US Conference of Catholic Bishops

This weighty tome merits the time required for anyone who wants to understand Catholocism. I believe it would be fair to call it the official "layman's guidebook." A lot of new ideas were presented to me. It succeeded in conveying the principal tenets of the Catholic Church and at least touched on every major issue or question I have had. Two concepts that were completely new to me and considered with high regard: first, a firm declaration that talents were not distributed uniformly and that show more this profers interdependence among us; second, that the meaning of "blessed are the poor in spirit" actually encourages us all to become poor in our mentality (not to consider our possessions as our strength). show less

Unfortunately used as a source for "what Catholics believe" the CCC was never meant to be such - the introduction makes it clear that bishops were to develop local catechisms. Few did, and this has become the handy reference book. As such, it's useful - but the lack of local catechisms is annoying.

It's impossible to overstate the value of the Catholic Catechism of the Catholic Church. The reason for this is that it provides insight into a human community yielded to God, founded by Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago, the existence of which will never end. It's a comprehensive document of the faith and doctrines of the Church. Whether one is religious or otherwise, this great repository of the Church gives concrete information about who God is, his nature and his desire for all humanity. show more It abounds with wisdom, history, philosophy, doctrine, moral guidance, and 2000 years of Christian thinking and understanding as it has evolved over the centuries. It provides explicit references throughout its 756 pages. It holds to the reality that truth is indeed absolute. It cannot be fully consummated even in a lifetime. This is because each paragraph is like a keyhole-view into an ever broadening array of information on the temporal and the eternal truths. It brings a vision of hope in the discovery of the width, length, depth and height of God's passionate love for all of humanity. show less

The constant references are a bit distracting, but I am appreciating this very thorough explanation of the faith.