Franciscan at Home

In preparation for the Year of Faith, Dr Alan Schreck reviews how the beginning of the Catechism of the Catholic Church answers basic questions about the virtue of faith.

Pope Benedict XVI, announcing the up-coming ‘Year of Faith,’ begins his apostolic letter Porta Fidei (The Door of Faith): ‘The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church’ (PF1). However, he notes we can no longer assume that people in traditionally Christian lands believe in God: ‘because of a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people’ (PF2).

The Catechism begins (Part I, Section I, Chapter I, subsection one) ‘The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God, and God never ceases to draw man to Himself’ (CCC27). Even people who are hardened against the concept of God experience that ‘restlessness’ that St. Augustine speaks of at the very beginning of his Confessions. Of course, some would deny or fail to recognize that this ‘restlessness’ in their hearts or spirits has anything to do with God, or try to ignore, suppress, or ‘sublimate’ it, but nonetheless it is there. Often, it appears that this inchoate desire or restlessness is the only way that God can ‘hint at’ His presence, when the beauty of creation or of art or music, or rational arguments for God’s existence have no apparent effect.

There is a shocking reality concerning the demographics of worshiping Catholics in the United States. If one would like to identify the largest community of Catholics it would seem logical to look at the largest Catholic parish in any diocese. However, in most cases that is not true. The largest group of Catholics will be found worshipping at the local ‘mega’ non-denominational church. If your country or diocese does not have a mega-church culture then the picture may be even blacker, the Catholics who no longer attend Mass may not be worshipping at all.

The reasons that Catholics leave the Church are many and complicated. Some drift away, some are driven away, many are in irregular marriage situations, many misunderstand what the Church teaches on moral issues and others know very well what the Church teaches and simply do not believe. There is enough blame to go around for all of us who remain and all of those who are gone! Although the particulars of each situation matter and need to be discerned and dealt with the problem for all of us goes much deeper. Through our baptism, we have been adopted into a filial relationship with Jesus Christ. His life is our inheritance and we share this inheritance with those who share our baptism. Our estranged companions are not a problem to be solved. We must seek out our brothers and sisters who have forgotten, misplaced, squandered, lost or rejected their inheritance.

As part of the tribute to Sofia Cavalletti we reproduce here a short article from here writings.

In the Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae (On Catechesis in Our Time), we read that the catechist “will not seek to keep directed towards himself and his personal opinions and attitudes the attention and the consent of the mind and heart of the person he is catechizing. Above all, he will not try to inculcate his personal opinions and options as if they expressed Christ's teaching and the lessons of his life. Every catechist should be able to apply to himself the mysterious words of Jesus: ‘My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me (John 7:16).’ Saint Paul did this when he was dealing with a question of prime importance: ‘I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you (1 Corinthians 11:23).’ …what detachment from self must a catechist have in order that he can say, ‘My teaching is not mine!’” (N. 6)
The need for rigorous objectivity

The text cited establishes a principle of the utmost importance in catechesis: the need for the catechist to be rigorously objective in the transmission of the message.

In every educational process the educator must put the one to be educated in relationship with reality so that he or she becomes capable of establishing his or her own personal relationship with it. The task of the catechist is to initiate into religious reality, that is to say (1) to point to the reality that we are surrounded by the presence of a Person, of a Love, because from this knowledge is born (2) a personal relationship with God.

‘On the Spot’ aims to highlight some of the complex positions, questions and comments experienced by Catechists, teachers and parents. It tries to outline the knowledge necessary to be faithful to Church teaching and which will best help those we teach who call us to account for the hope that is in us. [cf I Peter 3:15]

This time we look at the name and titles of Jesus explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, considering how these complement each other and how we can help children to draw closer to Jesus in coming to understand them more fully.

