Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, one of the key persons responsible for the compilation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, offers new insights on the catechetical character and Biblical foundation of the worldwide best-selling Catechism that has had such a positive response from ordinary Catholics across the globe. But he acknowledges that the response of many theologians has been negative toward the Catechism.

He says that if theologians don't want to be "shut out" of this worldwide development of the sensus fidei and lose touch with the common Catholic, they will have to engage the Catechism positively. The main purpose of this book is to offer an invitation to this changed approach to the Catechism. He wants people to see, as he shows here, how the Catechism is an excellent teaching tool that responds to man's deepest questions about the meaning of life, how to live a good life, and how to attain peace in this life and the fullness of joy in heaven. He shows how the Catechism affirms that man's happiness is love, and that the essence of true love has been manifested in the Person of Jesus Christ.

"Ignatius Press has done all of us a great favor in making available the reflections of Cardinal Ratzinger on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He is arguably the finest theologian of the modern era, and he has never lost his pastoral 'touch'. This modern Father of the Church offers us a rare insight into how the Catechism was written and, therefore, how it ought to be interpreted. It is eminently readable while never sacrificing precision of thought or language."
- Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas
Editor, The Catholic Answer

"Cardinal Ratzinger's readiness to see issues as they are and to tell the truth about them in this book is particularly the case in his treatment of how the biblical witness about Jesus in contemporary scholarship dissolved into a 'variety of fabricated personae and has led to frightfully impoverished image of Jesus.' He pointedly asks: ' can acquaintance with a marginal Jew from a very distant past be "gospel", glad tidings?' The Catechism, he argues, gives us a vivid, authentic portrait of Jesus."
- Msgr. Michael J. Wrenn
Author, Flawed Expectations