Four Marks of the Church

1. Bryan B. Albia, PhB, SThB, MAL(cand)

2.  Christ established only one Church. From the moment he created it, it has existed continually and it
will always exist. In this Church alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted. So
there is only one Church, not many.The Church doesn’t come and go with the changes of history.
“This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed [is] one, holy, catholic and apostolic.…
This Church, constituted and organized in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church,
governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him.”The true Church, then
has these four “marks”.The true Church has this particular hierarchical structure.

3.  In Lumen Gentium, no. 8, “subsistence” means this perduring
(enduring, never ending), historical continuity and the
permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ in the
Catholic Church, in which the Church of Christ is concretely
found on this earth. It is possible, according to Catholic
doctrine, to affirm correctly that the Church of Christ is present
and operative in the churches and ecclesial communities not
yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of
the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in
them. Nevertheless, the word “subsists” can be attributed to
the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the
mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I
believe… in the “one” Church); and this One Church subsists
in the Catholic Church.

4. What is an immediate, practical value of the four marks?
They help distinguish the true Pilgrim Church on earth from
any others that claim to be Christ’s Church.
How do we know that the Catholic Church possesses the four
marks of the Church?
Through faith and the historical record.
Where does the Church get these four marks, or
characteristics?
She receives them from God. Extension: Eyes of faith only can
recognize that these marks are because of her divine origin,
but the historical manifestations of these marks are signs that
speak clearly to human reason.

5. What did Christ mean when he said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father,
but by me”?
He is the only way to salvation.
How many “flocks” did Christ intend to have?
Just “one flock,” having “one shepherd.”
What does it mean to say the Church is One?
The Church is unique and singular.Christ has instituted one Church rather than multiple churches. Extension:
One way of understanding this is that Jesus Christ has not forged multiple paths to salvation but one way only.

6. Why is one Church enough?
• Having establishing the Church on earth, Christ gives all
people the opportunity to be united to him, the one
Savior of the world, by becoming part of his one
Mystical Body.
What is a second meaning of the
statement, “The Church is One”?
• The unity and solidarity of the Church.

7. Why is one
Church enough?
Having establishing the Church on earth, Christ gives all
people the opportunity to be united to him, the one Savior
of the world, by becoming part of his one Mystical Body.
What is a second
meaning of the
statement, “The
Church is One”?
The unity and solidarity of the Church.
What is perhaps
the best image to
express the unity
of the Church?
The Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.

8. How does the Mystical Body of
Christ express the unity of the
Church?
In the Mystical Body of
Christ, the many diverse
members of the Church
are united to Christ the
Head to form the whole
Christ, united and
animated by the Holy
Spirit, the “soul” of the
Mystical Body.
What are the three visible ways,
or attributes, of the unity of the
Mystical Body of Christ?
Unity of faith, worship,
and leadership.
What does it mean to say that
the unity of the Church will
perdure?
The unity achieved at the
beginning of the
Church’s life will never
disappear.

10. • Heresy, apostasy, and schism.
• What is apostasy?
• Apostasy is the total rejection of the Christian Faith by someone who has been baptized.
• What is heresy?
• Heresy is the deliberate and persistent denial by one who has been baptized of a truth of the Faith
taught by the Church.
• What is schism?
• Schism is the refusal by one who has been baptized of unity with the Pope or the refusal of communion
with the members of the Church.
What are the three types of ruptures that wound the unity of Christ’s Body?
• No.These are states that only a baptized member of the Church can possess.
Can a non-Christian be a heretic or schismatic or be in a state of apostasy?

11. Jesus prayed before He died that the Church would
be in unity with one another as Jesus was with the
Father; the gift of unity in the Church is essential.
The ultimate example of the Church’s unity is that
of the three Divine Persons in theTrinity, creating
one God together.
We are brought in to unity with theTrinity as part
of the one Church.

