A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, No. 2
Third Plenary Council of Baltimore
Edition & AttributionTranscribed from a dated scan; artifacts may remain. Translator, publisher and source details.
- Text source
- OCR-derived transcription
- Translator
- None. Written in English: the Catechism prepared and enjoined by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884), approved at Baltimore on April 6, 1885. The word-meanings are the Benziger Brothers addition of 1898.
- Series
- The Baltimore Catechism, No. 2 (edition with word-meanings, prayers and hymns, with the questions numbered to agree with the Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism)
- Editor
- Benziger Brothers (the word-meanings preceding each Lesson)
- Publisher
- Benziger Brothers, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago
- Year
- 1885
- Revision
- Read off the page images of the scan (printed pages 5 to 65) and collated word by word, in position, against two independent tesseract OCR passes of the same pages and against the Project Gutenberg #14552 text used only as a second witness; every disagreement was settled on the page image. The scan trims the right edge of the even-numbered pages, so some line-ends are completed from the second witness where the visible letters and the sense agree. Printer's misprints "Hoey" (Q. 143) and "Te" (Q. 251) are corrected to Holy and To. The Imprimatur pages, the prayers, hymns and appendix matter and the advertisements are left out.
- Rights
- Public Domain
- Accessed
- 2026-10-04
- License
- Public domain
- Public-domain basis
- Published 1885 (the Catechism, copyright J. L. Spalding) and 1898 (the word-meanings, copyright Benziger Brothers), English original, United States, both before 1930; the printing carries no later notice.
- Edition
- Later Benziger printing (c.1910s-1920s) carrying only the 1885 and 1898 notices: "Copyright, 1885, by J. L. Spalding. Word-meanings preceding each Lesson copyrighted, 1898, by Benziger Brothers" (title page leaf n3 and copyright page leaf n4 of IA catechismofchris0000vari). Imprimatur of John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, New York, April 6, 1885; approval of the Catechism by James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, Apostolic Delegate, Baltimore, April 6, 1885; Nihil obstat Remy Lafort, Censor Librorum, and Imprimatur of Michael Augustine, Archbishop of New York, February 1, 1898, for the word-meanings. The wording is the 1885 text: it is not the later revised wording that circulates online (Q. 254 and Q. 256 to 258 differ).
Contents
Lesson First: On the End of ManLesson Second: On God and His PerfectionsLesson Third: On the Unity and Trinity of GodLesson Fourth: On CreationLesson Fifth: On Our First Parents and the FallLesson Sixth: On Sin and Its KindsLesson Seventh: On the Incarnation and RedemptionLesson Eighth: On Our Lord's Passion, Death, Resurrection, and AscensionLesson Ninth: On the Holy Ghost and His Descent upon the ApostlesLesson Tenth: On the Effects of the RedemptionLesson Eleventh: On the ChurchLesson Twelfth: On the Attributes and Marks of the ChurchLesson Thirteenth: On the Sacraments in GeneralLesson Fourteenth: On BaptismLesson Fifteenth: On ConfirmationLesson Sixteenth: On the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy GhostLesson Seventeenth: On the Sacrament of PenanceLesson Eighteenth: On ContritionLesson Nineteenth: On ConfessionLesson Twentieth: On the Manner of Making a Good ConfessionLesson Twenty-First: On IndulgencesLesson Twenty-Second: On the Holy EucharistLesson Twenty-Third: On the Ends For Which the Holy Eucharist Was InstitutedLesson Twenty-Fourth: On the Sacrifice of the MassLesson Twenty-Fifth: On Extreme Unction and Holy OrdersLesson Twenty-Sixth: On MatrimonyLesson Twenty-Seventh: On the SacramentalsLesson Twenty-Eighth: On PrayerLesson Twenty-Ninth: On the Commandments of GodLesson Thirtieth: On the First CommandmentLesson Thirty-First: The First Commandment—On the Honor and Invocation of SaintsLesson Thirty-Second: From the Second to the Fourth CommandmentLesson Thirty-Third: From the Fourth to the Seventh CommandmentLesson Thirty-Fourth: From the Seventh to the End of the Tenth CommandmentLesson Thirty-Fifth: On the First and Second Commandments of the ChurchLesson Thirty-Sixth: On the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Commandments of the ChurchLesson Thirty-Seventh: On the Last Judgment and the Resurrection, Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven