The Companion to the Catechism of The Catholic Church: A Compendium of Texts Referred to in the Catechism of the Catholic Church

This work is outdated, poorly thought-out, and almost functionally useless.Ignatius Press (IgPr) based its "Companion" on the 1994 English translation of the original French text. The French, however, was only an official "working document"; it was always meant to be provisional. When Pope St. John Paul II issued the Latin typical edition of the CCC in 1997, all sorts of changes had to be made to bring the translations -- yes, including the "original" French! -- into conformity.This work, then, is actually a useful a companion to the FIRST edition of the CCC. It is, however, less than ideal for the current (and, standard) second edition issued in 1997. IgPr tries to remedy this by including an "Addendum" at the back of the book, yet this only added to my confusion. Instead, IgPr should have issued a revised edition which was in direct conformity to the text of the CCC 2nd ed. in English.Consider, for example, CCC #57. In CCC 2nd ed., we read:#57 This state of division into many nations is at once cosmic, social and religious. It is intended to limit the pride of fallen humanity [10] united only in its perverse ambition to forge its own unity as at Babel. [11] But, because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry of the nation and of its rulers constantly threaten this provisional economy with the perversion of paganism. [12][10] Cf. Acts 17:26-27.[11] Cf. Wis 10:5; Gen 11:4-6.[12] Cf. Rom 1:18-25.Not only has the text been changed from the 1994 French in the new edition, but footnote references themselves have also been deleted (namely, two citations from the Book of Deuteronomy). Yet, IgPr's "Companion" gives everything as in the first edition. You'd never know that the references are wrong. The "Addendum" in the back does apprise the reader of the fact that the two references to Deuteronomy have been omitted in the second edition. But, so what? They're still there in the main body of the work!Next, consider CCC #108. In CCC 2nd ed., we read:#108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is "not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living". [73] If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures."[74][73] St. Bernard, S. missus est hom. 4,11:PL 183,86.[74] Cf. Lk 24:45.CCC 2nd ed. does change the text a little bit . . . but, the problem here are the references. There are two notes given: the first, to a writing of St. Bernard of Clairvaux; the second, to the Gospel of Luke. For some unfathomable reason, the "Companion" nowhere gives the reference from St. Bernard! The Luke reference IS given, though (see pg. 32 in the "Companion"). The Bernard reference does not seem to have been an addition to the original text. It seems to have been there for both the 1994 and 1997 editions. Yet, it is nowhere to be found in the "Companion".Another example: CCC #158, in which I count FOUR references: from St. Anselm of Canterbury; the Letter to the Ephesians; Vatican II's "Dei Verbum"; and, St. Augustine of Hippo.None seems to have been an addition to the CCC 2nd edition. (At least, nothing is mentioned in the "Addendum" section.) So, they should have all been there in the "Companion", except . . . they ain't. In fact, CCC ##157 and 158, with each one's references, seem to have just been skipped over! Maybe, the numbering is somehow off. But, if that's the case, then claiming to have organized the content off of the CCC's own numbering system is false. And, the guide itself becomes completely useless.After much puzzlement, though, I think that I have finally figured out the "method" to IgPr's "madness":IF A CITATION IS QUOTED, EITHER FULLY OR PARTIALLY, IN THE MAIN BODY OF THE TEXT, THEN THE EDITOR OF THE "COMPANION" CHOSE NOT TO REPRODUCE IT.This explains why the paragraph numbers in the "Companion" skip -- from CCC #1916 to #1930 (!), for example. So, full reference is given only to those texts which have not been quoted at all . . . which makes no sense to me at all. If something is partially quoted, no matter how partially quoted -- even if only a few words -- then, it's likely to not have been reproduced here.Forget that this procedure allows for no context whatsoever for what's being quoted . . . (I mean, only a part of St. Bernard's statement is quoted above. What is its context? What is the driving force behind his statement?)Forget also that the Editor never tells you that you're not really getting ALL the "texts referred to" in the CCC (as per the title) . . . (If the CCC refers to "Gaudium et Spes" #44, then I expect to find G&S 44 -- even if the CCC only quotes a portion of it!)The Editor is willing to meticulously reproduce any particular citation -- some of which go on for pages -- as long as the reference is "indirect". (The work is, after all, almost 1,000-pages long!) But, if the CCC merely quotes just a few words or a sentence from a reference, then . . . nope . . . not to be reproduced at all. Not even to be noted as "already quoted in source", so that the reader would know. If IgPr was worried about length, consider again: The book was already almost a thousand pages long! Why not do a better, more thorough work in two volumes?(And, this is not even done consistently as with the partial quotation from Luke above in the example from CCC #108. For, the Editor DOES chose to include it, even though it has been partially quoted in the text!One final note:In an Editor's Note, IgPr reveals that not even the 1994 English translation conforms in all places with the French edition: "Interesting documents cited in the French edition [have been] omitted in the English edition". Oh, really? Don't know why . . . but, IgPr -- for some reason -- decides that some of those "interesting" documents ought to be (re-)included. (Yet, didn't it cross the Editor's mind that, if those French citations were not present in the English edition, then adding them back might cause confusion for someone using the English edition?) IgPr also reveals that the 1994 English edition has added references to citations of texts in the French edition. Not sure what that means . . . but, IgPr has omitted them here.

