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Let your speech be “Yes, yes: no, no”; whatever is beyond these comes from the evil one. (Mt. 5:37)

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June 2010

Reprint #92

The Catechetical
Teachings of
Pope St. Pius X
St. Pius X is justly known for many things: his fight against Modernism,
the lowering of the age of First Communion, and the formulation of the
Code of Canon Law among them. What is perhaps less known today is
his intense catechetical work. This article, written in 1953 by Don Silvio
Riva, provides some insight into this aspect of his life and pontificate.
In the Vatican gardens on feast day afternoons
between 1903 and 1914, an uncustomary scene
would take place: the gates of the Vatican opened
to admit an ever-growing crowd desirous of seeing
and hearing the Pope, who would comment on the
Gospel and explain the catechism as he did when
he was chaplain at Tombolo and parish priest at
Salzano. Then came an “apostolic blessing.” The
act was unusual for the Vatican’s environment, but
not for him who was born “with the catechism in his
blood.”

The Catechetical Magisterium
of St. Pius X
St. Pius X was the soul that profoundly
interpreted the role of the catechism in the life of the
Church and its salvific function in the economy of
souls. It will not be without gain to follow him, even
summarily, in his catechetical vocation as it appears
when one examines the mystery of his life.

One remembers that during his childhood
he was diligent and enthusiastic at the school of
Christian Doctrine in his native village of Riese,
where he stood out among all the children his age;
and when he was a high school student, during
summer vacations he would organize “open air
catechism classes” on the plaza of the Sanctuary of
the Madonna di Cendrole, where he deftly explained
some lessons of Christian Doctrine, listened to with
pleasure and profit by the village children. The
lessons were “active,” accompanied by alternating
songs and prayers, and made lively by the intuitive
gesticulation of the young catechist.
But once ordained priest, it was during the years
of his first assignment as chaplain at Tombolo from
1858 to 1867 that he perceived the scope of the
catechetical problem for children and adults alike.
Thanks to the practical vision he acquired from
his pastoral ministry, he observed that the pulse
of the Christian community is taken by measuring
the vitality of its catechetical instruction: without
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catechism, one does not make genuine Christians.
It was during these years that, having instituted a
school for the poor, he came in touch with the vital
problems of education and pedagogy, for it happened
that he replaced the village’s primary school teacher.
His awareness of catechetical instruction became
more acute while he was responsibile for the parish
of Salzano (1867 to 1875), during which he saw the
urgent needs of the people.
“I beg and beseech you to come to catechism.
Miss Vespers rather than catechism!” he would tell
his flock repeatedly, certain that if they frequented
catechism, he would soon see them at Vespers, too.
He was convinced that religious ignorance is the
root of every evil. It was at Salzano that the outline
of his famous encyclical on catechesis, Acerbo Nimis,
was born in his heart; once he was Pontiff, he merely
ratified with the supreme authority of the magisterium
what had ripened during his parish ministry.
We remember the delightful “dialogue catechism”
he would give at church with the young Don
Giuseppe Menegazzi, of the neighboring village of
Noale, to which flocked not only his own faithful,
but many other eager listeners in the surrounding
area. During the lessons of the “dialogue catechism,”
the two priests would talk to each other; one played
the part of the ignorant, and the other, the teacher.
A certain jealousy naturally arose among the priests
of neighboring villages, and this strange method of
catechism was even denounced to the bishop, who
answered: “Do likewise yourselves!”
This curious catechism enthused and interested
the people, for the ignorant made himself the
intelligent and effective interpreter of the doubts and
difficulties of the audience. The catechetical zeal of Fr.
Sarto did not prevent him from becoming aware of
a pedagogical dissonance: the catechetical textbooks
did not correspond to the mental development of the
children, who were nonetheless judged by Bishop
Zinelli, in the decree of his pastoral visitation, “well
instructed in Christian Doctrine.”
On April 18, 1885, Giuseppe Sarto was elected
Bishop of Mantua. His first pastoral visitation opened
his eyes to the immediate needs of the diocese so
well that during his conversations with the priests,
with bitterness and affliction, he constantly had on
his lips the refrain he would still repeat when he
had ascended the See of Peter: “Christian Doctrine!
Christian Doctrine! Christian Doctrine!” In a pastoral
letter to the parish priests in 1885 and during the
diocesan synod held at Mantua on September
10, 1888, he anticipated the practical rules that
constellate the Encyclical Acerbo Nimis of 1905:
In every parish a school of Christian Doctrine is to be
established, and every Sunday and holy day of obligation,

