Compenium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

If you're Catholic or interested in exploring the Catholic faith, the Compendium should be on your bookshelf and will quickly become one of your regularly consulted resources. The concise question and answer format lends itself to quick answers to those complex questions that may arise. For greater exploration, catechetical citations are provided. I particularly enjoyed the lovely color illustrations and the addition of common prayers in Latin. I would not say that the Compendium is a replacement for the Catechism, but rather an effective companion to the original and a wonderful resource for anyone looking to grow in knowledge and faith.

As a catechist I was overjoyed to see the new Compendium of the Catechism. It is an excellent tool for adult catechesis. Although the big "Catechism of the Catholic Church" is indespensable for the catechist, this new smaller Compendium is less intimidating to those who are new to the Catholic faith and it contains all of the teachings of the larger Catechism in a way that is much more accesible. The Catholic Prayers section is excellent, too.

Bishop Donald Wuerl, past chairman and current member of the American bishops' Committee on Catechesis, had this to say about the Compendium, "[It] offers a concise yet complete presentation of the faith. It presents an overview of the whole Cathechism [of the Catholic Church] without going into all of the details that enrich the Catechism. Its primary focus is to provide ready access in a concise manner to the content of the faith." To the delight of seekers everywhere, the Compendium reintroduces new generations of Catholics to the reliable Q & A format. Twenty five years ago, Silvio Cardinal Oddi, the Prefect for the Sacred Congregation of the Clergy, defended this time-tested format from the attacks of members of supposedly "progressive" catechetical schools. He wisely observed that "specialists in internal medicine, engineering, and chemistry arm themselves with question and answer manuals to check themselves on recent developments in their respective fields." The good cardinal then addressed the progressive complaint directly: "Captious critics have objected that the Faith is not a series of answers to contrived questions but a way of life. The answer to this objection might well be another question: How can we live a Christian life until we first 'know the truth' (John 8:32)?" To that end, the Q & A format enables readers to commit the truths of the faith to memory. Indeed, "memorization" is one of the reasons Pope Benedict cites for issuing the Compendium. And thanks to its beautiful, crisp language, doing so can be a labor of love. Read the following excerpt from the section explaining the "Our Father": "596. What does 'Lead us not into temptation' mean? We ask God our Father not to leave us alone and in the power of temptation. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us know how to discern, on the one hand, between a trial that makes us grow in goodness and a temptation that leads to sin and death and, on the other hand, between being tempted and consenting to temptation. This petition unites us to Jesus who overcame temptation by his prayer. It requests the grace of vigilance and of final perseverance." For about the price of a movie ticket, and in a mere 200 pages, you can learn the path to salvation Christ entrusted to His Church. Bargains don't get any better.