Cardinals, archbishop pay tribute to Baltimore Catechism

Published: 2007-04-13

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Like thousands of other American Catholics of his generation, Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore knows why God made him. "To know, love and serve him," Cardinal Keeler said, paraphrasing the often-repeated answer he memorized as a child from the famous Baltimore Catechism. The familiar passage from the catechism is just one of many standardized responses the thick primer offered on questions related to doctrine, morality and all things Catholic. The Baltimore Catechism was mandated by the American bishops who met at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore during the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884. It was used by schools and parishes to help Catholics of all ages learn their faith until the book's strict question-and-answer format fell out of favor in the mid-1960s. In a nod to the historic significance of the text, Cardinal Keeler joined Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, and Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington in signing two large reproductions of the covers of early editions of the catechism April 11.

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