PART ONE:
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
Section One
"I BELIEVE" - "WE BELIEVE"
26 We begin our profession of faith by saying: "I believe" or "We believe". Before
expounding the Church's faith, as confessed in the Creed, celebrated in the liturgy and
lived in observance of God's commandments and in prayer, we must first ask what "to
believe" means. Faith is man's response to God, who reveals himself and gives himself
to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the
ultimate meaning of his life. Thus we shall consider first that search (Chapter One), then
the divine Revelation by which God comes to meet man (Chapter Two), and finally the
response of faith (Chapter Three).
Chapter One -
MAN'S CAPACITY FOR GOD
I. THE DESIRE FOR GOD
27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and
for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the
truth and happiness he never stops searching for:
The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God.
This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into
being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through
love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he
freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.[1]
28 In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given
expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behaviour: in their
prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression,
despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well
call man a religious being:
From one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the
times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that
they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him - though indeed he
is not far from each one of us. For "in him we live and move and have our being."[2]
29 But this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" (GS 19 # 1) can be forgotten,
overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man.[3] Such attitudes can have different
causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and
riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of
thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide
from God out of fear and flee his call.[4]
30 "Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice."[5] Although man can forget
God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and
happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound
will, "an upright heart", as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.
You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and your wisdom is
without measure. And man, so small a part of your creation, wants to praise you: this
man, though clothed with mortality and bearing the evidence of sin and the proof that
you withstand the proud. Despite everything, man, though but a small a part of your
creation, wants to praise you. You yourself encourage him to delight in your praise, for
you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.[6]
II. WAYS OF COMING TO KNOW GOD
31 Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God
discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the
existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the
sense of "converging and convincing arguments", which allow us to attain certainty
about the truth. These "ways" of approaching God from creation have a twofold point
of departure: the physical world, and the human person.
32 The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world's order
and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the
universe.
As St. Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them,
because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible
nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that
have been made.[7]
And St. Augustine issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the
beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question
the beauty of the sky. . . question all these realities. All respond: "See, we are beautiful."
Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who
made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?[8]
33 The human person: with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral
goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite
and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns
signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the "seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible
to the merely material",[9] can have its origin only in God.
34 The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first
principle nor their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is
without origin or end. Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a
reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality "that everyone calls
God".[10]
35 Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a
personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed
both to reveal himself to man, and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this
revelation in faith.(so) The proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to
faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason.
III. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ACCORDING
TO THE CHURCH
36 "Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and
last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural
light of human reason."[11] Without this capacity, man would not be able to welcome
God's revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created "in the image of God".[12]
37 In the historical conditions in which he finds himself, however, man experiences
many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of reason alone:
Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable by its own natural power and
light of attaining to a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God, who watches
over and controls the world by his providence, and of the natural law written in our
hearts by the Creator; yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the
effective and fruitful use of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern the relations
between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of things, and, if they are
translated into human action and influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation.
The human mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of such truths, not only by the
impact of the senses and the imagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the
consequences of original sin. So it happens that men in such matters easily persuade
themselves that what they would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful.[13]
38 This is why man stands in need of being enlightened by God's revelation, not only
about those things that exceed his understanding, but also "about those religious and
moral truths which of themselves are not beyond the grasp of human reason, so that
even in the present condition of the human race, they can be known by all men with
ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error". [14]
IV. HOW CAN WE SPEAK ABOUT GOD?
39 In defending the ability of human reason to know God, the Church is expressing her
confidence in the possibility of speaking about him to all men and with all men, and
therefore of dialogue with other religions, with philosophy and science, as well as with
unbelievers and atheists.
40 Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is equally so. We can
name God only by taking creatures as our starting point, and in accordance with our
limited human ways of knowing and thinking.
41 All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the
image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures - their truth, their
goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can
name God by taking his creatures" perfections as our starting point, "for from the
greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their
Creator".[15]
42 God transcends all creatures. We must therefore continually purify our language of
everything in it that is limited, imagebound or imperfect, if we are not to confuse our
image of God--"the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the invisible, the ungraspable"-
-with our human representations.[16] Our human words always fall short of the mystery
of God.
