If someone asked your child tonight why God made them — what would they say?
The answer is at the top of this page. It is one sentence, it is the very first thing the catechism teaches, and most children who sit through years of CCD still cannot produce it — not because it is hard, but because nobody ever tested them on it.
This is the actual app, running on this page. Pick a lesson and answer a few questions.
Scores are saved in your own browser only. Nothing is sent anywhere.
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WHY IT MATTERS
The catechism anticipates the mistakes. Almost nobody hears them corrected.
These are not obscure points. Each one is a question the 1885 text explicitly wrote an answer to — because people were getting it wrong then too.
“An indulgence is permission to sin.”It is neither a pardon of sin nor a license to commit one — and a person in mortal sin cannot gain one at all. It remits temporal punishment for sin already forgiven.
Q. 231–232
“If it's a serious sin, it's a mortal sin.”Three things are needed together: grievous matter, sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will. Take away any one and the sin is not mortal.
Q. 56
“Catholics pray to statues.”The catechism says flatly that this is not allowed — images have no life, no power to help us, and no sense to hear us. We pray before them, which is a different thing.
Q. 343–344
“Sunday is the Sabbath.”They are not the same day. The Sabbath is the seventh day, kept in the Old Law; Sunday is the first day, kept in the New — because on Sunday Christ rose.
Q. 356–357
“Purgatory is a second chance.”Everyone in purgatory is already saved. It is for those who die guilty of venial sin, or who have not yet satisfied for punishment already forgiven.
Q. 414
“Christ descended into hell” means the hell of the damned.The catechism corrects this in the very next question: it was Limbo, a place of rest, where the souls of the just were waiting for Him.
Q. 85–86
Every question in the app carries its number in the catechism, and every explanation says why the tempting answer is wrong — not just why the right one is right.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX
One file. No install, no account, no internet.
20 lessons, 195 questions — the whole catechism, grouped into drillable units. Each run draws 7 at random, so no two runs are the same.
Two tracks — Preparation for grade-school and First Communion, Confirmation for the full bank and the harder distinctions.
The complete catechism inside — all 421 questions and answers, verbatim. Miss a question and the book opens to that lesson.
Twelve study plates — the Shield of the Trinity, the seven sacraments grouped, the three conditions for mortal sin, the four last things.
A family leaderboard — initials and best score per lesson, kept in your browser. A worse rerun never lowers a record.
Works from a thumb drive on a plane. Download it once and it runs forever, offline, on any device with a browser.
A single HTML file, about 380 KB. Open it in any browser.
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IF IT WAS USEFUL
It is free, and it stays free.
The catechism is public domain and always will be. There is no paid tier, no email capture, and no analytics script on this page. If it helped in your home or your classroom and you'd like to put something in the plate, that's the whole ask.
Catechists, and parents doing it at the kitchen table.
CCD and parish programmes
Hand it out on the first night. It runs on whatever phone or Chromebook the family already has, and it needs no login, no permission slip, and no wifi in the parish hall.
Confirmation preparation
The Confirmation track carries the distinctions candidates are actually asked about — attributes versus marks, gifts versus fruits, perfect versus imperfect contrition.
Homeschooling families
Twenty lessons maps onto a school year at a lesson a fortnight. The reference book means you are never more than one tap from the source text.
Adults who were never taught
Plenty of people were confirmed without ever learning why. The Preparation track is a painless way back in, and nobody has to watch you do it.
QUESTIONS
Fair questions
Is this an official Church resource?
No. It is an independent study aid built by one person from a public-domain text. It has no imprimatur and no endorsement from any diocese, parish, or bishops' conference. For catechetical instruction, follow your pastor and your parish programme — this is a drill, not a curriculum.
Why the 1885 Baltimore Catechism and not the current one?
Because the current Catechism of the Catholic Church and its Compendium are in copyright, and building a derived quiz from them without a licence would not be lawful. The Baltimore Catechism No. 2 is public domain, it is written as numbered questions and answers already, and it was the backbone of American CCD for eighty years. Some of its wording is of its period — see the next question.
Some of the language sounds dated.
It is. This is an 1885 text and it is reproduced faithfully rather than modernised — “Holy Ghost” for Holy Spirit, “Extreme Unction” for Anointing of the Sick, and discipline around fasting and marriage that the Church has since revised. Where practice has changed, the catechism's answer here reflects 1885, not today. Treat it as the historical text it is, and let your catechist or pastor bring the current discipline.
Does it collect anything about my family?
No. There is no analytics script on this page and none in the app. The app makes no network requests whatsoever — you can download it, turn off your wifi, and it works identically. Initials and scores are stored in your own browser and never leave the device.
Can I hand it out to my whole class?
Yes. Copy the file, email it, put it on a thumb drive, host it on your parish site. The underlying text is public domain and the app is given away.
Will it work on a phone?
Yes — it was laid out for a phone first. Open the downloaded file in Safari or Chrome and it behaves like any other page.