Satis cognitum

Satis COGNITUM is an encyclical of Pope Leo XIII. and dated 29 June 1896. In this encyclical he wrote "On the Unity and Oneness of the Church."

Doctrine of the Church

There are two important encyclicals on ecclesiology: " Satis COGNITUM " and " Mystici corporis " from 1943 It was not until the Second Vatican Council took up the issue "church" in hitherto unknown to explicitness. . The Dogmatic Constitution "Lumen Gentium " is the most important result of these discussions. Most other developed in the Vatican II documents can be readily explained the constitution "Lumen Gentium " assign, can be during this encyclical understood as fundamental statements.

Unity and Oneness of the Church

The Pope writes programmatically in terms of the theology of the unity and oneness of the church and maintains in this respect:

The terms "una " and " unica ", which he used, he suggests that with "una ", the " uniformity " and " unica " the "only ( exclusive ) church " was to be understood. According to his understanding, the church had a uniform size, which ensured a visible unity and structured form by the church hierarchy. This statement he occupied with the sentence:

For the uniqueness thesis, he writes:

The New now lay in the fact that the terms " una " and " unica " was given a clarified meaning and that from the respective conclusions were derived. The Church of Christ is thus a single and continuous and " all who go separately, err on the will and of the rule of Christ the Lord, from, leave the way of salvation and go to meet the sinking ."

A visible church

However, the Church should not merely be something The only and Indivisible, but they needed to be made tangible and visible. Since the church is a body, it would also perceived by the eyes. The one soft from the truth, as the representative church, as if she could be neither detected nor seen; as if, as you claim, just a little "Air Blank " would be, so many Christian communities, though separated from each other in the faith, but united by an invisible bond with one another would. At this visible body of the Church - in the behavior of our people that we are the Church here on earth - would misery, despair and betrayal emerge. But the Church is not only that they have exhausted themselves in such wretchedness; it also lacked not generosity, heroism and conspicuous holiness, even to people who would give their lives in service of their fellow believers and all people happy.

Christ as the Founder of the Church

"What is the purpose of the Lord Christ with the foundation of the Church, what he wanted this: He wanted the same office and the same job, which he himself had received from the Father, entrusted to the Church to continue it. "

While Christ had acquired by his own effectiveness salvation fruits, there is the Church's task in turning to the people. These successes by exercising three times the traditional Christ of office, the Magisterium, and the pastoral ministry of the priesthood. The Church is thus the continued living on earth and continued acting Christ. As an ark of salvation, which in the over should lead us beyond invisible from this world, they must also be able to provide the necessary means of grace. Therefore, gave her Jesus Christ, the following elements: it is at once visible and invisible, human and divine, in time and on time. Your divine-human donor used them as one and the same time some church.

Leo XIII. describes the church as a " societas ," but he also writes the symbols and the spiritual side of the church an important role to play. The Church as a society is not entirely separate from the Church as a community.

Church Constitution

Pope Leo XIII. has basic writings on the constitution of the church and church law left: Immortal Dei, Diuturnum illud, and the first drafts of a Christian state constitution. This includes this encyclical and the constitution of the Church, these letters have a special meaning, because they are the schema on the Church, the Pope and the bishops, which was developed by the First Vatican Council. About the family unit, the encyclical " Casti connubii " summarizes the entire teaching of the Church together.