Christ at the center: How tradition anchors the development of doctrine

Larry Chapp, National Catholic Register

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

In debates about Church tradition, there’s a false dialectic between a runaway progressivism that treats tradition like a Rorschach inkblot onto which one can project any interpretation one desires, and a moribund traditionalism that rejects most modern magisterial developments of doctrine on controverted matters as “modernist novelties.” It is reminiscent of the exchange between Peter and Jesus: As soon as Christ has given him authority, Peter begins lecturing Christ about the impropriety of a crucified Messiah. Peter, flush with new “authority,” immediately ignores Christ and replaces the message of Our Lord with his own worldly wisdom. Whereupon Christ refers to Peter as “Satan.” In other words, the only true metric for the authentic exercise of ecclesial authority is a Christological one, grounded in the cross and crucifixion.