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catechism is to be taught in every church: The pastor will
explain Christian doctrine to the children, and immediately
afterward he will teach catechism to the people from the
pulpit. During Advent and Lent, special daily instruction is
to be given to the children to prepare them for confession
and Communion. Parents, guardians, and employers who
habitually prevent their children or subordinates from regular attendance at the teaching of Christian doctrine cannot
receive absolution.

This pastoral solicitude was to push him to inform
his clergy during his second pastoral visitation: “I
shall especially be pleased by the good ordering and
progress of the teaching of Christian doctrine. This
is the subject about which I spoke to you on my
arrival in the diocese. It is what I have vigorously
recommended in all the parishes during my first
pastoral visitation, and it is the subject I shall insist
upon the most during my second visitation” (Letter
No. 501).
Monsignor Sarto had a dream, and he
enthusiastically shared it with his priests: to see the
churches of the diocese transformed into great schools
of Christian doctrine for the people. He called upon
everyone’s help, declaring that “the deepest gratitude
of his heart would be earned by the aid lent him in
such an important part of his episcopal ministry.”
Thus he wrote in a letter to the clergy dated April 19,
1893. His magnificent catechetical letters constitute
a practical summary of pedagogy and pastoral
technique from the religious magisterium and, in
my opinion, they would merit being collected and
organized in a volume and published, for they are
documents of a burning relevancy for our time.
A number of episodes followed that show his
zeal and firm, fatherly intervention on behalf of the
accomplishment of this very serious pastoral duty.
Monsignor Sarto was a courageous bishop who dared
to sound the depths of the ministry and to expose it
in its least dynamic aspects. He did not hesitate to
denounce certain forms of ecclesiastical eloquence
that failed to correspond with the genuine need of
souls: “I much prefer that the Lenten conferences,
which most of the time prove to be absolutely fruitless
because the people do not understand some speeches,
be suppressed and the distinguished orator preach
in the desert, rather than the faithful remain without
Christian doctrine and the pastor’s catechism,” he
wrote in his letter to the clergy of October 12, 1885.
In response to a question about pastoral practice
posed by some of the parish priests, namely, whether
the explanation of the Gospel could replace the
catechism lesson, he bluntly replied in the letter
quoted above:
No, the explanation of the Gospel, while necessary, cannot
take the place of catechetical instruction, for these are two
quite different duties. The explanation or homily made on the
Gospel, even if it is adapted to the meager capacity of the listeners, presupposes that the faithful are already instructed in
the rudiments of the faith, for these are recalled on the fly, so

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to speak, while catechetical instruction must propound a truth
of faith or Christian morals and explain it in all its parts.…
Preparation for teaching catechism cannot be done without
great care, to the contrary; it requires study, even more than
for the preparation of an eloquent sermon. It has been said
aright that it is easier to find a preacher than a catechist who
can give good instruction. Whatever may be the aptitude one
may think one has, one will never be able to teach catechism
fruitfully without diligent preparation. The pretext that the
people is loutish and uncouth only increases the duty to spend
more time studying than if one had to address cultivated and
instructed persons.

