Question about the Church

[SAINThoodSEEKER]

Here is an interesting question posed by a friend. What do you think?

“If the Catholic Church ALWAYS taught that the Church of Christ IS the
Catholic Church, then how can VATICAN II say the Church of Christ
SUBSISTS
IN the Catholic Church??? IS and SUBSISTS IN do not mean the same
thing.”

Council of Constantinople I

“The bishop of Constantinople shall have the primacy of honor after the bishop of Rome, because his city is New Rome” (canon 3 [A.D. 381]).

 

[Della]

This explanation from the Catechism (written after Vat. II) might be of help:

816 “The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to extend and rule it. . . . This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in (subsistit in) the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.”

The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism explains: “For it is through Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter is the head, that we believe that our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated who belong in any way to the People of God.”

830 The word “catholic” means “universal,” in the sense of “according to the totality” or “in keeping with the whole.” The Church is catholic in a double sense:
First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church.” In her subsists the fullness of Christ’s body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him “the fullness of the means of salvation” which he has willed: correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. The Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.

870 “The sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, . . . subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him. Nevertheless, many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside its visible confines”(LG 8).

 

[LittleRose]

Actually, you could argue that “is” and “subsist” do, in fact, mean the same thing at the core, assuming we are all agreed on what the definition of “is” is. Let’s examine this:

“Is” is a form of the verb “to be”.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, subsist is defined as follows:

1. 
   *]
   1. • To exist; be.
        *]To remain or continue in existence.
        *]To maintain life; live: subsisted on one meal a day.
        *]To be logically conceivable.
        
        (emphasis on bolded text mine)
        
        Now, if that is not enough, to understand the subtleties of meaning here, it is useful to turn to etymology. The word “subsist” is derived from the Latin verb subsistere meaning “to support”. subsistere comes from the prefix sub- meaning “below” and sistere meaning “to stand”. Literally, to “stand below”
        
        So what?
        
        So, the Christ’s church continues to exist on earth in the form of the Catholic Church and those who belong to her. This includes our protestant bretheren who are under her, but do not recognize that fact. This is not a change in what is being said, but merely a change in how it is being said to clarify a point. It is the difference between saying a rose is red and saying that it is crimson.
        
        You would probably have to ask an apologist what that point is that is being clarified by this shift in diction, but if I were to guess, I would imagine that it has something to do with making it clearer that the members of the body of Christ who are already in Heaven are a part of His church too. I, personally, like the tone of perseverence that is implied in using subsist rather than is, because the Church must persevere against the machinations of the Enemy as well as human fallenness in order to maintain herself in the world as the Bride of Christ.
        
        In short, buy your friend a dictionary, and give it to him/her with a hug.