Pope Leo XIV tasks theologians with clarifying meaning of Church tradition
Pope Leo XIV appointed 24 new members to the International Theological Commission for a five-year term, including theologians from Latin America and Spain. The commission will study the meaning of Church Tradition, how it is distinguished and recognized, and how it has been addressed by recent popes. A second subcommission will examine how the faith is transmitted through different cultures, including inculturation, popular piety, and forms of religious expression. Established by St. Paul VI in 1969, the commission assists the Holy See in studying important doctrinal questions.
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Pope Leo XIV has appointed 24 members to a renewed International Theological Commission, which will spend the next five years examining what the Catholic Church means by Tradition and how the faith is transmitted through different cultures. Its work is to be divided between two subcommissions, on the nature of Tradition and on its cultural expression. 1
The new appointees include 16 priests, one religious sister, and seven laypeople; the commission’s other six members will serve a second term. Among those named are Argentine theologians Fabricio Leonel Forcat and Jorge Alejandro Scampini, professors at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. 1
One subcommission will examine Church Tradition, including what belongs to Tradition, where it is found, and how it is identified. Its work is expected to draw on biblical, patristic, historical, philosophical, and scientific perspectives, as well as review the development of magisterial teaching on the subject. 1
The other will study how the faith is expressed and passed on through different cultures. Planned topics include inculturation, popular piety, and the languages and forms used to communicate Christianity in varied cultural settings; the topics were chosen through dialogue between Leo and Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the commission’s president and prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. 1
Established by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and affiliated with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the commission assists the Holy See in studying important doctrinal questions. Its members are theologians appointed by the pope on the recommendation of the dicastery’s prefect. 1
The Catechism describes Tradition as the living transmission of the Gospel in the Holy Spirit, closely connected to but distinct from Scripture. It distinguishes apostolic Tradition—the transmission of what the apostles received from Jesus and through the Holy Spirit—from particular ecclesial traditions, which may vary by place and historical period. 1
The development and cultural transmission of Catholic tradition
Catholic tradition develops through history without becoming a different faith: its central continuity is the apostolic faith, while understanding and expression can grow across languages, cultures, and generations. It is transmitted not only through written teaching but through the Church’s worship, life, catechesis, witness, and ministry. Cultural forms can help carry the faith, but they must serve and communicate it rather than replace or distort it.
In Catholic teaching, Tradition is not simply a collection of old customs or texts. It is the living transmission of what the Church has received and believes, carried on in the Holy Spirit. The Catechism describes it as distinct from Scripture but closely connected to it: through Tradition, the Church “in her doctrine, life and worship” hands on to every generation what she is and believes.
This means that tradition is both content and a way of life. It includes the faith’s teaching, but also the practices and communal forms through which people learn to pray, worship, understand the faith, and live it. The International Theological Commission identifies Scripture study, liturgical worship, the teaching of witnesses through the ages, catechesis, love of God and neighbour, ecclesial ministry, and the Magisterium’s service to God’s Word as vital parts of this transmission.
The Church’s transmission is communal, not merely the sum of individuals passing on private ideas. A 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article describes tradition as living in the shared faith and practice of the Church, expressed in words and actions and recognized through both historical testimony and the Church’s living teaching authority. This account is useful as a historical explanation, though the more recent magisterial sources provide the clearer basis for the present account.
Development means that the Church can grow in its understanding and articulation of the faith it has received. It does not mean that the faith is freely reinvented. The International Theological Commission cites the teaching that apostolic Tradition “makes progress in the Church, with the help of the Holy Spirit,” as insight into what has been handed on grows over time. It also stresses that the unity of faith is expressed amid diverse languages and cultures.
That development is connected to continuity: the same faith is remembered, taught, celebrated, and brought to bear in changing circumstances. The CDF’s reflection on culture likewise says that cultures develop through encounters with new realities and insights; they can become stagnant when inherited truth loses a convincing connection to new knowledge and survives only as habit.
So development is neither mere repetition nor change for its own sake. A traditional expression may need explanation or renewed articulation so that people can understand the faith it carries. But novelty alone is not proof of fidelity. The Church’s task is to discern whether a new expression makes the received faith more intelligible while remaining in continuity with it. The 1913 article describes this as the Magisterium drawing on earlier formulations to preserve and explain the faith, while giving immutable truth expression suited to the circumstances of the time.
Culture is not simply decoration surrounding religious belief. It shapes how communities remember, communicate, and live what they value. The CDF describes culture as belonging to a social subject: a community receives and preserves insights, while also shaping the experience of its members. Cultures can therefore carry inherited wisdom beyond what any one person could preserve or express alone.
For Catholic tradition, cultural transmission can happen through language, teaching, worship, art, stories, and the witness of people whose lives embody the faith. The Magisterium’s account of tradition specifically includes liturgy, catechesis, the witness of believers across the ages, and practical love of neighbour. A Catholic University, in a different setting, is described as transmitting local culture to succeeding generations while bringing the Church’s experience into dialogue with other cultures and with the Gospel.
Cultural diversity can therefore be a genuine resource: the faith is not confined to one language or social setting. But dialogue does not mean that every cultural idea or practice automatically expresses Catholic belief. The CDF argues that cultures are open to historical development and transformation through encounter; that openness allows a culture to be examined and renewed, not simply accepted without discernment.
A helpful distinction is between the faith being handed on and the particular cultural forms through which it is handed on. Expressions can differ across time and place; the fundamental concern is whether they faithfully communicate what the Church has received. The International Theological Commission’s emphasis on unity of faith amid diverse languages and cultures supports this distinction, while its warning that Tradition ceases to be living if it “fossilises” cautions against treating every inherited expression as incapable of development.
There is a complementary caution against adapting so aggressively that the meaning becomes obscure. Tracey Rowland, writing as a scholar rather than as an official teaching authority, argues that familiar imagery and rites can carry meanings that are lost when they are replaced merely because a different form is fashionable. Her example of replacing a fish symbol with an elephant is intended to illustrate how changing signs without regard for what a community understands them to mean can disrupt transmission. This is a scholarly warning about cultural and liturgical continuity, not by itself a complete rule for judging every proposed change.
A further scholarly account emphasizes the embodied character of transmission: the Christian faith is handed on through concrete human lives, relationships, and practices, not only through abstract ideas. It connects this to the Incarnation and argues that material forms and personal testimony can serve the transmission of faith. This helps explain why worship, communal practice, and visible signs matter—but it should be read as theological interpretation, not as a substitute for the Church’s authoritative teaching.
The practical implication is that Catholics receive tradition actively: by learning the faith, participating in worship, living charity, and passing on what they have received. At the same time, new cultural expressions require discernment: Do they make the faith intelligible? Do they preserve its substance? Do they draw people into the Church’s common life of belief and worship? These questions follow from the Church’s simultaneous commitment to faithful continuity, living development, and expression in diverse cultures.