Creeds & Confessions
Baltimore Catechism
Roman Catholicism
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Origin from 1885
A question and answer catechism for Roman Catholic religious education in the United States, commissioned by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore and first published in 1885 under the sponsorship of James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. Structured as short memorized questions with fixed answers ("Who made you? God made me.") covering the creed, the sacraments, the commandments and the moral and devotional life, it became the standard textbook of American Catholic parish schools and religious instruction (CCD) programs for most of the twentieth century. A major 1941 revision expanded and reorganized the text; it was gradually superseded after the Second Vatican Council by catechetical approaches emphasizing narrative and experience over rote memorization, though it is still used today in some traditionalist and homeschooling settings.
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Origins
Language of CompositionSourced to the subject's own accountEnglish, written for American parish and school use rather than translated from a prior Latin or European catechism. 1 Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account Form of the ConfessionSourced to the subject's own accountQuestion and answer format, short fixed questions paired with brief memorized answers, organized in graded editions (numbered, roughly by increasing difficulty and age level) rather than as a single continuous text. 1 The Event
Convened or Ordered BySourced to the subject's own accountThird Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884 to 1885), under the sponsorship of James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. 1 Attestation
Earliest AttestationSourced to the subject's own accountFirst published 1885; substantially revised and expanded 1941. 1 In Other Languages (3 names)
- Catéchisme de Baltimore
- Catechismo di Baltimora
- Catecismo de Baltimore
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