a place to begin reading.
Throughout this book, if you see the word orthodox with a small letter o, it means correct or right believer. However, if you see the capital letter O, then Orthodox refers to the Eastern Orthodox Churches, such as the Greek, Russian, and Serbian Orthodox Churches. Also, if you see the word church with a small letter c, it refers to a church building or parish, but Church with a capital C refers to the universal Catholic Church.
Bible references in this book use the traditional chapter and verse designation of a chapter number followed by a colon and the verse number(s). For example, Deuteronomy 6:4–6 refers to the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy from verse 4 all the way to and including verse 6. Unless we tell you otherwise, our Scripture references are from the Revised Standard Version (RSV).
A quick note: Sidebars (shaded boxes of text) dig into the details of a given topic related to Catholicism, but they aren’t crucial to understanding it. Feel free to read them or skip them. You can pass over the text accompanied by the Technical Stuff icon, too. The text marked with this icon gives some interesting but nonessential information about Catholicism.
One last thing: Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these webpages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an ebook, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the webpage.
Foolish Assumptions
While writing this book, we made some assumptions about you:
You have Catholic friends, neighbors, or relatives, and you’re curious about Catholicism and want to know a little more about it.
You’ve heard or read something about Catholics or Catholicism, and you have questions about Catholic beliefs or practices.
You may or may not be Catholic. Perhaps you were baptized Catholic but not raised Catholic. Maybe you’re committed to a different faith, still searching, or have no faith to speak of. Regardless, you do want to know something about Catholics.
Icons Used in This Book
This book uses icons to point out various types of information.
Beyond the Book
In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Catholicism For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the search box.
Where to Go from Here
Catholicism For Dummies, 4th Edition, is sort of like Sunday dinner at an Italian grandmother’s home. Nonna brings everything to the table: bread, antipasto, cheese, olives, prosciutto and melon, tomatoes and mozzarella; then comes the pasta or macaroni in marinara or meat sauce with sausage and peppers, meatballs, and veal; then comes the chicken, the pork, or the beef; followed by salad; and topped off with fruit and cheese, spumoni, gelato, ricotta pie, zabaglione, and an espresso with a splash of sambucca.
Likewise, in this book, we’ve brought out a little bit of everything on Catholicism: doctrine, morality, history, theology, canon law, spirituality, and liturgy. You can go to any section to discover Catholicism. You can pick and choose what interests you the most, get answers to specific questions on your mind, or just randomly open this book anywhere and begin reading. On the other hand, you may want to start at the beginning and work your way to the end, going through each chapter one by one. We don’t guarantee that you’ll be full when you’re finished, but we hope that you’ll get a good taste of what Catholicism is really about.
Part 1
What Do Catholics Believe?
IN THIS PART …
Find out what Catholics learn in religion class and what the Church teaches all its members. You’ll look at the doctrines and beliefs every Catholic is expected to know and accept. The first pillar of faith of the Catechism is the creed, which is explained in this part.
Discover the revealed Word of God, including the Bible.
Explore Catholic beliefs about God as the Creator of everything.
Examine fundamental Christian teachings, such as the divinity of Christ and Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Understand the Church, its mission, and the means by which it fulfills that mission.
Get the rundown of the key figures in the Catholic hierarchy — the many, many people who make up the Church as an organization.
Chapter 1
What It Means to Be Catholic
IN THIS CHAPTER
Being Catholic means more than attending parochial school or going to religion class once a week, owning some Rosary beads, and going to Mass every Saturday night or Sunday morning. It means more than getting ashes smeared on your forehead once a year, eating fish on Fridays, and giving up chocolate for Lent. Being Catholic means living a totally Christian life and having a Catholic perspective.
What is the Catholic perspective? In this chapter, you get a peek at what Catholicism is all about — the common buzzwords and beliefs — a big picture of the whole shebang. (The rest of this book gets into the nitty-gritty details.)
What Exactly Is Catholicism Anyway?
The cut-to-the-chase answer is that Catholicism is a Christian religion (just