The Church’s universality is also manifest in particularity and the language of faith is expressed in every human tongue

The Pope gave this catechesis during the General Audience on 2 January:

1. In the Creed we affirm that the Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. These are the Church's characteristics. The Church's universality is therefore attributed to her with the very same word that is used in speaking of her: the Catholic Church.

This catholicity has its origin in the Holy Spirit, who "fills the universe" (Wis 1:7) and is the universal principle of communication and communion. The "power of the Holy Spirit" tends to spread faith in Christ and the Christian life "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8), extending the benefits of redemption to all peoples.

2. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, communion with the true God in divine covenant was not equally accessible to all peoples. The Letter to the Ephesians observes this in addressing Christians who belonged to pagan nations: "You people of Gentile stock—called 'uncircumcised' by those who... call themselves 'circumcised' — remember that in former times you had no part in Christ and were excluded from the community of Israel. You were strangers to the covenant and the promise; you were without hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:11-12). In order to enter in some way into the divine covenant, they had to accept circumcision and adopt the observances of the Hebrew people, thus cutting themselves off from their own people.

Now, however, communion with God no longer requires these restrictive conditions because it comes about "through the Spirit". There is no longer any discrimination based on race or nation. All human beings can "become a dwelling place for God in the Spirit" (Eph 2:22).

This change of situation was announced by Jesus in His conversation with the Samaritan woman: "Yet an hour is coming, and is already here, when authentic worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth. Indeed, it is just such worshippers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth" (Jn 4:23-24). That was Jesus' answer to the question about the place for true worship of God; for the Samaritans it was Mount Gerizim, and Jerusalem for the Israelites. Christ's answer showed another dimension of true worship of God, the interior dimension ("in spirit and truth"), for which worship was not bound up with a definite place (national sanctuary), and was therefore a universal worship. The words addressed to the Samaritan woman opened the road to that universality which is a fundamental quality of the Church as the new Temple, the new Sanctuary built by the Spirit who dwells there. This is the profound root of catholicity.

3. This root is the origin of the external, visible catholicity, the community and social one, we could say. It is coessential to the Church due to the very fact that Jesus commanded the Apostles— and their successors—to bring the Gospel "to all nations" (Mt 28:19). The Church's universality under the influence of the Holy Spirit was already manifested at the time of her birth on Pentecost. In fact, the Acts of the Apostles testify that at the event in Jerusalem participants included "devout Jews of every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5) who were staying in the holy city and, with them, the proselytes, that is pagans who had accepted the law of Moses. The Acts of the Apostles list the names of some of the countries from which the people came, but they also speak more generally of "every nation under heaven". It is a sign of the primitive Church's awareness—interpreted and testified to by Luke—that the "baptism in the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5) conferred on that first community of the Church certainly had a universal value and that the Church was born from it with her characteristic of catholicity, that is, universality.

4. This universality, generated by the action of the Holy Spirit was, from the very day of Pentecost, accompanied by an insistent reference to that which is "particular", in regard to both persons and individual peoples and nations. This results from the fact that, as Luke notes in Acts, the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested through the gift of tongues in which the Apostles spoke, so that "eachof (those present) hears them speaking in his own tongue" (Acts 2:4-6). Here we can observe that the Holy Spirit is Love, and to love someone means to respect everything that is a priority for the beloved. This especially goes for language, which generally demands sensitivity and respect, but it also holds true for culture, spirituality and customs.

The Pentecost event takes place attentive to this demand and is a manifestation of the Church's unity in the multiplicity of peoples and in cultural pluralism. The Church's catholicity includes respect for the values of all. We could say that the "particular" is not cancelled out by the universal. The one dimension contains and requires the other.

5. The fact of the multiplicity of languages at Pentecost tells us that in the Church the language of faith—which is universal in that it is an expression of the truth revealed through the Word of God —finds its human expression in various languages: we can say in each and every language. Earliest Christian history is already proof of this. We know that the language spoken by Jesus was Aramaic, which was in use in Israel at that time. When the Apostles set off to spread Christ's message, Greek had become the common language of the Greco-Roman world ("ecumene"), and thus became the language of evangelization. It is also the language of the Gospel and all the other writings of the New Testament which came about under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These writings contain only a few words of Aramaic. This shows that, from the beginning, the truth announced by Christ has sought the way to reach all tongues, to speak to all peoples. The Church has always sought, and continues to do so, to follow this principle of methodology and pedagogy of the apostolate according to the opportunities afforded in various eras. Today, we know, the practice of this demand of catholicity is especially felt and, thanks be to God, facilitated.

6. In the Acts of the Apostles we find another example in an event which took place even before the conversion and preaching of Paul, the Apostle of catholicity. At Caesarea Peter had accepted into the Church and baptized a Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his household— therefore, the first pagans. Luke's description of this event, which contains many details, indicates, among other things, the fact that, since the Holy Spirit had descended upon all those who were listening to the Apostle's preaching, "the circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were surprisedthat the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on Gentilesalso" (Acts 10:44-45). Peter himself, however, does not hesitate to confess that he had acted under the influence of the Holy Spirit: "The Spirit instructed me to accompany them without hesitation" (Acts 11: 12).

7. This first "break" towards the universality of the faith immediately receives further confirmation in dealing with the apostolic activity of Paul of Tarsus and his companions. The Assembly in Jerusalem (which can be considered the first "Council") reinforces this direction in the development of evangelization and of the Church. The Apostles gathered in that assembly are sure that this direction comes from the Spirit of Pentecost. Their words are eloquent, and they will always remain so; they can be considered the very first conciliar declaration: "It is thedecision of the Holy Spirit, and ours, too" (Acts 15:28). These decisions involved the path of universality which the Church had to take.

There is no doubt that this is the path the Church took then and throughout the centuries. The Apostles and missionaries preached the Gospel to all nations, penetrating as much as possible the various societies and milieus. According to the possibilities of the time, the Church has sought to introduce the words of salvation into all cultures (inculturation), at the same time helping them recognize better their own authentic values in the light of the Gospel message.

8. This is what the Second Vatican Council set as a basic law for the Church when it wrote: "All people are called to belong to the new People of God. Wherefore this People, while remaining one and unique, is to be spread throughout the whole world and must exist in all ages.... It was for this reason that God sent His Son.... For this God finally sent His Son's Spirit as Lord and Lifegiver. He it is who, on behalf of the whole Church and each and every one of those who believe, is the principle of their coming together and remaining together in the teaching of the Apostles and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers (Cf. Acts 2:42)" (Lumen Gentium, 13).

In these words the Council proclaims its own awareness of the fact that the Holy Spirit is the principle and source of the Church's universality.