Consistory highlights the universality of the Church: Pope

November 24, 2012: Pope Benedict XVI took the universality of the Church as the theme of his allocution to the participants in the Consistory on Saturday in the Vatican. He focused on the meaning of the word, “Catholic” – “A word,” he said, “which indicates an essential feature of the Church and her mission.”

“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” which the new Cardinals proclaimed in the course of their solemn profession of faith, come from the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed, the synthesis of the Church’s faith that each of us receives at baptism. Only by professing and preserving this rule of truth intact can we be authentic disciples of the Lord, the Pope said.
The characteristic marks of the Church is that “it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of these qualities”.
The Holy Father went on to say ‘what makes the Church catholic is the fact that Christ in his saving mission embraces all humanity.’ This universalist perspective can be seen, among other things, from the way Jesus applied to himself not only the title “Son of David”, but also “Son of Man.”
Pope Benedict explained that the universality of the Church flows from the universality of God’s unique plan of salvation for the world, and that this universal character emerges clearly on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fills the first Christian community with his presence, so that the Gospel may spread to all nations, causing the one People of God to grow in all peoples.
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation”; “make disciples of all nations”. With these words, Jesus sends the Apostles to all creation, so that God’s saving action may reach everywhere. They ask the Lord: “will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answers by broadening their horizons and giving them both a promise and a task: he promises that they will be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and he confers upon them the task of bearing witness to him all over the world, transcending the cultural and religious confines within which they were accustomed to think and live, so as to open themselves to the universal Kingdom of God. Around the Apostles, Christian communities spring up, but these are “the” Church which is always the same, one and universal, whether in Jerusalem, Antioch, or Rome. The Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, she reflects in herself the source of her life and her journey: the unity and communion of the Trinity.
“Situated within the context and the perspective of the Church’s unity and universality,” said Pope Benedict, “is the College of Cardinals: it presents a variety of faces, because it expresses the face of the universal Church.” The Holy Father went on to explain that in Saturday’s Consistory, he wanted especially to highlight the fact that the Church is the Church of all peoples, and so she speaks in the various cultures of the different continents. “She is the Church of Pentecost,” he said. “Amidst various voices, she raises a single harmonious song to the living God.”