Need one add that the catechetical magisterium
of Pius X did not mature on the pontifical See, but
was the laborious and considered fruition of his long
pastoral experience in the world of living souls? At
every passage, obvious correspondences stand out.
Pius X is known for the drafting of his “catechism,”
which is a precise formulary of Christian doctrine.
The origin of the “uniform catechism” goes
back to September 1889, when the first National
Catechetical Congress was held at Piacenza, presided
by the outstanding bishop and catechist that was Msgr.
Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza.
Msgr. Sarto was occupied with his second pastoral
visitation and so was unable to participate. However,
he presented a motion and a wish for the drafting of
a catechism that would be satisfactory by its clarity
and the simplicity of its formulas, which could be
placed in the hands of the people and understood
by them. The catechism in usage in the diocese of
Mantua did not satisfy him, nor did the catechisms
of the neighboring dioceses which he had studied
attentively, for, he confided to his clergy in a letter of
April 19, 1893, “with all due respect for the councils
and methods, I have not yet found any that can be
adapted to the needs and conditions of our diocese.”
It should be related that during the preparatory
phase of the Catechetical Congress, during a
discussion to determine whether the idea of a single
catechism, which was desired by a great number,
should be included among the topics of interest to the
congress, Msgr. Scalabrini, a balanced and refined
soul, expressed fear “lest the congress encroach upon
the authority of the bishops,” who have the right
to select and impose the catechism they consider
best adapted to their diocese. But when the motion
of the Bishop of Mantua was read, which recalled
an identical wish formulated by the Fathers of the
First Vatican Council, during an executive session,
the general opinion shifted towards this practical
objective, and it was Msgr. Scalabrini who was the
first to express his affirmative opinion. Even though
he had “decided not to refer to the development of a
uniform catechism during the Congress,” he showed
himself to be forthwith very happy to speak about it
and to conclude with a petition to be addressed to
the Holy See. The Acts and Documents of the First
Catechetical Congress of Piacenza, printed by the

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Episcopal Press of the same diocese in 1890, precisely
report the fact and reproduce the text of Msgr. Sarto’s
motion, which deserves to be known, at least in its
most interesting passages:
The undersigned Bishop of Mantua respectfully greets the
First Catechetical Congress, and makes a proposal that he
desires to see discussed by the learned ecclesiastics who will
be taking part.
Faced with the abundance of catechisms which are lacking,
especially among those published recently, not only in form
but also in dogmatic exactitude, it is desirable to have a single
text that would be adopted for instruction in the Schools of
Christian Doctrine.
In anticipation of the objection that this is not a question
that can be treated of during a local congress because the bishops, masters of the faithful entrusted to their care, have the
right to present, each one in his own diocese, the catechism
in the form they believe the most opportune.
The Congress is not being asked to deliberate, but only to
manifest its desire on this subject and to make it known to
the Apostolic See.
Indeed, just as the Holy See established the Catechismus ad
Parochos, which belongs to the Universal Church, likewise it
is desirable that there be a popular historical, dogmatic, and
moral catechism, written in short questions and answers,
which would be taught in all the Schools of Christian Doctrine
and translated in all languages, so that in this matter also, all
may be labii unius; and this would be the foundation of the
other, more numerous institutions which must be established
by the parish priest and catechist.

He supported his desire with reasons of obvious
practical urgency, such as the uniformity of a child’s
catechetical language in its family and in the parish;
the frequent emigration of the faithful from one
parish to another–an argument making allusion to the
work of Msgr. Scalabrini for immigrants–and from
one country to another; and the fact that St. Robert
Bellarmine’s Book of Christian Doctrine, even though
composed by order of Clement VIII, “proves to
be very difficult for uncultivated minds, not only of
children, but also of adults, who in this domain are
‘quasi geniti infantes.’” Msgr. Sarto does not exclude a
few difficulties, which he judges to be “negligible in
relation to the great advantages to be gained.”
He suggested the text of the resolution: “The First
Catechetical Congress addresses a prayer to the Holy
Father, that he might command the redaction of a
popular and easy Catechism of Christian Doctrine in
the form of very brief questions and answers, divided
into different parts, and that he make it obligatory
throughout the Church.”
He then added a remark of great biographical
and apostolic interest, because it is praise and indirect
recognition of what he himself, as Pius X, was to
do for the practical achievement of this very same
episcopal motion: “It would not be the least of the
glories of Your Pontificate, and the First Catechetical

