Apostolic Fathers

This elective course will study the documents of the earliest Fathers of the Church who lived just after the New Testament. We will read the writings of St. Clement of Rome; St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp, the letter of Diognetus, and the Didache. We will study the lives and teachings of these early Christians and show the continuity between the New Testament and the developing Church of the Second Century. Be inspired by the lives of these early saints and martyrs. See firsthand the marks of the Church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.

Pope St. Clement

Location	Day	Time	Instructor	Dates
CatholicCenterCafeteria	Wednesday	6:30pm-9:00pm	Deacon Sean McCaffery	October 12, 19, 26, November 2

A. St. Ignatius is also the first Church Father to use the word “catholic.” Scholars will dispute whether it is appropriate to capitalize the word as “Catholic.” Generally the basic meaning of ‘catholic’ is taken as the universal Church as opposed to the local church. William Schoedel has pointed out that studies of the original Greek word for ‘catholic’ make it unlikely that it refers to geographic extension, or universal as opposed to local. In the context of St. Ignatius the meaning of ‘catholic’ is more likely a reference to an organic unity under the bishop which parallels the universal church is an organic unity under Christ. Schoedel observes, “Thus we may say that the ‘catholic’ church here is not the universal church opposed to heresy, but the whole church resistant by its very nature to division.” Later the unity of the Church reflected in the whole allowed the Church to call herself ‘Catholic’ in the sense of the fullness of unity in distinction to heresy and in her mission for geographic extension to the whole world (Matthew 28:18-20). The Catechism notes that “the word ‘catholic’ means ‘universal,’ in the sense of ‘according to the totality’ or ‘in keeping with the whole.’ There is a double sense in which the Church is ‘catholic’. The Church is ‘catholic’ because Christ is present in her (giving her correct and complete confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession) and secondly because “she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to the whole of the human race” (CCC 830-831).