The Architecture of the Faith

• The Trinity — one God in three Persons (the term and precise formulation)
• The full divinity and full humanity of Christ — two natures, one Person
• Christ possessing both a divine and a human will
• The Holy Spirit as a divine Person proceeding from the Father and the Son; Eastern Catholic churches profess the Creed without the Filioque, expressing the procession from the Father or from the Father through the Son, a complementary formula the Holy See recognizes as orthodox
• The canon of Scripture — which 73 books are inspired
• The inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture
• The close of public revelation with the death of the last apostle

• Mary as Theotokos — Mother of God
• Her perpetual virginity — before, during, and after Christ's birth
• The Immaculate Conception (defined 1854)
• The Assumption (defined 1950)

• The Church founded by Christ with a hierarchical structure
• Apostolic succession — bishops as successors of the apostles
• The primacy of Peter and his successors — the papacy
• Papal infallibility under defined conditions (defined 1870)
• The infallibility of the ordinary and universal Magisterium
• The Magisterium as authentic interpreter of Scripture and Tradition
• The three degrees of holy orders: bishop, priest, deacon
• The communion of saints
• The Church as necessary for salvation, properly understood

• Seven sacraments, no more and no fewer, instituted by Christ
• The Real Presence — transubstantiation of bread and wine
• The Mass as a true sacrifice, re-presenting Calvary
• Baptismal regeneration and the validity of infant baptism
• Confession to a priest for the absolution of grave sin
• The indelible character of baptism, confirmation, and holy orders
• The reservation of priestly ordination to men (declared definitive, 1994)
• Marriage's sacramentality and indissolubility

• Purgatory and the efficacy of prayer for the dead
• Heaven, hell, and the particular judgment
• The resurrection of the body
• Original sin transmitted to all humanity
• The necessity of grace and justification as genuine interior transformation
• The veneration — not worship — of saints, relics, and sacred images (Nicaea II, 787)
• The intercession of the saints and of Mary

• Latin — or any particular language — in the liturgy
• The priest facing ad orientem or versus populum
• The specific form of the Mass (the rites are changeable; the Eucharist itself is not)
• Communion on the tongue or in the hand; standing or kneeling
• Communion under one or both species
• The Eucharistic fast — once from midnight, now one hour
• Altar rails, bells at the consecration, the use of incense
• Female altar servers — or not
• Particulars of the liturgical calendar — specific feasts, octaves, Ember Days
• Holy days of obligation, which vary by country
• Vestment styles and liturgical colors
• Church architecture and orientation

• Priestly celibacy in the Latin Church — a discipline, not a doctrine; Eastern Catholic churches ordain married men
• Clerical dress — the cassock, the Roman collar
• The tonsure (abolished 1972)
• The minor orders — porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte — and the subdiaconate, a non-sacramental major order (all suppressed in 1972 by Ministeria Quaedam)
• Age requirements for ordination
• The processes for selecting bishops and electing popes — conclave rules

• Friday abstinence from meat
• Lenten fasting rules — the specifics have varied enormously across centuries
• The Rosary
• Novenas, litanies, and chaplets — the Divine Mercy chaplet among them
• Scapulars, medals, and holy water
• First Fridays and First Saturdays
• Eucharistic adoration and Benediction
• The Stations of the Cross
• May crownings and Marian processions
• Pilgrimages — Lourdes, Fátima, Compostela
• Ashes on Ash Wednesday
• Advent wreaths and Christmas creches
• Blessing of throats on St. Blaise's day; blessings of animals, fields, and homes

• The Code of Canon Law itself — 1917, revised 1983
• Dioceses, parishes, and their boundaries
• The College of Cardinals — a medieval development
• Religious orders and their rules
• Annulment procedures
• The canonical form of marriage — requiring a priest and witnesses, a 16th-century discipline

• Genuflection and the sign of the cross — whose direction differs East and West
• Fasting before feasts; meatless Christmas Eve traditions
• Naming children after saints
• Godparent customs
• The former discipline of women veiling in church
• Burial customs — including the former prohibition of cremation, now permitted with conditions

1. God's existence can be known with certainty by natural reason
2. God's existence is also an object of supernatural faith
3. God is absolutely perfect, infinite, simple, and unique — there is only one God
4. God is eternal, immutable, immense, and omnipresent
5. God is omniscient — He knows all things, including future free actions
6. God's will is omnipotent
7. God is infinitely just and infinitely merciful
8. In God there are three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
9. Each divine Person possesses the one divine essence
10. The Son proceeds from the Father by generation
11. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle
12. The three Persons are truly distinct from one another
13. The divine Persons mutually indwell one another (perichoresis)
14. All God's works outside Himself are common to the three Persons

15. All that exists outside God was created by God from nothing
16. God created the world freely, not by necessity
17. The world was created for God's glory
18. The three Persons are one single principle of creation
19. God alone created the world — no creature can create
20. God keeps all created things in existence (conservation)
21. God cooperates in every act of His creatures (divine concurrence)
22. God governs the world through His providence
23. The angels were created by God and are spiritual beings
24. The devil and demons were created good and became evil by their own free choice
25. The first human beings were created by God
26. Every human has an individual, immortal soul
27. The soul is the form of the body
28. Adam and Eve were endowed with sanctifying grace before the fall
29. Our first parents sinned gravely by transgressing God's command
30. Through the fall they lost sanctifying grace and incurred death and suffering
31. Original sin is transmitted to all human beings by descent from Adam, not by imitation
32. Original sin is remitted through baptism

