Plugging an episcopal gap in the market
Will Heaven meets a former 'prodigal' helping Catholic families to decide what their children should see at the multiplex
Think you know your faith? Try this... Quentin de la Bédoyère challenges you to take a quiz that will reveal whether you were really paying attention during your RE classes 24 August 2007 The Thinker, sketched by Quentin de la Bédoyère
Just how well do you know your religion? Most of us like to think that we do. Older readers will remember learning the Penny Catechism, question by question, by heart. But memories can fade. Younger readers are closer to the time of their religious education, but was it as thorough as in the old days?
Here in the grand Catholic Herald quiz is your chance to find out.
Most of the questions are quite easy, but they are sometimes carefully phrased just to make it a little more difficult. And the answers are based on what the Church teaches (often in the new Catechism), not what you happen to believe, although we may hope these are the same.
You should answer the questions, and mark yourself, without looking anything up. That you can do later, and you may learn much from more detailed study.
If you get 20 out of 20, then you can congratulate yourself before remembering that detailed religious knowledge has nothing to do with how close you are to God. But we have to set a pass mark.
If you are a “professional” Catholic – eg clergy, catechist, theologian – I suggest 18. Otherwise the pass mark is 15. Those, should there be any, with less than 10 might be spurred into a little study to bring themselves up to scratch. You will find the answers on Page 14.
Teachers of RE may like to accept the challenge of administering the quiz at, say, fifth or sixth-form level. You will then know just how much of your teaching has gone home. If you want a text to copy, e-mail me with “CH Quiz” in the subject line.
a) The Holy Spirit directly guided the hand of the biblical writer as a kind of secretary
b) Inspiration means only that the Bible is broadly true
c) The writers were true human authors, and therefore their inspired truth should be understood in the context and circumstances of the time
d) None of these answers
2. Original Sin
a) Means that all humans (except Jesus and Mary) inherit a personal guilt which separates them from God
b) The Church has recently said that unbaptised babies will go to Heaven because they are innocent
c) Work first came into the world because of Adam’s sin.
d) None of these answers
3. Creation
a) In principle at least evolution can explain the whole created world
b) Evolution of the species is just an idea seized upon by those who want to exclude God
c) Evolution of the species is a scientific theory and not a theological question
d) None of these answers
4. The Trinity
a) The three-leafed shamrock is a good analogy for the Trinity
b) The Trinity is a mystery so there is not much point in trying to understand it
c) The persons in the Trinity share one divine nature, and are distinguished by their relationships to each other
d) None of these answers
5. Christ
a) Through his human nature his knowledge was limited to human mental capacity and conditioned by circumstances of time and place
b) Christ had only one will since a single person cannot have two wills
c) Christ, being God, could not succumb to the temptations in the desert; this is simply a story used to make a point
d) None of these answers
6. The Immaculate Conception
a) Is the doctrine that Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
b) Mary, being free of Original Sin, certainly did not suffer the pangs of
childbirth
c) Was defined in 1950
d) None of these answers
7. Who taught that woman was a defective form of the male?
a) Thomas Aquinas
b) Augustine
c) Pope Xystus II
d) None of these answers
8. Infallibility
a) The pope was made infallible by the Vatican Council in 1870
b) Assuming the usual conditions, the Church is infallible and the pope’s infallibility is superior
c) No doctrine is to be considered infallible unless it can clearly be seen to be so
d) None of these answers
9. Subjection to the pope in both religious and secular matters is essential for the salvation of all human beings
a) Was defined by John Paul II
b) Was defined by Boniface VIII
c) Was not defined by any pope
d) None of these answers
10. Conscience
a) Decisions of a properly formed conscience are always binding even if they are objectively erroneous
b) Error has no rights, so erroneous decisions of conscience are not binding
c) The sovereignty of conscience makes it unnecessary to have particular regard to Church teachings which may apply
d) None of these answers
11. Transubstantiation means
a) That the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ while continuing to be bread and wine
b) That the bread and wine are really replaced by the body and blood of Christ and are no longer bread and wine
c) The bread becomes the body of Christ, while the wine becomes the blood
d) None of these answers
12. Hell
a) We know that Judas is in hell
b) The pains of hell are suffered eternally
c) The chief torment of hell is by fire
d) None of these answers
13. Purgatory
a) Purgatory is an old-fashioned belief, no longer of relevance
b) A state or a place in which we are cleansed from the effects of our sins, preparing us for Heaven
c) Indulgences are a relic of the medieval Church and were made obsolete by Vatican II
d) None of these answers
14. The Cardinal Virtues
a) Are virtues which must be demonstrated in a candidate before he is made a cardinal
b) Consist of faith, hope and charity
c) Consist of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance
d) None of these answers
15. Extreme Unction
a) Is the virtue of ready obedience to ecclesiastical authority
b) Is the old name for the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick
c) A sacrament which can only be received once and near the point of death
d) None of these answers.
16. Contrition
a) Because we are imperfect, we cannot have perfect contrition
b) If we have perfect contrition for a grave sin we have no obligation to mention it in Confession
c) Imperfect contrition is inspired by the ugliness of the sin or the fear of its punishment
d) None of these answers
17. Venial Sin
a) Venial sins are of little importance
b) Enough venial sins can add up to a mortal sin
c) Carelessness about venial sin can predispose one to mortal sin
d) None of these answers
18. Telling Lies
a) A lie may be justified when the questioner has no right to know the truth
b) Lies are always forbidden but one may instead either keep silent or use “discreet” language with sufficient justification
c) Calumny and detraction are the forms of lies used to harm the reputation of a neighbour
d) None of these answers
19. Marriage
a) A valid marriage between baptised persons cannot be dissolved even by the pope
b) Valid Catholic marriages are forbidden to divorce
c) It is not possible for Catholics to contract valid marriage in the absence of a priest or a deacon
d) None of these answers
20. “Love your neighbour as yourself” and variations
a) Was first taught by Jesus
b) Was previously taught in the Old Testament
c) Is confined to the Judaeo Christian tradition
d) None of these answers
Share on Facebook