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Congress of Piacenza would have the merit of having
promoted a work of immense profit for souls.”
He was to be the one to accomplish this petition,
which the Congress forwarded to the Holy See, and
this pontifical glory would be his only 14 years later
when he became Pope. The enterprise was not easy,
but Pius X did not fear to become unpopular, for in
his soul he was still Don Giuseppe Sarto, chaplain of
Tombolo and archpriest of Salzano: that is to say, a
man of God and workman of the Church.
This was at Mantua. At Venice, when he reigned
on the patriarchal see, he was to repeat vigorously
this catechetical magisterium, stigmatizing a
deplorable oratorical formality, which remained, as
he pointedly remarked, “in the lofty heights of the
pulpit, closer to the organ pipes than the people’s
hearts.” Thus he expressed himself in a letter to his
clergy of January 17, 1895.
There is a document of considerable value and of
pastoral relevance coming from Cardinal Sarto just
two months before his accession to the patriarchal
see: it is a letter burning with zeal and full of paternal
bitterness, not unworthy of authentic patristic
literature. In it one sees the notion of the primacy
of teaching in pastors of souls take precedence over
their liturgical and sacramental ministry, a theme
that he will take up with prophetic vigor in the great
encyclical that remains sovereign among pontifical
documents concerning catechesis, because it harkens
to Christ’s docete, which precedes the baptizantes. Here
it is in its essential passages:
We preach too much and teach too little. We must put aside
these florid speeches and preach piously and simply to the
people the truths of faith, the commandments of the Church,
the teachings of the Gospel, the vices and the virtues, because
it often happens that persons well instructed in profane sciences do not know or misknow the truths of faith, and know
less of the catechism than idiotic children do. Think of the
good of souls more than the impression you hope to make.
The people thirst for truth: let them be given what they need
for the salvation of their souls; and so, instructed in their own
language, touched and moved, they will weep over their
faults and approach the divine Sacraments.

These teachings of Cardinal Sarto announce the
documents of Pope Pius X: the pontificate would only
increase their authority and force.

The Catechetical Activity
of St. Pius X
The Pope of Catechesis
There is a date in the life of Pius X and
consequently in the history of the Church, which has
particular importance, for it projects the apostolic
vigor of St. Peter and St. Paul, of St. John Chrysostom

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and St. Augustine: April 15, 1905. The Catholic world
received from Pius X an eminent gift: the Encyclical
Acerbo Nimis on teaching Christian Doctrine. Some
of his august predecessors gave exhortatory rules
for catechesis, but the task of giving it a complete
treatment in its theological, moral, legal, and pastoral
aspects devolved to him. Even now [1953], his
encyclical constitutes the code of the Catechism for the
Catholic Church, and subsequent legislation drew
upon this source, including the Code of Canon Law
redacted under his authority and promulgated by
Benedict XV.
A brief synthesis of the document will
effectively clarify the pastoral and social content
of his catechetical thought, officially expressed at a
historical moment in which Freemasonry, which had
seized political power in several Christian nations,
“had especially attacked the public schools in order
to rear up new generations not only ignorant,”
remarked Msgr. Lorenzo Pavanelli, eminent
specialist on the catechetical problems in light of the
teaching of St. Pius X, “but also resolutely opposed
to real and authentic Christianity, that is to say,
Catholicism. Even in Italy, by cunning regulations
and underhanded ploys violating the spirit and the
letter of statutory legislation, all Christian teaching
and prayer were driven in sectarian fashion out of all
the schools, even the lower grades.”
There was on the one hand a massive front hostile
to catechism at school, even elementary school, that
advanced reasons such as the incompetence of the
priests, charged with religious teaching within the
confines of the church and who should not profane
this teaching by giving it in public schools; and on
the other hand, there was a no less hostile aversion
toward the text of the catechism itself, composed
as it was according to didactic criteria inferior
to those in practice at school. Such accusations
were supported by factions in our own camp, and
perhaps even by elements of the clergy, ignorant
of the adversary’s game. In effect, the didactical
situation of the catechism–one catechism for all the
grades–seemed delicate and vulnerable. Catechesis
at school did not fit in with the didactic structure of
the other disciplines because of its insufficient and
rudimentary methodology, because the catechetical
criterion of questions and answers exclusively learned
by heart was not the most indicated for schooling at
the time. For the same reasons they even went so far
as to denounce the deficiencies of parish catechesis,
and in the Italian parliament a blasphemous voice
of condemnation and contempt was raised which
overstepped the limits of methodology and crossed
the line into doctrinal content and the Church’s
teaching power. Finally, the teaching of religion was
banished from Italian schools.
Pius X was the man placed by Providence to
hoist the destiny of the catechism, beginning with
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the parishes and dioceses, so that it might then
be ready and able to hold a place at school with
dignity and honor. He took up the idea of a School
of Catechism based on the thought and rules of St.
Charles Borromeo, but a school in keeping with
the times, school as it was then, with its didactic
and technical rules, with its pedagogical spirit
purified and refined by the educational treasures
of the Church and its holy educators, to whom he
fervently looked for guidance. It would be difficult
to form a fair idea of the catechetical encyclical of
Pius X without keeping in mind these determining
factors set by the circumstances, and especially by
the pedagogical and apostolic acuity of this Pontiff,
who achieved the Church’s desire for perfection
in the domain of catechesis. The program of this
document is “the renewal of the Church’s teaching
mandate by developing it within the framework of
the era, with the adoption of the best pedagogical
and didactic results, thereby impressing upon
catechesis an organization that transforms the parish
into an authentic catechetical teaching authority.”
The encyclical is thus a short treatise of pastoral
catechesis, catechetical legislation, and organization,
such as was required by the exigencies of the nascent
20th century.
The encyclical begins with an analysis of the
religious decadence caused by “ignorance of things
divine,” which leads men to insensibility to good
and evil. This leads to the corruption of morals in
which every affection of man is turned to a love of
vanity and deceit, and men stray from the paths of
justice. Pius X sees “the knowledge of divine things”
as the only guide able to direct the erring will of man,
and he does to hesitate to state that “the obligation
to dissipate this most pernicious ignorance…rests
upon all who are pastors of souls,” according to
the command of Christ. The encyclical then traces
the evangelical figure of the priest as teacher and
catechist, as propagators of the doctrine of Jesus
Christ and saviors of the human family, athirst for
light and truth. Indeed, Pius X affirms with apostolic
frankness:
…for a priest there is no duty more grave or obligation
more binding than this…. If what We have just said is applicable to all priests, does it not apply with much greater force
to those who possess the title and the authority of parish
priests, and who, by virtue of their rank and in a sense by
virtue of a contract, hold the office of pastors of souls? These
are, to a certain extent, the pastors and teachers appointed
by Christ in order that the faithful might not be as “children,
tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine
devised in the wickedness of men…. (§§9, 10).

