Catholic Definitions

A Service for Other Sites

Catholic Definitions is a special service that Second Exodus uses internally and offers to all other Catholic web sites.

Among the most potent weapons of the spiritual war are words themselves. If the enemy can change the meaning of the words we use to teach the Catholic faith, it can control what we teach. See the Second Exodus book, pp. 340-347, or my article in The Catholic Faith magazine, Neutered and Feminized Language, Jan-Feb ’98, for more on this crucial battle.

Each of the words listed here is linked to a Catholic explanation. Many of the definitions are based on Father Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary, published by Eternal Life. Some definitions consist of brief quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In others, Scripture quotations RSVCE are used. In still others the explanation is my own. In every case, it is absolutely consistent with the Magisterium.

Catholic web sites are invited to link each usage of these words in their documents directly to these explanations, accomplishing two objectives at once. First, any site visitor who is not sure what a word means can follow the link directly to the definition. With a fresh understanding of the term, the reader can better understand the document. Second, these explanations, to the extent that they become an online standard, will help us retain their meaning.

Safety for Site Owners

Users who follow the link to a word definition can easily return to your site by using their browser’s Back button. Site managers can also set links to Words using “blank targets” that open a new reduced-size browser window that the user can close when finished.

Home Schoolers

Catholic parents are the first and primary teachers of their children. Some Catholic parents home school and thereby teach their children full time, while others send their children to faithful Catholic schools and teach them about life and morality part time, when they are at home. Catholic parents and students may find this area useful as well; browse a few pages and see whether they may be useful.

More Coming

I’m happy to receive any suggestions that would improve these explanations. If you can suggest a explanation more authoritative, accurate, clear, or concise, I’ll certainly consider using it. Please e-mail your suggestion to me. You can send me mail in html, plain text, or any other standard format, but I have my computer set to convert all incoming mail to plain text.

These explanations are only the beginning. I plan to add many more definitions as time allows. If you feel called to e-mail suggested new definitions I’ll be happy to get them. However, new explanations have to be consistent with those already here. A reader who wants to understand the difference between, say, catechesis and evangelization, should find them so defined that the difference will be clear.