The Church

Group III

Structures and Membership;The Catholic Membership

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Christian FaithfulHierarchical Constitution of the ChurchEpiscopal College and its Head, the PopeLaityThe Consecrated Life

Structures and Membership

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People who are incorporated in Christ through baptism,

have been constituted as the people of God.

Church (People of God) has clear distinguishing characteristic:Its cause is GodIts Head is Christ Its members are those who believe in ChristIts condition is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons/daughters of GodIts law is Christ’s new commandment of loveIts mission is salvation and its destiny is final kingdom of God

Structures and MembershipChristian Faithful

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Christ is Himself of the source of ministry in the ChurchHe instituted the ChurchHe his authority and mission, orientation and goal

Structures and Membership

1. a system of persons or things arranged in a graded order

2. the way in which a thing is composed or made up;

'All the faithful, from the Pope to the child who has just been baptized share in one and the same grace.'[7] Nonetheless, when it is affirmed that the Church is a hierarchical society we are in substance saying that in spite of the 'radical or fundamental equality' which is to be found among the People of God, the Church has structures, features and differentiations by virtue of which she is a society in which there is a 'functional inequality.'[8] That is to say: not all the faithful have the same function or mission. For this reason Pope St. Pius X could say that 'the Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society composed of two types of people: shepherds and sheep.

Hierarchical Constitution of the Church

PopeCardinalateEpiscopate

PriestDeacons

laity

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By virtue of his wide-ranging ministry evident in the New Testament and preserved in tradition, Peter is considered to be pastor of the Universal Church. History reveals that the single most notable representative of this ministry of Peter toward the Universal Church has been the Bishop of Rome, the city whose church was founded by Peter and where Peter and Paul are buried. The Pope, as Bishop of Rome and successor of Peter, is the visible and perpetual foundation of unity among the bishops and among Christ's faithful. The Bishop of Rome has, by virtue of his role as the Vicar of Christ and as Pastor of the entire Church, a full, supreme and universal authority. The college of bishops, when united to the Pope, has a similar authority.

Structures and MembershipEpiscopal College and its Head, the Pope

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• Has supreme and full authority over the universal Church

• Exercise power over the universal church in a solemn manner in an ecumenical council

• Composed of many members

• The expression of the variety and universality of the people of God and the unity of the flock of Christ

* PETER- the “rock” of the church

* `Key of His Church* Shepherd of the whole

flock

* POPE- vicar of Christ

Structures and MembershipEpiscopal College and its Head, the Pope

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Structures and Membership

•INDIVIDUAL BISHOPS-assisted by priest and deacons

• -exercise by rulling well their own churches as portions of the universal church

•When Jesus Christ instituted the Twelve, “he constituted [them] in he form of college or permanent assembly , at the head which Peter. Chosen from among them”.•The Pope , Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor ,is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of bishops and the whole company of the faithful.

Episcopal College and its Head, the Pope

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Bishops, with priest as co workersto preach the Gospel of God to all

men (in keeping the Lord’s command)Authentic teachers of the apostolic faithfulBy a “supernatural sense of faith,” the people of God under the guidance of the Church's living

Structures and MembershipThe Teaching Officerefers to the teaching authority of the Church.[1] This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the Church in union with the Pope (excluding Eastern Orthodox Bishops and the Society of St. Pius X), led by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), who has authority over the bishops, individually and as a body, as well as over each and every Catholic directly. According to Catholic doctrine, the Magisterium is able to teach or interpret the truths of the Faith, and it does so either non-infallibly or infallibly (see chart below).

magesterium

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• Pastoral duty-the people of God abides in the truths liberates

Structures and MembershipThe Teaching Office

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• The Bishop is “the steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood,” especially in the Eucharist which he offers personally or whose offering he assures through the priest, his co-workers.

• Bishops and priest sanctify the church by their prayer and work, by their ministry of the work of the sacraments

Structures and MembershipThe Sanctifying office

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• The bishops, as vicars and legates of Christ, govern the particular Churches assigned to them by their counsels, exhortations and example.

• The Good Shepherd ought to be the model and “form” of the bishop’s pastoral office.

Structures and MembershipThe Governing Office

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• Trough the Spirit, Christ bestowed on his Church, in particular on the college of Bishops teaching in communion with Peter’s successors, the gift infallibility.

Structures and MembershipThe Infallibility

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The term “laity” is here understood to mean all the faithful except those in Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state approved by the church.the body of the faithful, outside of the ranks of the clergy

Structures and MembershipLaity

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• They are those members of the church who are not in Holy Orders nor in the religious state; they form the greater bulk of ecclesiastical society

• They work in their own way to evangelize and sanctify the world

• Role of Laity share in the priestly,

prophetic and royal office of Christ and therefore have their own share in the mission of the whole people of God in the Church and in the world

Exercise the apostolate in fact by their activity directed to evangelization and sanctifying

Structures and MembershipLaity

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• Lay Apostolate– The ministries of the lay

faithful are founded in the Sacrament of Baptism and Confirmation..in the Sacrament of Matrimony.

LaityStructures and Membership

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• Those faithful who bind themselves to Christ in a state of life consecrated to God

• referred to as the "Religious Life", denotes a stable form of Christian living by those faithful who feel called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way recognized by the Church

Structures and MembershipThe Consecrated Life

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• God has willed to make men holy and save them, not merely as an individuals without any bonds, but by making them into a single people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness

• All men are called to His Catholic unity which prefigures and promotes universal peace. And in different ways to it belong, or are related: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all man kind, called BY God’s grace to salvation

• . We are to consider the Nature of CATHOLIC UNITY, as comprehended constitutionally in the idea of the Christian Church.

The Catholic Unity

Catholic –a member of a Catholic church, esp. of the Roman Catholic Church. universal

Christian -a person who believes in Jesus Christ; adherent of Christianity.

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• Eph. IV. 4-6.–There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.