When I first heard about this "doomsday vault," I thought to myself, "Hm. Sounds a lot like the Catholic Church and the Deposit of Faith." In fact one of the proprietors of the vault had this to say:
"It is like a holy place. Every time I come here I feel like I'm in a cathedral. This is a place to pause and to think. It's a unique place, a very important place for humanity."
In contrast to our Protestant brothers and sisters who hold belief in the doctrine of Sola Scriptura ("Scripture Alone"), the Catholic Church has always maintained that the Faith consists of "two lungs," or modes of transmission: Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture. As the Catechism states, they are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other, originating from the same source (CCC 80).
"Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit." "And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching." (CCC 81)
When I came to believe in Christ it was essential to not be my own arbiter of divine law; I simply did not trust myself, not did I have a sound enough track record, to do so without danger. A relationship with Christ was essential, and squared with my experience of personal conversion, but a "pearl of great price", the seed of this divine teaching, must be guarded carefully to ensure against mutations. While I admired the way the Christians I knew lived their lives, I felt that doctrine and tradition were important in some way to preserve authentic teaching, though I didn't know to what extent at the time of my reception into the Church.
As an amateur gardener, I am familiar with the importance of good seed. If you plant an heirloom (those original open-pollinated seeds that can be traced back hundred of years, and which are usually passed down through generations) variety of, say, tomatoes, you can save the seed for next season's use. Hybrid seed is genetically manipulated to produce various results (disease resistance, higher yield, etc) but cannot be saved and used for future seasons. Heirloom seed is often seen as "old fashion," your grandmother's variety, while industrial farmers rely on hybrid seed to maximize production and minimize risk.
An example of the mutation of faith when it is severed from the protection of the Magesterium can be seen in the example of the Kakure Kirirshitan ("hidden Christians") of Japan. Forced into hiding due to persecution in the 17th century, this Christian sect endured for hundreds of years maintaining a kind of quasi-Christian tradition that veered from the original missionary faith that St. Francis Xavier and his Jesuit companions brought to the island in the 16th century. In a kind of "whisper down the lane" style, the tradition was passed down but in a mutated fashion, so much so that after 400 years, it hardly resembled Catholic Christianity at all and looked more like a Japanese folk religion.
We can point to our own expression of cultural Catholicism in America today as a kind of mutation. When Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, deny core tenants of the faith or try to make other (incompatible) practices compatible with authentic belief, and basically merge this kind of quasi-Catholic practice with neo-pagan and secular humanistic beliefs, we get a mutation which can easily be seen today in the belief and practice of many western Catholics today. The only difference in this example is that there does not seem to be the same urgent imperative to preserve and pass down this twisted tradition to future generations; most tepid and improperly catechized Catholics today seem content to simply let the Faith die on the generational vine.
If we are going to preserve the true Faith for future generations and work for its endurance, we need to keep it true to form and protect against such mutations, and do so stringently and with ardor. We need to hold fast to sacred scripture and sacred tradition uncompromisingly and work to defend doctrine against error, in addition to living out authentic expressions of Christian praxis and experience in our daily lives, for our future as a Church depends on the careful guarding of this depositum fidei, or deposit of faith as well as the living witness of the faithful for its transmission. The early martyrs died for Christ, but also in defense of doctrine that upheld His true teaching against those real-life scenarios which threatened it. I think of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher and St. John the Baptist, but also of St. Charles Lwanga and his Ugandan companions; the Carmelite martyrs of Compiègne; and countless others who saw no division between doctrine and practice, between love of Christ and love of His Church; between the deposit of faith and the seed of conversion.
The vault of preservation is the Church. She has been given the divine authority to interpret scripture by Christ Himself, and it is our job to submit to Her teaching on matters of faith and morals, in docility and obedience, not in assuming the role of arbiter for ourselves. It is indeed a unique place, a holy place, and indispensably important to the future of humankind.
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