How can we defend against a loose interpretation of St. Ignatius’ words, that the “Catholic Church” is simply “wherever Jesus Christ is”? Any Protestant will claim that Jesus Christ is indeed “with” or “in” his particular denomination, but those Protestant groups are not the “Catholic Church”.
That’s easy. Ignatius writes the answer to that question in the preceding chapter of his Letter to the Smyrneans:
“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again. It is fitting, therefore, that you should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets, and above all, to the Gospel, in which the passion [of Christ] has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved. But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils.” http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm
How can we defend against a loose interpretation of St. Ignatius’ words, that the “Catholic Church” is simply “wherever Jesus Christ is”? Any Protestant will claim that Jesus Christ is indeed “with” or “in” his particular denomination, but those Protestant groups are not the “Catholic Church”.
That’s easy. Ignatius writes the answer to that question in the preceding chapter of his Letter to the Smyrneans:
“They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again. It is fitting, therefore, that you should keep aloof from such persons, and not to speak of them either in private or in public, but to give heed to the prophets, and above all, to the Gospel, in which the passion [of Christ] has been revealed to us, and the resurrection has been fully proved. But avoid all divisions, as the beginning of evils.”
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0109.htm
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