MARKS OF THE CHURCH

A Catholic pastor for 33 years, and native of Detroit, Father Lawrence Ventline is a board certified professional counselor, freelance writer and physical fitness enthusiast. A graduate of St. Mary's College, Orchard Lake, the longtime religon writer for The Detroit News has served as pastor and professor of parishes and universities in Michigan and Wisconsin, including St. Joseph Parish, Lake Orion, Baker College, Marygrove College, Madonna University, and Sacred Heart School of Theology in Milwaukee. His latest book is A Dump, A Garden, and One's Worth. He earned a doctorate in ministry from St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, MD. (www.interfaithwork.com)

BLOG: Mission and aim of my blog is to grip the reader with memory of roots and relationships with others, self and God. Marks of the Catholic Church are one, holy, Catholic and apostolic. Holy and Catholic were explored in earlier blogs. One and apostolic are treated today. The Church is one, the Cathechism of the Catholic Church notes. Another reference is the website of the local Archdiocese of Detroit, www.aod.org, or www.interfaithwork.com, my website for Care of the Soul counseling and pastoral care.
The Church acknowledges one Lord, confessess one faith, is born of one Baptism, forms only one Body, is given life by the one Spirit, for the sake of one hope (cf. EPh 4:3-5), at whose fulfillment all division will be overcome (CCC, #866).
Finally, the Church is apostolic and built on a lasting foundation: "the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev 21:14). The Church is indestructable (cf. Mt 16:28), and upheld infallibly in the truth: Christ governs her through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishop.
Changing was another mark of the Church my boyhood pastor incuded, though changing is not an official mark or note of the Church. In capsule, one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic define Catholics to this day. Across the globe one finds the universal Catholic community, its sacred sense amid its humanity, it rootedness and relationship with Jesus and the apostles, and, its oneness.
All the marks have to do with Catholic roots and relationships, especially with the most vulnerable persons in and outside the womb, at life's start and end. If respect lacks for life's start and end, how will one treat life midway? After all, what else are there in human and divine connections beyond roots and relationships that begin in the womb?