The Catechism Made Simple
Fr Vincent Brennan SMA has created a simplified and accessible version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We spoke to him about his new book.
A Rustenburg-based priest has produced a simplified version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in order to make the teachings of the Church more accessible to people.
Fr Vincent Brennan, a priest of the Society of African Missions, said he compiled A Simplified Catechism of the Catholic Church to “present the essence of the Catechism of the Catholic Church of 1995 in a straightforward way and in language that would be understood by one who does not have a theological vocabulary. I wanted it to be readable in the sense that one would actually enjoy reading it and go back to it again and again.”
The former secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) said that even the Youth Catechism (or YouCat), the abbreviated version of the Catechism directed at the youth and published in 2011, “is too crammed, attempting to say everything the 1995 Catechism said, and too full of cross-references and quotations”. Fr Brennan sought to simplify the Catechism even further while retaining its essence.
“I used the word ‘simplified’, but a PhD parishioner said to me, ‘It is anything but simple.’ That pleased me, because I wanted to produce something that would be easily understood and enjoyed by, say, a secondary school student but also be something with a hidden depth that would excite the highly-educated,” the Irish-born priest told The Southern Cross.
He said that in his experience, few Catholics owned copies of the Catechism in any form, and many people, whether in confirmation classes or adults, tend to have incomplete knowledge of the Church’s teachings. He hopes his book will help remedy that problem.
Time during lockdown
Fr Brennan, who currently serves in the parish of St Theresa in Mogwase, Rustenburg, said that three things worked in his favour in compiling the simplified Catechism. “First, I had been a teacher for many years. Secondly, I have been a parish priest and a preacher of the word of God for more years than I care to admit. And thirdly, I had time on my hands during lockdown.”
In writing the book, he studied the content of the 1995 Catechism, and how the same material was expressed in the 2005 Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and in YouCat, “and especially how A Catholic Catechism of the Kenyan Bishops’ Conference expressed and adapted it”.
Fr Brennan said that some bishops have responded to A Simplified Catechism of the Catholic Church with enthusiasm, and it is currently being translated into Tswana, Xhosa and Afrikaans. In his foreword, SACBC president Bishop Sithembele Sipuka writes that Fr Brennan’s simplified Catechism is “comprehensive, and a good and precise summary of the 1995 Catechism”. The 148-page book, which includes a handy appendix of the Church’s common prayers, has the imprimatur of Bishop Robert Mogapi Mphiwe of Rustenburg.
A Simplified Catechism of the Catholic Church is available from some Catholic bookshops or directly from Fr Brennan at only R80 per copy. Orders of ten or more will be couriered free of charge. Contact Fr Brennan at
This article was published in the August 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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