No serious Catholic disagrees that the Latin Liturgy should not be abused, nor that the Mass, when said properly, is the highest expression of the Catholic faith.
However, the Catechism is a major evangelizing tool. 99 percent of our disagreements with other Christians is not with the Orthodox but with the Protestants. This is markedly different from AD 892 when Byzantium evangelized illiterate and pagan Russia on the strengths of the liturgy alone. For example, the bulk of our opponents at FR want to talk theology and scripture, not liturgy.
Further, 90 percent of these discussions hinge on ignorance of the Catholic belief system. Typically, once the distortion of Catholicism is creared away, the dispute disappears.
In this environment, a definitive theological document is of immense importance. I would agree that it has a side effect of fostering legalistic thinking, but the good that it does far outweighs it.
“However, the Catechism is a major evangelizing tool. 99 percent of our disagreements with other Christians is not with the Orthodox but with the Protestants. This is markedly different from AD 892 when Byzantium evangelized illiterate and pagan Russia on the strengths of the liturgy alone. For example, the bulk of our opponents at FR want to talk theology and scripture, not liturgy.”
Alex, my dear brother, what does the liturgy, whether the TLM or the Divine Liturgies, teach us to believe and live with every fiber of our bodies and every element of our being if not Christian theology and scripture?
“In this environment, a definitive theological document is of immense importance.”
I believe that the Latin Church believes this but I must ask why having a catechumen simply live the life of The Church through the liturgies and devotions and traditions, like fasting for example, under the guidance of a spiritual father, of the Church year, assuming there are places/parishes/dioceses where one can actually do that, wouldn’t be far, far more effective than the statute like catechism?