Tradition and the Church

Scripture and Tradition are the two sources of the Catholic Faith.

We know where the Catholic Church is found by Her Four Marks - One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic - and by Her constant appeal to Sacred Scripture and Holy Tradition.

The Catholic Church cannot ever not have Tradition, just as She cannot ever not have Sacred Scripture. If one or the other is missing from a body that claims to be the Catholic Church, or a part of it, then Catholics know that whatever it is that claims to be Catholic is not - it is a false claim, something counterfeit, an imposition.

In his valuable book, Tradition and the Church, first published in 1928, Msgr. George Agius provides important distinctions and explains the relationship of Tradition to Sacred Scripture, the means by which Tradition is safely transmitted, the reasons for the incorruption of Catholic Tradition, the basis of the Church's dogmatic definitions, the authority and dominant role of the Fathers of the Church regarding what is included in Tradition, the necessity of Apostolic Succession, the inability of the Protestant churches to transmit Christian doctrine and many other points.

The author shows that Tradition precedes Scripture - both historically and theologically - that the early Church was inexorably hostile to new doctrines, how the modern idea of religious unity becomes a temptation against the Catholic Faith, and that Divine revelation was completed with the death of the Apostles.

This book, reappearing at a time of great Crisis for the Church, helps clarify understanding about the nature of Catholic Tradition and of the entire Deposit of Faith, and how we should all revere and cherish the Tradition of the Catholic Church..... that Church which is the only means of our salvation.