Introduction
“For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses
with his lips and so is saved” (Rom. 10:10).
The word “creed” is derived from the Latin “credo,” meaning “I believe.”
A creed as understood traditionally by the Church is a body of belief set
down in precise form to be held by all the faithful.
Creeds have been a means of expressing the Catholic Faith since earliest
times. Having received Her commission from Our Lord Jesus Christ to
preach the Gospel to “the whole creation” (St. Mark 16:15), the Church in
time thought it prudent that the principal articles of belief be reduced to
brief formulae which could be recited and memorized by all. Each formula
became known as a Symbolum, or sign. Through such means, all the
faithful would be “united in the same mind and the same purpose” (1 Cor.
1:10), thwarting division and schism.
As the visible Mystical Body of Christ, the Church and its members are
called upon not only to hold the same beliefs but to express those same
beliefs publicly: “For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he
confesses with his lips and so is saved” (Rom. 10:10). This confession is to
be “of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love
that are in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:13). Hence, the requirement that
catechumens recite the Creed before they are baptized and the baptized
before they are confirmed.
The principal Creeds of the Catholic Church are the Apostles’, Athanasian,
Nicene, Pius IV’s
and the Credo of the People of God. There exist also
various special formulas drawn up according to the circumstances of time
and place to have the Church’s teaching expressly stated and accepted, for
example, those prescribed by Pope Innocent III for the Waldensians, and
Pope Gregory XIII for the Greeks. Of all these, the Apostles’ Creed is
regarded by scholars as the most ancient, being traceable in its various parts
to the second century AD.
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