“Father, … this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3

Thank you for stopping by our website and watching our videos!

We launched Real + True because we believe the catechism is not a textbook, a collection of ideas, or a set of rules. It is the faithful echo of a God who wishes to reveal himself to us and desires us to respond. Our mission is to pass down and pass along the gift of our faith by creating beautiful, captivating, and relevant content inspired by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

To help you navigate our website and understand the structure of our content we put together this simple guide. The structure takes inspiration from the catechetical methodology, the pedagogy of the catechism, and the pedagogy of God.

There are four parts to the Catechism. The four parts or pillars are:

The Profession of Faith
The Celebration of the Christian Mystery
Life in Christ
Christian Prayer 

We divided each pillar into 12 units. In total, we will have 48 units that will cover the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). Every month, starting in September of 2021, we will publish a new unit. We are starting with the first pillar, The Profession of Faith. The twelve units for pillar one and the paragraphs of the catechism they cover are:

CCC 1-25 Life and the Catechism
CCC 26-49 Man’s Capacity for God
CCC 50-141 God Comes to Meet Man
CCC 142-184 Man’s Response to God
CCC 185-231 I Believe in God
CCC 232-421 The Father Almighty
CCC 422-682 Jesus Christ
CCC 683-747 The Holy Spirit
CCC 748-945, 963-975 The Holy Catholic Church
CCC 946-962 The Communion of Saints
CCC 976-987 The Forgiveness of Sins
CCC 988-1065 Resurrection of the Body & Life Everlasting

Each unit then consists of four videos: 

Proclamation
Explanation
Connection
Podcast

God’s pedagogy, or His way of revealing himself to man, which the Catechism is inspired by, also inspired our approach to creating and structuring content from the Catechism. Catechesis is a moment in the process of evangelization, and its primary aim is to put people into intimacy and communion with Jesus Christ. (Catechesi Tradendae Par. 5)

There are a few characteristics of the catechism’s approach and structure that are worth mentioning. The catechism is christocentric, meaning its focus or center is Jesus. The catechism is kerygmatic, meaning it explains doctrine in relation to the gospel message, the Good News. The catechism has a missionary dimension, meaning it does not presume faith in those that would read it but seeks to evangelize through its presentation of the faith. And the catechism is systematic, progressive, and organic, meaning the structure itself is a catechesis. Using these characteristics and the Ecclesial Method, proposed by Msgr. Francis Kelley (The Mystery We Proclaim), we developed a structure for each unit.

While each video is designed to be able to stand on its own, there is some benefit in watching them in order, and they do build on each other.

Proclamation Video – The first video is meant to rouse the spiritual curiosity that allows us to be prepared to hear the Gospel message. These videos explore the world and our human experience, and we hope these videos would be especially attractive to those who may not want to watch a video that directly addresses the doctrines of the faith.

Explanation Video – The second video breaks open the content of the passage of the catechism we are addressing in the unit. This video is much more straightforward and is guided by a discussion back and forth between two voices who are exploring the truths of the faith.

Connection Video – The third video is meant to be a real-life application of the passage from the catechism. The tone of this video is often playful and it is meant to connect with the audience on a more practical level that is relevant to their life.

Podcast – On the Real+True podcast, we want to help you use the Catholic Church’s Catechism more effectively for evangelization and catechesis. We interview experts in different fields and connect their experience and knowledge to ways of unlocking the Catechism for the modern world. We will also share a bit of the behind-the-scenes work and mission to help people unlock the beauty and truth of the Catechism and help them encounter its pulsating heart: Jesus. Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube and listen to it on Spotify, Apple, Google, or Amazon.

We hope and pray these videos will find people who are curious about what the Church teaches and about Jesus. We pray that the proclamation videos rouse a spiritual curiosity about the world and what it means to be human. We pray the explanation and connection videos would present the contents of our faith in a way that is relevant to their lives, perhaps in a way they’ve never heard before. We hope that many may find these videos to be useful conversation starters to journey with others who are spiritually curious or seeking truth.

Finally, we hope and pray Real + True helps others rediscover the “pulsating heart of the catechism,” as Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa stated in his sermon on the catechism to the papal household, a heart that has a face and a name – Jesus Christ.