Do Catholics Have Too Many Rules?

Debate is something that we Catholics should embrace.  After all, the Doctors of the Church often participated in very time-consuming debates.  Debate can be enlightening.

From time to time, I find myself in some very candid and honest discussions with Protestants, atheists, and even pagans. In one such discussion, I referenced the Catechism of the Catholic Church while trying to explain something. After paging through it to find the section I was looking for, I was rebuffed:  “You Catholics have so many rules.”

Holding a 904-page hardbound book in my hands made it a bit difficult to contradict such a claim.  Later, however, as I was paging through the contents of the Catechism, I found the retort.  It has to do with the origins of the Catechism as known today, how it is structured, and its contents.

For more than 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has drawn upon numerous texts, letters, theses, encyclicals, and numerous other documents to provide insight into the One True Faith.  In 1992, St. Pope John Paul II approved the compilation of these insights in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Published in English in 1994, the Catechism is the best single summary of the entirety of our Catholic beliefs. However, it contains nothing new to the Faith. This single volume summarizes the Truths of the Church.

So how many rules do we really have? Is the Catechism really 904 pages of rules?

A Structured Guide

Understanding how the Catechism is structured provides the first insight into these questions.  It is broken down into four parts:

• The Profession of Faith
• The Sacraments
• Life in Christ
• Prayer

The Catechism is not a rule book.  The Catechism is a guide for living.

Nevertheless, this revelation will not quell attacks during debate. The Catechism does include what many would call rules.

Overall, the Catechism summarizes what to do as well as what not to do. We need to emphasize this point. Often, we forget that Catholics are commanded to do things (shalls) in addition to not do things (shall nots). In fact, the 10 Commandments start with a ‘shall.’

While God was man, he also gave us very clear direction on what to do. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and the first commandment.  The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matt 22:37-40).

Moreover, at the Last Supper He said: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34).

So God gave us the original 10 commandments and then added a couple more.  However, we are also told to perform spiritual and corporal works of mercy, pray, repent and confess, partake in the Eucharist, and evangelize.  If you take all these commandments and add them up, you get around 30 to 35 “rules,” if you want to call them that. How can the Catechism turn 30 to 35 rules into a 904-page volume?

We are Sinners

The table of contents provides more understanding about the Catechism.

For example, the Catechism dedicates 107 pages to the 10 Commandments. Why are so many pages needed for just 10 commandments? The answer is with us. We, as imperfect sinners, seemingly keep trying to find ways around these simple rules.

We tend to rename sin to make it sound more palatable.  For, instance, we do not execute a child for the crime of inconvenience; it is called an abortion or even a terminated pregnancy.  And men no longer engage in homosexual sodomy; it is now called same sex marriage.   And it’s even okay for men and women to engage in sexual intercourse outside of marriage because now it’s not called sexual intercourse, it’s called “making love.”

We as humans need every one of those 107 pages. We as humans, instead of steering clear from the cliff of sin, seem to want to walk on its edge asking if this next step will make us fall. Human beings are just not mature enough to walk away from the cliff.

Christ also directed us to pray. The Catechism spends 74 pages on prayer with 48 of those pages just on the Our Father.

Ultimately, the Catholic Church does not have that many rules. We sinners have driven the need for the Catechism to be as comprehensive as it is.

Is it reasonable for someone to live for 50, 75, or 100 years and live by only 35 rules? Yes it is.  But when one considers an entire lifetime, one must also deeply understand those few rules.

A Simple Game with Lots of Rules

Secular society ridicules us for the Catechism’s length.  However, this is very hypocritical. Let’s take a look at something from the secular world with only a few rules.

Golf is actually a simple game. You hit a small ball with a club and count how many times you have to hit it to get it in a hole. You cannot get much simpler.  How many rules might such a game need?

Well, it turns out that The Unites States Golf Association has a 135-page rulebook. How can it take 135 pages to tell someone how to hit a ball with club into a hole? Is it not ironic that no one ever complains that Golf has too many rules?

Then again, many people spend hours hitting a small ball into a hole and yet they’ll complain that Mass takes too long.