Home

About John Lilburne

Journal

2002 Roman Missal

   

Apostles' Creed Error?

It is surprising that the Apostles' Creed in the 2002 Roman Missal, page 513, begins "Credo in unum Deum", "I believe in one God".

This is the beginning of the Nicene Creed, but the Apostles' Creed begins with "Credo in Deum", "I believe in God".

This difference is made clear in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

199. "I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Apostles' Creed is also the most fundamental." ....

I. "I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD"

200. These are the words with which the Niceno-Constantnopolitan Creed begins. ...

The Companion to the Catechism of Catholic Church (Ignatius Press, 1994, page 46) has several versions of the Apostles' Creed. All begin "I believe in God" except for the Eastern Form of the Apostolic Creed [of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem]: DS 41 which begins:

"We believe in one God the Father Almighty ..."

But there is no indication that it was intended to replace the Western form with the Eastern form. L'Osservatore Romano reported on the 22 March 2002 press presentations by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on 18 April 2002, page 8:

"... It is now possible to use the Apostles Creed, which is the Western Creed, witnessed to in Rome in the third century and explained by such great Fathers as Ambrose, Augustine, Rufinus, and present in the Gelasian Sacramentary which carries the Roman liturgical practice of the sixth century, going back to Hippolytus of Rome. ..."

So an error seems to have been made on page 513 of the 2002 Roman Missal.

 

By J.R. Lilburne, 21 October 2002. I give what I have written on this page to the public domain.