Read the letter from St Ignatius below very prayerfully. He is speaking of the ancient church. The church that began in the upper room. The church that Jesus prayed for so earnestly to be one, as He and the Father and Spirit are one.
Ignatius knew the danger of schisms. He had sat at the feet of St Polycarp who sat at the feet of the last living apostle, St John. The Apostles warned us to beware of schisms and divisions that only come from the evil one. They never dreamed the day would come when the church would have a major schism (1400 years later) and that there would be disunity to such a degree that over 33,000 churches would be scattered and separated from the Church.
I am reminded of the children of Israel grumbling in the wilderness. They wanted meat and not the bread from heaven, the manna, that God had provided them. So God granted them their wish and gave them so much meat, in the form of quail, that it made them sick. This is not unlike what has happened with the Protestant schism. They wanted another church, not the one God provided them, the source of the True Bread, so God granted them their wishes and now they have more churches than they know what to do with.
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