BY: CATHERINE DURAND

In a talk given by Patrick Madrid, Catholics and Protestants were urged to bridge the gap between different perceptions of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Ut Unum Sint sponsored the talk on Scripture and Tradition given to students from Franciscan University and Wheaton College on Saturday, February 11.

Madrid, a part-time professor of Theology and Catechetics at Franciscan University, and the author of 16 Catholic books, spoke on the separation between Catholics and Protestants. He discussed the need for all Christians to seek unity. He said that Christians need to "take a moment to recognize that division is a bad thing, and the scandal of division between Christians is something we should work to overcome."

Madrid opened his talk with the explanation of the greatest gap in the different Christian faiths: the Catholic aversion of Scripture minus action and the Protestant dislike for Tradition. He said that the biggest problem was the "great lack of trust" between the two beliefs.

Madrid referred to the document of the Catholic Church, Dei Verbum, as an example of the Catholic Church's belief that both Sacred Scripture and Tradition "are to be respected." He added, "Scripture and Tradition are two ways of speaking about or transmitting the same information."

He also brought up the problems that can arise from misunderstanding the Bible. He used the example of the Arians, who had quoted the Bible to support incorrect theories. He said that there was a great danger of "imparting a meaning into the passage that was not the intended meaning," and that "the Church's realization that there were certain truths that were never implicitly stated in the New Testament [leading to the use of Sacred Tradition], to preserve Scripture from being used by people like Arians." He said it was the Church's "way of clarifying, for herself and the world, what Jesus said and did."

Madrid explained that the early Church "would not have understood; they certainly would not have accepted Sacred Scripture separate from Tradition."

After his talk, Madrid answered several questions from the audience, including the purpose of the Rosary, the significance of the Papacy, and his opinion regarding the biggest barrier keeping Protestants from Catholicism.

Emma Bayer, a senior from Wheaton College, was very pleased with Madrid's talk. She said that she appreciated "how well-spoken and even-keeled he is – he's very much to the point." She concluded with, "He's articulate in a way that can really bridge the gap."