Because the Church, the body of Christ, is not united, it has not been successful in upholding the permanence of marriage for millions of married couples in the Western world. Moreover, the Church, in her disunity and consequent weakness, has seemed powerless to stop contraception, abortion, and euthanasia in our culture of death. The price we have paid for our disunity in the Church has been very high.

How has the Lord provided for His Church to be and stay united? In one Spirit, we have been baptized into the one body of Christ, the Church (1 Cor 12:13). The Holy Spirit makes the Church one (see Eph 4:3). He does this primarily by gracing us to submit ourselves to the authority of the Church as exercised by the bishops, the successors of the apostles, and by the Pope, the leader of the bishops and the successor of St. Peter. Without the authority of bishops, our human weakness inevitably results in severe divisions in the Church. Without the authority of the Pope, we have massive, fragmented, fragmenting, debilitating divisions in the Church. The experiment of Protestantism has clearly proven the need not only for bishops but also for the Pope, if the Church is to be united in the Spirit. Therefore, let us celebrate today's feast of the authority of Peter and his successors serving the unity of the Church.

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, July 23, 1998

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, July 27, 1998