Catechetics

Details: 23 September 2011

History

Catechisms, which are basically a gathering into one book of the fundamental Christian truths, are intended to present those truths "in a readily accessible and understandable form." The Bible itself contains various summaries of this or that teaching, but a rather full summary of all the basic truths of Christianity in what are called catechisms began to take shape in the Catholic Church, as far as we know, starting from the end of the first century, when new converts, along with Catholic children and youth, were seen to need help to master rather complete instructions in Christianity. By the fourth century catechetical work was highly developed in the Church, and many Bishops are recorded as urging and insisting that Christian parents especially have an obligation before God to see to the correct and complete religious training of their offspring. It was in that century that Saint Cyril, the Bishop of Jerusalem, issued a document called "Catechetical Instructions" in which he embodied for the first time the fourfold division of catechetical material used ever since by the Church.

The traditional fourfold division of the Catholic catechisms are: first, an explanation of the Creed, and then of the liturgy and sacraments, followed by the commandments of God and the laws of the Church, and concluding with a discussion about virtues (particularly faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance) with prayer (especially the Lord’s Prayer and the Marian prayers). The term "catechism" was also used to describe sermons and books of instruction for adults, and, from the beginning, the term was not restricted to something only for children and youths. It was in the the fourth century too that Saint Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa and Doctor of the Church, wrote one of the most important classical works on catechetics, "On Instructing the Ignorant" ("De Rudibus Catechizandis"), in which he set forth the contents of the catechism in question and answer form. As catechisms evolved down the centuries they took on various styles and forms. These variances mainly were due to the readership they were intended for: Bishops and theologians, parish priests, lay adults, children, older youths, etc. In the Middle Ages, brilliant personages such as Saint Thomas Aquinas produced important catechisms. In later centuries to combat the grave errors and mistakes of Protestantism, Saint Charles Borromeo, Saint Robert Bellarmine, and Saint Peter Canisius composed important catechisms and published them in the vernacular languages of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Trent and Beyond

The Bishops at the Council of Trent saw a serious need for a revised and updated Catholic Catechism, especially because by that time both Luther and Calvin had published Protestant catechisms, which were being widely diffused and which were filled with doctrinal errors. The result was that shortly after the Council ended the Holy See published what was called "The Catechism of the Council of Trent" or "The Roman Catechism". Translated into the various languages of the world, it quickly became normative for all the various subsequent Catholic Catechisms published in the succeeding centuries up to the end of the twentieth.

In 1885 the American Bishops in the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore ordered and approved for use in the United States a catechism which quickly took up the name "The Baltimore Catechism". Approved by the Holy See and based on the Roman Catechism, but arranged in a simple question and answer format, it became the standard for America for many decades. It was revised in 1941 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) Committee of the U.S. Bishops and was then set up in a ratchet form for the various grade levels in American schools. After the Second Vatican Council post-conciliar doctrinal and moral confusion became widespread, leading the International Synod of Bishops to suggest to the Holy Father another normative and updated Catechism be authored and issued for the whole Catholic world. This was done in 1992 and then published in a final edition in 1997. The working version was in French but the official version of this "Catechism of the Catholic Church" is in Latin. Of course, it has been translated into all the world’s vernacular languages.

It is rather large and is an important resource for theologians and catechists, However, its use as a textbook, especially for children and youths, is somewhat problematic. As a consequence the Holy See has now published "A Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church". It is a smaller book and is done in question and answer form. The then Cardinal Ratzinger honored this columnist by asking him to do the English translation (from the working version in Italian), which I was flattered to do.

National

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (the USCCB) has published in 2005, at the urging of the Holy See, a revised "National Catechetical Directory", based on the Holy See’s "General Catechetical Directory". The USCCB also is engaged in putting out various other catechetical works, such as a "National Catechism for Adults". The U.S. Bishops too have established a committee of Bishops to ascertain and to publicize whether there is correct conformity in the individual catechetical works of various publishers to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Sometimes there are found in those works not only mistakes and errors, but also serious omissions of important Catholic doctrines. This work of the USCCB is generally appreciated by most Catholic book publishers, and it facilitates the duty that diocesan Bishops have in regard to vigilance over the orthodoxy of what is being taught in Catholic schools and CCD programs.

Recent Popes repeatedly have exhorted their brother Bishops throughout the world to produce numerous aids to assist the religious formation of their people, aids which are clear, accurate, and profound. These are human (and hence highly imperfect) attempts to speak of divine truth and are, at best, paraphrases of the divine Scripture, but nevertheless a labor that must be constantly done. These catechetical works, while significant and vital, ought to be seen as subordinate to other essential instructional elements that should be in every Catholic family such as regular participation in the sacred liturgy along with parental teaching and example. It is astonishing to notice that conscientious Catholic parents sometimes will be appropriately concerned about proper nourishment, exercise, and safety for their children, while being utterly neglectful of their greater and more important obligation to see to the spiritual, intellectual nourishment of their children and teenagers, by insisting on their regular reception of correct and complete religious and catechetical instruction, if possible in a Catholic school or otherwise in the CCD program. Solid and complete religious instruction does not guarantee perseverance in the faith. (Sin is, after all, in the will and not in the intellect.) However, it is one of the best ways that parents can transmit to their offspring the most priceless inheritance possible, the Catholic Faith with its promise of eternal happiness.

The Holy See has stated that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is meant "to encourage and assist in the writing of new local catechisms." It also says that "parents receive in the Sacrament of Matrimony the grace and the ministry of the Christian education of their children to whom they transmit and bear witness to human and religious values."