This is one of my favorite catechisms. Because it is short and to the point it makes an excellent reference point.

This is one of my favorite catechisms. Because it is short and to the point it makes an excellent reference point.

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Cardinal Burke: Catechism of Pius X is Also Today a Sure and Indispensible Reference Point

"St. Pius X saw with clarity how religious ignorance not only leads individual lives, but also to the decay of society and a lack of balanced thinking in the most serious problems," said Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura at event surrounding the Catechism of St. Pius X 100 years after its publication, by the Kulturkreis of John Henry Newman on the 24th of May.  It was organized in Seregno.

In his "extraordinary and brilliant lectio" says Catholic writer Cristina Siccardi,  Cardinal Burke maintains of Saint Pius X (1835-1914) that "ignorance of Christian doctrine is recognized as the main cause of the decline of faith and therefore  sound catechesis is of paramount importance for the restoration of faith. It is not difficult to see how current the observations and conclusions of St. Pius X are. They are really recognizable in the motives that has led Pope Benedict XVI. to proclaim the year of the faith. "

The observations and conclusions of Pope Sarto were the result of his long and deep experience as a shepherd. He described the effects of lack of catechesis in the spiritual life of Christians with a very specific words and also the dangerous consequences for their salvation:

"In fact, the actions that the heart of the Christian people nowadays are very many who need to go live in complete ignorance of the salvation of knowing, and this is generally not unjustified. We understand Christian people not only the quantity or the members of the lower class, the ignorance of this can often be somewhat excused by the fact that the strict and obedient service to their masters can be left them no time for themselves. Also in the circles where it is not lacking in spirit and form, so here most of all, providing you with ample Although secular science, but lives very measured and kenntnislos in religious terms there. "(Encyclical Acerbo nimis of Pius X)

Cardinal Burke recalled  Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) in this context, who in his autobiographical masterpiece Apologia pro Vita Sua , in a discussion about the true teachings of the Catholic Church, took up the Eighth Commandment, specifically, mainly on the question of whether it is morally allowed to say the wrong thing:

"And now, if Protestants wish to know what our real teaching is, as on other subjects, as did one of lying, let them look, not at our books of casuistry, but at our catechisms. Works on pathology do not give the best insight into the form and the harmony of the human frame, and, as it is with the body, so is it with the least The Catechism of the Council of Trent that drawn up for the express purpose of providing preachers with subjects for their Sermons, and, as my whole work has been a defense of myself, I may say here I did rarely preach a sermon, but that I would go to this beautiful and complete Catechism to get both my matter and my doctrine. "((Since my German edition of the Apologia pro Vita Sua just is not available, the original quotation from Cardinal Newman's book, as it was presented by Cardinal Burke.))

 The core message of the talk by Cardinal Burke was to emphasize the practical importance of the Catechism published in 1912, which is not merely a religious artifact, which now belongs to the past. The Catechism of St. Pius X, the cardinal said, was a safe and indispensable reference point today.