Father Mike Schmitz is taking on another year-long podcast project about Catholicism, this time examining the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

“Join Fr. Mike and hundreds of thousands of Catholics in discovering the depth and beauty of Catholic teaching with ‘The Catechism in a Year’ podcast, starting Jan. 1, 2023!” Ascension Press posted on Twitter recently.

Ascension Press reported that the podcast will cover the entire Catechism over 2023, saying it will help listeners “understand the essentials of the Catholic Faith and why they matter.” The podcast will look at the Church teaching and how it relates to Sacred Scripture, 2,000 years of Sacred Tradition, and “encounter God’s plan of sheer goodness.”

Schmitz and Jeff Cavins of Ascension Press will together create 15- to 20-minute daily episodes that will focus on the Catechism for the whole year.

But that’s not the only option for people to learn more about the Catechism. The “Catechism in a Year” Facebook group is being set up to offer a discussion forum for people to ask about and comment on the podcast. Members of any faith can join the Facebook group and learn more about the Catechism.

Locally, at the Kino Catechetical Institute, a department of the Division of Education and Evangelization in the Diocese of Phoenix, Catholics can take classes on the Catechism.

Schmitz took on the “Catechism in a Year” project not long after the success of “Bible in a Year,” one of the top Apple podcasts after its release in 2021; a recent National Catholic Register (NCR) report said.

The Catechism is a “compilation of fundamental Christian truths and the essential teachings of the Church,” the report said.

“Discover how God’s plan of sheer goodness is made manifest for us today,” Schmitz told NCR in summing up the mission.

“One of the things that we recognize: Here is the Holy Spirit, who continues to move,” Schmitz added. “Here is God, who continues to reach out to his people. God continues to make us his sons and daughters ... and there is real truth in the fact that you can't love what you don't know.”

Schmitz expressed the importance of Catholicism and its teachings to him.

“And I am just so grateful for the Catechism,” he said. “God reveals himself in sacred Scripture so we get to love him more. But he also reveals himself in sacred Tradition. So we get to love him more. I hope that when it comes to the Bible, we had a biblical worldview that was either given for the first time or rediscovered. Now, with the Catechism, it’s a biblical worldview that is now amplified or even brought into a clearer or sharper vision.”

Schmitz hosted the “Bible in a Year” podcast in 2021. It was a popular production that has been downloaded more than 238 million times through March, a WCCO report said.

“When I turned to the Bible, it was an internal wisdom,” he told WCCO. “And it reminded me, even as bad as it is, it's been worse than this and God hasn't left his people. And I said I want to read the Bible every day and make a podcast.”

A paperback edition of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” is available for purchase on Amazon.