Vatican City, Apr 26, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a valuable instrument for the transmission of the faith eagerly anticipated by bishops around the world is nearing completion, says the Vatican.
“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,” said Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls in a statement released this morning.
The Compendium is set to be about one seventh of the length of the Catechism. It will be written in a question and answer format, with a more literary style than the Catechism, in order to encourage the faithful “to a more frequent reading, setting up an ideal dialogue between the text and the reader.”
“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,” continued Navaro-Valls’ statement.