MOSCOW, APRIL 27, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is now available in Russian.
In presenting the volume this month, Catholic Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of the Mother of God Archdiocese in Moscow said that the "experience showed that the complete edition could be, in a certain sense, challenging for the average person."
The Compendium, first published in 2005, is a synthesis of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992.
Archbishop Kondusiewicz said that a special consideration had to be made for the majority presence of the Orthodox Church in Russia when translating both the Catechism and the Compendium.
The archbishop recalled the words of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger with regard to the project of translating the Catechism: "Keep in mind the fact that this Catechism will also be used by the Orthodox so it is vital to study their tradition in depth, above all, their terminology."
Since then, five editions of the Catechism have been published in Russian for a total of 12,000 copies.
Some 3,000 copies of the Compendium were released in Russia at a cost of 130 rubles ($5).
Code: ZE07042701
Date: 2007-04-27