What has happened to the Catholic Catechism?
Hotlips
Shipmate Posts: 8
I can't find it online at the source, the Vatican website; all I get is error 404 not found for the entire resource archive. Has it been withdrawn because it is being re-issued perhaps?
https://vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
https://vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html
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That worked for me, but be warned! It's a long document (if you didn't know that already). I doubt if there's anything sinister going on, as even the Ship knows of the occasional glitch...
Thanks, that works. I was particularly interested in
Part 1
Section 1
Chapter 2
Article 3
Heading II
Paragraph 108
FYI: 'Still, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book”. Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, “not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living”. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open (our) minds to understand the Scriptures.” '
Does any other church have anything so comprehensive? The anglican 39 articles don't seem to do the job.
Its thought the Russians are so fed up with the Popes statements on the invasion of Ukraine that they have brought down the Vatican website.
But confessions and catechisms are a staple of Reformed churches. Exactly which ones are accepted as authoritative by any particular church varies; the Three Forms of Unity (the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort and the Heidelberg Catechism) are often accepted by Reformed churches with continental European roots, while the Westminster Standards have been widely accepted by Presbyterian churches. Beginning in the mid-20th C., some Reformed churches began to adopt newer confessions in addition to the “traditional” ones.
So with that in mind, if you’re looking for something that expresses ideas similar to what you’ve quoted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, I’d point to Part 1, Section 2.C, of the Confession of 1967 of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which says: Is that the kind of comprehensiveness you’re thinking of?
Nothing of the same length and detail, I suspect, but plenty of other denominations have catechisms, including the CofE (though I doubt it's been spotted in the wild for some time). Presbyterians have a shorter and a larger, the latter running to nearly 200 questions with answers and scriptural references (cue jokes about "man's chief end").
In addition, the PC(USA) has a Study Catechism (134 questions) and a children’s catechism (60 questions). They do not have confessional status.
The Episcopal Church has a catechism in its 1979 Book of Common Prayer. How much use it gets,I cannot say.
And, of course, the various Lutheran bodies have Luther’s Small Catechism and Large Catechism.
I've heard of several local parish study series based on the 1979 (USA) BCP Catechism. There's also a fine book called Questions on the Way, published by Forward Movement, that expands on the catechism in a similar Q&A format. But in general, I've heard it said that the liturgy is the best teacher of the faith, so the whole BCP can be the guide to Anglican/Episcopal understanding. For one thing, most of the collects have a small statement of an aspect of faith, such as our Advent II collect: ...[God] sent [God's] messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation..." Then of course the Creeds, eucharistic prayers, ordination/consecration prayers, baptismal covenant and rite, etc. - add up to a rather rich guide to church teaching.
I also heard in a sermon that someone asked the preacher for "a compendium of the Catholic faith," and he gave them a BCP and a Bible. Not bad. Might want to pay attention to the space, symbols, movements, and actions during liturgies as well.