I. We are bound to know and to believe that:
1. There is one supreme, eternal, infinite God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth; and that the good will be rewarded by Him for ever in heaven, and the wicked, who die unrepentant, will be punished for ever in hell. We believe in heaven and hell equally on the simple word of Christ.
2. In the Holy Trinity there are three Persons, co-eternal, co-equal; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
3. God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, was made Man, and died upon the cross to save us.
II. We are bound to know and believe the Apostle’s Creed; and to have knowledge of the Commandments of God and of the Church, and of the Holy Sacraments; especially of the necessity of Baptism and that the Eucharist is a pledge of our future glory. We must believe that Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, which is committed to the Church. We should know the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary.
III. We are bound, moreover, to believe whatever God teaches us by His holy Church, who in her teaching cannot deceive us nor be deceived. Her teaching is, among other ways, infallibly made known to us by the Pope when he speaks ex cathedra---that is, when discharging the office of the Pastor and teacher of all Christians, he defines, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, a doctrine regarding faith or morals, to be held by the universal Church. Infallibility resides also in the body of Bishops when that body exercises supreme teaching authority with the Pope, the successor of St. Peter, as, for example, when gathered together in an Ecumenical Council.
