The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992)

A request born of the Extraordinary Synod of 1985

On 25 January 1985, for the twentieth anniversary of the close of Vatican II, John Paul II convened in Rome the Second Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The aim: to take stock of how the Council had been implemented and, above all, to overcome a manifest catechetical crisis throughout the Western Church, marked by doctrinal fragmentation, the unravelling of teaching and the shared feeling that "many Catholics no longer know what they believe".^{[11][12][13][14]}

It was in this context that Cardinal Bernard Law, Archbishop of Boston, was among the first to propose preparing a universal catechism, promulgated by the Holy Father after consultation with the bishops of the whole world. Since the exact wording of his intervention could not be checked against a primary source, it is given here as a paraphrase, not as a verbatim quotation.^[15]

The proposal immediately met with a wide response. The final report of the Synod, made public on 7 December 1985, explicitly requested the writing "of a catechism or compendium of the whole of Catholic doctrine on both faith and morals", to serve as a "point of reference for the catechisms or compendiums prepared in the various regions".^[16]

A four-century gap: from the Roman Catechism to the CEC

To grasp the importance of the event of 1992, one must remember that no universal catechism had been published by the Holy See since the Roman Catechism — also called the Catechism of the Council of Trent or the Catechism of Saint Pius V — promulgated in 1566 by the Dominican pope Pius V following the Council of Trent. Written by four theologians — Leonardo Marini, Muzio Calini, Egidio Foscarari and Francesco Foreiro — under the supervision of three cardinals, with Saint Charles Borromeo directing the drafting, this text served for four centuries as the matrix of every diocesan catechism in the Latin world.^[17][18]

But unlike the 1992 CEC, the Roman Catechism was not intended directly for the faithful: its official subtitle — Catechismus ex decreto Concilii Tridentini ad parochos — specifies that it is addressed "to parish priests". It was a manual for priests to use in preparing their own preaching and teaching. The 1992 CEC directly inherits its fourfold plan — Creed, sacraments, commandments, prayer — but it is addressed to a far wider audience: the Prologue (no. 12) destines it principally to those responsible for catechesis, first of all to bishops, then, through them, to writers of catechisms, to priests and to catechists, adding that it will also be useful reading for all other Christian faithful; Fidei Depositum specifies that it is further offered to every man who wishes to know what the Catholic Church believes.^[19][20]

Between 1566 and 1992, hundreds of local catechisms saw the light of day: the Catechism of Canisius (Jesuit — Summa doctrinae christianae, 1555; Catechismus minimus, 1556, expanded as the Parvus catechismus catholicorum, 1558 — thus predating Trent but widely used afterwards), the Catechism of Bellarmine (1597), 19th-century French diocesan catechisms, the Catechism of Saint Pius X (1905, for the diocese of Rome then extended to Italy), the Dutch Catechism (1966, controversial), the Catechism for the use of the dioceses of France (1947), and so on. But none carried the authority of a universally promulgated text.^[21]

The urgent need for a common text after Vatican II

The Vatican II Council (1962-1965) profoundly renewed the expression of the Catholic faith on many points: ecclesiology of communion, liturgy in vernacular languages, ecumenical dialogue, religious freedom, the theology of Revelation, Mariology, Christian anthropology. Twenty years on, the Church needed to translate into catechesis this vast doctrinal reception, lest the Council be reduced to slogans or, conversely, rejected outright.^[22]

Added to this was a more alarming observation: in the 1970s, several national or diocesan catechisms — including the 1966 New Dutch Catechism — sparked serious doctrinal controversies and revealed worrying divergences on original sin, bodily resurrection, the Real Presence and conjugal morality. A universal reference text became indispensable to restore a common standard of the Catholic faith.^[23]

A commission of twelve cardinals and bishops

On 10 June 1986, John Paul II established the Pontifical Commission for the Universal Catechism, composed of twelve cardinals and bishops and chaired by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (1927-2022), Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1981.^[24][25][26]

