Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, 144 transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God's compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, Love is stronger than sin. the martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the Fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another. 145

Love toward oneself remains a Fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on Respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:

It is a part of the Church's mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the Fundamental Rights of man or the Salvation of souls requires it. the means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances." 53

Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of Fundamental Rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.

The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the Fundamental Rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of an upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." 48 "We must obey God rather than men": 49

Political authorities are obliged to Respect the Fundamental Rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged. The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the requirements of the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and proportionate reasons. Political rights are meant to be exercised for the common good of the nation and the human community.

As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is Fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators. 38 Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise.

In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its Fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in Dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, Rights, and duties.

Since they express man's Fundamental duties towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten

The Church, the "pillar and bulwark of the Truth," "has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth." 74 "To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the Fundamental Rights of the human person or the Salvation of souls." 75

The State's effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human Rights and the Fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. the primary scope of the penalty is to redress the disorder caused by the offense. When his punishment is voluntarily accepted by the offender, it takes on the value of expiation. Moreover, punishment, in addition to preserving public order and the safety of persons, has a medicinal scope: as far as possible it should contribute to the correction of the offender. 67

It is an illusion to claim moral neutrality in scientific research and its applications. On the other hand, guiding principles cannot be inferred from simple technical efficiency, or from the usefulness accruing to some at the expense of others or, even worse, from prevailing ideologies. Science and technology by their very nature require unconditional Respect for Fundamental moral criteria. They must be at the service of the human person, of his inalienable Rights, of his true and integral good, in conformity with the plan and the will of God.

The free gift of adoption requires on our part continual conversion and new life. Praying to our Father should develop in us two Fundamental dispositions: First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace.

Jesus "was praying at a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'" 1 In response to this request the Lord entrusts to his disciples and to his Church the Fundamental Christian prayer. St. Luke presents a brief text of five petitions, 2 while St. Matthew gives a more developed version of seven petitions. 3 The liturgical tradition of the Church has retained St. Matthew's text:

TWO Fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father - we bless him for having blessed us; 97 it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father - he blesses us. 98

Lying is the most direct offense against the Truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth. By injuring man's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the Fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.

The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the Truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are Fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant.

An increased sense of God and increased self-awareness are Fundamental to any full development of human society. This development multiplies material goods and puts them at the service of the person and his freedom. It reduces dire poverty and economic exploitation. It makes for growth in Respect for cultural identities and openness to the transcendent. 229

The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, "when the Fundamental Rights of the person or the Salvation of souls requires it." 199 In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered to the sovereign Good, our ultimate end. She strives to inspire right attitudes with Respect to earthly goods and in socio-economic relationships.

The seventh commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason - selfish or ideological, commercial, or totalitarian - lead to the enslavement of human beings, to their being bought, sold and exchanged like merchandise, in disregard for their personal Dignity. It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their Fundamental Rights to reduce them by violence to their productive value or to a source of profit. St. Paul directed a Christian master to treat his Christian slave "no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beLoved brother, . . . both in the flesh and in the Lord." 193

The natural law, present in the heart of each man and established by reason, is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the Dignity of the person and determines the basis for his Fundamental Rights and duties:

The word "catholic" means "universal," in the sense of "according to the totality" or "in keeping with the whole." the Church is catholic in a double sense: First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. "Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the Catholic Church." 307 In her subsists the fullness of Christ's body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him "the fullness of the means of Salvation" 308 which he has willed: correct and complete confession of Faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic succession. the Church was, in this Fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost 309 and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.

The hand. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on them. 51 In his name the apostles will do the same. 52 Even more pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. 53 The Letter to the Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among the "Fundamental elements" of its teaching. 54 The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in its sacramental epicleses.

"We bring you the good news that what God promised to the Fathers, this day he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus." 488 The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning Truth of our Faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as Fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross:

Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their hope recognized in Jesus the Fundamental attributes of the messianic "Son of David", promised by God to Israel. 38 Jesus accepted his rightful title of Messiah, though with some reserve because it was understood by some of his contemporaries in too human a sense, as essentially political. 39

Of all visible creatures only man is "able to know and Love his creator". 219 He is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for himself", 220 and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the Fundamental reason for his Dignity: What made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable love by which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with love for her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being capable of tasting your eternal Good. 221

Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this Fundamental Truth: "The world was made for the glory of God." 134 St. Bonaventure explains that God created all things "not to increase his glory, but to show it forth and to communicate it", 135 for God has no other reason for creating than his Love and goodness: "Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand." 136 The First Vatican Council explains:

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian Faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most Fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the Truths of faith". 56 The whole history of Salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin". 57

God revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people, but the revelation that proved to be the Fundamental one for both the Old and the New Covenants was the revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of the burning bush, on the threshold of the Exodus and of the covenant on Sinai.

