Now THAT’s not biased advice.
Why Peter Kreeft and not the Catechism of St. Pius X?
There are problems with both the CCC and the Compendium of the Catechism. I believe the compendium claims that the Mosaic Covenant is still in force.
The CCC reformulates the dogma out Outiside the Church No Salvation into what Pius XII called “A meangingless formula.”
EWTN often promotes errors on their shows and NEVER, EVER corrects them.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent is far superior to the CCC, a person will actually learn the faith clearly.
Other good books are
This is the Faith by Canon Ripley,
The little Catechism of St. John Vianney
The encyclicals of St. Pius X.
Get a missal of the Traditional Latin Mass and read that.
The Catholic Dictionary of Fr. John Hardon.
How the Catholic Church built Western Civilization by Tom Woods
Triumph by Harry Crocker
Books and lectures by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.
If you’re accusing me of being biased in favor of the official teaching documents of the Church (the CCC has the Imprimi Potest of one former head of the CDF named Ratzinger, and the Compendium of the CCC was promulgated by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI) then I plead guilty.
As far as the other documents you mention…
Absolutely nothing wrong with the official teaching documents of the Church, past and present. We would all indeed do well to read them. There are, however, a few more developments in doctrine since Trent–the Immaculate Conception, the Miraculous Assumption, and I believe the Church has come to a fuller understanding of some dogmas–such as “No Salvation outside of the Church”-- over the past five hundred years–as is only natural for an organic (albeit supernatural) Body such as the Church.
As to the charge that the CCC is not clear, it is true it is written in nuanced, theological language; it’s very tough reading for most of us. By reading the intro to the new Compendium to the CCC, you find out why: Pope Benedict explains that the CCC was written primarily as a tool for Bishops, and for people (like Kreeft and others) to write local chatechisms. Kreeft’s book is an excellent and very clear chatechism based on the CCC.
As for “This is the Faith,” that may be the first Chatechism I ever “swallowed whole.” Is that the one written during the Council as a kind of “stop-gap?” If it is, then I had to struggle with it–because it seemed to have something of a presumption of previous knowledge, and so meant more as a brush-up for Cradle Catholics. For instance, the particular chatechism I have in mind mentioned the Scapular, and then said something like “of course, if you’d like to wear a scapular medal you may very well do so. All of this depends on being initiated into the Scapular, as most of us are as children.” This left me scrathing my head–how does one get initiated? Some other things it mentioned also seemed unclear. It seemed a dated document. Albeit, it was a very good guide in most other areas.
I don’t know Mr. Crocker or Fr. Hardon, and so cannot comment.
Tom Woods book is an excellent book on Catholic history.
Fulton Sheen is a classic. From my Diocese–may he be beatified soon! His case is before Rome as we speak.
I do encourage the recent convert to remember that it was the Popes who promulgated the CCC and the Compendium, and the Popes are infallible on Faith and Morals in their official teaching–with or without a formal pronouncement of infallibility. Their opinion matters; ours, not so much.
