THE ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, APOSTOLIC CHURCH

 I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, was Crucified, and Resurrected. I believe in the Holy Spirit.              I believe in the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.     I believe in the resurrection of the body.   I believe in life everlasting, Amen.

cc….15  Is Tradition mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament ?

St.John asserts that, “Jesus performed other signs which are not written in this book.” (Jn.20: 30 – 31).  In fact he goes on to say, “were everyone of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” (Jn.21: 24 – 25).

St.Paul also stresses the value of Tradition and Scripture, when he urges the faithful saying: “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” (2Ths: 2:15)

Tradition and Scripture

Could the above be summed up more clearly ?

In faithful obedience to the Lord’s command (Mt.28: 19 – 20, the proclamation of the Gospel was carried out in two ways.

a)    At first by the spoken word of the preaching of the Apostles = Apostolic Tradition,

b)    Later, also by the written word: the Apostles and their Collaborators, inspired by the Holy Spirit, committed the message of Salvation to writing = Holy Scripture.

How did the Apostles ensure that the Gospel be preached till the end of time ?

In order that the living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church, the Apostles appointed the Bishops as their successors. For this reason they passed on to them their own position of teaching authority (1Tim., 6:20; 2Tim., 2:1- 2).

In this way, the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired Books, was to be preserved by a continuous line of succession “till the end of time”.

This living transmission of the Good News (The New Testament), carried out in the Holy Spirit, is called APOSTOLIC  TRADITION, in so far as it can be distinguished from the Holy Scripture.

The Fathers of the Church (St.Ignatius, St.Irenaeus, St.Jerome, St.Augustine, St.John Chrysostm etc.) are witnesses to the life-giving presence of Tradition in the Church.

NOTE:  “The Fathers of the Church”

…are precisely the Bishops (and ecclesiastical writers and writings), who, during the first centuries, have transmitted  to the Church their heritage of Faith, as the masters of the truth faithfully guarded and wisely interpreted. / 16

Extracts by kind permission of  HG Mons. Sylvester Magro ofm, Apostolic Nuncio of Benghazi.