Benefits of Religion

2. The blessings of divine truth and grace, which Christ brought to the human race by His religion, are so excellent and useful that it cannot be compared, much less equated, with any other. The excellence of its blessings is manifold and wholesome. In a wonderful manner it inundates both individuals and nations, and both domestic and civil society, promoting prosperity in this passing life and the acquisition of immortal life. It immediately follows from this that nations blessed with the gift of the Catholic religion are bound by the greatest of all obligations to love and cherish it, since they have received the greatest of all blessings. At the same time it is evident that this is not a matter which each person or each state can submit to its own judgment. The divine Author of religion has defined and commanded how and by what discipline this must be done, namely under the leadership and guidance of the Catholic Church. He established this Church as the pillar and mainstay of the truth(¹) which by His singular help has flourished through all ages and will continue to flourish always, according to His promise, Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the the age.(²)