Tenets of the Catholic Church
 

The essential tenets of Catholicism can be based on the Apostles Creed. 

From its earliest days, the Church used brief summaries to describe an outline of its most essential beliefs.  These summaries are called "creeds"...meaning "I believe".  They are also called "professions of faith", since they summarize the faith that Christians profess. 

The Apostles Creed is considered to be a faithful summary of the Apostles' teaching. 

I believe in God

• God exists. There is only one God. He has revealed himself as "He who Is". His very being is Truth and Love. Even though he has revealed himself, he remains a mystery beyond understanding (CCC 178, 199, 200, 230, 231)

the Father almighty

• God the Father is the first Person of the one God, the Trinity.
• We dare to call God Father only through the merits of Jesus. He taught us to call God Father. (CCC 2798, 322, 742)
• God is Father because he is the first origin of all things, and because of his loving care for all of us as his children. (CCC 239)
• God is almighty because he is all powerful. The Catholic liturgy says, "God, you show your almighty power above all in your mercy and forgiveness" — by converting us from our sins and restoring us to his friendship by grace. (CCC 277)

creator of heaven and earth

• God created everything in existence, material & immaterial. (CCC 317, 320, 338)
• "Heaven exists; it is the immaterial dwelling place of God. (CCC 326, 2802, 1023-5)
• God deliberately created man, male and female, in his image and likeness and placed him at the summit of creation. Man alone was created for his own sake, and alone is called to share in God's own life. We are not a product of blind chance. (CCC 295, 355-6)
• While the creation accounts in Genesis may use symbolic language, it teaches profound truths about creation, man, the fall, evil, and the promise of salvation. (289, 389-90)

I believe in Jesus Christ,

his only Son, our Lord.

• Jesus is the second Person of the one God, the Trinity. (CCC 422-4, 468)
• Christ's divine sonship is the center of the apostolic faith. (CCC 442)
• The title "Lord" indicates that Jesus is God himself. (446, 455)
• Jesus is the "Christ," the Messiah prophesied about in Scripture in the Old Testament. His coming brought about the promised liberation of Israel and mankind from the bonds of evil and death. (CCC 422-4, 430-3, 436, 438-9)

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary.

• Jesus, the Word of God, became man to save us by reconciling us with the Father, so that we might know God's love, to be our model of holiness, and to make us "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). (CCC 457-60)
• Belief in the Incarnation (the Son of God come in human flesh) is the distinctive sign of the Christian faith. (CCC 463)
• Jesus assumed human form in the womb of the Virgin Mary, his mother. The conception of his human body was accomplished by the action of the Holy Spirit, and not by natural generation from man, although he is truly conceived of Mary's flesh. (CCC 456, 466, 484-6, 488, 496-8)
• Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, as written in Scripture. (CCC 423)
• Jesus is fully God, and fully man. As God, he has always existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At a specific point in history, he assumed human form and became man. He retains both of these natures fully, even now in heaven. (CCC 464, 467, 469-70)

He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.

• Through his suffering and death, Jesus redeemed man once & for all, freeing him from slavery to sin, evil, and death. It is for our sins that he died. (CCC 571-3, 619, 1019)
• "Jesus freely offered himself for our salvation. Beforehand, during the Last Supper, he both symbolized this offering and made it really present: 'This is my body which is given for you.'" (CCC 621)
• As a true man, Jesus fully experienced death. (CCC 624-7, 629)
• The phrase "descended into hell" means that, after dying, Jesus's human soul united to his divine person descended to the "realm of the dead" to bring salvation to the souls of the just who had already died. This opened heaven to them. (CCC 636-7)

On the third day he rose again.

• The Resurrection was a real, historical event. It is the basis for our faith in all Jesus revealed to us. Jesus rose from the dead, body and soul, early on the Sunday morning after his death. He walked the earth for a brief time, and there were many witnesses of his appearances. (CCC 638-9)
• At the same time as the Resurrection was an historical event, it remains at the heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and surpasses history. (CCC 647)
• After the Resurrection, Jesus's authentic, real body also possesses new properties of a glorious body. (CCC 645)
• The Resurrection is the principle and source of our own future resurrection. (CCC 655)

He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

• Christ's Ascension into heaven is a definitive entrance of Jesus's humanity into God's heavenly domain. (CCC 665)
• The Ascension gives us hope that we, too, may enter into heaven, body and soul, and be united with Christ forever. (CCC 666)
• Jesus Christ, as the one true mediator between God and man, intercedes for us constantly before the Father and assures us of the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 667)