In his Apostolic Letter, Porta Fidei, published in October last year, Pope Benedict XVI declared that a Year of Faith will start for Catholics on 11 October 2012, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The Year will end on 24 November 2013, on the Feast of Christ the King. The Pope’s intention is that these months be used to deepen our understanding of the truth that the foundation of Christian faith is a continuing encounter with Jesus Christ, who ‘gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.’

The Year of Faith will also provide the faithful with an additional (and, perhaps, an unexpected) task, namely, to respond more effectively to the increasing attacks of secularist critics on religious liberty and freedom of conscience. This task calls for adequate preparation. What is neither known nor understood cannot be taught or defended. Seeking to bear faithful witness to the Catholic Faith, personally and unapologetically in public, is not easy, but today the Faith needs informed advocacy as never before. There will have to be determined efforts in schools and parishes to improve catechesis.

In his Apostolic Letter, Porta Fidei, published in October last year, Pope Benedict XVI declared that a Year of Faith will start for Catholics on 11 October 2012, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. The Year will end on 24 November 2013, on the Feast of Christ the King. The Pope’s intention is that these months be used to deepen our understanding of the truth that the foundation of Christian faith is a continuing encounter with Jesus Christ, who ‘gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.’

The Year of Faith will also provide the faithful with an additional (and, perhaps, an unexpected) task, namely, to respond more effectively to the increasing attacks of secularist critics on religious liberty and freedom of conscience. This task calls for adequate preparation. What is neither known nor understood cannot be taught or defended. Seeking to bear faithful witness to the Catholic Faith, personally and unapologetically in public, is not easy, but today the Faith needs informed advocacy as never before. There will have to be determined efforts in schools and parishes to improve catechesis.

One of the preoccupations of the catechetical movement since the Second Vatican Council has been for the Church’s faith to be seen as clearly ‘relevant’; catechesis must be seen to address our ‘real needs’. And one might think that the urgency with which the Church reiterates today the need for a ‘new evangelisation’ is a further reinforcement of such a message. The Church, it might be thought, is asking us to focus upon understanding what our culture and society today most need; and to do this she must seek ‘new methods’ and must do so with a new ardour and commitment.

There is, of course, a sense in which we can affirm this desire for ‘relevance’. And it is also of course true that catechesis must always seek to announce the Gospel in a manner that engages our deepest needs. Nonetheless, the call to ‘relevance’ can easily be misdirected as a request that the Church’s attention focus upon relevance for me. I want the Church to concentrate upon me - upon my wishes, my aspirations, my hopes and my desires. Let me put the point in a way that sounds less self-centred: we understand the renewal of catechesis to be a call to focus upon us – upon our community and its wishes, desires and aspirations. Translated in this way, then, the call to a ‘Catechesis of Relevance’ means, in effect, ‘I want the Catechism to be about me and about our community.’

If this is how we understand the task of catechesis today, then the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be found to be frustratingly disappointing. For the Catechism is primary about God. ‘God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself’ opens the first paragraph of the text and the closing paragraphs climax upon the glory of the God who will be ‘all in all’. God is the alpha and the omega of the Catechism. He is the beginning, the end, and the centre.

‘See; not a hair is, not an eyelash, not the least lash lost; every hair is, hair of head numbered.’

So often I find I can turn for inspiration for my catechesis to Gerard Manley Hopkins! The wonderful words quoted above are taken from a much-loved catechet
ical poem entitled The Golden Echo. Here we see mirrored the words from the Gospel of St. Luke, with Jesus reminding us to trust in the Father’s providence, and reassuring us that the Father will never forget us:

‘Why every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.’ (Lk.12:6-7)

The psalms also we can draw upon as an inspiration for catechesis. The psalms embrace the whole of creation. To pray the psalms is not only to recall the saving events of the past, but also to reach out far into the future, even as far as the end of time (cf CCC 2586). The psalms reflect God’s great deeds and also human experience in both sickness and health. Through our study of the psalms, we can find resources for a catechesis on the relationship that God has with the sick and elderly.

Alan Schreck begins his exposition of John Paul’s great apostolic exhortation on catechesis.

