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“You can just do things.” That's the opening line of a viral Facebook post that's been making Catholics everywhere stop and think. It tells the surprising story of how the American English translation of the Catechism got online.
For years, whenever people in the U.S. searched for any part of the Catholic Catechism, you'd land at St. Charles Borromeo Parish. I landed there myself many times, looking up Catechism quotations for articles, or for my own spiritual reading.
Like most people, I assumed some big Catholic organization hosted this online Catechism. But thanks to the Facebook post, the true story came out -- of one man's commitment to bring the world this resource.
He didn't know that his small-town project would become the go-to resource for millions of Catholics worldwide
It began at a tiny parish in Picayune, Mississippi. Yes, Picayune. The word literally means “small and insignificant.” But like the “little town of Bethlehem,” something great came from it.
Here’s the story behind the online Catechism, directly from the man who made it all happen.
One man decided to act
Back in 1999, John Meyer was attending RCIA classes at Picayune’s St. Charles Borromeo Parish. He wanted to search the Catechism online to study class topics more easily, but it proved impossible. It wasn’t online, anywhere.
Meyer didn’t even know HTML at that point, but he couldn’t kick the idea of putting the CCC online. And where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Here’s our interview with Meyer after Clark’s moving Facebook post about him went viral.
What inspired you to get started with this project, and what kept you going and sticking with it through all the hard work?
After attending an RCIA class, I wanted to understand more about my faith ... a faith that was "learned" in 12 years of formal education at some of the top private Catholic schools in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a "cradle Catholic," I was disappointed -- and even a little angry -- at how much I didn't know!
The two parishioners who taught the class asked him to help them teach the next year. The classes relied on Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Catechism.
“To teach effectively, I needed a way to research the Catechism,” Meyer said.
Unfortunately, there was no English translation of the Catechism online at the time.
Before asking anyone's permission, Meyer started putting the English-translation CCC into HTML code. Besides wanting to easily search the Catechism, he wanted to learn HTML, as he had studied software engineering in college but hadn’t done any coding since.
At that point, “I intended to use it only for myself and maybe the two other RCIA teachers,” he recalled.
Meyer literally tore pages out of his Catechism and scanned them, using optical character recognition software to create text. For nine months, on evenings and weekends while working full-time for the U.S. Navy, he painstakingly examined every single letter, comma, and footnote of the entire Catechism.
“At first, the scope of the effort felt a little daunting,” he said, but “before long I was seeing the literal pages pile up and I was seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.”
The website spreads around the world
But even as he worked, he still didn’t have permission from the Vatican. After months of phone calls, emails, and faxes to the Vatican with no response, Meyer kept working anyway. Then one day, a letter arrived from 5,000 miles away. The Vatican said yes.
The online Catechism, hosted on the parish website Meyer built, began to go viral. Catholics around the world started using it.
“I was truly blessed to hear the feedback the parish was getting from around the world,” Meyer said.
In 2001, the Vatican contacted Meyer again. They only had Latin and Italian translations on their site. Would St. Charles grant permission to use the American translation Meyer had prepared? Meyer’s pastor, Fr. Noone, who supported the project from the beginning, happily agreed.
Almost 25 years later, St. Charles Borromeo remains the only copyright-approved American translation of the Catechism online besides the US bishops' site. The Vatican's own website credits “Preparation for Internet done by Charles Borromeo Parish, Mississippi, USA.”
Parish support
Keeping the English-translation Catechism online and ad-free is a cost that the little parish in Picayune bears. You can donate here to offset the costs.
For those interested in the Catechism, Meyer also suggested an interesting challenge: Totus Tuus Ministries’ Catechism Exam, which gives you seven tests to cover the entire Catechism.
“Try for yourself, but I warn you, these tests aren't easy,” Meyer said.
Meyer's story shows that sometimes the biggest changes start with one person who follows the urge to do a good thing, even if it seems too big. What seemed impossible in a tiny Mississippi town became a global Catholic resource used by millions.
What wild idea is God placing on your heart? Maybe it's time to stop waiting and start doing.
