Catholic Doctrine:

Christ Our Truth

CHAPTER 5

GROUP 4
“If you live according to my teaching, you
are truly my disciples; then you will know
the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
(Jn 8:31-
32)
Catholic doctrine is the expression of the truth
which Christ brings us, addressed to our minds
(what really is), our wills (how to do the truth, act
in truth and our hearts (true love and worship).

“Let us love in deed and in truth, and

not merely talk about it” (1 Jn 3:18)
Catholic doctrine expresses how we
Catholics find in Jesus Christ and in
the Holy Spirit, both sent to us by our
heavenly Father in the Church, the
basis of who we are, why and how we
are to live, and where our final destiny
is.
The basic Catholic doctrines are
summarized in the Creed which,
grounded in Sacred Scripture, presents
God as Father Creator, who sent His
Son Jesus Christ to redeem us, and the
Holy Spirit in the Church to draw us to
life everlasting.
We need to know Catholic doctrine to be able to:
• Determine how to love authentically as Christians;
• Give reason for our service and worship as Catholics;
• Grow in our relation to Christ and one another, and so build
up the Christian community.

“By obedience to the truth you have

purified yourselves for a genuine
love of your brothers” (1 Pt 1:22)
Creeds have had an important role in
evangelizing “all nations” in the
Christian Faith, as the New Testament
and Church Liturgy and catechesis
clearly testify. All Creeds manifest the
same Trinitarian pattern, and
Christocentric focus.
At Baptism, the Creed is used to express the
new life of commitment to Christ in the
Holy Spirit, within the Christian
community, the Church.

The Creed proclaims the truths upon which

our lives as sons and daughters of the
Father depend.
The Creed presents the Blessed Trinity,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, from a
Christocentric perspective. It
highlights Christ’s saving Paschal
Mystery as the key to understand God’s
total relationship with us, from
creation to our final destiny.
Some reject the Creed as a collection of
impersonal, abstract and irrelevant dead
formulas that make Christian Faith into a list
of “things to believe”.
These objections completely misunderstand
the true nature of the Creed. Yet,
unfortunately, they represent how the Creed
appears to many of the faithful.
Our response to these objections is
simply to show how the Christian
communities from the New Testament
times used the Creeds to evangelize,
proclaim their Faith in Christ, and
discern between Gospel truth and error.
The creed acts like a skeleton
supplying the framework and support
needed for living and growing
(maturing) in our Catholic Faith.
The Creed functions in three principal ways:
 As a summary of Catholic truths needed to
communicate and instruct in the Gospel;
 As profession of loyalty to God and to the
Church; and
 As a declaration of our own self-identity as
disciples of Christ, reborn in his Spirit within
his body, the Church.
The Creed provides the basic doctrinal
ground for authentic Christian living.
This includes:
• Our loving service of one another in
building up the local Christian community,
and
• Our sacramental worship of God in Spirit
and truth.
 INTEGRATION
Catholic doctrine presenting the truth of
Christ, as summarized in the Creed, has
already been shown, by its very nature, to
be linked to public worship and
thanksgiving to God. Without solid
grounding in Christ’s truth, prayer and
worship inevitably slide into pious
sentimentalism, ritualism, and even
superstitious idolatry.
On the other hand, without
sincere, authentic prayer and
worship, many are led “to give
credence to falsehood, because
they have not opened their hearts
to the truth in order to be saved” (2
Thes 2:11, 10).
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING.

MAY GOD BLESS US ALL!

- GROUP 4 REPORTERS