The commission was assisted by a drafting committee of seven diocesan bishops, which became the true writing workshop of the text. The editorial secretary — who ensured the internal coherence and literary quality of the whole — was the Austrian Dominican Christoph Schönborn, then a professor at the University of Fribourg, later appointed auxiliary bishop of Vienna and then archbishop and cardinal.^[27]

The chosen method was one of extensive consultation: each draft text was sent to the bishops of the whole world, to the episcopal conferences and to the leading Catholic theology faculties. Across the nine successive drafts^[28][29], the commission received, according to the assessment given in the Ratzinger/Schönborn Introduction (1994), more than 930 substantial replies and some 24,000 concrete proposals for amendment, a large share of which were incorporated into the final version.^[30][31][32]

According to testimony reported by Cardinal Schönborn, Ratzinger himself marvelled at the outcome: bishops, theologians and sensibilities so different, and yet a text truly speaking with a single voice. This remark is given here as a paraphrase: its verbatim wording could not be checked against the original interview.^[33]

Drafting entrusted to seven bishops across the four parts

The drafting of each major part was entrusted to one or two specialist bishops, forming a coherent writing workshop. The following distribution is reported consistently by three independent reference surveys (Ascension Press, the reference encyclopaedia article and the Gale survey on Encyclopedia.com):

• First part — The profession of faith (the Creed): Archbishop José Manuel Estepa Llaurens (Spanish bishop, later cardinal, Military Ordinary) and Archbishop Alessandro Maggiolini (Italian bishop of Como, respected theologian).
• Second part — The celebration of the Christian mystery (the sacraments): Archbishop Jorge Medina Estévez (Chilean bishop, later cardinal, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship) and Archbishop Estanislao Esteban Karlic (Argentine bishop, later cardinal, Archbishop of Paraná).
• Third part — Life in Christ (morality): Archbishop Jean Honoré (French bishop, later cardinal, Archbishop of Tours) and Bishop David Konstant (English Bishop of Leeds).
• Fourth part — Christian prayer: Father Jean Corbon (Lebanese Melkite priest, theologian and liturgist of the Catholic East), whose draft remained almost unchanged through to the final version.^[34][35][36]

This distribution by expertise — a Spaniard and an Italian for the Creed, a Chilean and an Argentine for the sacraments, a Frenchman and an Englishman for morality, a Lebanese Eastern Christian for prayer — is itself a sign of catholicity: the Catechism aimed to be the work of the universal Church, not of one national school of theology.

Drafting begun in French

A rare editorial particularity: the working language of the commission was French, and it was in French that the first printed edition of the Catechism saw the light of day in November 1992 with Mame-Plon in Paris. The official Latin text — the editio typica — would not appear until 1997. All other national translations — English (1994), German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and so on — were first made from the French, then revised against the Latin version.^[37]

This is a historically significant fact: since the Council of Trent, almost all the Church's great normative documents had been drafted directly in Latin. The choice of French for drafting the CEC is explained above all by the composition of the editorial commission, in which French speakers were in the majority (Schönborn, Corbon, Honoré, not counting several experts such as the Dominican theologian Albert Patfoort).

The Mame-Plon edition — a 676-page bound volume — was an immediate success: some 550,000 copies distributed in the French-speaking world alone between 1992 and 1999, on the eve of the switch to a new reference edition.^[38]

The meaning of the timing: thirty years after the opening of Vatican II

John Paul II did not sign the apostolic constitution of promulgation on just any date. 11 October 1992 marks very precisely the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Vatican II Council by Saint John XXIII (11 October 1962). The gesture is therefore explicitly rooted in conciliar continuity: the Catechism presents itself as the "fruit of a collaboration of the whole episcopate of the Catholic Church" and as the privileged instrument for the reception of the Council.^[39]

"It may rightly be said that this Catechism is the fruit of a collaboration of the whole Episcopate of the Catholic Church [...] I therefore ask the Church's Pastors and the faithful to receive this Catechism in a spirit of communion and to use it assiduously in fulfilling their mission of proclaiming the faith and calling people to the Gospel life." — Saint John Paul II, apostolic constitution Fidei Depositum, 11 October 1992^[40]

