Old wine, old wineskins

...For example, the Ten Commandments are "a classical structure for Christian moral teaching" and "catechetical writers saw the Decalogue as a privileged expression of the 'way of life.'" Before the thirteenth century, catechetical writers, when they dealt with the Decalogue at all, followed Augustine's Enchiridion, expounding them in the context of the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor (Matt...

...The common expression of faith owed as much to the Roman Missal (perhaps more) as to the Roman Catechism, both of which played major roles in shaping the spirit, language, and theology of the Tridentine church...

...It emphasized basics, material that would be most helpful to pastors and teachers in their ministry, but it left much unsaid...

...It does not measure up to the Roman Catechism as a compendium of Catholic doctrine, nor is it satisfactory as an example of mys-tagogy in the context of the church's celebration of baptism and Eucharist...

...Here it stands in the tradition of Gregory of Nyssa's Great Catechism and Augustine's Enchiridion...

...Relying on Thomas Aquinas, the catechism presents sacraments almost exclusively in doctrinal terms and the liturgy as rubrics...

...The Roman Catechism's full title-A Catechismfor Pastors from the Decrees of the Council of Trent by Order of Pope Pius V-identifies its audience...

...Trent's answer, paradoxically, was not to mandate a small catechism that might rival Luther's in popularity, but to call for a compendium of doctrine...

...The Catechismfor the Universal Church relegates the Lord's Prayer to an epilogue where it appears as an appendage of secondary importance...

...With this common ground, the Catholic position on such questions as the nature of faith, sacraments, and law was definitively presented as a corrective to the teachings of the Protestant Reformers...

...bishops at the end of December, has some 3,700 numbered paragraphs filling more than 400 pages...

...The Roman Catechism shaped the provisional text of the CUC in other ways...

...The Thomistic influence is unmistakable but, in the spirit of Trent, allowance is made for other schools of thought in the Catholic tradition...

...In the Roman Catechism, the Lord's Prayer is integral to an extensive catechesis on the nature and practice of prayer and thus to the catechism as a whole...

...In attempting to reconcile the liturgical reforms of the council with the scholastic categories of the past, the CUC uses the Roman Catechism as a mold rather than a model...

...Though there are frequent references to the documents of Vatican II, the CUC does not acknowledge so radical a change...

...The arguments were often subtle, but they were not missed by the cognoscenti of the sixteenth century...

...The limited but specific objective of the Roman Catechism was to correct the teachings of the Reformers...

...There are in fact two catechetical traditions, the one represented by Gregory's Great Catechism and Augustine's Enchiridion, and the older, practical catechesis exemplified by Cyril of Jerusalem's prebaptismal catechesis and the mystagogical homilies of Ambrose, John Chrysostom, Augustine, and others...

...This article is based on a paper prepared for the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University...

...The Roman Catechism was very much a product of its era, adopting a structure that had come into vogue in the fourteenth century (and which Luther and Calvin had accommodated to their own theologies) with the purpose of presenting a corrective to the teachings of the Reformers without engaging them in polemics...

...Catechesis is the work of the believing, praying, witnessing community, and it is no more possible in the twentieth century to chain it to a book than it was in the second and sixteenth centuries...

...This spirit, along with clear objectives and a sensitivity to specific pastoral needs, recommends the Roman Catechism as a model for the new Catechism for the Universal Church...

...It will take its place alongside the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the revised sacramentary, the new lectionary, the General Catechetical Directory (GCD), and all the other pieces in the panoply of Vatican II reforms...

...The treatment of the Beatitudes is one of the weakest sections of the entire catechism...

...The determination to organize all the material under the headings of "four pillars" of the Roman Catechism makes the CUC's reflection on the Lord's Prayer seem an afterthought...

...The presentation reflects points at issue between Catholics and Protestants, but its outlook is far removed from patristic catechesis...

...OLD WINE, OLD WINESKINS beraro l marthaler A PROVISIONAL TEXT OF THE UNIVERSAL CATECHISM The bishops of the Catholic world have on their desks copies of the ''provisional text" of a Catechismfor the Universal Church (CUC...

...The Roman Catechism explained and defended the faith without being polemical in the sense that it explained the sacrament of penance, the invocation of the saints, indulgences, and other Catholic beliefs and practices then under attack without naming the adversaries...

...If it is really to be a catechism for the 1990s, a catechism published in the post-Vatican II era-a period in which the lack of Christian unity is recognized as a major obstacle to evangelization and catechesis-it must give prominence to the Decree on Ecumenism and find a way to incorporate in its contents the insights of the ecumenical dialogues...

...The council mandated the GCD to provide a clear definition of the nature, purpose, and means of catechesis and practical guidelines for carrying out the church's catechetical mission...

