What is the Invisible Church?

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Nelka

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I know St. Augustine spoke of this but I need it clearing up because a Protestant friend of mine mentions the invisible church but seems to mean something different to what St. Augustine was stating.

Thanks.
 
It is comprised of all men and women of good will who, while they do not belong to the ‘visible’ Church as corporate, baptised members, are part of the “soul” of the Church on account of their purity of will and faithful adherence to the dictates of conscience, even though they be invincibly ignorant of the Truth Faith.
"…29 Q: But if a man through no fault of his own is outside the Church, can he be saved?
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A: If he is outside the Church through no fault of his, that is, if he is in good faith, and if he has received Baptism, or at least has the implicit desire of Baptism; and if, moreover, he sincerely seeks the truth and does God’s will as best he can, such a man is indeed separated from the body of the Church, but is united to the soul of the Church and consequently is on the way of salvation…"
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***- Pope Saint Pius X, Catechism (1910) ***
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The Catechism of Pope St. Pius X explains the body and soul of the Church as follows:
“Question: In what does the Soul of the Church consist? Answer: The Soul of the Church consists in her internal and spiritual endowments, that is, faith, hope, charity, the gifts of grace and of the Holy Ghost, together with all the heavenly treasures which are hers through the merits of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and of the Saints”.
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“Question: In what does the Body of the Church consist? Answer: The Body of the Church consists in her external and visible aspect, that is, in the association of her members, in her worship, in her teaching-power and in her external rule and government”.
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Pope St. John Paul II expressed this doctrine as follows:
“…The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church. The social and cultural conditions in which they live do not permit this, and frequently they have been brought up in other religious traditions. For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation…”
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***- Pope St. John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio (1990) ***
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Vouthon said:
It is comprised of all men and women of good will who, while they do not belong to the ‘visible’ Church as corporate, baptised members, are part of the “soul” of the Church on account of their purity of will and faithful adherence to the dictates of conscience, even though they be invincibly ignorant of the Truth Faith.

The Catechism of Pope St. Pius X explains the body and soul of the Church as follows:

Pope St. John Paul II expressed this doctrine as follows:
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A really awesome answer!!👍

I will just add that Protestants use invisible church to mean something different. They typically use it to justify or explain away their denominational differences.

In general the invisible church to them is all those who are saved by believing Jesus died for their sins.

While this belief has a semblance of truth it is lacking the true meaning of invisible church and of course dismisses the importance of a living visible authoritative church.
 
Nelka said:
I know St. Augustine spoke of this but I need it clearing up because a Protestant friend of mine mentions the invisible church but seems to mean something different to what St. Augustine was stating.

Thanks.
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I have personally not read anything by St. Augustine that mentions an invisible Church, or if I have I cannot remember it. The only times I can remember seeing the phrase “invisible church” in a Catholic context are in apologetics contexts where the Protestant idea is being rejected.

In my understanding, the short version of this is that it comes down to the church at the universal level: Catholics believe the pope and bishops are the visible leaders of the universal church, whereas Protestants often believe that Jesus, Whom we cannot see, is the only leader of the universal church, and their church leadership is visible only at the local level.

To elaborate, it is my understanding that the Protestant idea of the invisible Church refers to a lack of leadership on earth over the universal Church. Protestant churches often have local churches, and their pastors are often elected by each congregation. (I think that is called the Congregationalist model, as opposed to the Catholic model where pastors are assigned by bishops, who are in turn assigned to each area by the pope.) They recognize that each local church is part of a broader “universal church,” but only a few mainline Protestant churches actually have a worldwide governing body over all their local churches. And even those ones often think that other Protestant churches are also full members of the universal church, and thus they don’t think their governing body is set over the universal church.

Because they do not have a governing body set over the universal church, they tend to think Jesus alone is set above all the churches. And it is my understanding that that is why they call the Church invisible: its universal leader is invisible to our eyes.

In the Catholic Church, we have local churches, but there is also a governing body, the bishops, especially the pope and various delegates to whom he gives special authority, who are set over all the Church. At this level, our Church’s leaders have universal authority over all local churches. Thus, the universal leader(s) in our church is (are) visible. We can go to them with our problems and get audible answers, which is one reason why we don’t see the “church splits” that Protestant churches so often go through in their local congregations.

Scripture backs up the idea that the universal Church should have visible leaders here on earth. Here are some passages that help demonstrate that: Acts 15:2, Acts 16:4, Acts 8:14, Acts 11:22, Acts 15:4, Acts 15:25-26, Galatians 1:17-19, Gal. 2:1-2, Galatians 2:6-10

Those passages show that the early Church had visible universal leadership who had authority over all the local churches, and this authority was vested in the Apostles and elders at Jerusalem, especially Peter.

These verses show that the local churches were expected to contribute financially to support the church in Jerusalem, which is also evidence that it was a kind of visible headquarters: 2 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians 16:3, Romans 15:25-26, Romans 15:31

And these verses show that the Apostle John continued to emphasize the importance of visible universal leadership over the local churches toward the end of the New Testament era: 1 John 4:6, 3 John 1:9-12.

If your friend thinks the universal church should be invisible in terms of leadership, I recommend asking him about all those passages. If it seems appropriate, you might tell him that it appears to you that the Church in the New Testament had both visible local churches and a visible universal leadership, like the Catholic Church today, whereas Protestant churches don’t do that. And you might ask him if he can see why you think it’s important to follow the Biblical model.

I hope that helps. Please let me know. God bless!
 
Exiled Child, the Eckartshausen book was Aleister Crowley’s inspiration.
 
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