CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF
Issued by order of Pope Pius V
INTRODUCTORY
The Necessity Of Religious
Instruction
Such is the nature of the human mind and intellect that,
although by means of diligent and laborious inquiry it has of itself
investigated and discovered many other things pertaining to a knowledge of
divine truths; yet guided by its natural lights it never could have known or
perceived most of those things by which is attained eternal salvation, the
principal end of man's creation and formation to the image and likeness of God.
It is true that the invisible things of God from the
creation of the world are, as the Apostle teaches, clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made: his eternal power also, and divinity.
But the mystery which hath been hidden from ages and generations so far
transcends the reach of man's understanding, that were it not made manifest by
God to His Saints, to whom He willed to make known by the gift of faith, the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ, man
could by no effort attain to such wisdom.
But, as faith comes by hearing, it is clear how necessary
at all times for the attainment of eternal salvation has been the labour and
faithful ministry of an authorised teacher; for it is written, how shall they
hear, without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent?
And, indeed, never, from the very creation of the world,
has God, most merciful and benignant, been wanting to His own; but at sundry
times and in divers manners spoke to the fathers by the prophets, and pointed
out to them in a manner suited to the times and circumstances, a sure and
direct path to the happiness of heaven. But, as He had foretold that He would
give a teacher of justice to be the light of the Gentiles, that His salvation
might reach even to the ends of the earth, in these last days he hath spoken to
us by his Son, whom also by a voice from heaven, from the excellent glory, He
has commanded all to hear and to obey. Furthermore, the Son gave some to be
apostles, and some prophets, and others pastors and teachers, to announce the
word of life; that we might not be carried about like children tossed to and
fro with every wind of doctrine, but holding fast to the firm foundation of the
faith, we might be built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit.
Lest any should receive the Word of God from the ministers
of the Church, not as the word of Christ, which it really is, but as the word
of man, the same Saviour has ordained that their ministry should be invested
with so great authority that He says to them: He that hears you, hears me; and
he that despises you despises me. These words He spoke not only of those to
whom His words were addressed, but likewise of all who, by legitimate
succession, should discharge the ministry of the word, promising to be with
them all days even to the consummation of the world.
Need of an Authoritative Catholic Catechism
But while the preaching of the divine Word should never
be interrupted in the Church, surely in these, our days, it becomes necessary
to labour with more than ordinary zeal and piety to nourish and strengthen the
faithful with sound and wholesome doctrine, as with the food of life. For false prophets have gone forth into the world, to corrupt the
minds of the faithful with various and strange doctrines, of whom the Lord has
said: I did not send prophets, yet they ran; I spoke not to them, yet they
prophesied.
In this work, to such extremes has their impiety,
practiced in all the arts of Satan, been carried, that it would seem almost
impossible to confine it within any bounds; and did we not rely on the splendid
promises of the Saviour, who declared that He had built His Church on so solid
a foundation that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, we should
have good reason to fear lest, beset on every side by such a host of enemies
and assailed and attacked by so many machinations, it would, in these days,
fall to the ground.
For - to say nothing of those illustrious States which
heretofore professed, in piety and holiness, the true Catholic faith
transmitted to them by their ancestors, but are now gone astray wandering from
the paths of truth and openly declaring that their best claims to piety are
founded on a total abandonment of the faith of their fathers - there is no
region, however remote, no place, however securely guarded, no corner of Christendom,
into which this pestilence has not sought secretly to insinuate itself.
For those who intended to corrupt the minds of the
faithful, knowing that they could not hold immediate personal intercourse with
all, and thus pour into their ears their poisoned doctrines, adopted another
plan which enabled them to disseminate error and impiety more easily and
extensively. Besides those voluminous works by which they sought the subversion
of the Catholic faith - to guard against which (volumes) required perhaps
little labour or circumspection, since their contents were clearly heretical -
they also composed innumerable smaller books, which, veiling their errors under
the semblance of piety, deceived with incredible facility the unsuspecting
minds of simple folk.
