But, authority in the Church is very, very different. As we continue to journey deeper into our understanding of the faith in this Year of Catechesis, it is important to reflect what it is that we are delving deeper into and how it comes down to us.

Sacred Magisterium

In his Second Letter to Timothy, St. Paul exhorts the young man to “guard the deposit” with which he has been entrusted in his ministry (1:14). This guardianship of the treasury of the faith is not simply applicable in the early Church or only between Paul and Timothy. Paul is describing the roots of a ministry that has been exercised by the successors of the Twelve Apostles, our bishops, through the centuries and down to this very day.

We call this the Magisterium, which is the teaching office of the Church. It is exercised in a special way by the pope — as successor of the Apostle Peter — whose role is to unite the Church, and exercised by the whole body (or college) of bishops in union with the pope. We call this the “universal” and “ordinary” Magisterium.

Stewardship, not ownership

This teaching office isn’t envisioned as one of creation or construction; it’s more about preservation and conservation. The Magisterium upholds and communicates all that Christ gave to the apostles and the early Church. It’s not intended to manufacture new teaching. Leadership in the Church, especially leadership rooted in the sacrament of holy orders and exercised in its fullest sense by our bishops, is to be exercised in a spirit of stewardship, not ownership.

After all, the Church is Christ’s Church, his bride, his flock. It has been entrusted to the care of the shepherds Jesus calls forth in each generation, including ours. The role of the leaders of the Church in every generation is to protect and to pass on this apostolic treasure.

Tradition with a capital T

But what is that treasure? This is what we call the deposit of faith. It’s composed of sacred Scripture, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, and sacred Tradition. What’s known as “capital T” Tradition is the life and teaching of the Church passed down through the centuries — the word tradition literally means “to hand on.” So, through Scripture and this Tradition, something of inestimable value has been entrusted through the successive generations to the Church today. 

The Catholic Church has diligently guarded these because Scripture and Tradition together “form one sacred deposit of the word of God” (Dei Verbum 10). And these give us access to the fullness of God’s saving revelation, Christ himself, the Word of God made flesh.

My Church, my rules

We might be tempted to think of the pope, and the bishops in communion with him, exercising their teaching office in a “my Church, my rules” manner. Yet, this magisterial authority is exercised in service to God’s word, not in dominion over it. With this attitude in mind, the Magisterium is entrusted with the task of interpreting and handing on this sacred deposit. 

Ultimately, the Church does not belong to those who exercise or have exercised this authority. They must exercise authority in such a way that the teaching of faith and morality are not their personal projects, as Jesus taught: “My teaching is not my own but is from the one who sent me” (Jn 7:16). This separation from personal preferences allows the teaching office of the Church to point us to the eternal God and to all that truly matters.

Timeless

People in every age wonder why the Church does not change some of her essential teachings to match each novel trend. Our era is not unique in this respect. There have always been those who ask the Church to “get with the times.”

The consistency of the Catholic Church — as exercised by her Magisterium through two millennia — makes an intriguing and life-giving counterproposal: “Get with the timeless!”