We profess the authentic Catholic Faith, based on the Gospel and Tradition of the Apostles and Fathers of the Church since Jesus Christ.
The Church cannot perish because Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, gave us this solemn promise: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against My Church...". (St. Mt. 16:18) "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away," said Jesus. (St. Mt. 24:35)
The Catechism teaches that the Church has four marks by which it may be recognized: it is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
One more characteristic should be added, which is eminently distinctive of the true Church of Jesus Christ: it is persecuted.
A WORD FROM THE GREAT POPE PIUS IX
One day Pope Pius IX was holding an audience with a group of seminarians, and he asked one of them what were the essential marks of the true Church.
“There are four, Your Holiness,” answered the young cleric at once. “The Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.”
“Is that all?” asked the Pope after a few moments of silence.
It seemed impossible to the cleric that he could have made a mistake in such a simple definition. Nonetheless, he ventured a guess, but without much conviction:
“Roman, perhaps?”
“No, that point is not essential,” answered the Holy Father.
The cleric was at a loss, as were all of his companions. Pius IX looked around to draw their attention all the more, then answered the question himself:
“I will tell you the answer, so that you may repeat it, because Jesus has said it explicitly and it is written in the Gospel: the Church is PERSECUTED.”
"The servant is not greater than his master," said Jesus. If they persecuted Me, they shall persecute you also." (St. John 15:20)
"If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own; but because you are not of the world.... ...that is why the world hates you." (St. John 15:18-19)
"All who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (St. Paul to Timothy, II Tim. 3, 12)
"Blessed are you, when they curse and persecute you, when they say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake: rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven! Thus have they persecuted the prophets which were before you." (St. Mt. 5:11-12)
"Blessed are you, when men shall hate you, cast you out of their society, insult you and proscribe your name as infamous, for the Son of Man's sake." (St. Lk 6:22)
No. For it was on Peter that Jesus Christ founded His Church.
After Peter had clearly declared his faith in Jesus' divinity, Jesus answered him, "Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven; and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven also, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven also." (St. Mt. 16, 16-19)
The integrity of the transmission of apostolic doctrine is guaranteed by uninterrupted apostolic succession, so that a Church without apostolic succession, a Church without a visible head, would no longer be, on earth, the Church of Jesus Christ. It was to Peter that Jesus entrusted the flock: "Feed My lambs, feed My sheep." (St. Jn 21:15 and 17) To him He gave the power to bind and to loose. (St. Mt. 16:19) In this power given to St. Peter is contained the power to authentically explain the Gospel. It is to Peter that Jesus entrusted the role of strengthening his brothers. (St. Lk 22:31-32) Therefore, how can we conceive the true Church of Jesus Christ without Peter...?
As a result of the apostasy installed in the Church of Rome, increasingly evident since the Second Vatican Council, some claim that the See of Peter has been vacant for sixty years...
In Her Apparition at La Salette in 1846, the Blessed Virgin wept over the decadence of the Church and announced her downfall: "Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist..."
If, as a result of the general apostasy, Peter is not in Rome, he is elsewhere. And "where Peter is, there is the Church", says the great Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
The Church may evolve in a disciplinary way, but no one can touch the essence of its message, its doctrine based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ which says:
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away. (St. Mt. 24:35)
If the post-Vatican II Church was currently in the truth, it would mean that she has been in error for 2,000 years. And if she was in truth for 2,000 years, she is in error now because she condemns what she has always taught and advocates what she has always condemned.
It is about a direct intervention of God in the Church and about very sad events that are going to happen on earth, by a great mercy of God to punish the guilty men and bring them back to Him.
The Order of the Mother of God exists and operates under its own hierarchy.
It is placed directly under the authority of the Vicar of Jesus Christ.
For more details, see Hierarchy.