Number of articles: 5056

Topic 26: Freedom, Law and Conscience

God created us with the great gift of freedom. The natural law has the force of law as the voice and interpreter of the 'higher reason' of the divine Lawgiver.

Topic 28: Grace and the Virtues

Grace “is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1999).

Topic 29: The Person and Society

A new doctrinal outline in the "Summaries of Catholic Teaching" series. Many people have found these helpful for getting to know the Catholic faith better and explaining it to others.

Topic 30: Personal Sin

Personal sin is an “action, word or desire contrary to the eternal law."

Topic 31: The First Commandment

Christ taught that to be saved we must carry out the commandments, which express the core of the natural moral law. The first commandment is twofold: love for God and love for neighbor out of love for God.

Topic 17: Introduction to the Liturgy and the Sacraments

The liturgy is an “action of God” that unites us to Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit (cf. "Sacramentum Caritatis," no. 37).

Topic 1: The Existence of God

Can we know that God exists by reason alone? What are some of the main pathways for reaching God's existence. Can conscience and human freedom be paths to a personal God who loves us? These are some of the questions discussed in this summary of Catholic teaching.

Topic 2: Revelation

God wished to manifest himself as a personal Being through the history of salvation. He raised up and guided a people to be the custodian of his revealed word. Through that people he prepared the world for the Incarnation of his Word, Jesus Christ.

Topic 3: Supernatural Faith

The virtue of faith is a supernatural virtue that enables us to assent firmly to all that God has revealed.

Topic 4: God's Nature and Action

The God we come to know through faith and reason is "spiritual, transcendent, omnipotent, eternal, personal, and perfect. He is truth and love."