The Creed speaks of the Church as "one, holy, catholic and apostolic".

Vatican II states, "The earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches is the sole Church of Christ which we profess in the Creed" (LG, n. 8).

Clearly, the unity of the Church which we profess in the Creed is proper to the universal Church, and the particular (or local) Churches are such insofar as they share in this unity.

Unity was recognized and preached as a property of the Church from the beginning, i.e., from the time of Pentecost. It is, therefore, a primordial and co-essential reality not merely an ideal.

From the beginning, however, the Church's history has unfolded in the midst of tensions and pressures which compromised unity and elicited reproofs: "Is Christ divided?" (1 Cor 1,13).

But the Fathers and pastors of the Church always appealed to unity, to the light of Pentecost which was contrasted with Babel.

In the profession of faith contained in the Creed it is also said that the Church is "holy". It must be clarified immediately that the Church is such in virtue of her origin and divine institution.

Christ who instituted her is holy and merited for her by the sacrifice of the cross the gift of the Holy Spirit who is the inexhaustible source of the Church's holiness.

The Church is holy be-cause of her purpose, which is the glory of God and the salvation of men; she is holy because of the means used to obtain this purpose, the seven sacraments and the entire liturgy, particularly the Eucharist; the life of prayer.

Ephesians explained: "Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her" (Eph 5,25-26). He has made her holy by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is the ontological basis for our faith in the Church's holiness.

The numerous ways in which this holiness is manifested in the lives of Christians and in the course of history are a continual confirmation of the truth contained in the Creed.

The Church is "catholic" by divine institution, i.e., universal" as used by St. Ignatius of Antioch: "Where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church" (Ad Smyn., n. 8).

"This character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift from the Lord himself under Christ the Head in the unity of his Spirit" (LG, n. 13).

This catholicity has a great depth based on the universal power of the risen Christ (cf. Mt 28,18) and on the universal extent of the Holy Spirit's action (cf. Wis 1,7).

By the same faith we also profess that the Church of Christ is "apostolic", i.e., built upon the Apostles, from whom she received the divine truth revealed by and in Christ. The Church is apostolic because she preserves the apostolic tradition and guards it as her sacred deposit.

The authoritative guardians appointed to preserve this deposit are the successors of the Apostles, assisted by the Holy Spirit. But without a doubt, all believers, in union with their legitimate Pastors, and thus, the entirety of the Church, shares in the Church's apostolicity, i.e., in her bond with the Apostles and, through them, with Christ.

All the members of the Church - pastors and faithful belong to her and are called to play an active role in the one People of God, who receive from him the gift of being bound to the Apostles and to Christ, in the Holy Spirit: "You form a building which rises on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone . . . you are being built into this temple, to become a dwelling place for God in the Spirit" (Eph 2,20-22).