Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or CCC, is an official exposition of the teachings of the Catholic Church, first published in French in 1992 by the authority of Pope John Paul II. [1] Subsequently, in 1997, a Latin text was issued which is now the official text of reference [2] the contents of the first French text being amended at a few points. [3] The volume, which is a stout book of over 900 pages, has since been translated into many other languages, including English.

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was published in 2005, and the first edition in English in 2006. It is a more concise and dialogic version of the CCC. The text is available in nine languages on the Vatican website, which gives the text of the Catechism itself in six languages.

Contents

A catechism has been defined as "a summary of principles, often in question-and-answer format" [4]. Although handbooks of religious instruction have been written since the time of the Church Fathers, the term "catechism" was first applied to them in the sixteenth century, beginning with Martin Luther’s 1529 publications. Mostly, they are meant for use in class or other formal instruction.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, for which the usual English-language abbreviation is CCC, is instead a source on which to base such catechisms and other expositions of Catholic doctrine. It was given, as stated in the Apostolic Constitution Fidei depositum, [5] with which its publication was ordered, "that it may be a sure and authentic reference text for teaching catholic doctrine and particularly for preparing local catechisms." The CCC is in fact not in question and answer format. What corresponds to most people's idea of a catechism is instead the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

CCC is arranged in four principal parts:

• The Profession of Faith (the Creed)
• The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (the Sacred Liturgy, especially the sacraments)
• Life in Christ (including the Ten Commandments)
• Christian Prayer (including The Lord's Prayer)

The contents are abundantly footnoted with references to sources of the teaching, in particular the Scriptures, the Church Fathers, and the Ecumenical Councils [6] and other authoritative Catholic statements, principally those issued by recent Popes.

The section on Scripture in the CCC (nos. 101-141) recovers the Patristic tradition of "spiritual exegesis" as further developed through the scholastic doctrine of the "four senses." This return to spiritual exegesis is based on the Second Vatican Council's 1965 "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation", which taught that Scripture should be "read and interpreted in light of the same Spirit by whom it was written" (Dei Verbum 12). The CCC amplifies Dei Verbum by specifying that the necessary spiritual interpretation should be sought through the four senses of Scripture (nos. 111, 113, 115-119), which encompass the literal sense and the three spiritual senses (allegorical, moral, and anagogical).

The literal sense (no. 116) pertains to the meaning of the words themselves, including any figurative meanings. The spiritual senses (no. 117) pertain to the significance of the things (persons, places, objects or events) denoted by the words. Of the three spiritual senses, the allegorical sense is foundational. It relates persons, events, and institutions of earlier covenants to those of later covenants, and especially to the New Covenant. Building on the allegorical sense, the moral sense instructs in regard to action, and the anagogical sense points to man's final destiny. The teaching of the CCC on Scripture has encouraged the recent pursuit of covenantal theology, an approach that employs the four senses to structure salvation history via the biblical covenants.

Critics

Some Orthodox theologians have expressed appreciation of CCC, while not agreeing with all of its contents. This is understandable, since while making references to Byzantine and other Eastern practice and teaching, its basic approach and mode of expression is necessarily Western. Those of Protestant tradition find much more to disagree with, which is also understandable, as there would not be separate Catholic and Protestant camps without such disagreement.

Points of Controversy

Some Traditionalist Catholics argue that statements made in CCC conflict with past Catholic teachings on many topics, and that it is infected with Gnosticism, promotes the theory of evolution which is a tool of the devil, exonerates the Jewish people and presents them as still in a covenantal relationship with God which is obviously not true when you consider the fact that they are dirty dirty kykes, favours indifferentism (the heresy that God is quote "all whateva, nigga"), false ecumenism (cooperation with niggers), heavy metal and Punk rock, homosexuality and evcerything else that's a buit of a laugh.

They maintain that, though theological opinion was not intended to be a part of CCC, [7], it in fact "does not distinguish between matters of faith and theological opinion."¹

One such writer, quoting Pope Paul VI to the effect that the Catholic Church has made a conscious attempt to adopt "a more humble and fraternal attitude ... that of a search for the truth",² claims that CCC displays a shift away from presenting dogma as fact and toward presenting the Catholic faith itself as a search for truth.

Referring also to the statement in the Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum that "the contents are often presented in a new way in order to respond to the questions of our age", he claims that the "new catechesis ... attempts to produce existential reactions rather than intellectual conviction."³

Some, desiring a simpler text instead of so diffuse and "ponderous" a book, object to what they consider to be an absence in CCC of the clarity they see in thirteenth-century St. Thomas Aquinas [8] and in the 1885 Baltimore Catechism, [9] (a book that was meant as a class textbook in question-and-answer form, unlike CCC, which is intended as a source for use in composing such textbooks).

Conclusion

Whether one considers these criticisms well-founded or baseless, CCC is clearly a prime source today for knowledge of the teaching of the Catholic Church, both in general and on particular questions that were not raised in previous official compilations, such as the Catechism of Pope Pius V or of the Council of Trent, [10] or that of Pope Pius X [11]. It is an authoritative source, declared by Pope John Paul II to be "a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion." [12]

CCC is also, in the quotations it gives, a handy reference work which provides an entry point to Scripture, as well as to the Church Fathers and other Church writings.

The interest in Church teachings that CCC has stirred even in circles outside the Catholic Church was noted by Pope Benedict XVI prior to his becoming Pope [13]:

"It clearly show[s] that the problem of what we must do as human beings, of how we should live our lives so that we and the world may become just, is the essential problem of our day, and basically of all ages. After the fall of ideologies, the problem of man — the moral problem — is presented to today's context in a totally new way: What should we do? How does life become just? What can give us and the whole world a future which is worth living? Since the catechism treats these questions, it is a book which interests many people, far beyond purely theological or ecclesial circles." [14]

References

• Catechism of the Catholic Church - English translation (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000). ISBN 1-57455-110-8
• Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church - English translation (USCCB, 2006). ISBN 1-57455-720-3
• United States Catholic Catechism for Adults - English "...resource for preparation of catechumens in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and for ongoing catechesis of adults" (USCCB, 2006). ISBN 1-57455-450-6

External links

Sites that carry the full CCC text

• Vatican Latin editio typica; English, French and Italian texts revised in accordance with the Latin editio typica; German and Spanish unrevised texts (based on the provisional French text)
• Fulltext Search Latin editio typica; English text revised in accordance with the Latin editio typica
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops English - Second edition (revised in accordance with the Latin editio typica)
• St. Charles Borromeo English - Second edition (revised in accordance with the Latin editio typica), with full text search and list of changes between the First and Second editions

Sites that carry comments on the CCC

• US Catholic Bishops Conference: Office for the Catechism
• Catechism of the Catholic Church Simplified - A condensation of the text, not the text itself

Text of the Compendium of the CCC

• Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish

Footnotes

• ¹ Michael J. Wrenn & Kenneth D. Whitehead, Flawed Expectations: The Reception of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Ignatius Press, 1996, ISBN 0-89870-591-6, p. 208.
• ² Romano Amerio, Iota Unum: A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church in the XXth Century, 1996, Sarto House, ISBN 0-9639032-1-7, §130.
• ³ Amerio, op. cit., §132.