...Luther, J. Calvin), and of the Catholic Reformation of the sixteenth century...

...The unmistakable implication is that the Catechism for the Universal Church, drawing its inspiration from Vatican II, will register similar achievements...

...Forty unnamed experts are said to have been consulted...

...But even before these were written, the handing over of the Lord's Prayer had become one of the formal steps in the rites of initiation...

...It is a document of its time, the product of a more or less homogeneous culture in which adversaries spoke the same language, read the same books, and were united in their concern for the future of the church, however different their views of the church might be...

...In its current form, the CUC attempts something more, and therefore achieves something less...

...The Roman Catechism has been severely criticized for its inadequate treatment of the sacraments, but its deficiencies are characteristic of medieval catechesis...

...It gave rise "to a remarkable programme of catechesis" in the church and led to the publication of numerous catechisms...

...The Roman Catechism is held up as a model because it gave rise "to a remarkable programme of catechesis" in the church...

...The immediate impetus for the CUC was the extraordinary session of the Synod of Bishops that met in 1985 to evaluate the results of Vatican II...

...Trent also undertook the reform of the liturgy, bringing a uniformity to the Latin rites that had not previously existed...

...BERARD L. MARTHALER, O.F.M...

...Vatican II sought to retrieve this ancient tradition and practice in calling for the revision of the liturgical and sacramental rites...

...The prologue quotes Cardinal Ratzinger: "This catechism is intended for those whose responsibility it is to compose and/or to approve national and/or diocesan catechisms...

...The CUC makes several generalizations that are true if th&Roman Catechism is taken as normative of the Catholic catechetical tradition...

...In the same way, no matter how well crafted, a Catechism for the Universal Church cannot carry the burden for a renewal of catechesis in today's church...

...In today's parlance, these were "source books," and that, in fact, seems to be what the Extraordinary Synod had in mind when it urged "a catechism or compendium of all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals" that might serve as "a point of reference" for regional catechisms and compendiums...

...But this is to give it too much credit...

...In the mystagogy of the ancient church, salvation was linked to the paschal mysteries, and the sacraments were explained in the context of liturgical celebration...

...Charles Borromeo and the three Dominican friars that he enlisted to help him with the project judged that it was not the "heavy tomes," presumably works like Luther's Large Catechism, Calvin's Institutes, and the Heidelberg Catechism that were causing the trouble...

...Although the CUC alludes to this tradition (3248-49), it treats specific moral issues under the headings of the Ten Commandments...

...In the years after Vatican II catechetical texts and resources produced in North and South America, taking their lead from the bishops, addressed social, economic, and ecological topics in the context of gospel teaching...

...Even the General Catechetical Directory, which appeared in 1971, for all its emphasis on freedom and responsibility, does not develop the themes of peace, justice, and the meaning of life in the modern world so prominent in Gaudium et spes...

...The English version, made available to the U.S...

...The draft now under consideration is modeled on the Roman Catechism, published in 1566 after the Council of Trent...

...The four headings-the Apostles' Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer-provided a practical framework for almost everything that a Christian needs to learn...

...The prologue then extends the audience: through the bishops, it is "intended for those who draw up catechisms, for catechists, and so for the whole people of God...

...To be faithful to Vatican II, the CUC must adopt the framework of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) which embodies the vision of church that shaped the council...

...Conv., is professor of religion and religious education at the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C...

...Though it proposed to establish "one standard and prc scribed rule for handing on the faith and for instructing the Christian people in all the duties of the Catholic religion," it recognized the need to adapt the instruction to the ability, cultural background, and particular circumstances of the learner...

...It went hand in hand with Trent's reform of seminaries and the seminary curriculum, including a call for more and better Bible study...

...Although the placement often seems forced, the CUC uses the Ten Commandments to present a catalogue of modern issues from biogenetic research, collective sins, responsibility for the environment, mass media, and professional codes to international relations and terrorism...

...22:40...

...Though not without its shortcomings, the Roman Catechism was an overwhelming success in its day...

...Two Americans, Cardinal William Baum and Cardinal Law, are members...

...The CUC is addressed to a more diffuse audience than the pastors and clergy of the Roman Catechism...

...The Roman Catechism is cited as "a noteworthy example" of "how the ministry of cat-echesis draws ever fresh energy from the councils," and John Paul II is quoted as describing it as a "first rank" summary of Christian teaching...

...Thomas, stands over against Luther's law-gospel theology and Calvin's teaching on church and sacraments...

...For example, the ordering of the parts, traceable to St...

