The Compendium is here!

In my hot little hands, no less. The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a bargain at $17.95 from St Paul's bookshop in Lonsdale Street (mind you, the full edition is only a few bucks more). Its not as "slim" as I expected, and still a very substantial work. I will be doing a bit of a comparison to the full edition of the CCC in the next few days. For the moment, there are more pictures (and better quality) than I expected, and there is a lovely little touch which highlights all the quotations from the Fathers in blue boxes. Pithy little bits, which (like quotations from Monty Python only more authoritative) may be quoted in many situations to confound the infidel. In fact, they suggest that they could be memorised, just like we (ie. we protestants) once used to memorise bible verses in Sunday School.

Its hard to know how we will abbreviate the title of this one. I have been calling the Catechism of the Catholic Church the "CCC", but to call this one the "CCCC" seems a little clumsy. Perhaps just "The Compendium", or perhaps the "Com-Penny Catechism"...

Unfortunately, it is not yet available online in English. French, Italian and (of all languages) ROMANIAN are available on the Vatican Website.