The encyclical, in reference to the parish priests,
expounds wise rules about the catechetical
magisterium. It recalls that the teaching of
catechism comes before the explanation of the
Gospel because

The sermon on the holy Gospel is addressed to those who
should have already received knowledge of the elements of
faith. It is, so to speak, bread broken for adults. Catechetical
instruction, on the other hand, is that milk which the Apostle
Peter wished the faithful to desire in all simplicity like newborn babes. (§12)

Pius X then finds it opportune to provide the
general outline of a catechism lesson that will really
lead to amendment of life:
The task of the catechist is to take up one or other of the
truths of faith or of Christian morality and then explain it in
all its parts; and since amendment of life is the chief aim of
his instruction, the catechist must needs make a comparison
between what God commands us to do and what is our actual
conduct. After this, he will use examples appropriately taken
from the Holy Scriptures, Church history, and the lives of the
saints–thus moving his hearers and clearly pointing out to
them how they are to regulate their own conduct. He should,
in conclusion, earnestly exhort all present to dread and avoid
vice and to practice virtue. (§13)

In the clear pedagogical conception of Pius X, the
lesson comprises four parts: the first makes an appeal
to the mind by the master’s lively, oral exposition
in which he examines the particular truth in all its
parts. In this part, the teaching aspect of catechism
dominates, as distinguished from mere moralizing, in
which doctrine is absent and the mind left inactive.
The Pontiff likes simple, forceful catechesis, which
he demands be dispensed with great clarity and
simplicity. Once the truth has been expounded, its
application to practical life follows: this calls for an
interior act of reflection and verification, engaging
the understanding and facilitating assimilation
and possession of the truth. It is tantamount to
an examination of conscience injected quickly
into the catechism lesson, the efficacy of which is
incalculable. The mind that before was hesitant about
a truth of faith now seeks support and confirmation
in practical, lived examples that extend beyond
religious knowledge as such and translate into the
lives of men as it is represented in sacred literature,
or reliable historical truth which constitutes literature
for edification and encouragement. This is the appeal
to the sensibility, which receives so much emphasis
in contemporary pedagogy. The heart has its role in
catechesis, as in all teaching, and Pius X, with the
sensible balance that characterizes him, discreetly
assigns it its place so that it can fulfill its function. The
fourth part is reserved to the will, of which Pius X
shows that he has a lofty and sovereign conception,
for it is man’s backbone. The final exhortation he
desires as a conclusion to the lesson is volitional,
for once the motives for action have been exposed
and illustrated, there is nothing left but to exhort the
pupils to put them into practice. The common sense

