Hi Jo,
Bible Alone (or, Sola Scriptura): The belief that ‘Scripture is the only infallible rule for deciding issues of faith and practices that involve doctrines’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura
Faith Alone (or, Sola Fide): The belief that ‘it is on the basis of their faith [alone] that believers are forgiven their [sins] rather than on the basis of good works which they have done.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_fide
Regarding the various Church teachings that I mentioned: Yes, it could certainly be argued that the Bible does not support Catholic teaching in these respects. That is why the Reformation took place – at least in Europe.
You ask lots of questions at one. Let me know if I have not got your point or just missed anything out:
The Catholic Church (and, I should say, the Anglican communion) understands the authority of the Bible as coming from the fact that it was written with divine inspiration; that it is ‘God breathed’.
The Catholic Church does not believe that every doctrine must ‘come from the Bible’ in the sense of it needing to be clearly explicated there in order to be valid. Hence, the various Marian doctrines; you won’t find a passage that says ‘and at the end of her life, Mary was assumed into heaven, sixty years after her immaculate conception’ (Matt 28:21).
But this does not mean it believes in the adding of extra-Scriptural doctrine to the deposit of the faith. It believes in the twin pillars of Bible and Tradition. Hence, it believes in the validity of doctrine that is rooted in Scripture, but which comes to be clearly explicated through Tradition.
By-the-by it is not only Marian doctrines that are ‘rooted’ without being clearly explicated in the Bible – that most central Christian doctrine, the Trinity, is likewise rooted without being clearly explicated.
The Catholic Church does not teach that God has given us any new revelation since the Bible was written (although it would not put it in those terms. Rather, she wd say that God has not given us any new revelation since the death of the last apostle – John). However, it would only be in heresy in the way you suggest if it upheld the doctrine of ‘if it isn’t in Scripture, it isn’t legitimate’, which it doesn’t, at least, not in the way that you suggest.
). Anyway, I know these sorts of subjects should be approached with caution because otherwise they turn just into a round of Catholic bashing and/or Protestant bashing. However, I'd be interested to see you expand further on your claim that Protestantism is heretical.
