Deposit of Faith The Deposit of Faith is the body of saving
truth entrusted by Christ to the Apostles and handed on by them to the Church
to be preserved and proclaimed. In this sense, the term is very nearly coextensive
with “objective revelation,” in that it embraces the whole of Christ’s teaching
and embodied in Revelation and Tradition. But the metaphor of “deposit”
highlights particular features of the apostolic teaching features of the
apostolic teaching. It suggests that this teaching is like an inexhaustible
treasure, one that consistently rewards reflection and study with new insights and
deeper penetration into the mystery of the divine economy of salvation.
Although our understanding of this teaching can develop, it can never be
augmented in its substance. Thus, the teaching is a divine trust, something not
to be tampered with, altered, or, as it were, “devalued.” This feature of the
apostolic teaching has also been expressed in the traditional conviction that Revelation,
properly so-called, was complete with the death of the last Apostle. The
treasure of saving truth—in itself nothing other than Christ Himself—contains the
definitive revelation of God’s inner life and His intentions in our regard.
There can be no more complete revelation than that imparted by the very Word of
God, the Son Who is the perfect image of the Father and Who sends the illuminating
Spirit into the Church. The position of the Church with respect to the Deposit
of Faith is thus something similar to that of a trustee: charged to preserve a
living tradition with fidelity, she must nonetheless proclaim it in new historical
circumstances in such a way that its efficacy and richness are undiminished. Although
the term “Deposit of Faith” entered official Catholic teaching only with the
Council of Trent, its substance is well-attested in the Scriptures and the
Fathers. (“Deposit of Faith,” in Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encyclopedia,
ed. Peter M. J. Stravinskas [rev ed.; Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor,
1998], 320-21)
Development of
Doctrine The notion that the Church’s
understanding of divinely revealed truths grows and evolves throughout the
centuries. The substance of the Truth always remains the same; however, the
grasp of the Truth—due to the gradual unfolding of the divine mysteries—changes.
Nothing has been added to our subtracted from the Deposit of Faith since the
death of the last Apostle. However, the mysteries revealed by Christ to His Apostles
are clearer now than they were in the first centuries, through the penetration
of these truths by the early Fathers and Doctors of the Church. It is God’s
desire that the faithful assent and understand the truth as best they are able.
At times, a mystery which seemed implicit in the Scriptures was made explicit
by a papal definition (e.g., the Immaculate Conception). According to John A. Hardon,
S. J., the progressive realization and understanding of the Chruch’s doctrines
is due to “the prayerful reflection of the faithful, notably of the Church’s
saints and mystics; the study and research by scholars and theologians; the
practical experience of living the Faith among the faithful; and the collective
wisdom and teaching of the Church’s hierarchy under the Bishop of Rome” (Modern
Catholic Dictionary, p. 155). (“Development of Doctrine,” in ibid., 324)
The Church is “apostolic”—the Church
presents are true, unchangeable doctrine of Jesus, as taught in the apostolic
era and handed down through the Apostles’ successors, the bishops. (“Marks of
the Church,” in ibid., 651)