Pope Says Christ Always Leads to Loyalty to the "Mother Church"

In a message on January 30, Pope Francis said, “It is an absurd dichotomy to love Christ without the Church; to listen to Christ but not the Church ... Christ and the Church are united. ... Whenever Christ calls a person, He brings that person to the Church. ... it is good [that a child] comes to be baptized in the Mother Church. ... One by one, the Lord is calling us as well, to His people, into His family, our mother, the Holy Church. Let us think on these acts of Jesus. ... Part of membership in a community, is loyalty to others and loyalty to the hierarchy imposed by God. For this reason, we are called to love and obey the Church” (AsiaNews.it, Feb. 24, 2014, and Catholic Online Feb. 4, 2014). The Second Vatican Council proclaimed the following: “This is the sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after his resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care. ... This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, chap. 1, 8, p. 329).

(Friday Church News Notes, March 14, 2014, www.wayoflife.org [email protected], 866-295-4143)

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