How to Read the Catechism
A practical guide to the Catechism: its numbered paragraphs, margins, small print and In Brief summaries, and three good ways to start reading.
Awaiting review A priest has not yet reviewed this article. Read it alongside the Catechism paragraphs it cites, and take questions to your parish.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a big book, and big books can be intimidating. But it is far easier to use than it looks, once you know how it is laid out. It was designed, quite deliberately, to be found your way around in. This article explains its layout, offers three ways to read it, and shows how this library points you to it.
Numbered paragraphs, not pages
Every paragraph in the Catechism has a number, running from 1 to 2865 across the whole book. That number, not the page, is how it is cited, so a reference works in any edition and any language.
When you see CCC 1324, it means paragraph 1324 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (That one, as it happens, calls the Eucharist the source and summit of the Christian life.) A range such as CCC 1322–1419 means all the paragraphs from the first number to the second.
The numbers also tell you roughly where you are:
| Paragraphs | Part |
|---|---|
| 1–25 | Prologue |
| 26–1065 | Part One: the profession of faith |
| 1066–1690 | Part Two: the sacraments |
| 1691–2557 | Part Three: life in Christ |
| 2558–2865 | Part Four: Christian prayer |
What you will find on the page
The Catechism explains its own layout in its Prologue, and it is worth knowing the main features (CCC 18–22).
Cross-references in the margin
In printed editions, small numbers in the margin beside a paragraph point to other paragraphs on the same theme. They let you follow a subject through the whole book: from the Eucharist in the Creed, for instance, to the Eucharist in the sacraments and in prayer (CCC 18).
Small print
Some passages are set in smaller type. These are of two kinds. Some are observations of a historical or apologetic kind, that is, explaining the background or answering objections, or further doctrinal detail (CCC 20). Others are quotations from the Church Fathers, the liturgy, the saints and the Church's teaching documents, which let you hear the faith in the voices of those who lived it (CCC 21). They are not less important; they are a change of voice.
"In Brief"
At the end of each section there is a short run of summary paragraphs headed In Brief. They condense what has just been taught into a few sentences, worded so that they can be remembered (CCC 22). If you only have five minutes, these are the place to go.
Footnotes and index
The footnotes point to the sources: Scripture, the councils, the popes, the Fathers. Scripture is often not quoted in full but only referred to, so the Catechism encourages you to look the passage up yourself (CCC 19). Most editions also include a subject index, an index of citations and, in English, a glossary.
Three ways to use it
Look something up
The simplest way. You have a question, about the Trinity, about fasting before Communion, about what the Church says on a moral issue. Go to the subject index at the back, or search an online edition, and read the paragraphs it lists. Then read a few paragraphs either side, because each paragraph sits in an argument and makes more sense in its setting.
Read the "In Brief" sections first
To get the shape of the whole faith quickly, read only the In Brief summaries, from beginning to end. It takes a few weeks of short sittings. Then go back to the full text wherever something catches you.
Read the whole thing in a year
At about eight paragraphs a day, you can read the entire Catechism in a year. Many parishes and groups follow such a plan together, which makes it easier to keep going. Do not worry if a day's reading is hard going; tomorrow's will be different.
How this library cites it
Throughout this library, references appear in parentheses as you read: (CCC 1213) for one paragraph, (CCC 1210–1212) for a range. Where a reference is introduced with "cf.", short for the Latin confer, "compare", it points to a passage that bears on the point without saying exactly the same thing. Scripture references use full book names, as in (Matthew 6:9–13). We quote the Catechism only briefly and paraphrase the rest, so the paragraph numbers are your way into the full text.
Tips for reading
- Not everything weighs the same. The Church speaks of a "hierarchy of truths": some truths are closer than others to the heart of the faith, the mystery of God and of Christ (CCC 90). Every teaching matters, but the Trinity and the Resurrection are more central than, say, a point of Church discipline. Let the centre hold the edges in place.
- Start where you are. You do not have to begin on page one. Many people find Part Four, on prayer, the warmest way in; within its first few paragraphs it meets the Samaritan woman at the well (CCC 2560). Or begin with whatever you are curious about, and follow the margins from there.
- Read with Scripture open. The Catechism is a servant of the Bible, not a replacement for it.
- Read prayerfully. It is a book about Someone. Pausing to pray over a line is not a distraction from studying the faith; it is the point of it.
Going deeper
- What the Catechism is, on its history, authority and plan.
- What a creed is, where the Catechism's first part begins.
- What prayer is, a companion to Part Four.
- Read next: CCC 11–25, the Catechism's own guide to its structure and use.