The official presentation to the public took place two months later, on 7 December 1992, the vigil of the Immaculate Conception and the twenty-seventh anniversary of the close of the Council (8 December 1965). Here again, the timing places the Catechism within the full conciliar trajectory, from opening to close.^[41][42]

Canonical status: a "sure norm for teaching the faith"

The central phrase of Fidei Depositum is that of a "sure norm for teaching the faith" (in Latin: "norma certa pro tradenda fidei doctrina"). It is this description that determines the canonical authority of the text. The CEC is not a mere teaching aid: it is an act of the ordinary Magisterium of the Pope and the episcopate, whose use is officially encouraged for the transmission of the faith.^[43]

But this status also has its precise limits, underlined in the text itself:

1. The Catechism is not a new dogma. It defines no new truth; it adds nothing to Tradition. It gathers and presents received doctrine.
2. It does not carry the weight of an infallible definition. It is neither a dogmatic bull of the Munificentissimus Deus (1950) type, nor a conciliar dogmatic constitution such as Lumen Gentium.
3. It does not replace local catechisms. On the contrary, it serves them as a common norm: episcopal conferences are invited to draw up or update catechisms adapted to different cultures, sensibilities and age groups, taking the CEC as their reference text.^[44]

This clarification matters: it avoids both the "minimalist" reading (the CEC would be merely the Pope's private opinion) and the "maximalist" reading (the CEC would engage pontifical infallibility paragraph by paragraph). The Catechism states with doctrinal authority what the Church believes, but according to the hierarchy of truths: some statements are defined dogmas, others ordinary teachings, others still theological explanations for the present day.

A definitive reference edition

Five years after Fidei Depositum, John Paul II signed on 15 August 1997, the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the apostolic letter Laetamur Magnopere by which he promulgated the typical Latin edition of the Catechism — that is, the absolute reference edition that now serves as the standard for all subsequent translations.^[45][46]

Why wait five years? Because translating into Latin the text drafted in French was the occasion for a careful revision: the commission made numerous small adjustments (the precise number of these adjustments could not be sourced, so no figure is given here), almost all aimed at greater theological precision, terminological harmonisation (notably Thomist) and the correction of a few ambiguous formulations judged too dependent on modern French. The Latin text thus became the normative basis with which all future translations would have to align.^[47]

The earlier vernacular editions (French 1992, English 1994, and so on) were then revised: a French "second edition" appeared in 1998 (Centurion / Cerf / Fleurus-Mame), incorporating the adjustments from the Latin version. It is this revised 1998 edition that today constitutes the reference text in French.^[48]

The official text on vatican.va

The official website of the Holy See (vatican.va) today makes the full texts of the Catechism available in several languages: Latin (typical edition), French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Hungarian, Slovenian, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Chinese. Each paragraph is numbered from 1 to 2,865 and indexed: a statement of the Catechism can thus be cited with rare precision, for example "CEC §1324 on the Eucharist as source and summit".

The plan of the Catechism takes up the traditional fourfold structure inherited from the 1566 Roman Catechism — Creed, sacraments, commandments, prayer. But the CEC systematises it around a Trinitarian and Christological logic: each part corresponds to a dimension of God's gift and of the Christian's response.

First part — The profession of faith (CEC §§ 26-1065)

This first part sets out what the Church believes. It follows the Apostles' Creed step by step, integrating the developments of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381). It opens with the revelation of God the Trinity (§§ 26-184), sets out the doctrine of creation (§§ 279-421), deals at length with Christology in the section "I believe in Jesus Christ" (§§ 422-682), then with the Holy Spirit (§§ 683-747), the Church (§§ 748-975), the forgiveness of sins and eternal life (§§ 976-1065).

