CathInfo.com

Here is a news paper article from 1949. Although it does not go into much detail, the article states the new catechism now teaches that those outside the Church can now be saved.

This simply demonstrates that the catechism is a text book, like any other text book, in the sense that it's authors can put in it whatever they want and revise it as often as they want to teach whatever they want.

What a terrible article, claiming that the Church basically says now that those outside the Church can be saved ... verbatim contradicting Catholic dogma.

I've never liked Baltimore Catechism ... for a variety of reasons.  I even dislike one of the opening questions/answers, to the effect that God made me "in order to know Him, love Him, and serve Him."  It just gives the impression that God made a bunch of slaves to serve Him.  Fact is that God has no need of us whatsoever, either to be loved or to be served.  He made us out of absolutely pure generosity because He wanted us to share Himself with us.  That part is alluded to in the second part, but the way it's worded makes it sound like God made us out of self-interest somehow, so He could be loved and served, and then would give us eternal happiness as a reward for said servitude.  Just sounds really off to me and can give a bad impression.

I don't think the BC was ever intended to be in-depth, high-concept theology, rather, it was meant simply to be a "nuts-and-bolts" compendium of essential Catholic doctrine, something that lent itself, according to the pedagogical methods of that time, to rote memorization.  I never had my son to memorize it, as that simply wouldn't work with him, and besides, I want him to be able to think, not just memorize.  I have to imagine that it was intended to be a kind of "Swiss Army Knife" of Catholic doctrine, to preserve Catholic youths in the United States from the errors of Protestantism and Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ that were swirling all around them (and still do).

I don't have an issue with the concept being presented up front, of men being created to know, love, and serve God.  I don't come away with the idea that this makes us into mere slaves, rather, it reminds us of the whole reason for our existence, our final end, and how we are to think and act, so as to know the right relationship between God and us.

Actually, even though it's admittedly kind of puerile, I found the Father Bennet edition (we used BC#2) to be very useful as a teaching tool.  The artwork of 1950s white children looking like extras from Leave It To Beaver has a kind of Jack Chick feel to it, but add to that, the visuals work to make abstract concepts into something more relatable to a young person.  A picture will stick on one's mind long after the rote memorization is forgotten:






You would never find a benign reference to an air rifle in any catechism nowadays!