If you think the Catechism of the Catholic Church is filled with everything you needed to know, but then a footnote directs you to sources you may not have readily available, or online, and it will take some time finding it, then finding the section mentioned, is bad, do they have a book for you. The Companion to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is a book with all the footnote material in full text form, so you can read it in a few moments, and enhance you study time tremendously. When I saw that it contained 980 pages compared to the Catechism's 904 pages, I knew that the research time that would be needed without this excellent book would have been tremendous indeed. The average Catholic would be unable to find most of the material, and our non-Catholic friends would only be able to find the Scripture references, but would miss out on all the excellent writings of the Church by the Popes, Doctors of the Church, the Saints, and resources that would give a more complete understanding of the Catechism topics. May I add that most all of the teachings, Truths, doctrine, oral tradition, and much more materials have been kept in tact over the Centuries and have not been altered, or omitted but maintained by the teaching authority of the Church. This book is a wealth of information on all the topics in the Catholic Catechism. The references are easily found as they use the four Parts of the Book, and section numbers in the columns for easy reference. I recommend it especially for anyone who wants the Truth, and deeper meaning of the faith, rather than just a surface knowledge. Thank you Amazon for getting this book to me before the expected delivery date. You made my day.

The full text of all the citations in the Catechism (except those in the Bible and those quoted in full) for *all* the footnotes in the Catechism in one volume is a remarkable achievement.Another reviewer felt that one shortcoming was that sources quoted in full in the Catechism were not repeated here. Well, yes, that might be a problem for some, but then this book is not intended to be used alone. This is a straight footnote lookup from the Catechism.Here you have a chance to trace the thoughts of those who wrote the Catechism. It is more than merely helpful or even enlightening. It opens the door to many wonderful works, including some which are hard to find in English.The paper used is quite heavy for a book this size (980 pages) making it quite thick. The binding, even though it is paperback, is first-rate. This book is made to be used and to last.In addition to this book and, of course the Catechism, please take a look at "Introduction to the Catechism" by Cardinal Ratzinger (Now Pope Benedict XVI). The new "Compendium of the Catechism" released in April 2006 by the USCCB, is a superb work as well.If you are serious about your Catholic faith and want to learn more, this will certainly help.

This Companion to the Catechism is mostly good. The reason I purchased it was because the references to the Council of Trent and the Council of Florence, and similar, are just really really hard to find online. For that purpose it is good. However I did expect to find ALL of the references there. For some reason the references that are given mostly in full in the Catechism don't show up here. The other disappointment is that I have noticed several times in the Catechism that there is a block of indented text - implying a quotation - but without a footnote. I had hoped that the Companion might have filled in the blanks but it didn't. That said, to have most of the reference material in one book is very good - even if most of them are the easy to find ones (scripture references and Vatican II documents). It does take a bit of getting used to that the references are arranged according to passage number and NOT according to the footnote number in the Catechism.