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and the cultured–in order that they may arrive at eternal
happiness. (§26)

of these volitional applications is worth pointing out,
for they do not end in cold, illogical exhortations;
they are grafted on the living trunk of the lesson,
in which the foundations of doctrine and hence of
motivation have been laid. Contemporary volitional
psychology rightly extols the indispensable character
of motivation that persuades the understanding and
discovers to it the beauty of truth, which becomes
lovable through the heart’s office: from there to the
will, the passage is short.
Without any display of pedagogical erudition,
Pius X summarizes the best of the Catholic
Church’s knowledge of education handed on by the
experience of the most reputable persons worthy
of the confidence of Christian schools. Even today,
almost a half a century after the promulgation of this
encyclical, it is astonishing to glimpse such freshness,
vigor, and truth, and it must be admitted that some
saints can teach every age and offer, in a nutshell, the
vital principle of what men will do afterwards.
After outlining the lesson, Pius X confirms the
oral nature of catechetical teaching: “Faith then
depends on hearing, and hearing on the word of
Christ” (Rom. 10:17, quoted in §16). It was from
this truth that an academic program for catechetical
instruction was developed and put in place by a
handful of apostolic priests who were able to adapt
the teaching of catechism to the school setting,
organized by grades in parallel to the public school
grades, with professors, a curriculum, textbooks,
registration, grades, teachers’ manuals, supplementary
instructional material; with an office, secretariat,
examinations and competitions, rewards and feasts,
celebrations and apostolate.
Finally, the encyclical establishes the norms and
directives for parish priests, concluding with a fervent
appeal to the duty of pedagogical preparation, which
even today occupies the lion’s share of catechetical
efforts:
We do not, however, wish to give the impression that this
studied simplicity in imparting instruction does not require
labor and meditation–on the contrary, it demands both more
than any other kind of preaching. It is much easier to find
a preacher capable of delivering an eloquent and elaborate
discourse than a catechist who can impart a catechetical
instruction which is praiseworthy in every detail. No matter
what natural facility a person may have in ideas and language, let him always remember that he will never be able
to teach Christian doctrine to children or to adults without
first giving himself to very careful study and preparation.
They are mistaken who think that because of inexperience
and lack of training of the people the work of catechizing can
be performed in a slipshod fashion. On the contrary, the less
educated the hearers, the more zeal and diligence must be
used to adapt the sublime truths to their untrained minds;
these truths, indeed, far surpass the natural understanding
of the people, yet must be known by all–the uneducated

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Pius X repeats this point several times in the
encyclical, persuaded that fruitful catechesis largely
follows upon a preparation adapted to the pupils:
without wishing to, he has described himself, for Don
Giuseppe Sarto, then Bishop, Patriarch and lastly
Pope, prepared his catechism lessons at Tombolo and
Salzano, at Mantua and Venice, and even those he
gave from the Chair of Peter, in just this way.
The Pope of the Catechism
In his youth, he studied catechism in the books
of his time. As a young priest, he lamented the
inadequacy of the texts and programs ill-adapted to
the mental capacity of his pupils, but he said nothing.
As a parish priest, he highlighted this lacuna and
perhaps contented himself with talking about it to
fellow priests and calling for a sound revision. He
supplied the deficiencies of method by his words
and skillful presentation. As bishop of Mantua, he
observed the insufficiency of the diocesan catechism:
he would have liked to see the material organized
more rationally, the form and style less rhetorical
and plainer and more concrete, simpler and more
concise. We have already spoken of his motion at
the first National Catechetical Congress of Piacenza
in 1889–which remained a dead letter until 1912, the
year in which he promulgated his catechism.
[Almost a century] has elapsed since that 12th of
October on which Pius X wrote a letter to Cardinal
Pietro Respighi, his vicar general for the city of
Rome. The Letter, imbued with paternal fervor, is
as it were the synthesis of all his other writings on
catechesis. As such, it ought to be made known for
the benefit of priests and Christian educators, who
will find in its lines an abundance of doctrine and
wise rules for catechetical instruction.
From the beginning of Our Pontificate we have taken the
greatest care for the religious instruction of the Christian
people, and in particular of children, convinced that a great
part of the evils afflicting the Church arise from ignorance of
its doctrine and laws. The enemies of the Church condemn it,
blaspheming what they do not know, and very many of her
children, failing to appreciate this doctrine and its laws, live
as if they were not children of the Church. That is why we
have often insisted upon the urgent necessity of catechetical
instruction, and we have promoted it everywhere, according
to our power, by the Encyclical Letter Acerbo Nimis, and by
regulations concerning the teaching of catechism in the parishes, but also by the approbation and encouragement given
to catechetical congresses and schools of religion, and by the
introduction here at Rome of the text of the Catechism used
in some of the major ecclesiastical provinces of Italy.
However, several years having passed, because of the
new difficulties cunningly erected against any teaching of
Christian doctrine in the schools, where it had been taught
for centuries, but also by the useful anticipation, wished by
Us, of the first Holy Communion of children, and for other
motives, the desire having been expressed to Us for a suitable