43 Admittedly, in speaking about God like this, our language is using human modes of
expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God himself, though unable to express
him in his infinite simplicity. Likewise, we must recall that "between Creator and
creature no similitude can be expressed without implying an even greater
dissimilitude";[17] and that "concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what
he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him."[18]
IN BRIEF
44 Man is by nature and vocation a religious being. Coming from God, going toward
God, man lives a fully human life only if he freely lives by his bond with God.
45 Man is made to live in communion with God in whom he finds happiness: When I
am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you,
my life will be complete (St. Augustine, Conf. 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795}.
46 When he listens to the message of creation and to the voice of conscience, man can
arrive at certainty about the existence of God, the cause and the end of everything.
47 The Church teaches that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with
certainty from his works, by the natural light of human reason (cf. Vatican Council I,
can. 2 # 1: DS 3026),
48 We really can name God, starting from the manifold perfections of his creatures,
which are likenesses of the infinitely perfect God, even if our limited language cannot
exhaust the mystery.
49 Without the Creator, the creature vanishes (GS 36). This is the reason why believers
know that the love of Christ urges them to bring the light of the living God to those
who do not know him or who reject him.
ENDNOTES
1 Vatican Council II, GS 19 # 1.
2 Acts 17:26-28.
3 GS 19 # 1.
4 Cf. GS 19-21; Mt 13:22; Gen 3:8-10; Jon 1:3.
5 Ps 105:3.
6 St. Augustine, Conf. I, I, I: PL 32, 659-661.
7 Rom 1:19-20; cf., Acts 14:15, 17; 17:27-28; Wis 13:1-9.
8 St. Augustine, Sermo 241, 2: PL 38, 1134,
9 GS 18 # 1; cf. 14 # 2.
10 St. Thomas Aquinas, S Th I, 2, 3.
11 Vatican Council I, Dei Filius 2: DS 3004 cf. 3026; Vatican Council
II, Dei Verbum 6.
12 Cf. Gen 1:27.
13 Pius XII, Humani generis 561: DS 3875.
14 Pius XII, Humani generis 561: DS 3876; cf. Dei Filius 2: DS 3005;
DV 6; St. Thomas Aquinas, S Th I, I, I.
15 Wis 13:5.
16 Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Anaphora.
17 Lateran Council IV: DS 806.
18 St. Thomas Aquinas, SCG 1, 30.
CHAPTER TWO - GOD COMES TO MEET MAN
50 By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But
there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own
powers: the order of divine Revelation.[1] Through an utterly free decision, God has
revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his
plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men.
God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit.
ARTICLE I - THE REVELATION OF GOD
I. GOD REVEALS HIS "PLAN OF LOVING
GOODNESS"
51 "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known
the mystery of his will. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through
Christ, the Word made flesh, in the Holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine
nature."[2]
52 God, who "dwells in unapproachable light", wants to communicate his own divine
life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten
Son.[3] By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him,
and of knowing him and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity.
53 The divine plan of Revelation is realized simultaneously "by deeds and words which
are intrinsically bound up with each other"[4] and shed light on each another. It involves
a specific divine pedagogy: God communicates himself to man gradually. He prepares
him to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person
and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image of God
and man becoming accustomed to one another: The Word of God dwelt in man and
became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and to accustom
God to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure.[5]
II. THE STAGES OF REVELATION
In the beginning God makes himself known
54 "God, who creates and conserves all things by his Word, provides men with constant
evidence of himself in created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open up the way to
heavenly salvation - he manifested himself to our first parents from the very
beginning."[6] He invited them to intimate communion with himself and clothed them
with resplendent grace and justice.
