 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 Cardinal Ratzinger’s stamp of approval.
In the case of the regular book given to the diocese, the manuscript would go from the censor to the bishop to receive the:
Bishop’s stamp: IMPRIMATUR (“let it be printed”)The religious superior may also go ahead and submit the manuscript they approved for an Imprimatur. So it is possible to have a book with all three seals of approval.
By the way, it is only necessary to put the Imprimi Potest or Imprimatur on the book. You can assume it has gotten a Nihil Obstat first if it made it to those two stages.
A word of warning though ... if you see a book that only has a Nihil Obstat, be cautious. It may be in error. This happened in the 1960s a lot and some of those books contained incorrect material, even heretical material. You need the double-check system to be sure something didn’t slip by someone. That is why if one bishop gave the Nihil Obstat, another bishop has to give the Imprimatur.
The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are often followed by this statement on the copyright page:
The “Nihil Obstat” and “Imprimatur” are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur agree with the content, opinions or statements expressed.
So if one of these authors has all theCatholic truths right but is using them to try to prove that we shouldn’t drink hot coffee because it’s the devil’s temperature ... we can’t blame the Catholic Church.
Remember those footnotes in the Catechism? The ones for materials that are simply referenced, where they might have summarized twelve pages of a Church Council document into two sentences?
If you ever wonder just what was summarized, there’s a book for that too.
The Companion to the Catechism of the Catholic Church ... which is a compendium of texts referred to in the book but not quoted there.
It has every word of the pertinent part of the originally referenced materials, in English, so you don’t have to go all over the place