...Unless the final draft of the Catechism for the Universal Church is presented as a companion piece to the GCD, and is permeated with the same spirit and pointed in the same direction as the liturgical reforms, it will further fragment the catechetical movement...

...Fears that the synod might be the occasion for turning back the achievements of the council proved unfounded, but the perception of some bishops that many of the reforms and changes needed consolidation found voice in the proposal of Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston that a universal catechism be prepared...

...Although it is a hefty tome, the Roman Catechism is not a summa explaining all the dogmas of the Catholic faith...

...The purpose of the catechism was "to instruct pastors, and others who have the care of souls, in those things that belong properly to pastoral care...

...The Beatitudes are lost in a series of generalizations about the New Law (3124-31...

...The synod ended in recommending that "a catechism or compendium of all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals be composed, that it might be as it were a point of reference for the catechisms or compendiums that are prepared in the various regions...

...It is essentially oral, a pastoral activity that depends on informed and zealous preachers and teachers...

...European texts generally focused on individual conscience and interpersonal relations...

...that is, homilies intended to nourish the lifelong conversion of the faithful...

...Despite the inherent limitations of making the Ten Commandments the framework for Christian morality, the contents of this section represent a significant advance...

...The "errors" in these works were easy enough to detect...

...Like that catechism, also called the Tridentine Catechism, this one is structured around four "pillars": the Apostles' Creed, the Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer...

...The audience for the Roman Catechism was an undereducated clergy engaged in pastoral work who preferred clarity to speculation...

...The Roman Catechism itself departed from a practice that went back to Thomas and the earlier Augustinian tradition, which organized catechetical instruction under the headings of faith (the Creed), hope (the Lord's Prayer), and charity (the commandments of love...

...They explain the baptismal Creed in the context of the rite itself...

...Catholics and mainstream Protestants held much in common...

...Moral" catechesis, as is evident from Paul's Epistles and the Didache, dates from the beginning of the church, but it was not generally based on the Ten Commandments until the thirteenth century...

...It is therefore intended first of all for bishops, as teachers of the faith...

...On July 10,1986, John Paul II appointed the Commission for the Preparation of a Universal Catechism headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and consisting of twelve prelates, six of them curia members and six bishops from around the world...

...Leaders of the Tridentine reform recognized that catechesis could not be reduced to print...

...In attempting to straddle both of these catechetical traditions, the Catechism for the Universal Church loses its focus...

...This fourfold division had come into vogue around the beginning of the fourteenth century, and was used by Luther and Calvin in their catechisms...

...How does the provisional text of the CUC compare with the Tridentine compendium...

...The success of the Tridentine Reform did not rest on the intrinsic worth of the catechism alone...

...For example, the CUC's prologue emphasizes that believers not only profess and celebrate their faith, but live it and bear witness to it, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "by a life modeled on the Beatitudes...

...The bishops have until the end of May to send recommendations and comments to Rome that will assist the working committee, as it says in an accompanying note, "to complete what is lacking, to abbreviate what may be too detailed, and to unify the style and presentation...

...the seven-member drafting committee includes Archbishop William Levada of Portland, Oregon...

...Despite its aim of defending the faith, the Roman Catechism is generally positive in tone and fairly comprehensive in presenting doctrine...

...The Protestant Reformers had made effective use of the printed word "to subvert the Catholic faith...

...In fact, the prologue announces that the CUC's plan "is based on the great tradition of the catechisms both of the Protestant Reformation (M...

...Yet the heart of the section on "Life in Christ" (Part III) is not the Beatitudes but the Ten Commandments, which the CUC calls the "framework for Christian morality" (0014...

...In turn they were to accommodate the instruction to the ability and intelligence of their listeners...

...The danger came from pamphlets, the popular catechisms, that "disguise their errors under the appearance of piety...

...The early church also possessed numerous commentaries on the Lord's Prayer, beginning with those of Origen and Cyprian in the third century...

...The catechism was only one piece in the broad strategy of raising the level of education of pastors and the clergy who had the responsibility for preaching and catechizing the faithful...

...In taking the Roman Catechism as a model, the Catechismfor the Universal Church should be more attentive to the spirit than to the text of the sixteenth-century work...

...It was the purpose of the Roman Catechism to focus on the differences...

...It is the spirit, not the text, of the Roman Catechism that should be the model for a Catechism for the Universal Church...

...The RCIA provides a focus for all pre-and postbaptismal catechesis, including the explanation of the Creed and the Ten Commandments...

...Categories of matter and form are used to explain the sacraments, and transubstan-tiation is the focal point of the Mass...

...The GCD gives norms and guidelines, but it is the liturgy and Scripture that must provide the context and focus for any program of catechesis that claims to take its inspiration from Vatican II...