Again, using only one language, the Church can hold its great councils, call together all the bishops of the world, that they may condemn errors or make wise laws.  When the Holy Father addresses them in Latin they can all understand and answer him.  If, therefore, the Church did not use the same language everywhere how could this be done, unless everyone present understood all the languages of the world—­which is a thing nearly impossible.  But someone might say, if the Mass was said in English we could follow it better.  You can follow just as well in Latin, for in nearly all prayerbooks you have besides the Latin said by the priest the meaning of it in English on the same page, or you have the English alone.

132 Q. How is the Church apostolic?  A. The Church is apostolic because it was founded by Christ on His Apostles and is governed by their lawful successors, and because it has never ceased, and never will cease, to teach their doctrine.

“Apostolic,” which means that the Church was founded at the time of the Apostles, and has been the same ever since.  Since the time of St. Peter, the first Pope, there have been 261 Popes.  You can go back from our present Holy Father, Pius XI, to Benedict XV, who was before him, to Pius X, who was before him, to Leo XIII, before him, and so on one by one till you come to St. Peter himself, who lived at the time of Our Lord.  Thus the Church is apostolic in its origin or beginning.

It is also apostolic in its teaching; for all the doctrines it teaches now were taught by the Apostles.  The Church does not make new doctrines, but it teaches its truths more clearly and distinctly when someone denies them.  For example it would not be necessary for you to prove yourself good and honest till somebody said you were bad and dishonest.  You prove your honesty when it is denied, but both you and your friends believed it always, though you did not declare it till it was denied.  In just the same way the Church always believed that Our Lord is the Son of God; that there are seven Sacraments; that the Pope is infallible, etc.  These truths and all the others were believed by the Apostles, and the Church proclaimed them in a special manner when they were denied.  Then it called together in council all its bishops, and they, with the Holy Father, proclaimed these truths—­not as new doctrines, but as truths always believed by the Church, and now defined because denied.

Protestants have not for their churches the mark apostolic.  How could their churches be founded by the Apostles, when the Apostles were dead more than fourteen hundred years before there were any Protestant churches?  What is more, they have changed the teachings of the Apostles; and so they have not the mark apostolic either in their origin or teaching.