When discussing the reception of the unbaptized into the Roman Catholic Church, we read of the need to instruct a catechumen on the Trinity; however, one does not need to understand the meaning of “nature” and “person,” and how the Father, Son, and Spirit are to be distinguished from one another:
The Holy Trinity. Here it
must be explained that there is only one God with one divine nature, Who is in
some way really and distinctly three Persons, each of Whom is God, though there
are not three gods but only one. The names of the three divine Persons should
also be known. The meaning of nature and person need not be understood, nor
the way in which one Person is distinguished from the other. (Joseph
Goodwine, The Reception of Converts: Commentary with Historical Notes [The
Catholic University of America Canon Law Studies 198; Washington, D.C.: The
Catholic University of America Press, 1944], 65-66, emphasis in bold added)
