Only the Catholic Church Has True Faith
Echoing the perennial doctrine of the Magisterium against ecumenism, (here, here, here, here, here and here), Pius IX, together with Vatican Council I, taught that the Faith is found only in the bosom of the Holy Church. The Pontiff emphasized the separation of the false religions.
Pope Pius IX
Only the Catholic Church has all the marks, so numerous and so admirably established by God, to make evident the credibility of the Christian Faith. Beyond this, the Church in herself, by her admirable propagation, her exquisite holiness, and her inexhaustible fecundity in all her goods, by her Catholic unity and unconquerable stability, provides a serious and perpetual motive for credibility and an irrefutable testimony to her divine mission. Whence it comes that the same Church, like ‘a standard set up unto the nations’ (Is 11:12), not only invites the unbelieving to enter into her body, but also guarantees her children that the Faith that they profess is based on the most firm foundation. ...
So that in no way is the condition the same for those who, by the celestial gift of Faith, embrace the Catholic truth as for those who, led by human opinions, follow a false religion. Because those who receive the Faith under the Magisterium of the Church never can have just cause to change or place in doubt that same Faith. And for this reason, ‘giving thanks to God the Father, Who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light’ (Col 1:12), we do not underrate such a great benefit, but ‘looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of Faith’ (Heb 12:2), ‘let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering’ (Heb 10:23).
(Pius IX & Vatican Council I, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith,
Session 3 of April 24, 1870, DR 1794 or Petrópolis: Vozes, 1953, pp. 7-8)
Posted on April 28, 2012
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