Among the most quoted paragraphs are:

• CEC §51 on revelation: "It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself in person..."
• CEC §234 on the Trinity: "The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life."
• CEC §390 on original sin: "The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man."^[49]
• CEC §811 on the four marks of the Church (one, holy, catholic, apostolic).^[50]

Second part — The celebration of the Christian mystery (CEC §§ 1066-1690)

This part sets out what the Church celebrates. It opens with a great synthesis of the sacramental economy (§§ 1076-1209) and of Christian liturgy (§§ 1135-1209), then treats the seven sacraments in pairs according to the Thomist tradition: sacraments of Christian initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist), sacraments of healing (Penance, Anointing of the Sick), sacraments at the service of communion (Holy Orders, Matrimony).

Among the key paragraphs:

• CEC §1131: the general definition of a sacrament as an "efficacious sign of grace".
• CEC §1324: the Eucharist as the "source and summit of the whole Christian life", a formula taken from Lumen Gentium no. 11.
• CEC §1374: the definition of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, "truly, really and substantially", in the Eucharist.
• CEC §1422: those who approach the sacrament of Penance "obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offence committed [...] and at the same time are reconciled with the Church" (citing Lumen Gentium 11); and CEC §1446: the Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace" (Tertullian).^[51]

Third part — Life in Christ (CEC §§ 1691-2557)

This part sets out what the Church lives. It is subdivided into two sections: man's vocation to life in the Spirit (§§ 1699-2051) — dealing with the dignity of the person, moral conscience, the theological and cardinal virtues, sin, grace, the ten commandments of the Church — then a detailed commentary on the Decalogue (§§ 2052-2557), commandment by commandment.

Among the most debated paragraphs since 1992:

• CEC §1791 on invincible ignorance of conscience.
• CEC §1995-2005 on sanctifying grace, actual grace, merit.
• CEC §2270-2275 on the respect owed to human life from conception (abortion) and on bioethical principles.
• CEC §2357-2359 on chastity and homosexual acts, which would become one of the most controversial passages of the Catechism in contemporary social debates — the Church's answer on this point is recalled below.^[52]

Fourth part — Christian prayer (CEC §§ 2558-2865)

The fourth part, to a large extent the personal work of the Lebanese Father Jean Corbon, is often considered the most lyrical and most spiritual of the Catechism. It sets out what the Church prays in two stages: first prayer in the Christian life (§§ 2558-2758) — biblical sources, the prayer of the Virgin, liturgical prayer, conditions and difficulties — then a verse-by-verse commentary on the Our Father (§§ 2759-2865), described as the "summary of the whole Gospel" (CEC §2761).

This structure — culminating in the prayer of the Lord — is deliberate. As Cardinal Schönborn has observed, the Catechism ends not with a definition but with a prayer — a sign, in his view, that all Catholic doctrine makes sense only when borne by the Holy Spirit, in the filial dialogue of Christian prayer. This remark is given here as a paraphrase: its verbatim wording could not be checked against the original interview.^[53]

The Catechism has appeared in French in six successive editions — a unique case in the contemporary religious publishing landscape. This adaptation effort is explained both by the 1997 Latin revision and by the teaching needs quickly identified. The table below reproduces the figures announced by the file of the National Catechesis Service (CEF), the only available source, not cross-checked elsewhere.

According to this file alone, the total between 1992 and 2012 would reach some 872,600 copies for the French editions — an exceptional figure for a doctrinal text that is neither a marketed best-seller nor a topical book, but one that remains to be verified.^[54]

The Compendium of Benedict XVI (2005)

As the Catechism established itself as the reference text, a demand emerged: for a more concise format, structured in question-and-answer form, accessible to the faithful as well as to the young. John Paul II asked Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to prepare such a summary. The project was led by Ratzinger himself, until his election as pope in April 2005.

On 28 June 2005, now Benedict XVI, he signed by motu proprio the Compendium Catechismi Catholicae Ecclesiae — the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church — which he described as a "faithful and sure synthesis" of the 1992 text. The Compendium takes up the fourfold structure in 598 question-and-answer pairs, illustrated, according to the publisher's presentation, with 14 reproductions of masterpieces of Christian art (icons, stained glass, frescoes) that form one body with the text.^[55][56]

It is a format inherited from the Little Catechism of Saint Pius X (1905), but entirely renewed: the questions are longer, the answers more reasoned, the references to the full CEC precisely given to allow in-depth reading.

