1. The Church Structures and Membership; The Catholic Membership Group III 9/21/2010 page1 of 20

2. Structures andMembership Christian Faithful Hierarchical Constitution of the Church Episcopal College and its Head, the Pope Laity The Consecrated Life 9/21/2010 2

3. 9/21/2010 page3 of 20

4. Structures andMembership Christian Faithful People who are incorporated in Christ through baptism, have been constituted as the people of God. Church (People of God) has clear distinguishing characteristic: Its cause is God Its Head is Christ Its members are those who believe in Christ Its condition is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons/daughters of God Its law is Christ’s new commandment of love Its mission is salvation and its destiny is final kingdom of God 9/21/2010 4

5. Structures andMembership Hierarchical Constitution of the Church Pope Cardinalate Episcopate Priest Deacons laity 'All the faithful, from the Pope to the child who has just been baptized share in one and the same grace.'[7] Nonetheless, when it is affirmed that the Church is a hierarchical society we are in substance saying that in spite of the 'radical or fundamental equality' which is to be found among the People of God, the Church has structures, features and differentiations by virtue of which she is a society in which there is a 'functional inequality.'[8] That is to say: not all the faithful have the same function or mission. For this reason Pope St. Pius X could say that 'the Church is essentially an unequal society, that is, a society composed of two types of people: shepherds and sheep. Christ is Himself of the source of ministry in the Church He instituted the Church He his authority and mission, orientation and goal a system of persons or things arranged in a graded order the way in which a thing is composed or made up; 9/21/2010 5

8. `Key of His Church

9. Shepherd of the whole flock

10. POPE- vicar of Christ9/21/2010 7

12. -exercise by rulling well their own churches as portions of the universal church

13. When Jesus Christ instituted the Twelve, “he constituted [them] in he form of college or permanent assembly , at the head which Peter. Chosen from among them”.

14. The Pope , Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor ,is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of bishops and the whole company of the faithful. 9/21/2010 8

15. Structures andMembership The Teaching Office Bishops, with priest as co workers to preach the Gospel of God to all men (in keeping the Lord’s command) Authentic teachers of the apostolic faithful By a “supernatural sense of faith,” the people of God under the guidance of the Church's living refers to the teaching authority of the Church.[1] This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the Church in union with the Pope (excluding Eastern Orthodox Bishops and the Society of St. Pius X), led by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), who has authority over the bishops, individually and as a body, as well as over each and every Catholic directly. According to Catholic doctrine, the Magisterium is able to teach or interpret the truths of the Faith, and it does so either non-infallibly or infallibly (see chart below). magesterium 9/21/2010 9

16. Structures andMembership The Teaching Office Pastoral duty-the people of God abides in the truths liberates 9/21/2010 10

17. Structures andMembership The Sanctifying office The Bishop is “the steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood,” especially in the Eucharist which he offers personally or whose offering he assures through the priest, his co-workers. Bishops and priest sanctify the church by theirprayer and work, by their ministry of the work of the sacraments 9/21/2010 11

18. Structures andMembership The Governing Office The bishops, as vicars and legates of Christ, govern the particular Churches assigned to them by their counsels, exhortations and example. The Good Shepherd ought to be the model and “form” of the bishop’s pastoral office. 9/21/2010 12

19. Structures andMembership The Infallibility Trough the Spirit, Christ bestowed on his Church, in particular on the college of Bishops teaching in communion with Peter’s successors, the gift infallibility. 9/21/2010 13

20. Structures andMembership Laity The term “laity” is here understood to mean all the faithful except those in Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state approved by the church. the body of the faithful, outside of the ranks of the clergy 9/21/2010 14

22. Exercise the apostolate in fact by their activity directed to evangelization and sanctifying 9/21/2010 15

23. Structures andMembership Laity Lay Apostolate The ministries of the lay faithful are founded in the Sacrament of Baptism and Confirmation..in the Sacrament of Matrimony. 9/21/2010 16

24. Structures andMembership The Consecrated Life Those faithful who bind themselves to Christ in a state of life consecrated to God referred to as the "Religious Life", denotes a stable form of Christian living by those faithful who feel called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way recognized by the Church 9/21/2010 17

25. The Catholic Unity God has willed to make men holy and save them, not merely as an individuals without any bonds, but by making them into a single people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness All men are called to His Catholic unity which prefigures and promotes universal peace. And in different ways to it belong, or are related: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all man kind, called BY God’s grace to salvation . We are to consider the Nature of CATHOLIC UNITY, as comprehended constitutionally in the idea of the Christian Church. Catholic –a member of a Catholic church, esp. of the Roman Catholic Church. universal Christian -a person who believes in Jesus Christ; adherent of Christianity. 9/21/2010 18

26. Eph. IV. 4-6.–There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 9/21/2010 19