THE ANGELUS • June 2010 www.angeluspress.org

Catechism, which would be much shorter and better adapted
to today’s needs, we have consented to the abridgment of the
old Catechism into a new, concise one, which We, Ourselves,
have examined and which We wished to have examined by
many Fellow Bishops of Italy, so that they might express their
opinion in general and indicate in particular, according to
their knowledge and experience, changes to be made.
Having received from them an almost unanimous favorable appreciation, as well as a great number of precious
observations which We have ordered to be taken into
account, it seems to Us that we ought not to postpone a substitution of a text recognized to be opportune for different reasons. We are confident that this text, with the Lord’s blessing,
will prove to be much more practical and also profitable–if
not more–for souls than the former: Significantly abridged,
it will not discourage the youngest, on whom already weigh
heavy scholastic burdens, and it will permit the masters and
catechists to have it learned in its entirety. In spite of its
brevity, one finds better explained and emphasized there the
truths which today are the most combated, misunderstood,
or forgotten, to the great detriment of souls and of society.
We are even confident that adults who wish to revitalize in
their soul the fundamental knowledge upon which rests the
Christian moral and spiritual life–as they ought sometimes
in order to live better and to educate their families–will
find useful and will appreciate this short, carefully worded
compendium, in which they will find expounded with great
simplicity the chief divine truths and the most effective
Christian reflections.
This Catechism, and the rudiments we would like
excerpted without modification of the wording for the use of
young children, We approve and consequently prescribe for
the diocese and the ecclesiastical province of Rome, by the
authority of this present letter, and We forbid that henceforth
any other text be used in catechetical instruction. As for the
other dioceses of Italy, it is sufficient for Us to express the
wish that the same text, judged by Us and by numerous Ordinaries, also be adopted there, so that, among other reasons,
the detrimental confusion and inconvenience many experience today in their frequent changes of domicile, finding in
their new place of residence notably different formulas and
texts which they have difficulty learning even as they confuse
and finally forget what they already knew. It is worse for the
children, for nothing is more fatal to the success of teaching
than to pursue it with a different text from the one to which
the child is already more or less accustomed.
And as the adults may meet with some difficulties in teaching the present text, for it departs from the previous in certain
formulas, and to remedy this inconvenience, We command
that at the beginning of all the main Masses and classes of
Christian doctrine the essential prayers and main formulas be
recited aloud clearly and slowly. In this way, after some time
and without effort, all will have learned them, and an excellent habit of common prayer and instruction will have been
introduced, which is already in force in numerous dioceses
in Italy, not without edification and profit.
We firmly exhort in the Lord all the catechists, now that
the very brevity of the text facilitates their work, to endeavor
with the greatest care to explain Christian doctrine and make
it penetrate into the souls of young children, so great is the
need today for solid religious instruction because of the diffusion of impiety and immorality. Let them remember that
the fruit of catechism depends almost totally upon their zeal
and knowledge and skill at making the teaching lighter and
appealing to the pupils.

