they really haven’t been “catechized” or “evangelized.” That is, while they may have been baptized, and likely have received the Sacraments of Reconciliation, First Communion, and Confirmation, they never properly learned Church teaching or its rationale on a whole host of issues. Moreover, many Catholics have not been taught how to cultivate a relationship with Jesus Christ — or even that it is important to do so.
Perhaps even more troubling is the perpetuation of a lack of catechesis into the next generation. A couple of years ago, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University released a study sponsored by Holy Cross Family Ministries, an organization that promotes family prayer around the world. This study found that only twenty-two percent of Catholic parents go to Mass every Sunday. Of those, only forty-two percent send their children to religious education — meaning that the extent of formal education in faith for the majority of the current young generation who actually attend weekly Mass is only the one hour a week they spend at liturgy. This is far from ideal.
In fact, this problem sparked such a note of concern at the Synods of Bishops on the Family in 2014 and 2015 that Pope Francis chose to devote much of his post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, to encouraging increased catechesis for engaged couples, married couples and children (to which he devotes all of the document’s Chapter 7).
The harsh truth is that parents are the primary educators of the faith for their children, but they cannot pass on what they do not know. Pope Francis refers to this challenge in Amoris Laetitia:
“Handing on the faith presumes that parents themselves genuinely trust God, seek him and sense their need for him, for only in this way does ‘one generation laud your works to another, and declare your mighty acts’ (Ps 144:4) and ‘fathers make known to children your faithfulness’ (Is 38:19). This means that we need to ask God to act in their hearts, in places where we ourselves cannot reach” (287).
In light of these challenges, and rather than wringing our hands at the current state of catechesis, OSV Newsweekly identified an opportunity. We determined that we would go back to basics — the basics of the Faith — and offer a series that would be able to respond to the need for more catechesis. To do so, we commissioned a twelve-part series, authored by David Werning, called “Foundations of Faith,” which ran once a month in OSV Newsweekly throughout 2017. Werning has an S.T.B. in sacred theology from the Catholic University of America. He has been writing about the Church and the Catholic faith since 1992.
The series starts at the very beginning, exploring the Church from her basic foundation of “one, holy, Catholic and apostolic,” the “four marks of the Church” given in the Nicene Creed recited each Sunday at Mass. From there, the series presents how God reveals himself through creation, the significance of both Scripture and Tradition, the mystery of the Trinity, what it means to be a member of the Church, the meaning of vocation, morality, and conscience. The final third of the series explores the call to love, what it means to pray, understanding the Communion of the Saints, and an exploration of the four “last things.” The results have been compiled in this book, Catholic Faith Foundations, and each chapter has received a nihil obstat.
This book is appropriate for all people wishing to learn more about the Faith: whether it’s those who already are familiar with the Church’s teachings, but are in need of a “refresher course,” or those who are starting from the beginning.
One other thing to note: While the content is on the “basics” of the Faith, there is serious “meat” to the bones of this book. It gives not only the “what” of the Faith but also the “why” — and it ties it all into a comprehensive understanding of what it means to be Catholic. As one reader said, the series is “an excellent resource for knowledge of our Catholic faith.”
For more than one hundred years, Our Sunday Visitor has been a leader in the field of catechesis, giving readers content that helps explain what the Church teaches and why. Catholic Faith Foundations is a part of that long legacy. I pray that it brings you closer to Christ.
Gretchen R. Crowe
Editor-in-Chief
OSV Newsweekly
Part 1
The Four Marks of the Catholic Church
A Catholic chaplain, a priest, was carrying Communion to patients who were bedridden in a hospital. The priest had a list of Catholic patients who had requested Communion. In one of the rooms, as he blessed a patient and began to leave, the priest was passing by another patient, not on the list, who said, “Hey, what about me?”
The priest stopped and replied, “I’m so sorry; I didn’t realize you’re a Catholic.” The man in the bed said, “I’m not, but what does that matter? Religions are all the same.” So the priest said, “In that case, I’m happy to help you become a Catholic. We can start right now.” To which the man replied, “No, thank you.”
“All religions are the same.” The claim is widespread, but when pressed proponents have a difficult time substantiating the claim. Indeed, all one has to do is visit a temple, a mosque, and a church to see how different religions celebrate their beliefs. One can also compare and contrast the various precepts of the religions to learn their differences.
So why do people still make the claim — even those who are practicing a particular religion? Ignorance may be part of the answer. Another part may be a desire to water down all faiths into a one-size-fits-all system that everyone can accept. It may even spring from a well-intentioned effort to alleviate conflict and fighting. The trouble is it doesn’t work; there’s fighting even among co-religionists.
The fact is all religions are not the same. The challenge is to accept the fact without descending into triumphalism or hostility. A starting point that avoids such confrontations is acknowledging the dignity of the human person and his or her right to religious freedom. This is something the Catholic Church proposes (see Dignitatis Humanae, 2).
If people can respect each other as fellow human beings, who deserve the same fundamental rights, then the next step is to move toward mutual understanding through dialogue. A spirit of openness and inquisitiveness about other faiths would be an important part of any meaningful conversation. However, the most important item to bring is a clear understanding of one’s own tradition, a prerequisite the Vatican recommends strongly to all Catholics: “Above all they should know their own Church and be able to give an account of its teaching” (Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, 24).
Catholics can and should feel comfortable speaking openly and knowledgeably about their faith, but too many Catholics feel they don’t know (or remember) enough to do so. Only with a firm grasp of the basic foundations of our faith can we help to create a climate in which an informed conversation can take place, avoiding intolerance and ignorance.
This book aims to provide you with a solid understanding of the basic, foundational teachings of the Catholic Church. We will consider key doctrines, Church structure, and Church history, as well as our personal call to growth in holiness. If you’ve learned it all before but forgotten much of it, this will be a strong refresher course for you. If you’re new to the Church or just beginning to learn the teachings of the Faith, this book is an easy-to-follow introduction.
The Catholic Church: Its Basic Foundation
Jesus, during his earthly ministry and before ascending into heaven, instituted his Church upon the “rock” of Peter and the other apostles (see Mt 16:18; 18:18). This Church that Jesus founded subsists in the Catholic Church, according to Catholic teaching, and it still bears the four distinguishing marks that Jesus intended: namely that it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. “This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society … is governed by the