The YOUCAT for young people (2011)

In April 2011, on the eve of World Youth Day in Madrid, Benedict XVI prefaced a new adaptation: the YOUCAT (short for Youth Catechism) — the official catechism for young people, in question-and-answer format illustrated with pictograms, spiritual quotations in the margin and reading suggestions.^[57]

The YOUCAT, again published under the direction of Cardinal Schönborn, was translated into more than thirty languages and offered as Benedict XVI's personal gift to the some 700,000 pilgrims at WYD Madrid (August 2011) — a figure announced by the publisher and corroborated by its file citing the official WYD website, the organisers slipping a copy into each pilgrim's backpack. A later spin-off — DOCAT (on social doctrine, 2016), YOUCAT for Kids (for children, 2019), YOUCAT Bible — would further extend the collection.^[58]

"Read the Catechism with perseverance and patience! Make the sacrifice of your time! Study it in the silence of your room, read it in pairs, form groups and study circles. Use the internet to talk about it." — Benedict XVI, preface to the YOUCAT, March 2011^[59]

A unique case: the rescript of 2 August 2018

Since its promulgation in 1992, the Catechism has undergone only one official doctrinal amendment of substance: the rewriting of paragraph § 2267 on the death penalty. This amendment came by pontifical rescript of Pope Francis, dated 2 August 2018, followed by an explanatory letter from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith addressed on 1 August 2018 to all the bishops of the world and signed by the Prefect, Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria, S.J., and the Secretary, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.^[60]

The old text (1992 / 1997)

The original version of § 2267, in the 1997 editio typica, still admitted the legitimacy in principle of recourse to the death penalty, while drastically restricting its use:

"The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the unjust aggressor. If, instead, bloodless means suffice to defend and protect humanity [...], public authority will limit itself to such means, for they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, [...] the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent." — CEC §2267, Latin editio typica, 15 August 1997^[61]

This wording, already strongly influenced by the teaching of John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae (1995, no. 56) — which judged legitimate cases of capital execution "by now rather rare, if not even practically non-existent" — nonetheless remained gradualist: the death penalty was not absolutely excluded in principle.

The new text (2018)

The 2018 rescript goes significantly further: it now declares the death penalty inadmissible in all circumstances, and commits the Church to working for its universal abolition:

"The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that 'the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person', and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide." — CEC §2267, revised version of 2 August 2018^[62]

A revision in continuity, not a rupture

Cardinal Ladaria's letter insists that this amendment belongs to a homogeneous doctrinal development, not a rupture with earlier teaching. Three arguments are put forward:

1. The deepening of the dignity of the human person — affirmed ever more clearly since Vatican II — calls for reconsidering capital punishment in the light of this dignity, which "is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes".
2. The new understanding of the meaning of punishment — which must be directed towards the rehabilitation of the offender as much as towards the protection of society.
3. The effectiveness of modern detention systems — which make it possible to protect society durably without having to take the criminal's life.^[63]

This claimed continuity is doctrinally important: it avoids the progressive reading that would make the new text a disavowal of earlier teaching, but it also avoids the traditionalist reading that would see in it an unacceptable contradiction with immemorial teaching — this is the very argument of Cardinal Ladaria's letter.^[64] The reader may recognise in it what Cardinal John Henry Newman calls a homogeneous development of doctrine (An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1845): this Newmanian reading is Ignispedia's own; the letter of the Doctrine of the Faith does not itself cite Newman.

