The Catechism of the Catholic Church

In 1985 John Paul II called an extraordinary synod of bishops for the twentieth anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council. The synod asked for a catechism or compendium of all Catholic doctrine on faith and morals, to serve as a point of reference for the catechisms written in different regions, and the pope made the request his own (John Paul II, Fidei Depositum I).

In 1986 he gave the task to a commission of twelve cardinals and bishops chaired by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, with an editorial committee of seven diocesan bishops to write the text. It went through nine drafts and was sent for comment to the Catholic bishops of the world (John Paul II, Fidei Depositum II). The secretary of the drafting work from 1987 to 1992 was the Dominican theologian Christoph Schönborn (Holy See Press Office, Biographical Notes on the Cardinals: Schönborn).

The pope approved the text on 25 June 1992 and ordered its publication by the constitution Fidei Depositum, dated 11 October 1992, thirty years to the day after the council opened (John Paul II, Fidei Depositum IV–V). He declared it a valid instrument of the church’s communion and a sure norm for teaching the faith. It was not meant, he wrote, to replace local catechisms approved by the bishops, but to help in writing new ones; it was meant also to support ecumenical efforts and was offered to anyone who wanted to know what the Catholic Church believes (John Paul II, Fidei Depositum IV–V).

The book has four parts, in the order which, the pope says, the catechism of Pius V had already followed: the creed, the liturgy and sacraments, the Christian life explained from the Ten Commandments, and prayer (John Paul II, Fidei Depositum III) (Catechism of the Catholic Church 13). Its prologue places it in a line that runs from the catechetical works of the church fathers, through the Council of Trent, which it says lies at the origin of the Roman Catechism, to the renewal of catechesis after the Second Vatican Council (Catechism of the Catholic Church 8–10). It describes its aim as an organic synthesis of the essential contents of Catholic doctrine in the light of that council and of the whole tradition, intended first for the bishops as teachers of the faith (Catechism of the Catholic Church 11–12). By design it leaves the adaptation of teaching to different cultures and ages to local catechisms and to teachers (Catechism of the Catholic Church 24).

The text published in 1992 was in French. In 1997 the pope promulgated a Latin edition as the definitive text (John Paul II, Laetamur Magnopere, paragraphs 1–6). It had been prepared by a second commission under Ratzinger, which worked through changes suggested from around the world, and the pope said that it faithfully repeated the doctrinal content of the first (John Paul II, Laetamur Magnopere, paragraphs 1–6).