These are the words with which the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed begins. the confession of God's oneness, which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God's existence and is equally Fundamental. God is unique; there is only one God: "The Christian Faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance and essence." 3

"I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Apostles' Creed is also the most Fundamental. the whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also speaks of man and of the world it does so in relation to God. the other articles of the Creed all depend on the first, just as the remaining Commandments make the first explicit. the other articles help us to know God better as he revealed himself progressively to men. "The Faithful first profess their belief in God." 2

The Greek word symbolon meant half of a broken object, for example, a seal presented as a token of recognition. the broken parts were placed together to verify the bearer's identity. the symbol of Faith, then, is a sign of recognition and communion between believers. Symbolon also means a gathering, collection or summary. A symbol of faith is a summary of the principal Truths of the faith and therefore serves as the first and Fundamental point of reference for catechesis.

Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ (It is "mystagogy." ) by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the "sacraments" to the "mysteries." Such catechesis is to be presented by local and regional catechisms. This Catechism, which aims to serve the whole Church in all the diversity of her rites and cultures, 15 will present what is Fundamental and common to the whole Church in the liturgy as mystery and as celebration, and then the seven sacraments and the sacramentals.

The catechesis of the liturgy entails first of all an understanding of the sacramental economy (Chapter One). In this light, the innovation of its celebration is revealed. This chapter will therefore treat of the celebration of the sacraments of the Church. It will consider that which, through the diversity of liturgical traditions, is common to the celebration of the seven sacraments. What is proper to each will be treated later. This Fundamental catechesis on the sacramental celebrations responds to the first questions posed by the Faithful regarding this subject: - Who celebrates the liturgy? - How is the liturgy celebrated? - When is the liturgy celebrated? - Where is the liturgy celebrated?

First, the common good presupposes Respect for the person as such. In the name of the common good, public authorities are bound to respect the Fundamental and inalienable Rights of the human person. Society should permit each of its members to fulfill his vocation. In particular, the common good resides in the conditions for the exercise of the natural freedoms indispensable for the development of the human vocation, such as "the right to act according to a sound norm of conscience and to safeguard . . . privacy, and rightful freedom also in matters of religion." 27

If authority belongs to the order established by God, "the choice of the political regime and the appointment of rulers are left to the free decision of the citizens." 20 The diversity of political regimes is morally acceptable, provided they serve the legitimate good of the communities that adopt them. Regimes whose nature is contrary to the natural law, to the public order, and to the Fundamental Rights of persons cannot achieve the common good of the nations on which they have been imposed.

There are many passions. the most Fundamental passion is Love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. the apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it.

The fruitfulness of conjugal Love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and supernatural life that parents hand on to their children by education. Parents are the principal and first educators of their children. 162 In this sense the Fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of life. 163

God who created man out of Love also calls him to love the Fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love. 90 Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. and this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: "and God blessed them, and God said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'" 91

Beneath the changes in discipline and celebration that this sacrament has undergone over the centuries, the same Fundamental structure is to be discerned. It comprises two equally essential elements: on the one hand, the acts of the man who undergoes conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit: namely, contrition, confession, and satisfaction; on the other, God's action through the intervention of the Church. the Church, who through the bishop and his priests forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does penance with him. Thus the sinner is healed and re-established in ecclesial communion.

Jesus calls to conversion. This call is an essential part of the proclamation of the kingdom: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." 16 In the Church's preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and his Gospel. Also, Baptism is the principal place for the first and Fundamental conversion. It is by Faith in the Gospel and by Baptism 17 that one renounces evil and gains Salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life.

The liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to a Fundamental structure which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day. It displays two great parts that form a fundamental unity: - the gathering, the liturgy of the Word, with readings, homily and general intercessions; - the liturgy of the Eucharist, with the presentation of the bread and wine, the consecratory thanksgiving, and communion. The liturgy of the Word and liturgy of the Eucharist together form "one single act of worship"; 170 The Eucharistic table set for us is the table both of the Word of God and of the Body of the Lord. 171

It was above all on "the first day of the week," Sunday, the day of Jesus' resurrection, that the Christians met "to break bread." 167 From that time on down to our own day the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued so that today we encounter it everywhere in the Church with the same Fundamental structure. It remains the center of the Church's life.

This catechism aims at presenting an organic synthesis of the essential and Fundamental contents of Catholic doctrine, as regards both Faith and morals, in the light of the Second Vatican Council and the whole of the Church's Tradition. Its principal sources are the Sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, the liturgy, and the Church's Magisterium. It is intended to serve "as a point of reference for the catechisms or compendia that are composed in the various countries". 15