We pray God that just as today the enemies of the Faith,
ever more numerous and powerful, propagate error by every
means, so also may arise a great number of souls desirous of
zealously assisting the parish priests, instructors, and Christian parents in the teaching of catechism, as necessary as it
is noble and fruitful.

The date and the august signature, preceded
by an affectionate benediction, seal this important
pontifical document, which has lost nothing of its
urgency and practicality.
A few notes of a didactic character should be
made in the margin of this little masterpiece of
Christian catechesis which was the code of the
Faith for generations of children. The “catechism,”
as it is known, was drafted at the order of St. Pius
X by abridging the former text used in certain
Italian dioceses, which was very extensive and little
indicated for use by primary school children who,
thanks to the Decree Quam Singulari by the same Pius
X, could make their first Holy Communion sooner
than previously. A sufficient but short catechism
was needed that could easily be learned by heart, in
conformity with the august teachings of the encyclical
of 1905. Memorization made its entrance into
Catechism class as a dike to check the collapse of a
body of knowledge that was not taking sufficient root
in the child’s mind, dissipated by the onset of puberty
and still more by adolescence. Pope Pius X personally
examined the new edition.
Thus it is that we have the “Catechism of
Christian Doctrine” called, even today, the
“Catechism of St. Pius X,” a precious little book
that has educated and is still educating in the faith
entire generations of Catholics. In the didactical
organization of catechetical instruction, a formulary is
distinct from an actual text: the formulary condenses
in very brief, precise statements the essence of a
religious truth so that it can be learned entirely
by heart; the text, on the contrary, based on the
formulary, develops the truth in a simple and clear
fashion so as to reach the same formula as a logical,
theological conclusion. The Catechism of St. Pius X
is a formulary, it is not a text; as such it is useful to
both great and small, to the learned and the illiterate.
It is the orthodox synthesis of Catholic doctrine, of
dogmatic, moral, and sacramental theology, in a very
simple didactic form. It possesses all the qualities
of a synthesis: conciseness, clarity, simplicity,
integrity, and fidelity. Of course, to be understood
by the pupils, the formulas require, like the rules of
grammar, the teacher’s explanation. The formula
cannot replace the teacher’s personal instruction.
That is why as a synthesis, the formulary of Pius X is

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the most remarkable work we could have had in the
domain of catechism to the present day.
The difficulty of the wording of some of the
formulas, hard and dry for a child’s mind, has been
noted. It is obvious that the catechism by nature
abounds in abstract terms and speculative notions,
but that is inherent in Christian doctrine, which
is revealed and which concerns the relationship
of created man with the Creator God. That the
Catechism of St. Pius X may sometimes seem
difficult to children is granted, especially in certain
particularly condensed formulas, but the division of
the subject matter into cycles, currently in vigor in
teaching texts, mitigates the asperity by dosing the
contents of the catechism according to the children’s
age. Perhaps the most widespread error is to consider
it as a text when it is simply a formulary which all
the writers of textbooks can draw upon. There is
another error, which consists in conceiving of it as a
point of departure in oral catechesis when in fact it is
the point of arrival, the conclusion of the exposition
of the lesson given by the instructor with the aids
contemporary pedagogy recommends.
Decades of experience have taught many things
about the formulary of Pius X: it has first and
foremost assured the precious unity and uniformity of
terminology which is very important in the religious
study of children and of the people, and which
was one of the holy Pontiff’s principal intentions.
Also, the remarks he made in 1912 on the frequent
migration of families from one town to another,
have been largely confirmed today by the continual
moving of families within a country. Questions of
terminology, concerning the conciseness of concepts,
can be explained by the absolute respect for doctrinal

26

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exactness and precision. There were, in effect,
here and there some attempts at new catechetical
formularies, perhaps in the intention of replacing
that of St. Pius X. They succeeded in being clearer
and less hard, but by increasing the amount of
text, explaining in half a page what the Catechism
of St. Pius X explained in a maximum of two or
three lines. The latter still remains vivid, perennial,
incisive. It is a monument of doctrine, synthesis,
clarity, and piety, for the short catechetical formulas
are full of unction and inculcate true Christian piety.
(To be continued.)

Translated from Courrier de Rome, January 2010.

THE ANGELUS • June 2010 www.angeluspress.org