“It is in the same line that the Church must view its own character as a mediating sign. Only a Church at work in history can reveal and communicate the God of history to us effectively. Only in history will the Church find an adequate field to carry out its mission and make it credible. By making the saving mystery of Jesus Christ present and operative, the Church will make it possible for people to believe what the Church claims itself to be […] The Church does not need such external proofs when it strives wholeheartedly to be itself a sign, and only sign, of the God who has revealed himself in history. The Church’s being and life will prove the credibility of Jesus as the savior of humankind.”

– Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., in Freedom Made Flesh: The Mission of Christ and His Church (Orbis Books, 1976), 89.