Many catechisms have been written and compiled over the centuries. It got to the point in the modern era that it made sense to compile a new catechism for laymen. The Church hierarchy, however, did not always get around to it.
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto as the Bishop of Mantua proposed the idea again in 1880 of a simple catechism aimed for laymen. He carried through on that shortly after being elected pope on 4 August 1903.
Although the Catechism of Pope St Pius X was used in parts of Italy, it was never prescribed for universal use. It was first translated into English by Irish priest John Hagan in 1910.
Like many catechisms and other writings of the Church, it is in Q&A format which is a derivative of the Socratic dialogue.
In total, there are 949 questions and is longer than the Baltimore Catechism (1941) and comparable to the Douay Catechism (1649). Below are the major parts which are typical for a catechism:
Preliminary Lesson
The Apostle’s Creed
Prayer
The Sacraments
On the Commandments of God and of the Church
On the Virtues and Vices
The questions are short and simple. Compared to the Baltimore Catechism and the Douay Catechism, the answers may be a little longer—it may be a three-line answer instead of one. However, it rarely quotes scripture and that is the primary weakness of the work. Nonetheless, the slightly longer answers are helpful.
Pius X’s approach is a little different in a few parts. For example, in the other two catechisms mentioned, the sin of calumny or slander is discussed under the 8th Commandment (“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”)
That is, of course, right and proper but Pius X also mentions this under the 5th Commandment (“Thou shalt not kill”) as slander is essentially character assassination and can cause “the death of another’s soul”. This is commonsense but it is nice to see this in writing by someone in authority, and it is this commonsensical approach that makes it appealing.
Overall, like the Douay Catechism, this catechism aims for breadth as well as brevity, so the questions and answers are short and simple and do not necessarily have depth. It is an easily accessible reference text with the added value that it was compiled directly under a pope.
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