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Here is a link to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
Introduction
Most people know the rough outlines of Christians believe: that we are descended from Adam and Eve, who disobeyed God in the garden of Eden and were sent into exile, until God's own Son became man and died on the Cross to save us from sin and death. But many find these beliefs a bit hard to take seriously. Why did Adam and Eve disobey? Why were they punished? How can God have a Son anyway? How could he 'become man'? How would his dying on the Cross save us? And why, if it did, do life and history go on as if nothing had happened? And how can we know any of this anyway, if it can't be proved scientifically?
These days we may not get as far as asking such questions, let alone trying to find answers for them. We are content enough with our lives, when things are going well. When we are not so happy it is not these questions but others – more fundamental ones – that tend to get asked, and asked urgently. What is it all about? Why me? What am I here for, if anything? Why bother? What is the point? Is it worth it? And along with these may come yet other, darker questions. Why not kill myself? Why not do anything I feel like doing? Why care about other people? In answer to those questions, I may go in search of answers. I may look to the occult, to magic, to witchcraft, to drugs, to violence.
But Christianity has answers to those questions too – answers based not on speculation, or on some authority telling us what to think, but on facts of experience. We are all made roughly the same way. We need love. We need kindness. We need help. Without those things, we are hurt and damaged, frustrated and full of resentment. We may be lucky enough to distract ourselves by doing some task or job we enjoy, but even that will taste like ashes after a while, if it is not done for someone else, or if it is done in isolation and loneliness.
Drugs, violence, magic, are all ways of trying to smash through the complacency and frustration of everyday life. We can become trapped in a conventional existence, and our deep pain tells us that something is very wrong. But what really traps us is ourselves, our own limitations, our own self-defined image. The violent short-cuts only make things worse. They soon turn into other, narrower traps. The only real escape is self-transformation. That is what 'spirituality' is all about. What we need is not so much a set of beliefs, but a spiritual path that leads beyond ourselves.
All religions offer such a path, a path of transformation, although by its nature it is often hard to discern. (The film The Matrix was a metaphor for this.) Every religion has its own teachers, gurus, guides, to help us find the path when we are ready, or to walk it. In Christianity, because of the Incarnation, the guru is Christ, whose continued living presence is accessible through prayer and the sacraments of the Church.
If you are interested in learning more, or if you have questions or worries about the faith, we are here to help.
By the way, the word that is traditionally used to describe the activity we are engaged in here is 'apologetics'. This has nothing to do with 'apologizing'; it just means explaining, as best we can, what our faith means and why we believe it. For our own provisional outline of Catholic Apologetics, click here. For links to other web-sites that will help you, click here.
Further Study
Most importantly, we recommend that everyone try to read and study the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That is really the place to start if you want to understand the Catholic faith and be better able to defend it. Nothing that is said here by us is intended to substitute for reading the Catechism. If anything, it should encourage you to do so. There are many printed editions available, and it is online at the Vatican Archives. There is also a pocket Summary of the Catechism available from the Catholic Truth Society. The latest edition of the Catechism itself even contains a very helpful 'Guide to Themes' at the back, which would lead you to many of the most important passages in the book. If you have time, you may also wish to study the Catechism in more depth on a guided programme, either through your parish or with the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham or the Ogilvie Institute in Scotland.
Your Questions and Our Answers (so far...)
Section One: Miscellaneous and Moral
Section Two: The Spiritual Life
Section Three: Scripture
Section Four: Church and Tradition
A Collection of Useful Articles
Why go to confession? Reconciliation and the Beauty of God: a Pastoral Letter of Archbishop Bruno Forte
12 Claims Every Catholic Should be Able to Answer, by Deal Hudson
5 Myths about 7 Books, by Mark Shea
What is Faith?
The Existence of God
The Problem of Evil
The Problem of Hell
A New Approach to Sin
Christianity and Other Religions
How can Catholicism be true when Catholics are so dead?
How do we defend the Church to those who have been burned by it?
How to Make Sense of Catholic Teachings on Sex
What is 'sin' and why did Jesus die on the Cross?
Evangelical and Catholic
Recommended web resources
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a vast store of useful material ñ and a lot of junk. You can waste your time very easily, so it is important to know where to go for the good stuff. Here are some sites worth exploring. (See also our Links page elsewhere on this website.)
www.newadvent.org
This is a 'Catholic Supersite': it gives you access to many useful resources around the world. You can find here, for example, The Catholic Encyclopedia, the Catechism, the writings of the Church Fathers and various Catholic news services.
www.catholic.net/
And here is another Supersite, particularly well designed and easy to use.
Cybermonk's CatholicNet
'cyberspace is a summons to the great adventure of using its potential to proclaim the Gospel message.'
www.udayton.edu/mary/
Probably the best site on the Blessed Virgin Mary.
//www.chesterton.org/
This is a fun site about G. K. Chesterton, one of the great Christian writers.
http://www.zenit.org/english/
This news service will keep you in touch with what is happening in the Catholic Church as a whole, and what the Pope is doing and saying.
www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm
This site contains the entire text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
http://www.salvationhistory.com/library/apologetics/Topics.cfm?PID=1197
St Paul Center - a site developed by Scott Hahn, one of the greatest living
Christian apologists.
The Catechism search engine.
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