Improve catechesis now

The story “U.S. synod report finds participants share common hopes, lingering pain” (Sept. 29 edition) states “… a common hope that emerged nationwide was the “desire for lifelong spiritual, pastoral and catechetical formation as disciples ….” Some of us have been crabbing about this in the Catholic press and to the hierarchy for years, but nobody listened. I will repeat some of it here. Post Vatican II, the Catholic Church banished the Baltimore Catechism because it apparently was “out of date.” It was replaced with nothing. Some of us who taught CCD in the 1970s had to “wing it.” There was nothing to use. It wasn’t until 1996 that the present Catechism was published. This is a fine research document, not a textbook. In 2004, the USCCB published the “United States Catholic Catechism for Adults,” a well-documented, thematically arranged textbook for adults, useful for individual or group study. But almost nobody knows it’s available. I found it accidentally at St. Patrick’s Guild about seven years ago and we use it. What’s the secret? That’s 56-plus years without a promoted teaching document for a church that is not a Sunday-go-to-meetin’ church. We are a “live your faith” and hopefully a “grow in your faith through daily practice” church. A half-century is a long time to be without basic study materials appropriate to the student audience. I recommend that, rather than waiting two more years to compile more reports, we segue into evangelizing by applying the materials at hand and expanding programs into unserved groups such as public and non-Catholic school children, adolescents, adults and others (assuming Catholic school students are being properly catechized). The faithful have spoken.

Art Thell
St. Joseph, West St. Paul

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