From the COMPENDIUM of the Catechism of the Catholic Church © Copyright 2005

As a means to offer our parishioners additional education on the tenets of the Catholic faith, we will be adding one page of the COMPENDIUM of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Compendium, which I now present to the Universal Church, is a faithful and sure synthesis of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It contains, in concise form, all the essential and fundamental elements of the Church’s faith, thus constituting, as my Predecessor had wished, a kind of vademecum which allows believers and non-believers alike to behold the entire panorama of the Catholic faith.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 2005

Read the entire COMPENDIUM here.

Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two The Ten Commandments: Chapter Two “You Shall Love Your Neighbour as Yourself”

09-24-2023Compendium

The Seventh Commandment: You Shall Not Steal

503. What is set forth by the seventh commandment?

The seventh commandment requires respect for the universal destination and distribution of goods and the private ownership of them, as well as respect for persons, their property, and the integrity of creation. The Church also finds in this Commandment the basis for her social doctrine which involves the correct way of acting in economic, social and political life, the right and the duty of human labor, justice and solidarity among nations, and love for the poor.

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Part Three - Life in Christ - Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

09-17-2023Compendium

The Sixth Commandment: You Shall Not Commit Adultery

499. Why are artificial insemination and artificial fertilization immoral?

They are immoral because they dissociate procreation from the act with which the spouses give themselves to each other and so introduce the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Furthermore, heterologous insemination and fertilization with the use of techniques that involve a person other than the married couple infringe upon the right of a child to be born of a father and mother known to him, bound to each other by marriage and having the exclusive right to become parents only through each another.

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Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

09-10-2023Compendium

The Sixth Commandment: You Shall Not Commit Adultery

494. What is the responsibility of civil authority in regard to chastity?

Insofar as it is bound to promote respect for the dignity of the person, civil authority should seek to create an environment conducive to the practice of chastity. It should also enact suitable legislation to prevent the spread of the grave offenses against chastity mentioned above, especially in order to protect minors and those who are the weakest members of society.

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Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

09-03-2023Compendium

The Sixth Commandment: You Shall Not Commit Adultery

490. What are the means that aid the living of chastity?

There are many means at one's disposal: the grace of God, the help of the sacraments, prayer, self-knowledge, the practice of an asceticism adapted to various situations, the exercise of the moral virtues, especially the virtue of temperance which seeks to have the passions guided by reason.

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Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

08-27-2023Compendium

The Fifth Commandment: You Shall Not Kill

486. What must be done to avoid war?

Because of the evils and injustices that all war brings with it, we must do everything reasonably possible to avoid it. To this end it is particularly important to avoid: the accumulation and sale of arms which are not regulated by the legitimate authorities; all forms of economic and social injustice; ethnic and religious discrimination; envy, mistrust, pride and the spirit of revenge. Everything done to overcome these and other disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war.

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Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

08-20-2023Compendium

The Fifth Commandment: You Shall Not Kill

482. What is required for earthly peace?

Earthly peace requires the equal distribution and safeguarding of the goods of persons, free communication among human beings, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of justice and fraternity.

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Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

08-13-2023Compendium

Fifth Commandment: You Shall Not Kill

477. What practices are contrary to respect for the bodily integrity of the human person?

They are: kidnapping and hostage taking, terrorism, torture, violence, and direct sterilization. Amputations and mutilations of a person are morally permissible only for strictly therapeutic medical reasons.

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Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

08-06-2023Compendium

The Fifth Commandment: You Shall Not Kill

472. Why must society protect every embryo?

The inalienable right to life of every human individual from the first moment of conception is a constitutive element of civil society and its legislation. When the State does not place its power at the service of the rights of all and in particular of the more vulnerable, including unborn children, the very foundations of a State based on law are undermined.

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Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

07-30-2023Compendium

The Fourth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Mother

465. When is a citizen forbidden to obey civil authorities?

A citizen is obliged in conscience not to obey the laws of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts of the Apostles 5:29).

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Part Three - Life in Christ Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

07-21-2023Compendium

The Fifth Commandment: You Shall Not Kill

469. What kind of punishment may be imposed?

The punishment imposed must be proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Given the possibilities which the State now has for effectively preventing crime by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm, the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically non-existent.” (Evangelium Vitae). When non-lethal means are sufficient, authority should limit itself to such means because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good, are more in conformity with the dignity of the human person, and do not remove definitively from the guilty party the possibility of reforming himself.

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Part Three - Life in Christ - Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter Two

07-16-2023Compendium

The Fourth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Mother

460. What are the duties of parents toward their children?

Parents, in virtue of their participation in the fatherhood of God, have the first responsibility for the education of their children and they are the first heralds of the faith for them.

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Part Three - Life in Christ - Section Two: The Ten Commandments - Chapter 2

07-09-2023Compendium

The Fourth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Mother

455. What does the fourth commandment require?

It commands us to honor and respect our parents and those whom God, for our good, has vested with his authority.

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Part Three - Life in Christ – Section Two: The Ten Commandments – Chapter 1

07-02-2023Compendium

The 3rd Commandment: Remember to keep holy the Lord's day (continued)

452. For what reason has the Sabbath been changed to Sunday for Christians?

The reason is because Sunday is the day of the Resurrection of Christ. As “the first day of the week” (Mark 16:2) it recalls the first creation; and as the “eighth day”, which follows the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by the Resurrection of Christ. Thus, it has become for Christians the first of all days and of all feasts. It is the day of the Lord in which he with his Passover fulfilled the spiritual truth of the Jewish Sabbath and proclaimed man’s eternal rest in God.

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