There is nothing greater than the
Church, the "Great Church", as Celsus called her in the
third century, in order to distinguish her from the heretical
self-styled "churches." She is likened to a tree in which
the birds build their nests. Indeed, since the sanctification and
glorification of the Church are the ultimate end of all created
things it is necessary that social institutions, kingdoms and
families should derive their strength and their permanence from her.
At Rome, in the pontificate of St Clement, she was called the
firstborn of all creatures, for whom all other things were made.
Therefore liberalism, the theory that the Church and the State are
two irreducible parallels, is an anarchical idea, which resolves
itself in pure atheism. History, life's great teacher, demonstrates
but too clearly the truth of that which was said by the ancient
author of the Epistle ad Diognetum -- namely, that the world
without the spirit of Christianity is no more than a decaying corpse
from which the soul has fled.
- from the
Liber Sacramentorum of Bl Ildefonse Cardinal Schuster in the article on the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, pg 417 of volume 1.
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