"The statement (which the only Church of Christ) ‘subsists within the Catholic Church’ was interpreted in different ways during forty years. A few interpretations were relativistic: ‘The Church of Christ would subsist in all the Christian Churches indifferently’. But the current document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith points out the exact sense of the word": in a note made known by the press today, those were the words spoken by the spokesman of the Bishops’ Conference of Belgium, Erik de Beukelaer, in relation to the document "Answers to questions concerning a few aspects about the doctrine of the Church", presented at the Vatican this morning. De Beukelaer pointed out that, according to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, "the fullness of the Church of Christ is found within the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him". He added that "such statement does not want to be ‘exclusive’ of the other Christian realities, but ‘inclusive’ of them". He actually said that "there, where there are the elements of real Christian life, outside the Catholic Church, it is fair to say that the only Church of Christ is present and operating anyway". At the end of the note, the importance of today’s document for ecumenical dialogue was underlined.
