Book Review: The Catechism of the Catholic Church

I did not take my notes on the reading I did. I simply read the text cover to cover. I learned alot. In the Catholic Church, there are seven sacrements. The primary ones are baptisim, confirmation and the Eucharist. There is also the holy orders of priesthood and the religious life, such as teh deaconate and belonging to various ones like the Sisters of Mercy. Marriage is a vocational sacrement, a fact that I had forgotten after reading the text. For some reasons, I thought that it was called something different.

Prayer is given a central focus. It is explained as an act of will directed/prompted and supported by divine grace. This definition makes a great deal of sense, but it seems to be too simplistic. Prayer is so much more then that. But I am a mystic at heart, so I suppose that I am predisposted towards viewing prayer as something larger. The mysteries of Jesus's life is central to the Catholic faith. A rather obvious thing, for with out this the religion would not be Christian. This is supported by the Hebraic religion, as interpreted by the Greek translation of the Torah.

There is an interesting dichotomy in various parts of the Catechisim. At oine point it is clearly stated that God reveals to people how God wants people to relate to him. In a following statement, the religions of the world that are not Christianity are idolitry and superstition. Much like a later portion of the text and is stated that the morally upright non-believers is generally assured the good standing with God as a believer. This is followed by an argument that Baptisim is a necessity for a positive relationship.

This type of confusion indicates that the Church is in a state of flux, if not division, over the multi-culturalisim of the world and interfaith relations. This also leads one to recognize that the Catechism is the fruit of a comittee effort. It begs the question that with these divisions in the Church, how can it managed to have lasted for so long? For these divisions are a long standing issue, it is even ackonowledged to an extent in the portion of the text that discusses the relationship between the Church and other branches of Christianity, as well as the matter of heresy.

This is where you can truly say that the Church fathers posessed wisdom. They instituted within the Church a concept that the Church is not bound by region or language. This allowed for the Mass and many other elements of the life of the Church to be flexible to the needs of the people and the times.

[Edited to add: Yes, I did read the whole thing cover to cover. It took me a while, and it was rather.. mind numbing at parts. However, it was a very educational experience.]

Originally published 8/23/06