Cardinal Gibbons writing in the 19th century said this on the matter of the unity of the Church:
With all due respect for my dissenting brethren, truth compels me to say that this unity of doctrine and government is not to be found in the Protestant sects, taken collectively or separately. That the various Protestant denominations differ from one another not only in minor details, but in most essential principles of faith, is evident to every one conversant with the doctrines of the different Creeds. The multiplicity of sects in this country, with their mutual recriminations, is the scandal of Christianity, and the greatest obstacle to the conversion of the heathen. Not only does sect differ from sect, but each particular denomination is divided into two or more independent or conflicting branches.
And this on the matter of the holiness of the Church:
It must not be imagined that, in proclaiming the sanctity of the Church, I am attempting to prove that all Catholics are holy. I am sorry to confess that corruption of morals is too often found among professing Catholics. We cannot close our eyes to the painful fact that too many of them, far from living up to the teachings of their Church, are sources of melancholy scandal. "It must be that scandals comes, but woe to him by whom the scandal cometh." I also admit that the sin of Catholics is more heinous in the sight of God than that of their separated brethren, because they abuse more grace.
And this on the apostolicity of the Church:
And if the Fathers of the fifth century considered it a powerful argument in their favour that they could refer to an uninterrupted line of fifty Bishop who occupied the See of Rome, how much stronger is the argument to us who can now exhibit five times that number of Roman Pontiffs who have sat in the chair of Peter! I would affectionately repeat to my separated brethren what Augustine said to the Donatists of his time: "Come to us, brethren if you wish to be engrafted in the vine. We are afflicted in beholding you lying cut off from it. Count over the Bishops from the very See of St. Peter, and mark, in this list of Fathers, how one succeeded the other. This is the rock against which the proud gates of hell do not prevail."[Psal. contra part Donati.]
There is obvious disagreement between Catholics and those who are not members of the Catholic Church and yet are Christians but it need not be wholly antagonistic and ought not to be turned to hostility about persons or even institutions. Doctrinal disagreements exist and ought to be discussed and debated in civil tones with open hearts and loving motivations.