The Nature of this Work
The Fathers, therefore, of the General Council of Trent,
anxious to apply some healing remedy to so great and pernicious an evil, were
not satisfied with having decided the more important points of Catholic
doctrine against the heresies of our times, but deemed it further necessary to
issue, for the instruction of the faithful in the very rudiments of faith, a
form and method to be followed in all churches by those to whom are lawfully
entrusted the duties of pastor and teacher.
To works of this kind many, it is true, had already given
their attention, and earned the reputation of great piety and learning. But the
Fathers deemed it of the first importance that a work should appear, sanctioned
by the authority of the Council, from which pastors and all others on whom the
duty of imparting instruction devolves, may be able to seek and find reliable
matter for the edification of the faithful; that, as there is one Lord, one
faith, there may also be one standard and prescribed form of propounding the
dogmas of faith, and instructing Christians in all the duties of piety.
As, therefore, the design of the work embraces a variety
of matters, it cannot be supposed that the Council intended that in one volume
all the dogmas of Christianity should be explained with that minuteness of
detail to be found in the works of those who profess to treat the teaching and
doctrines of religion in their entirety. Such a task would be one of almost
endless labour, and manifestly ill suited to attain the proposed end. But,
having undertaken to instruct pastors and such as have care of souls in those
things that belong peculiarly to the pastoral office and are accommodated to
the capacity of the faithful, the Council intended that such things only should
be treated of as might assist the pious zeal of pastors in discharging the duty
of instruction, should they not be very familiar with the more abstruse
questions of theology.
The Ends of Religious Instruction
Hence, before we proceed to develop in detail the various
parts of this summary of doctrine, our purpose requires that we premise a few
observations which the pastor should consider and bear in mind in order to know
to what end, as it were, all his plans and labours and efforts are to be
directed, and how this desired end may be more easily attained.
Knowledge Of Christ
The first thing is ever to recollect that all Christian
knowledge is reduced to one single head, or rather, to use the words of the
Apostle, this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. A teacher in the Church should, therefore,
use his best endeavours that the faithful earnestly desire to know Jesus
Christ, and him crucified, that they be firmly convinced, and with the most
heartfelt piety and devotion believe, that there is no other name under heaven
given to men, whereby we must be saved, for he is the propitiation for our
sins.
Observance Of The Commandments
But since by this we know that we have known him, if we
keep his commandments, the next consideration, and one intimately connected
with the preceding, is to press also upon the attention of the faithful that
their lives are not to be wasted in ease and indolence, but that we are to walk
even as he walked, and pursue with all earnestness, justice, godliness, faith,
charity, patience, mildness; for He gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a
pursuer of good works. These things the Apostle commands pastors to speak and
exhort.
Love Of God
But as our Lord and Saviour has not only declared, but
has also proved by His own example, that the Law and the Prophets depend on
love, and as, according to the Apostle, charity is the end of the commandment,
and the fulfilment of the law, it is unquestionably a chief duty of the pastor
to use the utmost diligence to excite the faithful to a love of the infinite
goodness of God towards us, that, burning with a sort of divine ardour, they
may be powerfully attracted to the supreme and all-perfect good, to adhere to
which is true and solid happiness, as is fully experienced by him who can say
with the Prophet: What have I in heaven? and besides
thee what do I desire upon earth?
This, assuredly, is that more excellent way pointed out
by the Apostle when he sums up all his doctrines and instructions in charity,
which never falleth away. For whatever is proposed by the pastor, whether it be the exercise of faith, of hope, or of some moral virtue,
the love of our Lord should at the same time be so strongly insisted upon as to
show clearly that all the works of perfect Christian virtue can have no other
origin, no other end than divine love.
The Means Required for Religious Instruction
But as in imparting instruction of any sort the manner of
communicating it is of highest importance, so in conveying religious
instruction to the people, the method should be deemed of the greatest moment.
