What does it mean that the Church follows Scripture and tradition? - Lana

Lana;

As Catholics, we believe that Scripture is the sacred and inspired Word of God.  We believe that the Holy Spirit used people and allowed them to use their talents and their ways of writing in order to give us the Divine Word.  Scripture is God's text message to us!

Tradition is the other part of what we believe.  That is Tradition with a capital T.  It is not the small t - tradition which looks at things like where we put our Christmas tree or what we eat at Thanksgiving.  It is the capital T  - Tradition. 

Along with the Bible, we Catholics have a long line of teaching which has been handed down from the Apostles and which continues to be handed on by the Church.  It has been protected by the Magisterium - which is the teaching body of the Church.  Tradition is as much a part of our Catholic heritage as the Scripture.  As a matter of fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it like this:   "the oral preaching of the Apostles, and the written message of salvation under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (Bible), are conserved and handed on as the deposit of faith through the apostolic succession in the Church.  Both the living Tradition and the written Scriptures have their common source in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ."  (CCC - Glossary)

"Though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is one and the same.  The Churches established in [other countries ] have no other faith or Tradition."  (CCC 174)

Hope this helps some.