55 This revelation was not broken off by our first parents' sin. "After the fall, [God]
buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising redemption; and he has never
ceased to show his solicitude for the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all
those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing."[7]
Even when he disobeyed you and lost your friendship you did not abandon him to the
power of death. . . Again and again you offered a covenant to man.[8]
The covenant with Noah
56 After the unity of the human race was shattered by sin God at once sought to save
humanity part by part. The covenant with Noah after the flood gives expression to the
principle of the divine economy toward the "nations", in other words, towards men
grouped "in their lands, each with [its] own language, by their families, in their
nations".[9]
57 This state of division into many nations is at once cosmic, social and religious. It is
intended to limit the pride of fallen humanity[10] united only in its perverse ambition to
forge its own unity as at Babel.[11] But, because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry
of the nation and of its rulers constantly threaten this provisional economy with the
perversion of paganism.[12]
58 The covenant with Noah remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until the
universal proclamation of the Gospel.[13] The Bible venerates several great figures
among the Gentiles: Abel the just, the king-priest Melchisedek - a figure of Christ - and
the upright "Noah, Daniel, and Job".[14] Scripture thus expresses the heights of sanctity
that can be reached by those who live according to the covenant of Noah, waiting for
Christ to "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad".[15]
God chooses Abraham
59 In order to gather together scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country, his
kindred and his father's house,[16] and makes him Abraham, that is, "the father of a
multitude of nations". "In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed."[17]
60 The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to
the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare for that day when God would gather
all his children into the unity of the Church.[18] They would be the root on to which the
Gentiles would be grafted, once they came to believe.[19]
61 The patriarchs, prophets and certain other Old Testament figures have been and
always will be honoured as saints in all the Church's liturgical traditions.
God forms his people Israel
62 After the patriarchs, God formed Israel as his people by freeing them from slavery in
Egypt. He established with them the covenant of Mount Sinai and, through Moses, gave
them his law so that they would recognize him and serve him as the one living and true
God, the provident Father and just judge, and so that they would look for the promised
Saviour.[20]
63 Israel is the priestly people of God, "called by the name of the LORD", and "the first
to hear the word of God",[21] the people of "elder brethren" in the faith of Abraham.
64 Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the
expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their
hearts.[22] The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the People of God,
purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the nations.[23]
Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope. Such holy women as
Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith and Esther kept alive the
hope of Israel's salvation. The purest figure among them is Mary.[24]
III. CHRIST JESUS -- "MEDIATOR AND
FULLNESS OF ALL REVELATION"[25]
God has said everything in his Word
65 "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in
these last days he has spoken to us by a Son."[26] Christ, the Son of God made man, is
the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there
will be no other word than this one. St. John of the Cross, among others, commented
strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:
In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to
us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke
before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who
is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be
guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes
entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.[27]
There will be no further Revelation
66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will
never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious
manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ."[28] Yet even if Revelation is already complete,
it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp
its full significance over the course of the centuries.
67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which
have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to
the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive
Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the
Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in
these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the
Church.
Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the
Revelation of which Christ is the fulfilment, as is the case in certain nonChristian
religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".
IN BRIEF
68 By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. He has thus provided
the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the
meaning and purpose of his life.
69 God has revealed himself to man by gradually communicating his own mystery in
deeds and in words.
70 Beyond the witness to himself that God gives in created things, he manifested
himself to our first parents, spoke to them and, after the fall, promised them salvation
(cf. Gen 3:15) and offered them his covenant.
71 God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and with all living beings (cf. Gen
9:16). It will remain in force as long as the world lasts.
72 God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. By the
covenant God formed his people and revealed his law to them through Moses. Through
the prophets, he prepared them to accept the salvation destined for all humanity.
73 God has revealed himself fully by sending his own Son, in whom he has established
his covenant for ever. The Son is his Father's definitive Word; so there will be no further
Revelation after him.
ARTICLE 2 - THE TRANSMISSION OF DIVINE
REVELATION
74 God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth":[29]
that is, of Christ Jesus.[30] Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so
that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth:
God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all
peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all
generations.[31]
I. THE APOSTOLIC TRADITION
75 "Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up,
commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by
the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own
lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men.