He will come again to judge the living and the dead

• There will be an end of time, and an end of this world. As the book of Revelation attests, it will come about after one final assault by the powers of evil before the final triumph of Christ's kingdom. (CCC 680)
• At the end of time, Christ will return (the Second Coming) on Judgment Day where he will judge the living and the dead, each according to his works and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace. (CCC 681-2)

I believe in the Holy Spirit

• God the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the one God, the Trinity. (CCC 685)
• The Holy Spirit does not speak of himself or on his own. He simply reveals Christ to us and disposes us to welcome and receive Christ in faith. His mission is the same as that of the Son: to unite us to the Son so we may be adopted by the Father. (CCC 687, 689-90)
• "The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit." We know him in the Church through the Scriptures he inspired, Tradition in which he acted, the Magisterium he assists, the liturgy & sacraments through which he acts to sanctify and bring us into communion with Christ, prayer as he intercedes for us, charisms he uses to build up the Church, the signs of apostolic life, and "in the witness of saints through whom he manifests his holiness and continues the work of salvation." (CCC 688)
• "The Holy Spirit, whom Christ the head pours out on his members, builds, animates, and sanctifies the Church. She is the sacrament of the Holy Trinity's communion with men." (CCC 747)

the holy Catholic Church

• The Church is the place where the Spirit flourishes. (CCC 749)
• "'The Church' is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's Body." (CCC 752)
• Christ instituted the Church to be the great sacrament of our salvation through Christ's own continuing action. He gave the Church its definite structure, with Peter at its head, and conferred on it his own divine authority. He promised to remain with it until the end of time, and to send his Spirit to guide it and teach it in all truth. By all his actions, Christ prepared and built his Church. (CCC 775-6, 763-8)
• The union between Christ and his Church is that of the bridegroom and his bride, which is a great mystery. (CCC 772)
• The "four marks of the Church" are that it is one (through union in Christ), holy, catholic (she proclaims the fullness of the faith and is sent out to all peoples in all times), and apostolic (built on the foundation of the Apostles and is governed by Christ).
• Unity with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope, successor to Peter) is the point of our unity with the universal Church, and with Christ himself: Peter is "the rock" on which the Church is founded. (CCC 880-85, 896)
• As the one who through her faith & charity brought salvation into the world through her role as mother of Christ, Mary is the model of the Church. She is the spiritual mother of all members of Christ's Body, the Church. This role is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. (CCC 963-4, 967)

the communion of saints

• The communion of saints is the Church, past, present & future; living & dead; on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven. (CCC 946, 954-5)
• As we pray for each other on earth, so continues the Church in heaven. Those saints in heaven, being more closely united to Christ, more effectively intercede for us. Thus we can ask the saints in heaven to pray for us, and we can also all pray for the holy souls being purified in Purgatory. (CCC 954-9)
• In this solidarity among all men, living & dead, every act done in charity will profit all, and every sin will harm the whole communion. (CCC 953)

the forgiveness of sins

• Only Christ forgives sins; the priests and sacraments are simply the means through which Christ acts to accomplish this. (CCC 987, 986)
• In the Apostles Creed, faith in the forgiveness of sins is linked to faith in the Holy Spirit, the Church, and the communion of saints. When Christ gave the Holy Spirit to his Apostles, at the same time he gave them the power to forgive sins. (CCC 976)
• "Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of the forgiveness of sins: it unites us to Christ, who died and rose, and gives us the Holy Spirit." (CCC 985)

the resurrection of the body

and the life everlasting

• Christian life is already a participation of our body & soul in Christ's death and Resurrection, through baptism. This dignity demands that we respect our bodies & those of others. (CCC 1002, 1004)

Amen

• Amen is a Hebrew word related to the word for "believe". It expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness. "Amen" expresses both God's faithfulness towards us and our trust in him. (1062)
• "Thus the Creed's final 'Amen' repeats and confirms its first words: 'I believe.' To believe is to say 'Amen' to God's words, promises and commandments; to entrust oneself completely to him who is the 'Amen' of infinite love and perfect faithfulness. The Christian's everyday life will then be the 'Amen' to the 'I believe' of our baptismal profession of faith: 'May your Creed be for you as a mirror. Look at yourself in it, to see if you believe everything you say you believe. And rejoice in your faith each day.'" (CCC 1064)

(based on excerpts from beginningCatholic.com)

Catechism of the Catholic Church Simplified
Catechism of the Catholic Church written in simplified language

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