What is Sacred Tradition and how does it relate to Scripture?

Sacred Tradition is the living transmission of the Gospel message entrusted by Christ to the apostles and handed down in the Church through the Holy Spirit's guidance, distinct from but inseparable from Sacred Scripture. Together, Scripture and Tradition flow from the same divine source and form one deposit of faith, both authoritatively interpreted by the Church's Magisterium (CCC 80-82).

What Tradition Is

Before a word of the New Testament was written, Christ had already commissioned the apostles to preach the Gospel orally, drawing on his own teaching, example, and works. This living transmission of the faith, carried out under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is what the Church calls Sacred Tradition. Saint Paul urged the Thessalonians to hold fast to what they had received, whether by word of mouth or by letter, showing that from the earliest days the apostolic message was passed on both orally and in writing (2 Thessalonians 2:14-15). He commends the Corinthians in the same way for keeping the traditions he delivered to them (1 Corinthians 11:2).

The Catechism describes this process as the handing on of the Gospel in the Church across the ages, carried forward by the apostles' successors under the Spirit's assistance so that the whole of revealed truth might be preserved, deepened in understanding, and proclaimed faithfully (CCC 78).

How Tradition Relates to Scripture

Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition are not two separate sources of revelation running side by side, but two distinct ways in which the one deposit of faith, entrusted to the Church, comes down to us (CCC 80-81). Scripture captures in a fixed, written form part of what was preached and lived among the earliest believers, while Tradition carries forward the fullness of that apostolic preaching in the ongoing life, worship, and teaching of the Church. Saint John reminds us that Jesus said and did far more than could ever be written down, which is one reason the Church has never limited the apostolic message to the written page alone (John 21:25; 20:30).

Because both realities come from the same divine wellspring and work together toward the same end, the Catechism teaches that the Church owes them a shared trust and honor rather than treating one as secondary to the other (CCC 82). Scripture does not stand apart from the believing community; it was written within, and is read within, the living Tradition that gave rise to it and continues to safeguard its true meaning.

The Role of the Magisterium

Because Scripture and Tradition together form a single deposit, the Church entrusts their authoritative interpretation not to private judgment but to the Magisterium, the teaching office of the bishops in communion with the Pope. This office does not stand above God's word but serves it, receiving it attentively, protecting it with care, and unfolding its meaning under the Spirit's guidance so that the People of God may hold the faith whole and entire (CCC 85-86).