The end of the school year is time for review.
While the following “50 Questions” are part of the Send Out Your Spirit high-school Confirmation program, they serve well as a general review for students enrolled in just about any Catholic high school theology course. You may wish to assign some or all of these questions as part of a graded final, extra credit, or as part of a number of quiz games you might wish to play with your students in these last days and weeks of school.
50 Questions
1. Define “catechumenate.”
2. What are some differences between the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) and the Rite of Baptism of Children (RBC)?
3. Name the elements of the basic Rite of Baptism.
4. How many adults were baptized at your parish at the last Easter vigil?
5. How many children were baptized in the last calendar year at your parish?
6. What are the central beliefs about God espoused in our Catholic creeds?
7. Name at least four attributes of God.
8. Name and explain three dogmas about the Holy Trinity.
9. Where is the tabernacle placed in your parish? Why is it placed where it is?
10. When is the Feast of the Holy Trinity?
11. How did the early Church answer Arius’s claim that Jesus only took the “appearance” of a man?
12. Define “Incarnation.”
13. What did Jesus tell his disciples would happen to him in Jerusalem?
14. How can you come to know Jesus?
15. How do you think you would respond if someone held a gun to your head and asked, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?”
16. Name and explain three kinds of writing in the Bible.
17. What are the three stages of the composition of the Gospel?
18. How did the Second Vatican Council encourage a renewed interest in the Scriptures for Catholics?
19. What is meant by the term “Septuagint”? “Vulgate”?
20. Which of the following translations of the Bible are accepted by Catholics? Protestants? Both?
King James New Jerusalem Revised Standard
New American The Way Good News
21. What were the causes of the schism between the churches of East and West and of the Protestant Reformation?
22. How does the Church answer the criticism that “Catholics pray to saints”?
23. Define “infallibility” related to Church teaching.
24. Who is the bishop of your diocese? What do you know about him?
25. Define and tell the function of each of these Church structures:
archdiocese college of cardinals parish
diocese deanery parish council
26. How does the morality of human acts depend on the object chosen, the intention, and the circumstances of the action?
27. Write the Beatitudes.
28. Write the Ten Commandments.
29. Write the precepts of the Church.
30. How can the Sacrament of Penance help you to live a moral life?
31. How is the Paschal Mystery like other historical events? How is it different from other historical events?
32. Define “transubstantiation.”
33. According to the Council of Florence, what three things are necessary for a sacrament to be valid?
34. Name the two main parts of the Mass. What takes place in each part?
35. Put these parts of the Mass in sequential order:
Penitential Rite Gospel Consecration
First Reading Our Father Communion
Homily Sign of Peace Holy, Holy, Holy
Eucharistic Prayer Offertory Concluding Rite
36. Name and explain three basic human rights.
37. What is meant by the phrase “preferential option for the poor”?
38. List the corporal works of mercy.
39. List the spiritual works of mercy.
40. Outline the Church’s basic positions on the justice issues of consumerism, the environment, and war and violence.
41. Write at least four ways Catholics are able to know the Holy Spirit.
42. What is the essential rite of Confirmation?
43. Name four effects of the Sacrament of Confirmation.
44. List the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
45. How many candidates will be confirmed at the next Confirmation at your parish?
46. How is self-concept related to self-esteem?
47. Who administers the Sacrament of Matrimony?
48. What does the Church teach about sex outside of marriage?
49. What is meant by the term “consecrated life”?
50. How is the ministerial priesthood different from the common priesthood?
If you are interested in an answer sheet for these questions, leave your name and email address in the comment section below this post and we will send them to you.