12. That unity with God was hurt by Adam and Eve’s
sin, yet Jesus brought us all back into unity with
Himself and theTrinity by His death, collecting us
all into Himself and making the Church united.
The Church is also one because of the Holy Spirit,
since the Spirit can be seen as the soul of the
Church that lives within all the Church’s members,
bringing them closer to one another and Christ in
word and deed.
• Unity should not be confused with uniformity; as
mentioned before, the Church is full of diverse
people, all of whom are not expected to strive to
be the same as a fellow Church member.
• People are diverse and so are the gifts they
receive, yet they receive such gifts all from the
same unified one Holy Spirit.
• We are a Church of many nations and people, yet
we all possess a single citizenship: that of a
citizenship in Heaven as a people of God.

13. What is the origin of
the holiness of the
Church?
• The Church receives
her holiness from
Christ her Founder
through the
indwelling of the
Holy Spirit.
What means does the
Church possess to
sanctify people?
• The teachings of
Christ, the
Sacraments, and
the life of prayer.
Why does Christ
make the Church
Holy?
• Christ loves the
Church as his Bride
and so makes her
holy, as he is holy.

14. How is the Church
Holy if her members
are sinners?
The Church’s holiness is not defiled by the presence of sinners; rather, her
holiness transforms sinners into saints if they live her life.
What is the effect of
the sins of individual
members of the
Church on people
outside the Church?
Our sins obscure the Church’s holiness in the eyes of the world.
Extension: Because people tend to notice other’s sins and but are blind to
their own, critics may accuse the Church of hypocrisy or failure without
recognizing or while minimizing their own.
What is the antidote
to the sins of
individual members
of the Church?
Purification, penance, and renewal.

15. The Church depends on God’s free gift of grace completely to be holy.
The Church has the Holy Spirit active in Her existence,
gaining for us holy people like the saints as examples
of how we are to be holy, i.e. Mary was perfectly holy
by God’s grace and is an example of how we are to be
holy and respond to God’s calling for each of us.
We see the human element of the Church all around us in the people gathered in the physical building of the
Church, the leaders of the Church, and such things as the Bible and religious icons.
But the Church is more than what just meets the eye; she is the bearer of the invisible divine life with God.
The Holy Spirit helps us see with the eyes of faith the
union of both human and divine elements by way of
putting us in communication with the divine through
what we see at Mass and in Church.
The earthly structure of the Church only exists for the
sole purpose of sanctifying her members and making
them holy so as to fulfill God’s will, even despite our
failings.

16. The Church is holy because God created her, Jesus loves and gave up His life for her, and
the Holy Spirit dwells in her so she may have life.
The Church is also holy because God has made the Church an instrument of salvation,
allowing her to sanctify through Holy Scripture, the Sacraments, models of holiness, and
the leadership of the Apostles and their successors.
Love is at the heart of holiness and is the means by which the Church sanctifies her
members.
We are all called to love, whether married, single, priest, religious, etc., in different ways
through the example of God’s love found in Scripture and the Sacraments.

17.  The Holy Spirit is the first to move in our lives; otherwise, if
left up to our own accord, we probably would never choose to
seek Him or holiness.
 The gift of grace allows us to cooperate with the Spirit to grow closer
to God and His holiness.
 God made us to be in loving communion with Him, yet with grace
comes freedom, and we either have the freedom to participate in His
grace or deny it completely.

18. With all this
talk about
grace, it is
important to
know that
there are
different
types of
grace that are
given by the
Holy Spirit.
Sanctifying Grace is the grace that heals
our human nature wounded by sin and
restores us to friendship with God, infused
into our souls by the Holy Spirit that help us
to continually make us holy.
We receive sanctifying grace at Baptism and is
always with us, helping us to live according to God’s
will for us.
It is a habitual grace, meaning it is a stable
and supernatural disposition.
Habitual grace differs fromActual Grace, or God’s
intervention and support for us in the everyday
moments of our lives or during a conversion, since
actual grace occurs at a specific moment, while
habitual grace is stable and lifelong.
Sacramental Grace are gifts that are
associated with each of the Sacraments.
Grace comes from the Sacraments since Christ
instituted them and works through them.

