Catholic unity

[dream_wanderer]

Protestants on Catholic boards claim we really don’t have ‘unity’ because we argue over whether or not we should receive Communion on the tongue or hand, if women should wear headcoverings or not … if we should attend Tridentine Mass or what this Pope really meant or if Protestants are really Christians, etc., etc. They ask how can we really have unity if we are so divided on certain issues.

What is the real meaning of Catholic Unity? And can the answer please be given in words a Protestant Evangelical can understand because they are usually the ones who bring this up.

Thank you,
Dream Wanderer

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

That the Church has unity does not mean that individual Catholics don’t bicker; it means that, in Paul’s words, the Church itself has “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). The Catechism of the Catholic Church (815) explains:

What are these bonds of unity? Above all, charity “binds everything together in perfect harmony.” But the unity of the pilgrim Church is also assured by visible bonds of communion:

–profession of one faith received from the Apostles;

–common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments;

–apostolic succession through the sacrament of holy orders, maintaining the fraternal concord of God’s family.

There is certainly in-fighting among members of the Catholic Church, but that in-fighting cannot and will not cause the Church itself to fragment (unlike what has happened to the major Protestant denominations). The Church remains whole because Christ protects his Church and has promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (cf. Matt. 16:18).