7. THE QUESTION WAS
.According
to St. Cyprian of Carthage in 251 A.D., what one must do in order to be
confident that one is in the Church?
A. be in union with the Chair of Peter (i.e.
pope)
B. be in
union with ones Bible study leader
THE ANSWER IS
.A
.be in union with the Chair of Peter.
St. Cyprian wrote: . If someone does not hold fast to this
unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should]
desert the chair of
Peter upon
whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the
Church?" (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D.
251]).
The Chair of Peter was the office of pope, or the office held by the
direct successor of St. Peter. Today, the direct successor of Peter is Pope
John Paul II.
From the very beginning of Christiannity, union with the Catholic Church
(the Church established by the apostles) was dependent upon union with the
chair of Peter, according to St. Cyprian.
St. Cyprians FULL QUOTE: "The Lord says
to Peter: I say to you,
he says, that you are Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.
And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever things
you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven
[Matt. 16:1819]). ... On him [Peter] he builds
the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and
although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he
established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that
unity. Indeed, the others were also what Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a
primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one
Church and one chair. So too, all [the apostles] are shepherds, and the flock
is shown to be one, fed by all the apostles in single-minded accord. If someone
does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds
the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was
built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" (The Unity
of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).
"Cyprian to [Pope] Cornelius, his brother. Greeting. . . . We decided to
send and are sending a letter to you from all throughout the province [where I
am] so that all our colleagues might give their decided approval and support to
you and to your communion, that is, to both the unity and the charity of the
Catholic Church" (Letters 48:1, 3 [A.D. 253]).
"Cyprian to Antonian, his brother. Greeting ... You wrote ... that I should
forward a copy of the same letter to our colleague [Pope] Cornelius, so that,
laying aside all anxiety, he might at once know that you held communion with
him, that is, with the Catholic Church" (ibid., 55[52]:1).
"Cornelius was made bishop by the decision of God and of his Christ, by
the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the applause of the people then
present, by the college of venerable priests and good men ... when the place of
Fabian, which is the place of Peter, the dignity of the sacerdotal chair, was
vacant. Since it has been occupied both at the will of God and with the
ratified consent of all of us, whoever now wishes to become bishop must do so
outside [the Church]. For he cannot have ecclesiastical rank who does not hold
to the unity of the Church" (ibid., 55[52]:8).
"With a false bishop appointed for themselves by heretics, they dare even
to set sail and carry letters from schismatics and blasphemers to the chair of
Peter and to the principal church [at Rome], in which sacerdotal unity has its
source" (ibid., 59:14).
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