It is humbling to write an article for The Sower, a foremost catechetical journal, on one of the central documents in this field: Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation On Catechesis in Our Time (Catechesi Tradendae Oct. 16, 1979). It is valuable to catechists frequently to go back to the ‘sources’ the Church has provided that articulate the principles and guide the practice of this critical work of the Church. Catechesi Tradendae begins by reminding us that Jesus Christ himself entrusted the Church with this essential task of catechesis, which includes, first, making disciples (helping people to believe that Jesus is the Son of God) and secondly, educating and instructing them in Christ’s life (CT 1).

Even though this was one of the earliest of John Paul II’s papal documents, it is the fruit of an effort than spanned four pontificates: that of Bl. John XXIII who called Vatican II to express and teach the Faith to people of our time; Paul VI, who called the fourth synod of Bishops in Oct, 1977 on the topic of catechesis; John Paul I, a master catechist who was preparing to write this document before his death, and John Paul II, who was a participant in the Synod on catechesis. Pope John Paul II desired that this document ‘should strengthen the solidity of the faith and of Christian living’ (CT 4).

‘On the Spot’ aims to highlight some of the complex positions, questions and comments experienced by Catechists, teachers and parents. It tries to outline the knowledge necessary to be faithful to Church teaching and which will best help those we teach who call us to account for the hope that is in us. This time we look at how we convey a sense of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

What we do will usually leave a firmer, longer-lasting and deeper impression on our children than what we say. This is a universal and timeless fact. Children learn how to behave, how to speak, dress, relate to others, to drink, smoke and take drugs, or to be selfless workers for peace and justice, by observing other people, not always consciously.

Why would it be different in faith and worship? If children observe adults and older children keeping silence in church, as much as possible, genuflecting before the Tabernacle, kneeling at the Consecration, bowing or kneeling when the Blessed Sacrament is taken from the Church to the sick at the end of Mass, escorted by servers and candles, they will absorb an awe and respect for the Real Presence long before they have any understanding of it. Understanding doesn’t need to precede action; we love and trust our parents long before we understand who they are and why they love us.

If, on the other hand, children are allowed to run free in the church as if it were a village hall, if they hear adults and older children laughing and talking freely, paying no attention to the Presence of Christ, even attending concerts and other events in the church where the participants stand with their backs to the Blessed Sacrament, they are not simply learning disrespect. They are in simple ignorance of what they are failing to do - to give honour and recognition to the Presence among us of our Creator and Redeemer.

So our own actions around the Blessed Sacrament are of great importance.

'On the Spot' aims to highlight some of the complex positions, questions and comments experienced by Catechists, teachers and parents. It tries to outline the knowledge necessary to be faithful to Church teaching and which will best help those we teach who call us to account for the hope that is in us. [cf I Peter 3:15] Here we consider how we explain to those we teach what it means to be a human person and that this can only be built upon the understanding that we are made in the image and likeness of God.

‘Of all visible creatures only man is able to know and love his creator. He is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake, and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity.’ (CCC 356)

Catechising strongly, simply and clearly about the identity of the human person is crucial for the whole work of transmitting the faith. If this area of our teaching is shaky or insecure many areas of the faith are affected. And it is precisely in this area, of how we understand what it is to be a person, that we face some of the greatest challenges as catechists! Let me give an example. A friend, having successfully conceived a child through IVF, told me cheerfully that she had given permission for the remaining fertilised egg to be ‘used for research’. “After all,” she said, “it’s not a person.”

Our children are growing up in a world which feeds them a very inadequate notion of what it means to be human. At one level, they are certainly presented with a biological understanding of the human being; that which distinguishes us from other species and allows us to be categorised as human rather than canine, feline or bovine. It might appear that this should be our starting point for catechesis on the human person, for the physical, the biological, the visible is what we have most obviously in front of us to work with. Educational advice is to begin where the child (or adult learner) actually is, and so for learning to be experience-based.