Chapter VII of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, is entitled “The Eschatological Nature of the Pilgrim Church and Its Union with the Church in Heaven.” It continues as follows:
“50. Fully conscious of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the pilgrim Church from the very first ages of the Christian religion has cultivated with great piety the memory of the dead,(6*) and ‘because it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins’,(273) also offers suffrages for them. The Church has always believed that the apostles and Christ's martyrs who had given the supreme witness of faith and charity by the shedding of their blood, are closely joined with us in Christ, and she has always venerated them with special devotion, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy angels.(7*) The Church has piously implored the aid of their intercession. To these were soon added also those who had more closely imitated Christ’s virginity and poverty,(8*) and finally others whom the outstanding practice of the Christian virtues (9*) and the divine charisms recommended to the pious devotion and imitation of the faithful.(10*)”
(273) 2 Maccabees 12:46.
(6*) Cf. Plurimae inseriptione in Catacumbis romanis.
(7*) Cf. Gelasius I, Decretalis De libris recipiendis, 3: PL 59, 160, Denz. 165 (353).
(8*) Cf. S. Methodius, Symposion, VII, 3: GCS (Bodwetseh), p. 74
(9*) Cf. Benedictus XV, Decretum approbationis virtutum in Causa beatificationis et canonizationis Servi Dei Ioannis Nepomuecni Neumann: AAS 14 (1922 p. 23; plures Allocutiones Pii X de Sanetis: Inviti all’croismo Diseorsi... t. I-III, Romae 1941-1942, passim; Pius XII, Discorsi Radiomessagi, t. 10, 1949, pp 37-43.
(10*) Cf. Pius XII, Litt. Encycl: Mediator Dei: AAS 39 (1947) p . 581.
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