33. Jesus Christ is true God, the Son of God in the strict sense
34. Christ is consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father
35. Jesus Christ is true man, with a real body and a rational soul
36. Christ's divine and human natures are united in one divine Person (the hypostatic union)
37. The two natures remain unmixed and unchanged, undivided and unseparated
38. Christ has both a divine and a human will and operation
39. Christ was truly generated from the substance of the Virgin Mary
40. Christ's human nature is free from all sin, original and personal
41. Christ could not sin (impeccability)
42. Christ's soul possessed the beatific vision from the beginning of His earthly life
43. Christ is to be adored with the worship of latria, including His Sacred Heart
44. Christ redeemed the human race by His death on the cross
45. Christ's death was a true sacrifice offered to God
46. Christ merited grace and glory for us (vicarious atonement)
47. Christ died for all human beings without exception
48. Christ descended into hell — the realm of the dead
49. Christ rose from the dead on the third day in His glorified body
50. Christ ascended body and soul into heaven
51. Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead

52. Mary is truly the Mother of God (Theotokos)
53. Mary was conceived without original sin — the Immaculate Conception (defined 1854)
54. Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit without a human father
55. Mary remained a virgin during and after Christ's birth — perpetual virginity
56. Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven — the Assumption (defined 1950)

57. Grace is absolutely necessary for salvation — fallen man cannot save himself
58. Grace is necessary for the very beginning of faith and conversion
59. Without special grace, no one can persevere to the end
60. Grace is entirely gratuitous — it cannot be merited by natural works
61. God gives all the just sufficient grace to keep His commandments
62. Grace does not destroy human freedom — the will remains free under grace
63. The sinner is justified through sanctifying grace, inherent in the soul
64. Sanctifying grace makes the soul holy, an adopted child of God, and a temple of the Holy Spirit
65. Faith, hope, and charity are infused with sanctifying grace
66. Justification cannot be attained without faith
67. No one can know with the certainty of faith, absent special revelation, that he is in the state of grace
68. Sanctifying grace can be lost through mortal sin
69. The justified can truly merit an increase of grace and eternal life, through God's grace

70. The Church was founded by Christ
71. Christ established the Church as a hierarchical society
72. Christ appointed Peter as first head of the Church, with primacy of true jurisdiction
73. Peter will have successors in his primacy until the end of time
74. The successors of Peter are the bishops of Rome
75. The pope possesses full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church
76. The pope is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra on faith or morals (defined 1870)
77. The bishops are successors of the apostles
78. Christ is the invisible head of the Church
79. The Church founded by Christ is unique — one, holy, catholic, and apostolic
80. Membership in the Church is necessary for salvation, as the Church herself understands it
81. The communion of saints unites the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven
82. It is lawful and profitable to venerate the saints and invoke their intercession
83. It is lawful to venerate relics and sacred images

84. The sacraments are efficacious signs that confer the grace they signify
85. The sacraments confer grace ex opere operato — by the rite itself
86. All seven sacraments were instituted by Christ
87. There are exactly seven sacraments
88. Baptism, confirmation, and holy orders imprint an indelible character and cannot be repeated
89. The validity of a sacrament does not depend on the minister's worthiness
90. The minister must intend to do what the Church does

Baptism

91. Baptism is a true sacrament instituted by Christ
92. Baptism is conferred with water and the Trinitarian formula
93. Baptism remits original sin and all personal sins and punishments
94. Baptism is necessary for salvation — understood with baptism of desire and of blood
95. Baptism can be validly received by any unbaptized person, including infants
96. Anyone, even a non-Christian, can baptize validly in case of necessity

Confirmation

97. Confirmation is a true sacrament
98. It confers the Holy Spirit for strengthening in the faith
99. The bishop is the ordinary minister

The Holy Eucharist

100. The body and blood of Christ are truly, really, and substantially present in the Eucharist
101. The whole substance of bread and wine is converted into Christ's body and blood — transubstantiation
102. Christ is wholly present under each species and in every part of each species
103. Christ remains present as long as the species remain
104. The Eucharist is to be adored with latria
105. The Mass is a true and proper sacrifice
106. The sacrifice of the Mass is the same sacrifice as the cross — same victim, same priest, different manner
107. The Mass may be offered for the living and the dead
108. Christ instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper
109. Only a validly ordained priest can consecrate the Eucharist
110. Communion under one species suffices — the whole Christ is received

Penance

111. The Church has the power to forgive sins committed after baptism
112. Penance is a true sacrament
113. Priestly absolution is a judicial act
114. All mortal sins must be confessed by kind and number
115. Contrition, confession, and satisfaction are required of the penitent
116. Even imperfect contrition (attrition) suffices with the sacrament
117. Only bishops and priests can absolve
118. The Church has the power to grant indulgences, and their use is salutary

Anointing of the Sick

119. Anointing of the sick is a true sacrament instituted by Christ
120. It confers grace on the sick in danger of death
121. Only priests and bishops can administer it

Holy Orders

122. Holy orders is a true sacrament
123. It confers the Holy Spirit and imprints an indelible character
124. The bishop alone is the ordinary minister of ordination
125. Bishops are superior to priests by divine institution

Matrimony

126. Marriage is a true sacrament between the baptized
127. Sacramental marriage, once consummated, is absolutely indissoluble
128. The Church has authority over the marriages of the baptized

129. Death is a consequence of sin
130. After death there is no possibility of conversion — the soul's state is fixed
131. Each soul undergoes a particular judgment immediately after death
132. The souls of the just, perfectly purified, enter heaven and see God face to face
133. Heaven lasts forever
134. The degree of glory varies according to merit
135. Purgatory exists — souls not fully purified undergo purification
136. The faithful on earth can help the souls in purgatory by prayer, Masses, and indulgences
137. The souls of those who die in mortal sin enter hell
138. The punishment of hell is eternal
139. All the dead will rise again with their bodies
140. Christ will judge all humanity at the general judgment
141. The world will be transformed at the end of time