Catholic Essentials: A Guide to Understanding Key Church Teachings

by Wade Menezes

Finally, here is a book that provides brief teachings on the basics of the Faith for everyone. Quickly find answers you need to questions on faith, reason, Church governance, Christology, ecclesiology, Apostolic Succession, the Communion of Saints, the precepts of the Church, and much more. You will learn―and be able to share―the meaning of the sacraments and the Sacred Liturgy, including the importance of Latin in the Mass, and aspects of the awesome mystery that is occurring. You will grow in reverence for the Holy Eucharist through the writings of saints such as Thomas Aquinas and the early Church Fathers. Fr. Wade describes God’s mercy in a relational way, noting that He manifests His mercy as a gift throughout our lifetime before the inevitability of His justice at our judgment. In addition, Fr. Wade addresses a wide variety of contemporary issues,

Genres: Christian

272 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2022

Reviews

[Chris Merola · Rating 2 out of 5]

Circular reasoning is a terrifying thing...

A concise, hella spare collection of Catholic church practices + beliefs. No argumentation, no defense, nothing niche, this is just the major beats stated as plainly as the law of gravity.

The best part about this is how no frills it is - most hip Catholics will try and dance around the sexism and homophobia, but this dude doesn't give a fuck. At one point he just casually lists all mortal sins - "willful murder, homosexual activity, and defrauding laborers of their just wages", lol, 🎵 one of these things is not like the others🎵

When presenting hotly contested issues like women joining the priesthood, he just quotes a Bible passage and moves on.

All to say, the ceiling of this thing is about as high as the floor, and the floor is underground. This is basically a collection of first paragraphs of wikipedia articles.

[Colin Weeks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short 2 page chapters covering all of the basic beliefs of Catholics. It feels like it’s meant to be a quick reference guide for a practicing Catholic to remind themself of a particular concept at any given moment. In that regard, the book is simple and helpful.

There is no argumentation given, just concise explanations for each practice/doctrine.

Read for a Bible class. Obvious disagreements due to me being a filthy Protestant!