The Catechism of the Catholic Church is arranged in four parts:

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

The content of the Catechism is faithful to Apostolic Tradition, Scripture, and the Magisterium. It incorporates the Doctors, Fathers, and Saints of the Church and illuminates with the light of faith, contemporary situations, problems, and questions.

At the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962), Blessed John XXIII articulated a vision for the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council that charged them to guard and present more effectively the deposit of Christian doctrine to make it more accessible to the Christian faithful and all people of goodwill in the contemporary world.  Eventually, it became clear that developing a new universal catechism would be beneficial, especially since the Church has grown and the world has changed significantly since the previous one was published in 1566.

In 1985, at a synod of bishops in Rome convened to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, a proposal to develop a universal catechism for the Catholic Church was made and accepted.  The outcome was the Catechism of the Catholic Church, first published in 1992; a new edition with some modifications was released in 1997.