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November 13, 2006
Notes from Baltimore
Bishop Skylstad, president of the USCCB delivered his address. I imagine it will be posted online at some point today. It was a rather institutional, church-y talk, calling for unity, decrying negative tones and coarseness, not just in culture, but especially within the Church, ending with a strong call for re-emphasis on the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio, took takes a slightly broader view. His address will undoubtedly be put online as well. He covered several general areas, quoting quite generously from Pope Benedict, particularly various addresses he has given to groups of bishops - the Swiss, Irish, and so on.
He began by speaking of "the grace of the place" - Baltimore - and continued to elucidate, in a gently challenging way, what the bishops should bge concerned about. He took a more global view, speaking forcefully of the great need to put Christ "at the center of our prayer, our lives and our pastoral actions." People, he said, are "thirsting" for the authentic proclamation of the Word of God.
Alluding to the role Baltimore has played in the American church's history, he asked the bishops to model themselves after previous bishops who confronted serious problems. He spoke of evangelization and vocations - critiquing the "pastoral plan" for vocations for lacking intensity and clarity.
He ended by calling the bishops to remember that their job is to strengthen the local church, but to also open up the local church to the universal church.
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Comments
Evangelization deserves to be #1 on the hit list. However, any discussion of increasing vocations without a preceding (or at least concomitant) serious discussion of renewing (Catholic) family life makes me wonder if they're really 'in the game'.....
Posted by: Walter at Nov 13, 2006 10:42:31 AM
From my experience, family life is fine for your average Catholics. The real issue ought to be religious education for children and young adults.
If I had my way, every CCD program in this country would have a year (or more) of required Church history with an approved curriculum (don't want to leave it up to chance with some of those DREs out there).
Confirmation could even be moved back to age 18 and be incumbent on clear knowledge of the Catholic faith and examples of social work.
By the time the children of the US go off to college, they should know all the ins and outs of Catholicism so they aren't so easily seduced by their newfound independence in the secular world.
Posted by: Jacob at Nov 13, 2006 11:59:40 AM
Every CCD program? Every one? Not even Catholic schools have that.
The single factor which most determines a young adult Catholic's involvement in the faith is not classroom education, but church attendance with family. The knowledge will be empty without a spiritual reference point in public worship, ideally in the parish setting, but also reinforced in the home.
And my problem with vocation plans as I've seen them in a few dioceses is the gross lack of imagination and innovation with them. Dioceses have cut back on campus ministry efforts in secular universities. And they wonder why vocations are so poor?
Confirmation belongs at age 7, by the way, not as something to make adults feel good about washing their hands of their responsibility in mentoring young adults in the faith.
Posted by: Todd at Nov 13, 2006 12:18:07 PM
Confirmation belongs at age 7, by the way, not as something to make adults feel good about washing their hands of their responsibility in mentoring young adults in the faith.
AMEN!!
Posted by: marco frisbee at Nov 13, 2006 12:36:07 PM
The single factor which most determines a young adult Catholic's involvement in the faith is not classroom education, but church attendance with family.
Todd, I think if you broadened that to "family-based catechesis" you would have a stronger point. There are plenty of weekly mass-goers who know little of their faith and therefore have a superficial connection to it. And I agree that confirmation should be pushed back from its symbolic juxtaposition next to 8th-grade graduation.
Posted by: Rich Leonardi at Nov 13, 2006 1:17:15 PM
Jacob is right. And don't leave it up to the North American Forum on the Catechumenate or the Department of Education at the USCCB. Todd, it's not just church attendance with the family, but knowing something about the history of your faith.
Posted by: Janice at Nov 13, 2006 1:18:41 PM
Janice, for knowledge to make the connection to life, it needs a context. The reason why apprenticeship is a more suitable model than as classroom is because we want people to be able to apply catechesis in a substantial way in their lives.
Once a Catholic has a grounding in faith, and has the (sub)cultural support to live out the faith amongst family and peers, thirst for knowledge comes naturally. It is at that point parishes can offer effective adult catechesis.
Except for confirmation, and a bit of misinformation about Catholic schools, I can't argue against any of Jacob's specifics. But I see them as secondary.
Rich, I would agree with you that family-based catechesis is essential--it holds more promise than either Catholic schools or parish-based religious ed. But you have to admit we have many people who are intellectually committed to knowledge about the Catholic faith, but otherwise live out their faith in a very superficial way. Superficiality is no doubt an important issue, but not one we cover in the realm of catechesis.
Posted by: Todd at Nov 13, 2006 1:26:10 PM
But you have to admit we have many people who are intellectually committed to knowledge about the Catholic faith, but otherwise live out their faith in a very superficial way.
Actually, Todd, I know of no one who falls into this category. Given the current state of parish- and school-based catechesis, the only folks I've met who bother to learn the Faith have already made some sort of commitment to living it.
Posted by: Rich Leonardi at Nov 13, 2006 1:40:21 PM
It's all about relationship, really. Everything we believe and everything we do as Catholics is based on the intimate relationship we have with Christ, who died and rose for our salvation and who is present in the Eucharist. Without that, nothing else makes sense.
Parents need to be the primary catechists of their children. I can't tell you how many parents who send their children to Catholic schools and CCD programs absolve themselves thereby of that responsibility. (Many parents are so ill-catechized themselves that they can't tell children why the Church teaches what She does, which is another problem.) But if the parents aren't going to Mass regularly and living out their faith actively and fully in their families, then children can receive the best catechesis in the world and it won't make a difference. We're literally building on sand in such cases.
