The Church is not a political party, nor a social ideology, nor a world-wide organization for harmony or material progress, even though we recognise the nobility of these and other activities. The Church has always undertaken and undertakes today an immense work on behalf of the needy, of those who suffer, of all those who bear in any way the consequences of the only true evil, which is sin. And to all — to those who are in any way deprived and to those who claim to enjoy the fullness of earthly goods — the Church comes to confirm only one, essential, definitive truth: that our destiny is eternal and supernatural, that only in Jesus Christ are we saved for all time, and that only in him will we achieve in some way already in this life true peace and happiness.

Ask God our Lord now, along with me, that we Catholics may never forget these truths, and that we may resolve to put them into practice. The Catholic Church does not need the approval of men, for it is the work of God.

We will show ourselves to be Catholics by the fruits of sanctity which we produce, for sanctity does not admit of any frontiers, nor is it the patrimony of any particular group. We will show ourselves to be Catholics if we pray, if we strive to direct ourselves to God at all times, if we make an effort always and in all things to be just — in the broadest sense of the term justice, which is used frequently in these times with a materialistic and erroneous connotation — if we love and defend the personal freedom of other men.

I remind you also of another sign of the catholicity of the Church: the faithful preservation and administration of the sacraments as they were instituted by Jesus Christ, without human deformations or evil attempts to interpret them psychologically or sociologically. For it is not for one man to decide how another shall use what is under the latter's power and authority. All he can decide is what is under his own power. Since, therefore, human sanctification lies under the power of God who sanctifies, it is not for man to decide of his own judgement which materials are to be chosen for him to be sanctified by. This, rather, is something which should be determined by divine institution.

The attempt to take universality away from the essence of the sacraments would perhaps be justified if it were only a matter of signs, of symbols, which are subject to the natural laws of comprehension and understanding. But the sacraments of the New Law are causes and signs at the same time. Hence too it is that, as the usual formula puts it, they effect what they figuratively express. And from this it is also clear that in them the essential characteristics of a sacrament are perfectly fulfilled, inasmuch as they are designed for something sacred in the sense not merely of being signs of it but of being causes of it as well.