Apostolicity of the Church is the enduring identity of the Catholic Church as founded on the apostles, faithful to their teaching, and governed through their successors in mission.[1]
Founded on the apostles
The Church is apostolic because Christ founded her on the Twelve, with Peter as their head, and entrusted to them his revealed teaching, sacraments, and pastoral mission. Their witness to the risen Lord is unrepeatable: the apostolic age belongs to the foundation of the Church, and no later teacher may replace the public revelation handed on from Christ through his apostles.
Apostolicity is therefore more than admiration for the earliest Christians. The Church remains in the apostles' doctrine, communion, breaking of bread, and prayers; receives the canon of Scripture within apostolic Tradition; and judges later developments by their continuity with the deposit of faith. Authentic development unfolds what was handed on rather than inventing a different gospel.[2]
Succession and mission
The apostles appointed ministers and provided for successors. Bishops succeed to the apostolic pastoral office through sacramental ordination and hierarchical communion, while the bishop of Rome succeeds Peter in his office of unity. A merely historical chain of ordinations is not the whole doctrine: apostolic succession serves fidelity in faith, sacramental life, and communion with the whole episcopal college and its head.
The entire Church also shares an apostolic mission. Every baptized person is sent to confess Christ according to vocation and state, while ordained ministers teach, sanctify, and govern with the authority proper to their office. New movements, private revelations, and pastoral programs are fruitful only within this received apostolic faith and order.
References
- 1.Lumen gentium — Vatican II's dogmatic constitution on the mystery, constitution, and mission of the Church
- 2.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 811–870 — The four marks of the Church, including catholicity and apostolicity