- Life in Christ (including The Ten Commandments in Catholic theology)
- Christian Prayer (including The Lord’s Prayer)
Let’s look at a page. (get pdf of sample page here)
Every paragraph is numbered. (red circle) Those numbers are very important.
When you look up something in the index, the numbers it refers you to are
paragraph numbers, NOT page numbers. This can be confusing until you get used to it, but it does give us an idea of just how much information is packed into each paragraph.
The numbers in the margins (green square) are cross-references ... to other paragraphs in the Catechism that refer to the same subject and may shed more light.
The cross-reference paragraphs are a good reason to have the actual book. The Catechism is on-line in a lot of places (the Vatican’s web-site, the US Bishops’ website, etc.) and is super handy for searching. I use the online version all the time.
But those versions don’t have the cross-reference paragraphs ... and sometimes those lead you to just what you were looking for or for added depth you wouldn’t have found otherwise.
The writers of the Catechism know that this may be more information than you wanted. Maybe you were looking for a simple answer and didn’t need all the extra info.
Each chapter ends with an “In Brief” section that summarizes the main points of the chapter in one or two sentence paragraphs.
Of course, there are are copious footnotes for both direct quotes in the text and also where they refer to sources of the teaching, in particular the Scriptures, the Church Fathers, and the Ecumenical Councils and other authoritative Catholic statements, such as those issued by recent Popes.
Just finding your way to the correct “In Brief” answers may seem a bit daunting if you’re trying to find something quickly ... which is something I’ve experienced in our small group.
And the writers of the Catechism realized that too.
So, in 2005 they came out with the Compendium to the Catechism. (Download a sample page here.)
It is a more concise and conversational version of the Catechism.
Again the paragraphs are numbered. These paragraph numbers don’t have any relationship to the numbers in the Catechism.
However, these numbers in the margin (red circle) DO correspond to numbers in the actual Catechism so if you want to read more, it is easy to find.
Say you need more explanation though, and the Catechism is a bit too confusing. I’ve been there. Here are three good books. (Links lead to my reviews.)
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Catechism
- Catholicism for Dummies (I haven't formally reviewed this ... but will ... but these many posts with excerpts give ample evidence of the solid value of this book)
- Catholic Mass for Dummies
For one thing, how can we trust these books though to tell us the truth about Catholic teachings?
First, they all use those same, all-important paragraph numbers from the Catechism so that you can go check what they’re saying against the Catechism itself.
There is a much easier way to be sure though.
I didn’t trust these books myself ... until I saw that each went to the trouble of getting the Catholic seal of approval.
Here’s what I mean by that.
Look on the copyright page for one or more of these phrases (below). These mean that the book has been submitted to Catholic authorities to be checked for accuracy.
If the author belongs to a religious order, the book is submitted to the order’s superior. If the author is just a regular writer, the book is usually submitted to local Catholic authorities, like the local diocese.
In either case, first the book is examined by an expert, called a censor. If the book is accurate, they issue:
Censor’s stamp: NIHIL OBSTAT (“nothing stands in the way”)After the Nihil Obstat has been obtained, the manuscript will be submitted another person for checking.
In the case of a religious order, it is examined by the order’s religious superior ... in which case it receives the:
Religious Superior’s stamp: IMPRIMI POTEST (“it can be printed”)I have only come across the Imprimi Potest once ... in The Catechism, which has Cardi