CCC 375
The Church, interpreting the symbolism
of biblical language in an
authentic way, in the light of the New
Testament and Tradition, teaches
that our first parents,
Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original
"state
of holiness and justice." Council of Trent
(1546): DS 1511;
This grace of original holiness was
"to share in....divine life."
Vatican II
Lumen Gentium, 2
Pope John Paul II, however, does not
hesitate to call the original
grace of Adam by the name of sanctifying
grace:
“When the Council of Trent teaches
that the first Adam lost the holiness
and righteousness in which he had been
established ... this means that
before sin, man
possessed sanctifying grace with all the supernatural
gifts that make man
"righteous" before God. We may sum all this up by
saying that, at the beginning, man was
in friendship with God.” Catechesis, September 3, 1986