4 Marks of the Church- Holy (sanctity)

The second defining charactersitic of the Catholic Church is its holiness. The individual members of the church themselves are not holy (even the leaders, as the many scandals throughout history have proven), but the Church as a collective body is, because it's considered the bride of Christ and the Mystical Body of Christ. Individual members of the Church are quite capable of sinning, but the Church as a whole cannot sin as it was founded by Christ himself. The Church's sanctity is expressed in its daily prayer.

Worldwide, priests, deacons, sisters, brothers, seminarians, and laypeople pray the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office or the Breviary. Mostly consisting of Psalms and other readings of the Bible, this ancient collection and method of praying dates back to the early church.

The Church's holiness is also expressed in its daily celebration of Mass. Somewhere on Earth at any and every hour, a Mass is being celebrated. The Church also expresses its holiness through its preservation and protection of the Sacraments, ensuring that they are followed properly and reverently throughout the Earth. A vehicles of grace, the Sacraments sanctify Catholics whenever they receive them.

Often, critics of Catholicism will point to a corrupt pope, bishop, or priest in history (or today) as an argument against the Church's holiness. This argument is really no more valid than saying that an abusive spouse is proof that the institution of marriage is bad. Just because a few people cannot fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of marriage does not mean that marriage is not a good thing. The Church should get the same benefit of the doubt, its defenders say. Unlike other institutions (such as the US government), the Church was founded by God and is, for that reason, perfect in every way. While the individual members that make up the Church are flawed and prone to error, Catholics believe that the institution itself is divine and faultless. How can this be? This is because Catholics (and most Christians, for that matter) believe the Church to be more than simply the sum of its parts on Earth. The Church is made up of the baptized on Earth, the saints in heaven, and the souls in purgatory as well (the last inclusion is more of a Catholic/Anglican perspective).