The Mission and Destiny of the Catholic Church: An Outline

Now with reference to exterior circumstances, be content for the time being with the knowledge that only the teaching founded upon the supreme principle of unity and the direct transmission of truth in an uninterrupted succession of its ministers can be the one most in accord with the true spirit of religion; for it is epitomized in the idea of fusing all moral forces upon the earth into a simple thought, into a simple sentiment, and into the gradual establishment of a social system or church, which must make truth reign among men. --Peter Chaadaev, First Philosophical Letter.*

I. Originally, and ideally, the universe was created in order to have an internal, consistent, and integral unity. This was lost.

II. The Catholic Church is the vehicle for creating unity in the cosmos.

III. The Logos of creation became a part of creation itself to help in the process of restoration.

IV. Mankind was chosen by the Logos to be the means by which the original unity of the cosmos is restored.

V. Mankind, though chosen to be the mediator of the universe, was itself split off into several parts; it had lost its own integral unity.

VI. Christ came to restore not only the cosmos, but also mankind, from disintegration. Christ became the cornerstone of the Catholic Church. He provides the bond by which mankind will be restored, and its integral unity realized.

VII. The process of history after the Incarnation is a process of this reintegration. The first mission given to the Church is the mission of spreading itself throughout the world, not in order to conquer it, but rather to bring it together into one whole. It should seek to reunite mankind and end any hostile divisions found within.

VIII. The Catholic Church has understood within itself two missions; it provides the means of salvation for all of creation, but it also serves as the means of establishing an integral unity in humanity. As the Church is able to heal individual persons, it provides salvation to individuals. However, it can not be said that this is the last task of the Church, but rather the beginning. A man can not be made whole unless he is also reincorporated properly within his place found within the whole of mankind. Mankind as a whole needs salvation and the salvation of the person can only be fulfilled, can only be accomplished, when the whole of mankind itself has been restored.

IX. The Catholic Church, having at its center the Logos, is to be considered the pillar and foundation of truth. This does not mean that the truth it possesses is a truth which will not grow and develop. No, it is meant to develop as mankind reunites itself. It develops itself two-fold: by consistent development on principles it already knows and holds as true, and by incorporating new ideas as it finds them in the world at large.

X. The process of reunification found within mankind, as accomplished through the Catholic Church, is not meant to be destructive to other cultures, but rather a means of harmonizing them. The bond which is to unite the world is love-- hate will only divide and destroy which is different.

XI. As the Church finds itself interacting with new cultures, new philosophies, new challenges, she should seek to incorporate whatever is good and true into herself. This way, she can seek to show that the cultures of the world have nothing to fear: the truth that they possess is not to be discarded, but recognized. It finds its fulfillment within the common destiny of mankind. In fact, it can find itself only when it understands its relationship within the integral unity of mankind, which is found with the Church.

XII. As the Church progresses throughout the world, slowly restoring the integral unity of mankind through the power given to it by the Logos, the Church will experience setbacks. It will often seem that the mission of the Church will be lost. Indeed, in that process, the Church will often find itself splintering into several groups, its being  will be shaken, and often it will seem only a hollow entity will remain. Nonetheless, this is necessary: as the Church progresses and adds to itself the wisdom found throughout the world, it will do so in such a way that at times, it might attempt to incorporate into itself something which is false. As such, when falsehood is discovered-- sometimes a process which will take hundreds of years-- whatever cancer which has formed from such an incorporation will need to be removed. This is not to say that those who fall out of the Church in this process are abandoned and lost from the common destiny of mankind. They still have a role to play, and will be remembered by the love that the Catholic Church holds for all of creation, and in time, when a cure for the cancer can be had, they might find themselves grafted back into her fold.

XIII. Thus, it must not be said that outside of the Catholic Church, there is no truth, as a means of indicating that outside the current understanding of the Catholic Church, outside of its current visible limits, there lies a barren wasteland devoid of truth. Rather, it must be said that there lies outside of the visible confines of the Catholic Church rich lands which still need to be incorporated into the confines of the Church itself.

XIV. It is the sad fact that as the Church continues its double-progression of self-observation and harmonization, that there will be those within who will be disturbed with the process. They have a limited ability to see what is going on, and have a limited understanding of the full destiny of the Church. Sometimes, they will rightly complain about some error which has found itself added to the Church, but others will think something which is good, by the very fact that it is different, is something that should be excluded from the Church. The Church has consistently witnessed both types of people within its history. If it became a serious problem, it had to rule on one side of the issue or another; sometimes, if the problem was not serious, it allowed both sides to stay within its confines, realizing the process of harmonization will eventually settle out the conflicts.

XV. The current destiny of the Church is thus caught within the current destiny of mankind. The Church is working for the reunification of mankind and the end to the strife which is encountered in the world. The process is long and hard, but the end result, the end it seeks, is the harmonization of mankind as one integral unity, and all elements of truth found within the confines of man's civilizations will find their place within the integral unity of the Church. Not only will they find their place within the Church, they will find what they know, what motivates them, is complemented by this mission of integration, this mission of harmony. Mankind can only know itself properly, as soon as it sees itself in its full glory and dignity.

XVI. Once the Church has accomplished the task of uniting mankind, this will not indicate that its mission is over, but rather, it will only have begun. From man, we must seek the unification of all of nature-- all of creation. That process has itself already begun, but until the full integration of humanity with itself, it can only be a secondary and not primary concern.

*From, The Major Works of Peter Chaadaev. Trans. Raymond T. McNally, Notre Dame: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1969.

Back to the Christian Platonism Page
Back to the Catholic Apologetics Page