Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium,
and Sacred Tradition

Our Catholic faith is based on Divine Revelation. In the Old Testament God revealed himself to his people through the patriarchs and the prophets, and then brought that revelation to fulfillment by sending his only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to live and die for the salvation of mankind. While on earth, Jesus entrusted the sacred deposit of faith to St. Peter and the apostles, our first Pope and first bishops.

As stated in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation :

" Therefore Christ the Lord, on whom the full revelation of the supreme God is brought to completion, commissioned the apostles to preach to all men that Gospel which is the source of all saving truth and moral teaching, and thus to impart to them divine gifts. This Gospel had been promised in former times through the prophets, and Christ himself fulfilled it and promulgated it with his own lips. This commission was faithfully fulfilled by the apostles who, by their oral preaching, by example, and by ordinances, handed on what they had learned from...Christ...or what they had learned thorough the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The commission was fulfilled, too, by those apostles and apostolic men who under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed the message of salvation to writing."

The message of salvation committed to writing is, of course, the Bible, or Sacred Scripture . Sometimes we hear the Churches of our Protestant brethren described as "Bible-based", as if somehow the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church are not also based on Sacred Scripture. Most certainly they are. The Catholic Church, however, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from holy Scriptures alone," (Catechism: 82), but believes and teaches that "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God." (Dei Verbum, 1965).

The word tradition comes from the Latin tradere , which means to hand over or to hand down. When we speak of Sacred Tradition we mean the teachings and practices handed down from the time of the apostles to the present day...

"...everything which contributes to the holiness of life, and the increase in faith of the people of God; and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship, perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is and all that she believes." (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation)

Sacred Tradition encompasses the doctrines of the Church, the teachings of the Fathers of the Church, the liturgical life of the Church, the living faith of the Church since apostolic times, and Sacred Scripture.

Catholics consider the authentic interpretation of Sacred Scripture to have been entrusted by Christ to St. Peter and the apostles, and subsequently to their successors, our Pope and our bishops, who act under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As Catholics we believe that St. Peter, our first Pope, was appointed by Christ himself to be spiritual leader of the Catholic Church, and that all our subsequent Popes, in direct and unbroken succession from Peter, retain the spiritual authority given to Peter by Christ himself in these words from Sacred Scripture:

"And I tell thee this in my turn, that thou art Peter, and it is upon this rock that I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matt 16: 18-20)

This teaching authority is known as the M agisterium of the Church. Catholics believe the magisterium to be the authentic interpreter of both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

The belief in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture as "flowing out from the same divine well-spring" (Catechism: 80) was held by all Christians until the early 16th century, when it was abandoned by our Protestant brothers and sisters during the Reformation in favour of the idea of sola scriptura , the notion that scripture alone is our sole authority.

Operating within Sacred Tradition, the Church engages over the centuries in a process of discernment, which involves the study and contemplation of Sacred Scripture, and immersion in the teachings of eminent theologians and holy writers. Doctrines eventually come to be considered by the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, the assemblies of Pope and bishops summoned to define the great truths of the faith.