Saturday, November 6, 2010

Roman Catholic Catechism Quotes #1

I've pulled some quotes from the Catholic Church's Catechism found on the Vatican's site, www.vatican.va.

I've made some of the sections bold. 



The Relationship between Scripture and Sacred Tradition

80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal."

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."

83 Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church's Magisterium.

85 "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ." This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

87 Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles: "He who hears you, hears me", The faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.

97 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God" (DV 10) in which, as in a mirror, the pilgrim Church contemplates God, the source of all her riches.

100 The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.

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In short, the Bible is not the Word of God according to Roman Catholic teachings.  The Word of God is the Bible and Sacred Tradition combined.  Tradition of course arises from sinful humanity and is therefore not infallible or inerrant.  Tradition also according to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church can be changed, modified, retained, or removed.  This would then mean that the Word of God is always in a state of movement - it is never fixed or unchangeable.  In fact, when one looks at the history of the Roman Catholic Church, there has been contradictions in the teachings from various popes in history.  

Finally, only the Pope and his Magisterium can properly interpret the Word of God according to Roman Catholic teachings.  This means that the faithful laity in the Church should always accept blindly, without any use of reason, what the Church teaches.  

Questions:  How does this make you feel?  What do you think when you hear these teachings from the Roman Catholic Church?  

Scripture alone should be the guiding principle of our theology and that the interpretation of the Bible is not limited to one, sinful man in the world.  We need to be like the Breans, who even though they were receiving instructions from Paul the apostle, would still check the Scriptures to verify that what Paul was teaching was in accord with the Word of God (that's Scripture alone, not Scripture + Tradition).

2 comments:

  1. This is very disappointing work. First, you don't take someone else's work and make a statement that you've "made some of the sections bold". You should present the work as is, and if you want to emphasize something in bold, you should include in brackets a comment such as "[emphasis added]." Secondly, you take section 83 totally out of context. If you want to disagree, that's fine, but at least learn what you are disagreeing about. Section 83 is about Tradition and tradition, they are different. Spelled with a capital "T", Tradition is unchanging. Capital "T" Tradition does not come from man. Spelled with a lower case "t", tradition, as devotional traditions, can change, as lower case "t" tradition does come from man. So the Catholic Church is confirming that humanity is imperfect.

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  2. I sure hope that you aren't teaching this to anyone. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. You should take the time to educate yourself before writing tripe like this.

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