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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Church |
 | | Occasionally, it is true, ecclesia is employed in its general significance of "assembly" (Acts 19:32; 1 Corinthians 14:19); and synagoga occurs once in reference to a gathering of Christians, though apparently of a non-religious character (James 2:2) But ecclesia is never used by the Apostles to denote the Jewish Church. |
 | | It implied the claim that this society now constituted the true people of God, that the Old Covenant was passing away, and that He, the promised Messias, was inaugurating a New Covenant with a New Israel. |
 | | This supreme authority was, moreover, regarded by all as belonging to the pope by Divine right, and not in virtue of merely human institution. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/03744a.htm (19666 words) |
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