19. When we say the
Catholic Church is
“catholic,” we are
actually referring to
meaning of the word
catholic, which means
“universal.”
The Church is present
around the world, in
communion with the
bishops and the Pope,
making it universal.
The Church is Catholic
because she has a
universal authority to
fulfill her universal
mission.

20. • But notice how the word catholic is not with a capital “c” when we
speak about catholic as one of the four marks of the Catholic Church.
• The Catholic Church is catholic.
The word catholic comes from
the Greek word katholikos,
which means “universal.”
• Because Christ is present in her (The Church has it all)
• She has been sent on a mission by Christ to all people of the world to
gather all into the People of God (The Church calls to all)
The Church is catholic in two
senses by:
• Catholic refers to the Catholic Church founded by Christ; catholic refers
to the Church having the fullness of Christ in her and her mission to all
people.
Therefore, the Catholic Church is
“catholic,” or universal, because
she possesses the total means of
salvation for all people.

21. The Church does not only affiliated
themselves with people who are
Catholic and Christian; the Church also
has special relationships with the other
4 billion people who are non
Christians.
The Church recognizes other
non Christian religions seek
God and that goodness and
truth can be found in them.
These religions prepare
people for the Gospel
message preached by Christ.

22. The Church seeks dialogue with other religions by
bearing witness to Her own faith, as well as seeing
the good that can be found in other faiths that do
not distort the image of God.

23. The Church is apostolic because she
was founded on the Apostles. Jesus
sent out His Apostles to perform the
Father’s mission on Earth, the
mission He started.
The bishops of the world are the
successors of the Apostles and the
Pope is the head of the Church, just
as Jesus gave Peter that leadership
position before His Ascension.

24. What is the parallel
between theTwelve
Apostles and the twelve
ministers of Solomon?
Solomon appointed
twelve ministers to
assist him in ruling his
kingdom, and Christ
appointed twelve
Apostles to assist him
in ruling his kingdom.
What tasks did Christ
give his Apostles the
authority to carry out?
To teach, sanctify, and
govern his Church.
According to the
Catechism, no. 861,
how did the Apostles
pass on their authority?
They appointed their
immediate
collaborators to carry
on their work and
directed those men to
appoint other proven
men to take over their
ministry when they
died.

25. • One test is whether the church in question can be shown to be led by
shepherds who received their mission and powers from the Apostles
through an uninterrupted chain of lawful succession. Extension:The true
Church of Christ possesses all four marks of the Church, including
apostolicity.
How can the true Church of Christ on earth be recognized?
• The laying on of hands.
What reflects a bishop’s direct link with the Apostles?

27. Jesus commanded the Apostles to
spread the teachings they heard
from Christ to all people and all
nations throughout the world.
Thus, the teachings of Jesus are
passed from one generation to
the next, in word and deed.
SacredTradition, from the Latin
tradere, means “to hand on;”
referring to the passing of the
Gospel message beginning with
oral communication, then the
writing of the oral tradition down
and forming Scripture, to being
interpreted by the hierarchy of
the Church through guidance of
the Holy Spirit.

28. In this way, Apostolic
succession assures us
that the leaders of
theChurch are
teaching what the
Apostles taught
themselves 2000
years ago.
It is important to
remember that faith is
not something we are
born with; it is
something we receive
from others, such as
the Church.
The Church is the
source of faith.
Therefore, we too are
called to pass the faith
on to others so they
can do the same.

29. Every member of the Church has a vocation to the Apostolate, or the Christian’s activity
that fulfills the apostolic nature of the whole Church when they work to extend the reign
of Christ to the entire world.
The entire Church is apostolic since she is in communion with the life and faith of the
Apostles, as well as their mission to spread the Good News to all the world.
The source of all apostolate for the Church is Christ.
The essential nature of the apostolate is love since we are sometimes called to either love
or not love throughout daily life.