New Vatican Catechism Updates 1566 Version : Religion: Drunk driving and tax evasion join abortion and homosexuality on list of taboos.

The Vatican officially unveiled a new edition of its “Universal Catechism” for the world’s nearly 1 billion Catholics on Monday--the first major overhaul since the 16th Century of a basic textbook of religious instruction.

Six years in the writing, with the collaboration of more than 3,000 Roman Catholic bishops, the catechism--made available Monday only in French--affirms the basic tenets of the church in a 20th-Century context and with modern language.

Heaven, for example, is defined as “the ultimate end and the realization of the deepest hopes of man, the state of supreme and definitive happiness.”

Venerable injunctions against sex outside marriage, artificial birth control, divorce and homosexuality are joined by newfangled thou-shalt-nots deploring the likes of drunk driving, tax evasion and abuses in genetic engineering.

Speaking to pilgrims Sunday in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II, who ordered the new catechism, called it an “instrument to carry out the renewed self-conscience of the church, strongly anchored to the one and unchangeable truth of the Gospel but also attentive to the signs of the times.” Updating and reworking the catechism is “an event of historic importance,” in the papal view.

The new edition of the almost 700-page book that will eventually be used to instruct Catholics everywhere was formally presented in Paris on Monday. Official presentation to the Pope, who approved the final draft in June, will occur in Rome next month.

The new catechism became available first in French because that was the working language of the prelates who wrote it. They had tried to do it in Latin, the official language of the church--and of the 1566 edition--but failed.

Translation of such a landmark document must be extraordinarily precise, and other official versions are not yet ready. Official Italian and Spanish versions are promised by year’s end.

Officials among the 275 U.S. Catholic bishops, meeting this week in Washington for their fall conference, said they do not expect to see the final English translation of the work until later; Vatican officials estimated it might be next spring.

While the catechism is mainly intended for clergy and religious educators, average Catholics in Orange County will learn of the revised teachings through the diocese’s monthly newsletter, Msgr. Lawrence Baird said Monday.

Ruth Bradley, director of religious education for the diocese, will write the column, which debuted in the November edition of the diocese bulletin, mailed to 43,000 Catholic families around the county.

“It will affect every Catholic in the world ultimately,” Baird, diocesan director of communication, said of the new catechism. “(The column) will continue with a general explanation of the document.”

Catholics will also become acquainted with the new catechism as local priests insert its teachings into their sermons, and as religious textbooks are revised to include the contemporary material.

“The catechism is intended not for the average layperson or student of religion but for the educators and the writers,” Baird pointed out. “It’s addressed first and foremost to the bishops.”

Based on earlier drafts, the historic text was getting mixed reviews. One knowledgeable theologian, who asked to remain anonymous, said in Washington that the new catechism failed to offer “an overarching moral vision.”

“It remains a morality based on authority rather than insight and understanding,” he said. Thus, for example, there are specific prohibitions against corruption in business and using astrologers. The theologian added that the language was reminiscent of the church’s approach before the reforms of Vatican II--called by the late Pope John XXIII--from 1962 to 1965.

But others said the catechism seeks to make historical church doctrine relevant to Catholics as the 21st Century approaches.

“In every age, the church is challenged with the responsibility of relating its doctrinal tradition to the contemporary situation,” said Father John E. Pollard, the U.S. bishops’ representative on the new catechism. “If the content of the catechism includes illustrations of the moral principles that are more contemporary than the Council of Trent’s illustrations” issued in 1566, Pollard said, “I think it will be helpful to our people.”

Derived from a call for a modern codification of their faith by delegates to the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, the new edition relies, like its predecessors, on the Gospels, Old Testament teachings such as the Ten Commandments and the subsequent evolution of church dogma.

The new work does not modify doctrine as much as relate longstanding teachings to current times. Murder, adultery and idolatry are sins, as ever, but so are euthanasia, racism, genocide, bribery, fraud and corruption.

Catholics are told they should exercise their right to vote, that they should not discriminate against the handicapped and that they have a responsibility to help care for immigrants.

“It’s not that the moral theology has changed, it’s just that the longstanding moral theology of the church has to be applied to new issues,” said Orange County’s Msgr. Baird.

In one of the major modifications, Vatican specialists said, the new catechism is particularly firm in repudiating the idea that Jews “are collectively responsible for the death of Christ.”

The church’s anti-abortion stand is firmly written in the instruction against abortion. “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. . . . Cooperation in an abortion is punished by . . . excommunication,” the new catechism says.

In its new manual, the church condemns homosexuality as “dissolute, contrary to natural law,” but it orders Catholics to receive homosexuals “with respect, compassion and delicacy.”

Catholics who fail to observe the teachings of their new catechism risk hell, “the state of definitive auto-exclusion of Communion with God and with the blessed.”

Times religion writer Larry Stammer in Washington and Times Staff Writer Jodi Wilgoren in Orange County contributed to this report.