Revised, Enlarged, Approved, and Recommended by the Four R. C. Archbishops of Ireland as a General Catechism for the Kingdom Rev. Dr. James Butler, the Bishop of Cashel in Ireland, first published his world-famous catechism in 1775. Soon it became the official catechism for all of Ireland, approved for use by all of the bishops. At the Third Council of Baltimore in 1884 it was favored by many U.S. bishops as the basis for the new Baltimore Catechism soon to be published. In the end, the Council decided to use the catechism of St. Robert Bellarmine as the basis for a new catechism for Americans. Butler s Catechism has always been widely used in the United States as well as the Baltimore Catechism, especially by Americans of Irish descent. At the 1st Council of Quebec it was decided that Butler s would be the only catechism authorized for the English speaking faithful in Canada, and in 1871 Bishop Lynch of Toronto published it as the official catechism for his diocese. We have compared the various editions approved in Ireland and in Canada and they are (except for some slight re-arrangements in the order of the lessons and some different prayers) the same. This particular printing is that published in Dublin in 1944. It is a wonderfully simple and straightforward catechism useful for children and adults, especially for those who are interested in converting or who have just decided to enter the one true church.