Church

*CHURCH/*0

One thing about a church - you're never too bad to come in and never too good to stay out. (SH Church Bulletin, 3/30/97)

Origen knew and said long ago that spiritual persons must not leave the Church; rather they must humbly and patiently share God's descend into the flesh of the world and the Church and must lovingly integrate their possesion of the Spirit into the concrete Church as it now is. (Contemplation, p81)

see KINGDOM (the kingdom is present now with church; church is not the same thing as kingdom; church strains toward the kingdom)

Many whom God has, the Church does not have. And many whom the Church has, God does not have. (words of St. Augustine as adapted by Karl Rahner) The parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates this.

The primary mission of the Church is not precisely to bring people into the Church but to bring them into the Kingdom. (Catholic Update, Sept 1980)

The Church applies to the whole Body of Christ, to all Christians, and not just to Catholics alone. And God also works outside the Church and even in other religions. (Decree on Ecumenism)

For he who is not against us, is for us. (Luke 9:50)

St. Augustine said that just as Eve was formed from Adam's side, so the Church was "born from the pierced heart of Christ hanging on the cross. (Quest, p108)

There is salvation outside of the Church. Conscience is the instrument of absolute morality, of Natural Law, and if we follow it, we cannot go wrong. The Catholic Church constitutes the direct and obvious and surest line to salvation, but that one can get there perfectly well through the route of other Christian churches [and other ways.] (Quest, p110)