By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 9
This is a historical example that is worth investigating in more detail to illustrate God’s hand in protecting the Catholic Church: The proud Corsican who became the emperor of France addressed the Pope in these insolent terms: “What does the Pope mean, by the threat of excommunicating me? Does he think the world has gone back a thousand years? Does he suppose the weapons will fall from the hands of my soldiers?”
The Protestant historian, Sir Archibald Alison, in his History of Europe, chapter 60, recounts that “within two years of these remarkable words being written, the Pope did excommunicate him (Napoleon), in return for the confiscation of his whole dominions, and in less than four years more, the weapons did fall from the hands of his soldiers; and the armies, which he had collected, were dispersed and ruined by the blasts of winter.
“The weapons of the soldiers, says Segur, in describing the Russian retreat, appeared of an insupportable weight to their stiffened arms. During their frequent falls they fell from their hands, and, destitute of the power to raise them, they left them in the snow. They did not throw them away: famine and cold tore them from their grasp.
“There is something in these marvelous coincidences beyond operations of chance and which even Protestant historians feel themselves bound to mark for the observation of future ages. The world has not gone back a thousand years, but that Being existed with whom a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years.”
And that Being was with Pope Gregory VII in 1077 in Canossa and Pope Pius VII in 1812 and with other, later Popes. Yes, the Catholic Church, in spite of her many members who acted against her principles, is a miracle of divine Providence. She is truly “the standard set up unto the nations” (Isaiah 11:12) who calls to herself those who do not believe and gives to her children the full assurance that their faith contains the fullness of truth, goodness, and beauty that leads to eternal life.
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Vatican Council I deserves a special mention here, as its chapter on faith asserts that “to enable us to fulfill the duty of embracing the true faith and persevering steadfastly in it, God established the Church through His Only-begotten Son, and endowed her with manifest marks of her establishment, so that she can be recognized by all as the guardian and teacher of the revealed word.
“For to the Catholic Church alone belongs all those marks, so many and so marvelous, which have been divinely established for the evident credibility of the Christian faith. Indeed, through her wonderful expansion, her outstanding holiness and inexhaustible fruitfulness in all good works, the Church is herself a great and perpetual motive of credibility, and an unassailable witness to her divine mission.”
We can summarize the whole concept of the God-given continuous assistance to the Catholic Church in these terms: We, who are Catholics, affirm without any fear of contradiction, that the Catholic Church is the One and Only Church of God, divinely established by His Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, upon the rock of Peter. We believe, or rather, we know, because God has testified that this belief is true.
He has conveyed His testimony to us in many ways, but chiefly by setting before our eyes the unique characteristics of the Church herself, that is, her miraculous unity with worldwide Catholicity, bringing together peoples of different cultures, races, and languages, but all united in the same faith, sacraments, and authority; her sanctity, manifested by so many canonized saints and life-giving sacraments, her gift of miracles, testified before the whole world, her unconquerable endurance, that surpassed all kingdoms and empires in history; and the number and fortitude of her so many martyrs.
As Catholics we bless God for His great bounty and fidelity to His promises, in spite of our transgressions, and for giving us the light to see so clearly the imprint of His hands. He gives us the graces to incline our hearts to not only believe in His Church but also in submitting to her teachings, authority, and guidance. He guides us to love her as our Spiritual Mother, the Spouse of Christ, born of His pierced side on the cross.
In short, it is evident that the unique and marvelous characteristics given by God to the Catholic Church can never be attributed to mere natural causes, as even Protestant historians affirm. There is a great, intelligent, powerful Being that governs the universe who is the master of the human heart and mind, the Lord of destiny and of history. This being we call God. And His Church, founded by Jesus Christ, is the Church of God, the pillar and mainstay of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15) where the one Lord, one faith, and one Baptism (Eph. 4:5) are found.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 28:19-20).
Jesus’ command to preach the Gospel to every nation would have been humanly impossible to put into practice without the subsequent promise to be with His Church until the end of time. And it was no empty promise. The heresies that erupted in the Church and claimed to be the true “church” missed the important point that Jesus founded one Church, and only one, and remains in her, protecting her to the end of time.
One last quotation from the Vatican Council I will illustrate this divine truth:
“Now this evidence is efficaciously supported by power from on high. For our most kind Lord not only rouses and helps the erring ones by His grace, that they may be able to ‘come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Tim. 2:4), but by His grace confirms those whom ‘He has brought from darkness into His marvelous light’ (1 Peter 2:9), that they may persevere in the same light, and He abandons no one, unless He is abandoned.
“Therefore, the situation of those who have adhered to Catholic truth by the heavenly gift of Faith, is by no means on a par with those who, led by human opinions, follow a false religion” (DS 3012-4).
Next article: The Great Catholic Library — The Bible.
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
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