Signs of the True Church

It would be nice if everyone would read the "Commonitories" of St. Vincent. In this work, he establishes the rules by which one can tell whether the Catholic Church is the true one founded by Christ. He says that the three sources we need to build upon and draw from are: universality, antiquity and authority (from Councils and decrees).

 a) The argument from universality: For example, if an innovator comes around trying to start a new religion and claiming it to be the real one, then St. Vincent advises us to compare it to the Catholic Church. We will notice that we are before the word of an individual or group in conflict with the common and universally held one of members spread all over the world. The certainty rests and is of more surety with the universal group.

b) The argument from antiquity: Let us say, for argument's sake that at some point, the universal Church is deceived (as happened in the Arian crisis) and only a few members hang on to the truth. What do we appeal to now? St. Vincent tells us to look to antiquity and the Church fathers. If the majority of the Church fathers unanimously and consistently taught

a doctrine from the very beginning, then it is the truth to be held and not what the innovators invented. It is their word against that of some novelty. The certainty is of greater surety with them.

c) The argument from authority: What if is what is taught is something new and unknown to the early Church? In this case, St. Vincent advises us to look to the decisions of the Councils and Church decrees. What is defined in them and put on paper is a secure rock and refuge to argue and build our reasoning and thinking upon. We cannot go wrong and will be much more in union with the truth and the mind of the Church and her members than some dangerous and rash adventurer.

     St. Vincent, in his work, shows how a theological error has disastrous effects on families, cities, provinces, nations and even the world itself. He blamed the Arian heresy for the fall of the Roman Empire. Once the emperor himself accepted it and no longer believed that Jesus was the Son of God, chaos and immorality set in society. Corruption became rampant, the moral order was disrupted, and the Church persecuted. No one respected anyone any longer, while violence, rape, and hedonism turned into widespread practice.  

          This all shows how great and important is our mission in always combating the errors present in society. Those who simply sit back and allow them to spread do not know the grave dangers that they put all of us in. We are all obliged to fight and destroy error, so that the truth is re-established and be able to really set us free.

Father Anthony Mellace