The catechism-four responses
Butler, Dennis M. Do vle, Dennis O'Brien,Luke Timothy Johnson, Sara
The new Catechism is in many ways a significant...
...and faith primarily in the God who reveals nineteenth-century view believe as if God had communicated and only secondarily in the propositions that express this revelathrough Jesus and the Spirit a set of propositions that contained tion...
...The language on homo- reference...
...Those holding this ing in the Scriptures...
...The dogmatism is rooted in the sense of living tradition that does not require validation by popularity polls or the latest academic verities...
...I return to depositum fidei...
...notes, young people today are woefully ignorant of vast areas In the procedure of witnessing, the individual is first of all sum- of traditional doctrine...
...In ly sober at all-hut because we are somehow caught up by and this book, history is indispensable, more than an illustration of with the witnesses making their "depositions" of faith...
...Such reflections (and presumably pedagogically more palatable) may not be oral in the literal sense, but they express a voice, catechisms...
...It was obviously written by someone who knows as Plato's Seventh Epistle, authors have contrasted the dead in a deeply personal way the meaning of Christian conversion...
...en of the eighteenth-century philosophers...
...By that very arrangement it appears as the most by affirming the equal dignity of persons and the equality and countercultural instrument imaginable...
...This substantial fare must still be made ready for presentation in a way that fully engages the concrete realities of contemporary life...
...Statements conCommonweal 7 May 1993: 1 cerning Jews and Muslims are highly nuanced and positive...
...It is less abstract and less objectivistic than proposiwas reared on the Baltimore Catechism...
...Emphasis on witnessing in religious instruction is fundamental to the Christian tradition...
...But the danger is that the they are summoned by the judge andjury and they address the reader will get the words and not the grammar...
...Cunningham suggests that one could develop a coherent The publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Christology from the deep reflections of individuals like Dorothy Church finally concludes the work of Vatican II Day or Flannery O'Connor...
...The faith appears as some grand pile of faith facts...
...The Luke T mothy ohnson court prefers oral testimony because the being-present of the witness is of immeasurable value in evaluating "the message...
...letter on the page with the live word in the mouth...
...That the documents from Vatican II or World Council of Churches assembly the encyclicals of Paul VI and John Paul II are used heavily is in Canberra no surprise...
...It is the inner demand of witnessing that is at the root there, but one can't make any sense of it because one utterly of the "oral" aspects of catechism and obedience...
...for the instruction of people of all ages...
...My complaint and is not with the content of the Catechism which is pretty standard (too standard) stuff, it is with the grammatical idea of a THE CHALLENGE OF PEACE catechism-or at least this catechism...
...The Catechism goes to Catechism by making it a textbook in a course: that those who the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to...
...The Greek Commonweal 7 May 1993: 15 by critical contact with that other...
...emphasize the need for it to be adapted in various contexts...
...T., is an associate professor of systemM~ Cwhoh, I ih, 1949 atic theology, Mundelein Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois...
...The "crime of the sodomites" in articulating the church's faith so that it can be handed on still "cries out to heaven," but the social and pastoral attitude "whole" to the next generation...
...Rev John A McGrath, SM Religious Studies Dept It is certainly not fair to criticize the Catechism on the basis University of Dayton of my idiosyncratic associations or the stray Latin literalism, but 300 College Park my problem with depositus made me realize that I did not know Dayton, OH 45469 1111 (513)229-4321 the meaning of "catechism...
...One longs for the Baltimore Catechismnmoned, called forth by name, to affirm something on pain of which was, after all, "sounded in one's ears," a possibility not his or her person...
...Perhaps others will have this same experience when confronted with the truths of faith, so terrifying and yet consoling, so bracing and refreshing when faced all at once...
...through doctrine to liturgy to morals, and concludes with the The Catechism responds to the feminist critique principally life of prayer...
...It is because such re- by providing a comprehensive summary of church flections bear witness to the person's experience, not to some teaching intended to serve as the source for local abstracted truth, that they connect with faith...
...Lawrence S. Cunningham has already offered an excellent critique of the Catechism (Cormr onweal, March 12...
...Of course, this makes the stand on ordination even more synthesizing the new and the old, it provides dissonant, and the omission of crimes against women in the Catholics with a much-needed common point of section on sins all the more offensive...
...I liked part I of the third book very much...
...a set of facts from the Above, it is a witness to a history...
...the value of biblical criticism and the levels of meanCatechism is known as "propositionalism...
...By grammar I mean the epistemological assumptions and rules implicit in biblical lan- An Anniversary Reflection and guage about God...
...Sara Butler, M.S.B...
...Since time- tools in its own re-presentation of the Christian story, but that should less truth is timeless truth, the text was used indiscriminately not prohibit others from using them more extensively...
