The authority of an official Catechism
There are many Catechisms, but what kind of authority do they have? At Crisis, Charles Coulombe pointed out that a teaching doesn’t become authoritative just because it’s in a Catechism. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, for instance, is a collection of statements from various sources, some more authoritative than others – and as a general principle, “any teaching conveyed by a lesser level of authority that appears to contradict one of greater authority is to be ignored”.
