The Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ

David Martin | The Daily Knight

One of the most insidious designs of Vatican II was its attempt to unite the Catholic Church with other world religions that they may be one. The true wish of the Council was to promote the idea that one needn’t be Catholic to be a member of Christ, but conciliar architects refrained from doing this knowing they would never get away with it. Their plan simply wouldn’t sell that way.

Instead, the Council admitted that we must belong to the One Universal or Catholic Church to be saved but then craftily redefined “One Universal Church” to mean the ecumenical world body of churches.

“This movement toward unity is called 'ecumenical' — the one visible Church of God, a Church truly universal.” [Unitatis Redintegratio 1]

In the vision of the Council, “a Church truly universal” was to include even eastern non-Christian religions like Islam, which the Council endorses.

“Muslims adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men.” [Nostra Aetate-3]

Vatican II minced no words about its plan to unite with other religions, especially Protestant religions. One needn’t look any further than the conciliar document on ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, where it states:

“The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.” [UR-1]

Along these lines, the document also says:

“It is allowable, indeed desirable that Catholics should join in prayer with their separated brethren.” [UR-8]

This proposed “interfaith worship” is 1 forbidden by the Catholic Church yet Vatican II fully endorses it. This false ecumenism is grounded in the fallacy that baptized Catholics who fall away into other religions are still members of Christ’s Church.

“The differences that exist in varying degrees between them [separated brethren] and the Catholic Church … do indeed create many obstacles, but even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ’s body.” [UR-3]

Dogma Breached

The foregoing quote from UR-3 contravenes the encyclical letter of Pope Pius XII which dogmatically defined that only those who profess the One True Catholic Faith are included as members of Christ’s Church.

Only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the True Faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, 1943)

Hence the members of Christ do not include Muslims, Buddhists, Protestants, or Jews. On June 29, 1943, the Church officially defined the Catholic Church as the Mystical Body of Christ, but in spite of this, Unitatis Redintegratio perfidiously asserts that life-giving elements of faith operate outside the confines of the Catholic Church.

“Many of the significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written word of God; the life of grace; faith.” [UR-3]

The document furthermore states that the Holy Spirit engenders the thinking and activity of these separated churches.

“The brethren divided from us also use many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. These most certainly can truly engender a life of grace in ways that vary according to the condition of each Church or Community. These liturgical actions must be regarded as capable of giving access to the community of salvation.

“It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation.” [UR-3]

The foregoing is a grotesque error since Christ does not abide in other religions, nor do separated Protestant churches constitute part of the One Universal Church. The Roman Church alone can afford us salvation, yet Pope Francis has repeatedly said that “God wills diversity of religion.” This is heretical.

Pope Boniface VIII dogmatically decreed:

There is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is neither salvation nor remission of sins — Unam Sanctam, Papal Bull of Boniface VIII

This is not to say that misled people who innocently belong to another religion are necessarily culpable and destined for Hell fire, but it means that the Catholic religion is the only true religion on earth. With this, it means that any salvation that comes to any person on earth comes through the Catholic Church, though they may not realize it (baptism of desire). Outsiders who are good Samaritans in their heart can be saved if they respect the Catholic Church, as our President does, but those who pridefully resist the Faith, objectively speaking, are not to be counted among the saved of Christ.

Pope Pius IX in his Syllabus of Errors condemned the heresy that "Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation." Vatican II defies this official Church teaching.

What is mind boggling is that the conciliar document Gaudium et Spes (in conjunction with those on Religious Liberty and Ecumenism) directly opposed the Syllabus of Errors and sought to revive the rebellious principles of the French Revolution of 1789. None less than Cardinal Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI) attested to this in 1982.

"We might say that it [Gaudium et Spes] is a revision of the Syllabus of Pius IX, a kind of counter-syllabus… Let us be content to say that the text serves as a counter-syllabus and, as such, represents, on the part of the Church, an attempt at an official reconciliation with the new era inaugurated in 1789." (Principles of Catholic Theology, p. 381, Ignatius Press)

The late Cardinal Suenens himself, who was a leading participant at Vatican II, famously said, “Vatican II is the French Revolution of the Church.” Amen to that. The Council started with good intent and with full legal status but lost its legal force in the opening session, whereby it went from being a council to a revolution. You can read about it here.

1. This is not to say that we shouldn't find wholesome common denominators with non-Catholics, e.g., defense of America and family values, marching against abortion, etc., but that we shouldn't liturgically or prayerfully unite with them or be in agreement with their ideas on religion.