October 11, 2017
25th Anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Holiness and Mission Column for October 2017 The Long Island Catholic Magazine.
Seven Reasons to Celebrate our Catholic Faith on the 25th Anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
By: Most Reverend John O. Barres, Bishop, Diocese of Rockville Centre
The Church’s celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its
impact on the New Evangelization and the mission of the Church gives us occasion to celebrate
seven dimensions of our Catholic Faith that are expressed by the Catechism.
1)Celebrate the Catechism’s Emphasis on the Catholic Truth of the Deposit of Faith
In the very first sentence of the Apostolic Constitution Deposit of Faith, St. John Paul II writes:
“Guarding the Deposit of Faith is the Mission which the Lord entrusted to His Church.” The apostles
entrusted the ‘Sacred deposit’ of the faith, contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole
of the Church. (CC 84)
Jesus Christ, the Unique Redeemer of the World, for all peoples, for all cultures, for all moments in
history, gave us the gift of the objective Truth of the Deposit of Faith. These objective truths keep us
grounded in the Mind and Heart of Christ as we experience the changing events and seasons of
World History.
The Deposit of Faith was complete with the death of the last Apostle and yet the Holy Spirit helps us
to understand more deeply as time goes on the essential truths of this Deposit of Faith.
Our understanding that the Splendor of Catholic Truth expressed in the Deposit of Faith moves
through every age of history is a liberating truth. The Deposit of Faith helps us to be courageous in
truth and charity against the injustices and moral tragedies of history which are so often today the
expression of what Pope Benedict XVI called “the dictatorship of relativism.”
Our lives as Catholics are daily expressions of the Deposit of Faith. The truths of the Deposit of Faith
help us, in the words of Pope Francis, “to transform the world and history” with Christ’s love and
mission.
2)Celebrate the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a Celebration of the Teaching of the Second
Vatican Council
St. John Paul II makes it clear that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is an expression and
application of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. He writes that “Vatican II has always
been…the constant reference point of my every pastoral action, in the conscious commitment to
implement its directives concretely and faithfully at the level of each Church and the whole
Church.”2