This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline."[32]
In the apostolic preaching. . .
76 In keeping with the Lord's command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:
- orally "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the
example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had
received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or
whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit";[33]
- in writing "by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under
the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to
writing".[34]
. . . continued in apostolic succession
77 "In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the
apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching
authority."[35] Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in
the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end
of time."[36]
78 This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it
is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through Tradition,
"the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every
generation all that she herself is, all that she believes."[37] "The sayings of the holy
Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches
are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer."[38]
79 The Father's self-communication made through his Word in the Holy Spirit, remains
present and active in the Church: "God, who spoke in the past, continues to converse
with the Spouse of his beloved Son. And the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice
of the Gospel rings out in the Church - and through her in the world - leads believers to
the full truth, and makes the Word of Christ dwell in them in all its richness."[39]
II. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
TRADITION AND SACRED SCRIPTURE
One common source. . .
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."[40] Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of
Christ, who promised to remain with his own "always, to the close of the age".[41]
. . . two distinct modes of transmission
81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath
of the Holy Spirit."[42]
"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been
entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the
successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully
preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."[43]
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."[44]
Apostolic Tradition and ecclesial traditions
83 The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they
received from Jesus' teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit.
The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the
New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.
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.
III. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE
HERITAGE OF FAITH
The heritage of faith entrusted to the whole of the Church 84 The apostles entrusted the
"Sacred deposit" of the faith (the depositum fidei),[45] contained in Sacred Scripture and
Tradition, to the whole of the Church. "By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy
people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to
the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in maintaining, practising
and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony
between the bishops and the faithful."[46]
The Magisterium of the Church
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."[47] This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops
in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
86 "Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It
teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of
the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it
faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this
single deposit of faith."[48]
87 Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles: "He who hears you, hears me",[49] the
faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in
different forms.
The dogmas of the faith
88 The Church’s Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest
extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging the Christian
people to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also
when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.
89 There is an organic connection between our spiritual life and the dogmas. Dogmas
are lights along the path of faith; they illuminate it and make it secure. Conversely, if our
life is upright, our intellect and heart will be open to welcome the light shed by the
dogmas of faith.[50]
90 The mutual connections between dogmas, and their coherence, can be found in the
whole of the Revelation of the mystery of Christ.[51] "In Catholic doctrine there exists
an order or hierarchy 234 of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of
the Christian faith."[52]
The supernatural sense of faith
91 All the faithful share in understanding and handing on revealed truth. They have
received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them[53] and guides them into
all truth.[54]
92 "The whole body of the faithful. . . cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic
is shown in the supernatural appreciation of faith (sensus fidei) on the part of the whole
people, when, from the bishops to the last of the faithful, they manifest a universal
consent in matters of faith and morals."[55]
93 "By this appreciation of the faith, aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth, the
People of God, guided by the sacred teaching authority (Magisterium),. . . receives. . . the
faith, once for all delivered to the saints. . . The People unfailingly adheres to this faith,
penetrates it more deeply with right judgment, and applies it more fully in daily life."[56]
Growth in understanding the faith
94 Thanks to the assistance of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of both the realities
and the words of the heritage of faith is able to grow in the life of the Church:
- "through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their
hearts";[57] it is in particular "theological research [which] deepens knowledge of
revealed truth".[58]
- "from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which [believers] experience",[59] the
sacred Scriptures "grow with the one who reads them."[60]
- "from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession
in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth".[61]
95 "It is clear therefore that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred
Tradition, Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and
associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in
its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the
salvation of souls."[62]
IN BRIEF
96 What Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their preaching and
writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to all generations, until Christ returns in
glory.
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.
98 "The Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every
generation all that she herself is, all that she believes" (DV 8 # 1).
99 Thanks to its supernatural sense of faith, the People of God as a whole never ceases
to welcome, to penetrate more deeply and to live more fully from the gift of divine
Revelation.
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. Article 3
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