Unam Sanctam
Pope Boniface VIII, 1294-1303, Bulla Unam Sanctam:
"We are compelled in virtue of our faith to believe and maintain that there is only one Catholic Church, and that one apostolic. This we firmly believe and profess without qualification. Outside this Church there is no salvation and no remission of sins. Thus the spouse proclaims in the Canticle, "One is my dove: my perfect one is but one. She is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her that bore her" (Cant. 6:8). Now this chosen one represents the one mystical body whose head is Christ, and Christ's head is God. In her there is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. 4:5). For at the time of the deluge there existed only one ark, the figure of the one Church. This ark received its final touch by one cubit's provision and had but one pilot and captain, that is Noe. And we read that all things existing upon the earth outside this ark perished. We honour this Church as the one and ony Church, as the Lord says by his prophet, "Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword: my only one from the hand of the dog" (Ps. 21:21). The Lord was praying for his soul, that is, for himself as head, and at the same time for his body which he called his only one, that is, his Church, because of the oneness of his spouse, the Church, in faith, in the sacraments, and in charity. This Church is the seamless robe of the Lord (See John 19:23), which was not cut but for which lots were cast. Therefore, the one and only Church has one body, one head (not two heads, like a monster); namely, Christ and his Vicar Peter, and the successor of peter; for the Lord said th Peter himself, "Feed my sheep" (John 21:17). My, says Christ, and this universally, not singling out "these" or "those". By this expression it is clearly understood that He entrusted to him all without exception. If, therefore, the Greeks or others say that they are not committed to Peter and to his successors, they necessarily say that they are not of the sheep of Christ, as the Lord says in John that there is one fold and one shepherd (see John 10:16)...
Further, We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.
A certain "Catholic Traditionalist" had claimed that the Bull Unam Sanctam of Pope Boniface VIII had been abrogated, cancelled, rescinded, or otherwise negated.
As a matter of fact, all the official compendiums of Magisterial expressions upto the Apostasy include this Bull.
I cite for example, The Church Teaches—Documents of the Church in English Translation, by the Jesuit Fathers of St. Mary's, Kansas, USA, and reprinted by TAN Books.
However, today (April 14, 2004), while collating the evidence against the heresies of Ecumenism and the "Branch Heresy", I accidentally found a quote by Pope Pius XII, which has relevance to this subject.
In his encylical, Mystici Corporis, Pope Pius XII states: "That Christ and his vicar constitute one only head is the solemn teaching of Our predecessor of immoral memory, Boniface VIII, in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; and his successors have never ceased to repeat the same."
This is final evidence, if needed, that the Church considers Unam Sanctam as still in force...
Lúcio Mascarenhas
END