Is the Church less than or equal to the Bible?

[Maksymilian]

I have a question in general: Is the Church less than or equal to the Bible? I ask because my Protestant friend whom I am trying to convert to Catholicism asked me, but I didn’t have an answer. What is the answer, and why?

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

Well first of all, the two are not opposed. It’s not a matter of one being more important that the other. It was the Church that put the New Testament together. So it certainly cherishes it. But the reason the Church could do this is that Jesus gave it the authority to do so when He gave Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Church’s authority is not limited to Scripture. The Church predates the New Testament and remains with us to both interpret Scripture and to teach us the fullness of what Jesus revealed both in Sacred Scripture and in Sacred Tradition.

The combination of Scripture and oral Tradition was present in Judaism at the time of Jesus and the early Church. It is only Protestantism that looks only to Scripture—even though no where in Scripture will one find a directive to do so.

See: catholic.com/library/scripture_tradition.asp

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.