Concise version of Catechism nears completion

The Holy See Press office director Joaquin Navarro-Valls said yesterday that a compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church would be ready early next year. He said: "April 30 marks the end of the consultation process of all cardinals and presidents of episcopal conferences on the project for a Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which has been prepared by the special cardinals' commission and the editing committee. "In the preparations, an attempt was made to put into action what the Holy Father requested in his letter of February 2, 2003 to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: 'The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church should contain, in a concise form, the essential and fundamental contents of the faith of the Church, respecting its completeness and doctrinal integrity, in such as a way as to develop a sort of 'vademecum' that allows people, believers and non-believers, to embrace, in a single, overall glance the entire panorama of the Catholic faith. It will have as its source, model and constant reference point the current Catechism of the Catholic Church which, in keeping intact its authoritativeness and importance, will be able to find, in such a synthesis, a stimulus to be better studied and, more in general, a further instrument of education to the faith'. "The compendium project thus seeks to faithfully mirror the Catechism of the Catholic Church in its structure and in articulating both contents and language, as it must not be just any compendium of the Catholic faith but a compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. "The project sent for consultation is, in length, about a seventh of the original Catechism and has been edited in the form of a dialogue, with questions followed by synthetic answers. This literary style was preferred as it invites (the faithful) to a more frequent reading, setting up an ideal dialogue between the text and the reader. "At the end of the project, several principal, common Christian prayers and several formulas of Catholic doctrine were added as an appendix." Source: VIS