The Bishops who convened
at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 determined to write a catechism for Catholic children — the famous Baltimore Catechism, which was a standard text in Catholic schools for the next 80 years, its questions and answers about the Church and God learned, by rote, by millions of children, in a fashion that might put Muslim
madrassas to shame — and then issued what today would be considered a terribly draconian and medieval (parochial?)