A massively positive reception

The Catechism enjoyed, from its publication, an exceptional circulation: some 20 million copies sold worldwide in at least 44 languages, according to the order of magnitude cited by Catholic World Report on 29 May 2024. The English edition, presented to the Pope on 27 May 1994, already counted, according to this article, nearly 700,000 copies in bookshops by the end of June 1994 — a detail not verified by a second source. In terms of print runs, it is one of the greatest religious publishing successes of the late 20th century.^[65]

The theological reception was equally positive in the great majority of Catholic faculties: the CEC quickly became a reference manual for seminaries, theology faculties and dioceses around the world. Today, contemporary national or diocesan catechisms (the Italian Compendio, Youcat France, the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults published by the American bishops in 2006 as an adaptation of the CEC) stand in an explicit relationship to the CEC, which they cite constantly.^[66]

Criticisms from the traditionalist side

Some commentators close to the traditionalist movement have criticised the CEC for what they judged an excessive influence of Vatican II: a supposed abandonment of Thomist categories in favour of personalist language, caution on the death penalty, a formulation judged too ecumenical on the place of non-Christian religions (CEC §841 on Islam), a nuanced view of religious freedom (CEC §2105-2109). These criticisms often target less the CEC itself than the Council of which it is the application. The Catechism's answer holds in two points: on Islam, §841 takes up Lumen Gentium 16 — Muslims profess the faith of Abraham and adore with Christians the one and merciful God — because the plan of salvation embraces all those who acknowledge the Creator; on religious freedom, §§2105-2109 teach both the duty to seek the truth and the right not to be coerced in religious matters, because the dignity of the person demands free assent and truth imposes itself only by the force of truth itself (Dignitatis Humanae). On the death penalty, Cardinal Ladaria's letter of 1 August 2018 already answers explicitly by presenting the revision as a development, not a rupture.^[67][68]

On the death penalty, the 2018 revision revived a sharper debate: theologians such as Edward Feser and Joseph Bessette (By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed, Ignatius Press, 2017) challenged the coherence of the new wording with the immemorial teaching of the Church. The letter of the Doctrine of the Faith of 1 August 2018 answers this objection explicitly by presenting the revision as a development, not a rupture.^[69]

Criticisms from the progressive side

Conversely, some theologians close to the progressive movement reproached the CEC for too strict a fidelity to traditional teaching on sexual morality (notably homosexuality, CEC §§ 2357-2359), contraception (CEC §§ 2370 and following, recalling Paul VI's Humanae Vitae), the ordination of women (CEC §1577), or the conditions for the salvation of non-Christians. These more internal criticisms obtained no magisterial shift — the revision on the death penalty remaining to this day the only official amendment. And the contested teaching defends itself on its own grounds: on homosexuality, the CEC distinguishes inclination from acts — persons must be welcomed with respect, compassion and sensitivity (§2358), while acts are judged intrinsically disordered because closed to the gift of life and to true complementarity (§2357), chastity remaining proposed to all as a path of self-mastery and disinterested friendship (§2359); on contraception, every conjugal act must remain open to life, because the two meanings of union — the unitive and the procreative — are inseparable (§2370, after Humanae Vitae); on the ordination of women, the Church recognises herself as bound by the choice of Christ himself, who called only men to the apostolate, and declares she has no power to ordain them (§1577, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 1994).^[70]

A compass, not a wall

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is neither the last word of Catholic theology nor an untouchable text. It is, in the very words of John Paul II in Fidei Depositum, a point of reference to be taught, explained, deepened, meditated upon, but which, in the very words of John Paul II in Fidei Depositum, "is not intended to replace the local catechisms drawn up by the ecclesiastical authorities, the diocesan bishops and the Episcopal Conferences, especially when they have received the approval of the Apostolic See".^[71]

Thirty-four years after its promulgation, this text has become for the Catholic Church what no catechism since 1566 had been: the common map on which all the faithful, from the simplest to the most learned, can find their way. As such, the CEC is an indispensable instrument for understanding and transmitting the Catholic faith in the 21st century.

• Full official text on vatican.va — Catechism of the Catholic Church in French.
• Apostolic constitution Fidei Depositum, vatican.va, 11 October 1992.
• Apostolic letter Laetamur Magnopere, vatican.va, 15 August 1997.
• Letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of 1 August 2018, vatican.va.
• Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, vatican.va, 28 June 2005.
• Related Ignispedia articles: Le Code de droit canonique de 1983, Le concile Vatican II, Le Syllabus de Pie IX, Les encycliques, Les constitutions apostoliques, Les documents du Magistère, Le droit canonique.