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The Catechism of the Catholic Church now has more of a presence in the increasingly popular world of e-books. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has made the catechism available as a browser-based e-book. The catechism is a compendium of Catholic beliefs structured around the four pillars of faith: creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer. The USCCB announcement about the latest e-book format comes at a time when more active readers are moving to e-books from traditional formats. A Pew study conducted in February shows 21 percent of adults say they read an e-book in the past year, compared with 17 percent in December 2011 who said they had done so. Additional research shows that overall e-book owners are more likely to read than those who read via print formats. In late 2011, the USCCB accommodated that trend by releasing the e-book edition of the catechism through Amazon, iTunes and the USCCB online bookstore. Why make it available through browsers? "Providing the catechism in this particular electronic format will make this foundational resource even more accessible to people," explained Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City. "It is free to anyone who has access to the Internet."

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