During
a homily in his Vatican residence, the Casa Santa Marta, Francis said
more was needed than simply knowing the Catechism and urged Catholics to
develop their prayer life.
“Studying the Catechism teaches us who Christ is. But this is not enough,” the Pope said.
Instead
the Pope said that prayer, silent adoration and becoming conscious of
sinfulness were the ingredients needed for an active faith.
“We
cannot worship without accusing ourselves,” Francis said. “In order to
enter into this bottomless and boundless sea that is the mystery of
Jesus Christ, this thing is necessary.
[Firstly], prayer: ‘Father, send
me the Holy Spirit so that he leads me to know Jesus.’ Secondly,
worship the mystery, enter into the mystery and worship Him. And
thirdly, accuse ourselves. ‘I am a man of unclean lips.”
The Pope, who rises each morning at before 5am to pray in silence, stressed in particular the need for silent adoration.
“We
cannot know the Lord without this habit of worship, to worship in
silence, adoration,” he explained. “If I am not mistaken, I believe that
this prayer of adoration is the least known by us, it’s the one that we
do least.”
The Catechism is a synthesis of Catholic doctrine set out in a systematic way and is used as an educational text for children.
In
the past Catholics were asked to learn the Catechism by heart and
conservative critics say today’s faithful do not know enough about their
faith, calling for greater emphasis to be placed on learning Church
teaching.
This
Pope, however, has placed an emphasis on members of the Church
deepening their personal faith rather than just rote learning.
He has
also called on Catholics to use their faith as a motivation to carry out
acts of charity to those in need.
Francis
has also been willing to go off-message when it comes to the Catechism
on the matter of capital punishment. While the Catechism allows the
death penalty under certain conditions the Pope has argued for the
worldwide abolition of capital punishment.
The
current edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was produced in
1992 after John Paul II commissioned an updating of the text.
While
there is one version of the Catechism for the Church worldwide, local
bishops can produce their own.
A famous example of this was the
Baltimore Catechism in the United States which was used as in Catholic
schools from 1885 until the mid-1960s.