Here is my take on it:
The Catechism lists 5 precepts (CCC 2041-2043) but I had also always heard it stated as 6 precepts.
The concept of the precepts goes back to at least the Council of Trent (1545-1563 A.D.) but the Council issued no official list. Various lists through the centuries have contained anywhere from 5 to 10 precepts.
I’ve seen them listed differently in several different sources:
Daily Roman Missal (published in 2002) lists them as:
- “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.”
- “You shall confess your sins at least once a year.”
- “You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion at least during the Easter season.”
- “You shall keep holy the holy days of obligation.”
- “You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.”
- “You shall provide for the material needs of the Church.”
1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal (published in 2005) lists them as:
- “To hear Mass on Sundays and hold days of obligation”
- 'To fast and abstain of the days commanded."
- “To confess our sins at least once a year.”
- “To receive the Blessed Eucharist at Easter or within the time appointed”
- “To contribute to the support of our Pastors”
- “Not to solemnize marriages at the forbidden times; nor to marry persons within the forbidden degrees of kindred, or otherwise prohibited by the Church, nor secretly.”
1945 Saint Andrew Daily Missal (published in 1998 as an reprint of a 1945 book) lists them as:
- “Attend Mass and abstain from servile work on Sundays, and Holy days of obligation.”
- “Fast and abstain on the days appointed”
- “Confess thy sins at least once a year.”
- “Receive Holly Communion at Easter time.”
- “Contribute to the support of the Church.”
The 3rd Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 issued it’s own list:
- “to keep the Sundays and Holy Days of obligation holy, by hearing Mass and resting from servile work”
- “to keep the days of fasting and abstinence appointed by the Church”
- “to go to confession at least once a year;to receive the Blessed Sacrament at least once a year and that at Easter or thereabouts”
- “to contribute to the support of our pastors”
- “not to marry within a certain degree of kindred nor to solemnize marriage at the forbidden times.”
and in 1973 I believe the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (then called the NCCB) added:
6. " to join in the missionary spirit and apostolate of the Church."
All of the lists are similar but ordered and grouped differently and some contain precepts not found in others. If you look at passages in the Catechism you will see several footnotes where the CCC is just quoting it’s list of Precepts from 2 sources - CIC and CCEO. These are the 1983 Code of Canon Law and the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. These were the source for the Precepts for the Catechism and most likely the Daily Roman Missal.
The 1962 and 1945 Missals on the other hand would most likely have gotten their lists of precepts from the 1917 Code of Canon Law.
I don’t have any copies of any of the Codes of Canon Law but my guess is that it just mentions the precepts of the Church in a paragraph and not a numbered list. And everyone just orders and groups them as they see fit.
So, these 3 books of Church laws are the ultimate source of the modern lists of the precepts. The problem is that there is no set list of the precepts in any of these books. They merely give the rights and the duties of all of the faithful. And people have taken some of the things that the Church says we are responsible for from these books and composed lists of precepts. But, different people naturally choose different things and state them differently.
James
