A NEW catechism approved by the French bishops at their plenary meeting at Lourdes is being published in Paris in six different editionsto appeal to different levels of education and religious hackground. The first edition, prepared for the younger children, has these changes:
To avoid frightening children, references to the commandments of the church and to mortal, venial and original sin are omitted. The catechism, for example, says: "Jesus knows that all men are sinners, from those who have gone before us to the end of mankind's history."
Chapters on the angels, the devil and the punishments of hell have also disappeared, and the term "Immaculate Conception," considered too difficult for children to understand, have been omitted, although two detailed explanations of Mary's sinlessness do appear.