Baltimore Catechism

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Council of Baltimore, or simply the Baltimore Catechism,^[1] was the national Catholic catechism for children in the United States, based on Robert Bellarmine's 1614 Small Catechism. The first such catechism written for Catholics in North America, it was the standard Catholic school text in the country from 1885 to the late 1960s. From its publication, however, there were calls to revise it, and many other catechisms were used during this period.^[2] It was officially replaced by the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults^[3] in 2004, based on the revised universal Catechism of the Catholic Church.

In response to a personal copyright taken out by Bishop John Lancaster Spalding,^[4] various editions include annotations or other modifications. While the approved text had to remain the same in the catechisms, by adding maps, glossaries or definitions publishers could copyright and sell their own version of the catechism. The Baltimore Catechism was widely used in many Catholic schools until many moved away from catechism-based education, though it is still used in some.