February 2026 Letter from the Provost

It is sometimes said that Christianity is a religion “of the book”. Fake News (at least as far as our Catholic religion is concerned)!

Certainly, the Holy Scriptures hold a unique and privileged status for us. Under the unerring guidance and protection of the Holy Ghost the Church decided which books of the Old Testament belong to the Canon of Scripture. She Herself compiled the whole of the New Testament, and She alone has been granted the office of interpreting the contents of the Old and New Testaments with divinely invested authority.

The Church also teaches that Holy Scripture alone has the guarantee of being divinely inspired. Teachings of popes and of the Church have the guarantee of infallibility in certain limited circumstances. Examples of questionable statements made by popes down the ages show that these conditions are quite circumscribed indeed. Infallibility is a negative guarantee which in a sense merely ensures that a pope can never use his Petrine authority to bind the faithful to believe something concerning faith or morals that is erroneous. The Church has certainly never taught that papal teachings or the doctrines and decrees of ecumenical councils are positively inspired, however authoritative, true and inspiring they might happen to be. The reason for this is that our faith is “apostolic”, and after the death of the last Apostle the Deposit of Faith was complete and sealed, so that inspiration was no longer necessary. The task of the successors of the Apostles ever since has been to unpack and proclaim the doctrines in the Deposit of Faith with nothing added and nothing left out. Infallibility is the Church’s safeguard against error in Her fulfilment of this duty.

The Holy Scriptures hold a more elevated status than the mere guarantee of “infallibility”. Our Church teaches that not only are they free from error, but that every word of Scripture, written by its human author, is inspired by the Holy Ghost. In this sense the word of God found in Scripture is “living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb 4:12).

Even so, ours is not a religion “of the book”. Ours is a religion of “the Person”, and that Person is none other than the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The essence of our life as Christians is friendship with Him, a friendship which is made possible supernaturally when we are elevated to the State of Grace in Baptism and inserted into the Divine life of the Blessed Trinity. The word of God enshrined in Holy Scripture, along with the Deposit of Faith and the Sacraments which He has entrusted to His Church, is an essential means to an end, and that end is union with the Word made flesh in the Incarnation. The most intimate union we can enjoy with Him in this life is in receiving His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Communion, the highest possible token of friendship purchased with His Sacrifice on Calvary.

Father Julian Large