be a cruel, unforgivable trick played us by the 
Church's divine founder, who lived and died in order that we 
might be saved. 

17 



But the Church Is Alive 

P ROTESTANTS and non-Catholics generally admire the Catholic Church for its fine organization. 
Catholics themselves seldom think of organization where 

their Church is concerned. 

To them the Church is a living thing. It is not an organi-
zation so much as it is an organism. It is not a well-assembled 
machine; it is a living body. 

Christ illustrated this for His disciples a t the Last Supper 
when He explained to them that He was the vine and they 
were the branches ... that from Him flowed the real life of 
their souls ... that if they were cut away from that vine they 
were withered branches fit only to be burned .. . that they bore 
fruit only when they remained closely united with Him, the 
vme. 

To the Catholic, vine and branches together make up the 
living thing that is the Church . 

Saint Paul was explicit about all this. The Church is a 
living body. It is the body of Christ. Christ is the head, 
and we are the members, and together head and members 
make up a living thing, a vital thing, the Church. A well-
constituted organism is bound to be well organized. But an 
organization in itself need not be an organism, a living thing, 
at all. An automobile is organized; a man is an organism. 
The Standard Oil Company is well organized; the Catholic 
Church is an organism. 

So the Catholic sees the Church as something unique in all 
the world. Christ is its living head; we, His followers, are 
the living members- hands, feet, fingers , lungs, heart (to make 
it perhaps a little more detailed) . Together head and members 

18 



make up the living body, the Church, through which flows 
the divine grace- from the head to the members . By reason 
of the sharing of that divine nature all are one in a close 
unity that leaves us individuals but unites us with Christ, that 
gives us the life of God but does not obliterate our own life. 

To Catholics the Church is the living body of Christ, 
Christ continuing His work in the world. And the members 
of that Church are the living members of that body. 

19 



The Ch~rch Is the Body of Christ 

THE Catholic believes with Saint Paul that the Church is the living body of Christ. Christ is the head. We are the 
members. 

Through us all, from God, the source of all life, through 
Christ, who regained spiritual life for the world, to us, the 
members, flow the divine gifts of sanctifying grace. 

Now the direction of the body comes from the head. · In 
any human being the body muse do as the head commands; 
and in this Mystical Body, which is the Church, the Church 
must act as its head orders and directs. 

It must speak with the voice of the Savior and say only 
what He would say. "He that heareth you heareth me," He 
foretold. So the Church speaks with the voice of Christ. It 
must continue to obey His orders. 

"Go teach," He commanded; and His body must continue 
to be the world's greatest teacher. " .. . all nations," He 
ordered; and the body must regard all mankind as its right. 
ful members . 

"Go in peace .... Thy sins are forgiven thee," said the 
Savior, as again ancl again He rid mankind of its greatest 
source of unhappiness. "Whose sins you shall forgive, they 
are forgiven them," He said to His Apostles; so His body 
continues its endless war on sin and protection of the sinner. 

"Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come 
unto me," said the head; and the body stretches out eager 
arms to the children of the world. 

"Do this for a commemoration of me," spoke the head; 
and the Church daily renews the Last Supper and its divine 
feast . 

20 



"As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren," 
the head warned, "you did it to me. " To that He added the 
prophecy that men who hated and reviled and persecuted Him 
would do no less to the Church united to Him. 

The Church can do only what its head directs . That it 
must do. And what is more perfectly united than head to 
members, and members among themselves? 

21 



Organization of the Organism 

SO TO US Catholics the Church is far more than an or-ganization. It is a living organism. That organization 
itself again speaks the greatness of the master builder. For 
we accept that organization as essential to the Church' s unity. 

Christ, who was to become the invisible head, wisely estab-
lished a visible center for that unity. 

To Peter and his successors He spoke great words : 
Peter was the foundation stone upon which would r est 

the structure of Christ's Church. 

To Peter were given the keys that locked and unlocked 
the gates of the capital and the gates of the sheepfold. 

To him Christ gave the power and obligation to feed 
the beloved lambs and sheep. 

To His Apostles and to their successors He gave the 
command to teach, the power to forgive sins, the privilege to 
celebrate the Eucharistic banquet, the heavy responsibility to 
keep before all men the things that Christ had taught. 

To tRe Apostles . .. and to their successors? Most certainly. 
For their work was to continue " all days, even to the con-
summation of the world." The Apostles died. The work of 
the Church went on . 

Lest they make mistakes that would essentially mislead the 
world, Christ promised that He would be with them forever. 

That we might listen with assurance and know with cer-
tainty that what they said was, not private opinion and private 
interpretation, but Christ's teachings and truths, He assured 
them that those who heard them would really hear Him. 

22 



, 

THE CHURCH AT WORK 

= ~ - -- -- -
UPON THIS ROCK .MY CHURCH 

I PETER I 
GO INTO THE WHOLE WORLD 

ITHE APOSTLES I 
AND TEACH EVERY CREATURE 

ITHE TEACHING CHURCH I 
DO ALL THAT I HAVE COMMANDED YOU 

I 

BAPTISE FORGIVE 

FOR EVEkY 
CREATURE 

I 

I I 
MAKE COMEM-

CITIZENS ORATE 
OnHE IN THE 

KINGDOM EU(HARISl 

lAM WITH 
YOU ALWAYS 

I I 
MAKE LEAD 
ONE TO 
WITH ETERNAL 

CHRIST lIFE 

TO THE 
END OFTIME 

So we Catholics see that the Church is the kingdom of God, 
and we are its loyal citizens . . .. It is the sheepfold with 
the one shepherd, and we are the beloved sheep .... It is the 
city on the mountain, and all the world can see and know us . 

If the Catholic Church is not the true Church, then Christ 
left, not a Church, but a chaos of churches. If there are 
more than one true Church, then there are no true churches . 
God dwells in unity, in certainty, in truth . He cannot be the 
author of confusion, uncertainty, contradictions. 

23 



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~38 

THE QUEEN 'S 'WORK 
3115 South Grand Bouleyard 

St. Louis 18, Mo. 


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