Shell Beach

Catholic apologists argue for a church that only exists on paper. A shell corporation with P.O. Box. Like renting a mailbox. If you go to the address, you will find the One True Church® at a UPS store in North Dakota. 

The church Catholic apologists argue for is two steps removed from reality. They resort to Counter-Reformation era prooftexts from Scripture and the church fathers. Now, those prooftexts never did demonstrate what they were quoted to prove. But in the past, that was one step removed from reality. For in the past, the Catholic establishment at least believed in the presuppositions underlying the prooftexts. They believed in the historicity of the Bible. They believed in the traditional authority of the canonical books. They believed the traditional church historical narrative. 

However, the church which Catholic apologists argue for is now two steps removed from reality, inasmuch as the Catholic establishment no longer even believes the underlying presuppositions of the traditional prooftexts. The modernists won that fight. 

So the church which Catholic apologists argue for is like Shell Beach, in Dark City. A tattered, yellowing poster on a brick wall. That's it. There is no corresponding place.