Where I think that many of us get it wrong is that we're trying to solve things by another program or more rules or whatnot -- not that programs can't be good and helpful means to educating the faithful. But we need to pray ceaselessly for the domestic church; for families who place Christ at the center of their lives; for parents who raise children in the knowledge, fear, and love of God. Just getting people to Mass regularly to experience communion with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist (not just a weekly get-together with the other folks in the parish, y'all!) will do more in the long run to convert hearts and minds than any programs that we earthly folk dream up.
Posted by: Scherza at Nov 13, 2006 1:53:23 PM
"Actually, Todd, I know of no one who falls into this category."
I don't know any sex predator priests either, but I think we can conclude there are a number of seminary-educated guys who have a flimsy way of living out the faith. Ditto lay professors who ply co-eds with booze to get sex.
It's more than possible to have knowledge, but to lack a substantial connection to one's faith.
Theology, by classical definition, is faith seeking understanding. I think faith comes first.
Posted by: Todd at Nov 13, 2006 2:00:16 PM
Todd: Once again, you prove the futility of taking your posts seriously. If there's a point to the non-sequitur-meets-smear above, it's lost on me.
Posted by: Rich Leonardi at Nov 13, 2006 2:10:39 PM
Rich,
I think Todd is trying to make the statement that theological education alone does not lead directly to solid Catholic practice. Theologians sin - sometimes quite crassly. Yet, to draw the conclusion from this that solid theological education should be placed in some ancillary position to relationship-based theological education seems a stretch, at best.
Relationship-based catechesis has its place, especially on an introductory level, but if that's where it ends, it produces people who "emote" their faith and, like the seed planted on rocky soil, don't have the solid roots to weather the storm of "it doesn't feel good anymore." Solid theological meat needs to be fed to the faithful in addition to the milk and honey of relational catechesis in order to help people know their faith, not just emotionally, but intellectually - and to be able to apply their own reason to understanding and discerning.
Posted by: Tim Ferguson at Nov 13, 2006 2:35:18 PM
Tim, I think you got the gist of my point. Relationship-based catechesis isn't really on my radar. I think the entire experience of liturgy: good music, good preaching, art & architecture, as well as the community/cultural experience contributes to the development of the believer.
In other words, I have enough faith in the graces of liturgy to rely on that as a starting point.
Naturally catechesis must enter the picture. Ideally, that begins with the family. We move on from there. But putting theological information ahead of Sunday Mass attendance and family faith traditions is like sowing a crop in a lunar crater. The seed is great. The lunar crater is beautiful. But let's face it: there's no way you're going to reap a harvest on the moon without a lot of other preparation.
Posted by: Todd at Nov 13, 2006 5:00:06 PM
Yeah, but you can't just say, "Until everyone lives a perfect life, the heck with catechesis" either. That one saint dude who taught all the kids didn't start with the parents, the liturgy, and the home life. He started by teaching the kids. (Because he started doing catechesis as a kid, if I remember.)
You have to start somewhere.
Granted, in a parish, you have to start everywhere at once from all directions. But isn't that one of the joys of running a parish? :)
Also, there are plenty of kids who come from solid family backgrounds in good parishes with good liturgies, who lose their faith at college because they never got any advanced religious training at home. Precisely on things like church history, bible study, and what to say when people say crazy stuff about the Church. I had just enough of what I'd picked up on my own to survive, but I surely didn't get any help from campus ministry. This isn't to say that there aren't wonderful campus ministries out there, but if I were a parish, I would do something to prepare the pre-college high schoolers for this kind of stress and hurt.
Btw, our campus ministry program didn't produce any vocations for the same reason our parish didn't produce any vocations. They always prayed about vocations once a year, but they never did anything about it. This was particularly pathetic at the university, since there were at least four or five different religious communities in or near town, but we were never even _briefed_ on them, much less had anybody recruiting, running field trips, or even leaving brochures around. At least at the parish, there was the occasional postcard from some order you'd never heard of, seen, or knew anything about.
Maybe we need order trading cards to go with all the saint prayer cards. Collect 'em all!
Maureen, who clearly would be dangerous if she had a color printer and cardstock
Posted by: Maureen at Nov 13, 2006 11:45:31 PM
"Yeah, but you can't just say, 'Until everyone lives a perfect life, the heck with catechesis' either."
Nobody here seems to be saying this. My counsel is to pay attention to studies on faith commitment. They seem to point to Sunday Mass as a primary factor in determining a later commitment as a young adult.
My sense would be to steer a middle way. Liturgy is source and summit. So treat it as such. A prudent discernment will tell when a person, young or old, is ready for catechesis that will truly take root. That saint dude probably knew that. Additionally, he also knew that love was a quality that trumped being a knowledgeable or charismatic lecturer. When a child knows he or she has the loving regard and respect of an adult, he or she will respond in kind.
The bottom line is that there is no easy path. If Catholics want a new generation of faithful, vibrant believers, they are going to have to do the work, and not pawn off their kids on a school, a DRE, or the latest from Ignatius Press. Hoping for a return to a rose-colored 1950 isn't going to happen on wishful thinking alone.
Posted by: Todd at Nov 14, 2006 10:37:22 AM
Please, if anyone knows where Sambi's remarks are transcribed, pop me an email
Thanks very much, Terry
Posted by: Terry at Nov 14, 2006 11:47:11 PM
