What We Believe and Why We Believe It! A Page Turner
by Terry Fenwick
You get wonderfully lost 'in' this Big Green Book - in the wonder of it all - when you start to look up something in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. My husband and I were Converts and, although we knew the Bible very, very well when we came into Full-Communion in the Catholic Church, we still had a lot to learn. We both had our own copies of the Big Green Book (this one) as well as several copies of the small light weight white one which went into our book bags. However, this larger Catechism has everything - the best foot notes and an excellent Glossary. The Glossary was written by former Archbishop William Levada, of the Archdiocese of San Francisco Agana, who is now William Cardinal Joseph Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world - the former role of our new Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Levada was the only American to work on the new Catechism. My husband always called the Big Green Book a page-turner as he just could not stop reading. He would pick up the book to look up one thing and keep reading for hours.
The Amazon price is so amazingly low and you will find it is a great gift. Catholics who feel they must defend their faith - which has lasted over 2,000 years - or just want to learn more about what they believe - will want to own this book. Terrence J. Sexton commented in his review of this Catechism, one of the best comments of all: "Fulton Sheen once wrote that there are only a handful of Americans who hate the Catholic Church, though there are millions who hate what they think the Church is." I have discovered that many cradle Catholics say they came from a very poorly Catechized time and they, too, need and appreciate this book. Truth, and that is Truth with a capital "T" is so clear in this Catechism and topics are all easy to locate.
We, unlike any other Christian group, have the Authority of the Church. It is wonderful to know What we Believe and Why we Believe It.
(I wrote this review for Amazon February 4, 2007. I always like reviewing my own reviews years later to see if I still believe the same thing today - I always do. This one is about the Catechism of the Catholic Church and it still is a "page-turner" in my book!) Terry Fenwick
1 comment:
What a wonderful tribute! Thanks, Terry.
My husband, Jim, is also a convert (from Episcopal Church -- his late father, Father Max Roberts, was a priest of that denomination). He and I get lost in the Big Green Book and all the wonderful writings.
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