Baltimore Catechism

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Council of Baltimore, or simply the Baltimore Catechism, is the official national catechism for children in the United States of America. The first such catechism written for Catholics in North America, it was the standard Catholic school text in the country from 1885 to the late 1960s.

In response to a personal copyright taken out by Bishop John Lancaster Spalding, various editions include annotations or other modifications. While the approved text had to remain the same in the catechisms, by adding maps, glossaries or definitions publishers could copyright and sell their own version of the catechism. The Baltimore Catechism remained in use in nearly all Catholic schools until many moved away from catechism-based education, though it is still used in some.

In the nineteenth century, repeated efforts had been made in the United States towards an arrangement by which a uniform textbook of Christian doctrine might be used by all Catholics. As early as 1829, the bishops assembled in the First Provincial Council of Baltimore decreed: "A catechism shall be written which is better adapted to the circumstances of this Province; it shall give the Christian Doctrine as explained in Cardinal Bellarmine's Catechism (1597), and when approved by the Holy See, it shall be published for the common use of Catholics" (Decr. xxxiii). The clause recommending Bellarmine's catechism as a model was added at the special request of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Bellarmine's Small Catechism, Italian text with English translation, was published in Boston in 1853.

The wish of the bishops was not carried out and the First and Second Plenary Councils of Baltimore (1852 and 1866) repeated the decree of 1829. In the Third Plenary Council (1884) many bishops were in favor of a "revised" edition of a 1775 catechism by Archbishop Butler from Ireland, but finally the matter was given into the hands of a committee of six bishops. At last, in 1885, was issued A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Council of Baltimore. The council had desired a catechism "perfect in every respect" (Acta et Decr., p. 219). As was true of nearly all new catechisms of the 19th century there was some initial criticisms, but the overwhelming preponderance of reviews were positive. Nearly every US bishop gave the new national catechism his official approbation and soon schools in diocese after diocese adopted the Baltimore Catechism as their religious education textbook. Soon various editions came forth with additions of word-meanings, explanatory notes, some even with different arrangements, so that soon there was a considerable diversity in the books that go by the name of Baltimore Catechism. The Baltimore Catechism became the standard text for Catholic education in the United States for the next four generations. Since the 1960s, many Catholic churches and schools have moved away from catechism-based education.

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