SUMMARY: The Catechism of the Catholic Church was solemnly presented to the world by Pope John-Paul II on 7 December, 1992, as a great and precious gift of his primatial office for the Church and for the World. It finds its place among those post-conciliar documents the aim of which is to renew the whole of christian ecclesiastical life. The catechism often makes re­ference to, and expresses a certain compatibilty with, the norms of the code; while the CIC does, in fact, impress a certain canonical dimension on some of the doctrinal declarations of the CCC, in others there is a certain divergence between the CIC and the CCC.