We entertain no doubt that the organization which has weathered the
storms and stress of so many centuries will continue to do so in the
future. The Catholic Church has the promises of her Divine Founder
that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. How could she
doubt of her future? It does not seem likely that any vicissitudes can
arise which have not their counterpart or analogy in the past, so old
is she on this earth, and so many are the forms of government and the
kinds of human culture with which she has lived. We are confident that
she will be equal to all the emergencies of the future, for while the
Church is always identical with and present to herself in a conscious
way, her children and her agents may grow in experience and wisdom,
as they undoubtedly do, and may bring both of these factors to bear
upon the future problems of our common humanity. Of one thing we may
feel certain: she will never cease to desire and to work for that
efficacious unity of all Christendom, which is the permanent wish of
its Holy Founder, and for which her bishops and priests have never
ceased to pray in those opening words of the Roman Canon of the Mass
that we repeat daily: “Therefore, O Most Clement Father, we suppliantly
pray to Thee through Jesus Christ Our Lord... especially for Thy Holy
Catholic Church, which mayst Thou vouchsafe to pacify, keep, unite, and
govern throughout the world.”