The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 00225 666 91X. Pounds 25, 0225 66704 5. Pounds 12.99, Disk for Windows 3.1, Pounds 65 +VAT,Disk or CD-Rom, Pounds 135 +VAT, Geoffrey Chapman.
All teachers of religious education will find this a valuable resource, but its primary appeal will be to teachers in Catholic schools, where it is intended to be the basic point of reference for all RE. According to Cardinal Basil Hume “every Catholic teacher” ought have a copy that “should be much used”. At sixth-form level, the Catechism provides a welcome structure and content that will assist the teacher of general RE.
Teachers from other traditions will find in it much that is useful, particularly its exposition of the Creed and the Commandments.
The publisher has also produced the Catechism on disc and in a version with the RSV and NRSV translations of the Bible (Catholic Editions), on both disc and CD-Rom (requiring a 386SX running windows 3.1 or higher with 4Mb RAM).
The software is able to manage two large texts, and to search, cross reference and select required passages. As a research tool, it is well within the range of computer literacy of upper school pupils.
Scott Reid teaches RE at Cardinal Hinsley School, North West London.
