Cool Easy To Read Cathechism!

[Lioness For Christ]

Hey guys--look what I found and it's full of Veritas! (Latin for TRUTH)

[url="http://www.catholicfamilycatechism.com"]http://www.catholicfamilycatechism.com [/url]

It's an easy to read Cathechism with important stuff RIGHT THERE! (Ex. Holy Days of Obligation, definitions of the Commandments, what you need to know about the Sacraments, a link to Mass times, and MORE!) Check it out and talk about it here!

[Deb]

It kind of reminds me of the Baltimore Catechism. Theology all dumbed down. Where is the Nicene Creed? Where is the profession of faith?
One must learn the background of the faith, not just the buzzwords. Best to learn it directly from the Catechism. The big one with all the stuff in it.

[Lioness For Christ]

The one with all the big stuff in it is hard to understand and doesn't always help if you are looking for something important quickly...

[Deb]

[quote name='Lioness For Christ' post='1626156' date='Aug 13 2008, 02:04 PM']The one with all the big stuff in it is hard to understand and doesn't always help if you are looking for something important quickly...[/quote]


My point exactly. If you want to know why a Catholic believes something, you need the Catechism. Most of the problems with fallen away Catholics are because they only learned the buzz words and ended up knowing nothing about their faith.

So, if someone wants to use this site for looking up a holy day of obligation (googling it does it just as fast) that is okay but, labeling the site Catechism is wrong because it is not the Catechism.

[Lioness For Christ]

A lot of fallen away Catholics don't even know the very basics... This could be a starting point perhaps?

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='Lioness For Christ' post='1626156' date='Aug 13 2008, 01:04 PM']The one with all the big stuff in it is hard to understand and doesn't always help if you are looking for something important quickly...[/quote]
There [i]is[/i] a topical index...also, this has helped me with quick, irrefutable evidence in many the online debate:
[url="http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm"]http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm[/url]
Both the real deal book, the latter the better suited for quick find purposes.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

While it may be straightforward on some things, I doubt it would pass the scrutiny of the Magisterium. The Church has been very clear in her instructions that catechesis must contain the entire deposit of faith, attuned, of course, to the mind of the student. It seems to me that this catechism is just a series of catechetical instructions on many popular topics, but not covering the entire range of the faith. For instance, as important as it is to know that contraception is objectively mortal sin (which this catechism does point out in boldface), it's more important to address the Trinity, the hypostatic union, the Holy Spirit, the Incarnation, etc.

The front page shows that the couple that wrote this was trying to make a catechism that emphasized what they felt needed to be taught. While the CCC isn't as explicit on some topics as it could be, it does cover the whole range of the faith. This catechism doesn't. It bothers me that they would try to imply that their Catechism is more thorough by tauting that it has things not found in any other texts while at the same time neglecting certain key aspects of the faith.

That said, I'm sure they had good intention.

[Deb]

I agree. I access it online at usccb. I have the regular Catechism and I also have the Essential Catholic Catechism by Alan Schreck. That is easier to understand and it references the official Catechism for further study. So, if just starting out, it is a good basic.

If all one does is memorize a bunch of words, they aren't learning what Catholics believe or why. That is very important to someone starting out.

[Mercy me]

When first got the Catechism I was advised that I should read it backwards from back to front. Meaning start with part four Christian Prayer focusing on the Our Father and then work my way forward. It really helped my to keep the context. I have now read it several times and use it as a constant reference.

[Deb]

I should try reading it backwards. I have skipped around so much, I am not sure what I have read or not. Our priest wants everyone in the parrish to read one page a day throughout 2008 or listen to the ten cd set of Catholicism 101. I did the cd's but, also working on the Catechism.

[Lilllabettt]

Keep in mind, this catechism is written for children.

Personally, I like the Baltimore Catechism. For children.

I think its not a bad idea for kids to memorize a wide range of facts about our faith.

Of course there's way more to the faith than memorization. But hopefully the teacher/parent using this tool is more capable of communicating about the full scope of salvation history, the love and mercy of God, the development of doctrine, etc. than a book can.

This is the challenge all teachers face; how to get the kids from knowing individual facts to broad concepts. Bobby can memorize multiplication tables, but can he explain why "it works?" Susie knows dates, but does she understand how World War I led to World War II? Aside from the rare genius, very few children can get this from reading a text book. It has to come from the teacher.

It's one thing to memorize the rules of grammar and another to craft artful sentence flow and meaningful dialogue. But both are absolutely essential to good writing.

[Lil Red]

+J.M.J.+
hey Deb, check this out:
[url="http://www.chnetwork.org/readguide04.pdf"]http://www.chnetwork.org/readguide04.pdf[/url]

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Lilllabettt' post='1626184' date='Aug 13 2008, 02:43 PM']Keep in mind, this catechism is written for children.

Personally, I like the Baltimore Catechism. For children.

I think its not a bad idea for kids to memorize a wide range of facts about our faith.

Of course there's way more to the faith than memorization. But hopefully the teacher/parent using this tool is more capable of communicating about the full scope of salvation history, the love and mercy of God, the development of doctrine, etc. than a book can.

This is the challenge all teachers face; how to get the kids from knowing individual facts to broad concepts. Bobby can memorize multiplication tables, but can he explain why "it works?" Susie knows dates, but does she understand how World War I led to World War II? Aside from the rare genius, very few children can get this from reading a text book. It has to come from the teacher.

It's one thing to memorize the rules of grammar and another to craft artful sentence flow and meaningful dialogue. But both are absolutely essential to good writing.[/quote]

I agree with most of what you say, but I don't think the fact that it's written for children excuses that it leaves out parts of the faith. Whether or not they can understand it, they still need to know that Jesus is God, that God is a Trinity, etc.

[Autumn Dusk]

[quote name='Deb' post='1626155' date='Aug 13 2008, 03:03 PM']It kind of reminds me of the Baltimore Catechism. Theology all dumbed down. Where is the Nicene Creed? Where is the profession of faith?
One must learn the background of the faith, not just the buzzwords. Best to learn it directly from the Catechism. The big one with all the stuff in it. [/quote]


Errr ummm what Baltimore Catechism are you talking about? The one for children was "dumbed down" but the actual Baltimore Catechism was a decent book q&a style with references to the bible.

[Noel's angel]

I've always thought that for quick, easy to read reference, the Compendium of the CCC is pretty good.