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Q: What is the Catholic faith based upon?
~ Zide
Dear Zide:
The Catholic faith is based on Divine Revelation, which was communicated by God through the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament, and brought to fulfillment by God through sending his only Son, Jesus Christ, who 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', a document produced by the Second Vatican Council:
" 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 reference at the end of the above passage is to Sacred Scripture. On occasion you will hear the churches of our Protestant brethren being referred to as "Bible-based", as if the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church were in some way not based on Sacred Scripture. This misconception likely arises because 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. This task of intepretation, however, and subsequent teaching authority, "is not superior to the Word of God, but its its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it." (Catechism: 86)
When the Catechism speaks of "what has been handed on", it is speaking of Sacred Tradition, namely:
"What was handed on by the apostles...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)
In Catholic teaching, both Sacred Tradition, the living tradition of the Church, and Sacred Scripture, the Word of God committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "are to be accepted and venerated with the same devotion and reverence." (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation)
You will find further references to the relationship between Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition in the answers we provide to questions on scripture, indulgences and purgatory elsewhere on our website.
God bless,
Father Norbert