Catholic Dictionary
Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
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BALTIMORE CATECHISM
Originally the "Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Council of Baltimore." It was the Plenary Council of 1884 that authorized this manual, first published in 1885, after a committee of six bishops were entrusted with the composition. The question of a uniform textbook of Catholic doctrine had been considered by the American hierarchy since their First Provincial council in 1829, but it took fifty years to see the project to completion. After the catechism was issued, various editions were published, with word meanings, explanatory notes, and even different arrangements, so that in a few decades there was great diversity in the books that were called the Baltimore Catechism.