Instruction Should Be Accommodated To The
Capacity Of The Hearer
Age, capacity, manners and condition must be borne in
mind, so that he who instructs may become all things to all men, in order that
he may be able to gain all to Christ, prove himself a dutiful minister and
steward, and, like a good and faithful servant, be found worthy to be placed by
his Lord over many things The priest must not imagine that those committed to
his care are all on the same level, so that he can follow one fixed and
unvarying method of instruction to lead all in the same way to knowledge and
true piety; for some are as new-born infants, others are growing up in Christ,
while a few are, so to say, of full maturity. Hence the necessity of
considering who they are that have occasion for milk, who for more solid food, and
of affording to each such nourishment of doctrine as may give spiritual
increase, until we all meet in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of
Christ. This the Apostle inculcates for all by his own example when he says
that he is a debtor to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, to the wise and to the
unwise, thus giving all who are called to this ministry to understand that in
announcing the mysteries of faith and the precepts of life, the instruction is
to be so accommodated to the capacity and intelligence of the hearers, that,
while the minds of the strong are filled with spiritual food, the little ones
be not suffered to perish with hunger, asking for bread, while there is none to
break it unto them.
Zeal
Nor should our zeal in communicating Christian knowledge
be relaxed because it has sometimes to be exercised in expounding matters
apparently humble and unimportant, and whose exposition is usually irksome,
especially to minds accustomed to the contemplation of the more sublime truths
of religion. If the Wisdom of the eternal Father descended upon the earth in
the meanness of our flesh to teach us the maxims of a heavenly life, who is
there whom the love of Christ does not constrain to become little in the midst
of his brethren, and, as a nurse fostering her children, so anxiously to wish
for the salvation of his neighbours as to be ready, as the Apostle says of
himself, to give them not only the gospel of God, but even his own life.
Study Of The Word Of God
Now all the doctrines in which the faithful are to be
instructed are contained in the Word of God, which is found in Scripture and
tradition. To the study of these, therefore, the pastor should devote his days
and his nights, keeping in mind the admonition of St. Paul to Timothy, which
all who have the care of souls should consider as addressed to themselves:
Attend to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine, for all Scripture divinely
inspired is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct injustice,
that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work.
Division of this Catechism
The truths revealed by Almighty God are so many and so
various that it is no easy task to acquire a knowledge
of them, or, having done so, to remember them so well as to be able to explain
them with ease and readiness when occasion requires. Hence our predecessors in
the faith have very wisely reduced all the doctrines of salvation to these four
heads: The Apostles' Creed, the Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, and the
Lord's Prayer.
The part on the Creed contains all that is to be held
according to Christian faith, whether it regard the knowledge of God, the
creation and government of the world, or the redemption of man, the rewards of
the good and the punishments of the wicked. The part devoted to the Seven
Sacraments teaches us what are the signs, and, as it were, the instruments of
grace. In the part on the Decalogue is described whatever has reference to the
law, whose end is charity. Finally, the Lord's Prayer contains whatever can be
the object of the Christian's desires, or hopes, or prayers. The exposition,
therefore, of these four parts, which are, as it were, the general heads of
Sacred Scripture, includes almost everything that a Christian should learn.
How This Work Is To Be Used
We therefore deem it proper to inform pastors that,
whenever they have occasion, in the ordinary discharge of their duty, to
expound any passage of the Gospel or any other part of Holy Scripture. they will find its subject-matter treated under some one of
the four heads already enumerated, to which they recur, as to the source from
which their instruction is to be drawn.
Thus, if the Gospel of the first Sunday of Advent is to
be explained, There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, etc., whatever
regards its explanation is contained under the Article of the Creed, He shall
come to judge the living and the dead; and by embodying the substance of that Article
in his exposition, the pastor will at once instruct his people in the Creed and
in the Gospel. Whenever, therefore, he has to communicate instruction and
expound the Scriptures, he will observe the same rule of referring all to these
four principal heads under which, as we observed, the whole teaching and
doctrine of Holy Scripture is contained. As for order, however, he is free to
follow that which he deems best suited to the circumstances of persons and
time.