...Male "headship" is never menfensive to our world not only by declaring against abortion, tioned...
...Every point is supported by reference to Scripture or to * Martin Marty and Cardinal Cassidy's meaningful some authority across the entire span of Catholic history...
...Among the only one with the four marks (one, holy, catholic, and apos- these tools are acknowledgments of the need to connect dogma tolic), and the only one through which one can be saved (though with spiritual life...
...E] 18: 7 Mav 1993 Commonweal...
...On the basis of such a catechism, the definition of depositus in my Cassell's Latin Dictionary For more information or a conference brochure, contact seemed all too appropriate: laid out dead...
...The em- I Yes...
...The Bible and the, it is not because of the sobriety of the truths-which are hard- story of Jesus simply won't accommodate the Platonic turn...
...My first reaction is one of awe...
...The church is the continuity of Christian witness...
...Finally, the for: providing a thoroughly biblical exposition: giving the bibCatechism acknowledges sin within the church itself, and in its lical revelation itself a Christological reading...
...It retains the Counter-Reformation spirit of its ancestor echism is not presented as a textbook for children or even for by having as much to say about how not to be a Protestant as adult inquirers (though the pope fudges a bit on this in his inabout how to be a Catholic...
...He is the aulogical responsibility, a "respect for the integrity of creation," thor of The Writings of the New Testament and Faith's Freeand the interdependence and solidarity of all creatures...
...The code for reading the Gospels is the same Catholic relations...
...One of the most noticeable improvements is that it includes pictures of real art...
...Eleven times each year you'll receive the particularly impressive and have certainly not had the charac- latest, most informative and accurate information...
...No one should skip to the secrangement, as it moves from the authority of revelation tion on the Decalogue without reading this part...
...of faith...
...many discussion on the future ecumenical agenda points are illustrated by citations from writers ranging from * Michael Kinnamon's detailed report on the Irenaeus to Newman...
...Its size and sweep, ofThe question of faith is whether in being addressed by the fering statements on everything from the fall of the angels to biblical witnesses and their descendants, we are addressed by the harvesting of fetal tissue, guarantees as well a range of vigGod...
...1 and not only in degree from the priesthood of the faithful, priests I CJ Payment is enclosed I I Please bill me I are icons of Christ, Jesus appointed only males, and women I I emphatically cannot be ordained...
...doctrine...
...Lest anyone think that I writers of the Catechism and I share in the same faith and in am simply chivying the language, the Catechism states that the love of the one God...
...The first is the wealth of intellectual and spiritual resources from the Catholic tradition that the Catechism emyou missed...
...It fore by challenges to faith a recognizable measure for Catholic presents the human vocation to happiness in terms of the identity and a reliable source for Catholic catechesis...
...through the life of someone who has been profoundly changed What follows here is neither journalistic scoop nor scholar16: 7 Mav 1993 Commonweal ly judgment but the necessarily preliminary reaction of an interested and amateur reader whose engagement with Catholicism If you missed reading has been both profound and problematic...
...The witness is peculiarly privileged, and if we believe the witness, we believe the testimony...
...In a deposition one is not just conVatican II: A Popular Approach to Contemporary Catholicism veying some acquired information, one is called to give witness...
...To subscribe, just fill out and mail this coupon Those seeking in this volume continuity with the past will to the address shown below...
...and showing Christ in quisitorial torture...
...The questions and an- I tried to read the Catechism as a book that addressed me with swers were accompanied in most editions by cartoon-like dia- the word that God speaks through Jesus and the Spirit about the grams of milk bottle souls and fountains of grace that today meaning of life, suffering, and salvation...
...1 PACEM IN TERRIS wish to add only a few "grammatical" remarks...
...This spiritual temptation attracted not only ancient the original medium of remembrance, but in the fundamental Greeks, but was the underlying view of the rationalistic heavsense that it depends on witnesses...
...expressing the most dramatic statement, rejects its own past history of in- work of salvation as a Trinitarian event...
...The conI must confess that I experienced a thousand theological dif- trast between dead text and live interpretation is the mainstay ficulties, but for all of them I do not harbor a doubt that the of today's modish literary criticism...
...Witnesses in turn always address someone: to be imagined for the tome at hand...
...to pick up on the threads of ecumenism that Vatican II set in I am grateful for Lawrence S. Cunningham's motion, but it does a very good job on matters of social justices insightful and balanced assessment (Com- When it comes to revelation, the new Catechism offers what monweal, March 12, 1993) for he captured many of my own re- is known as a "salvation history" view...
...enced the text as getting in the way of that word, but at other 14: 7 May 1993 Commonweal times the word burst through...
...he well pleased, for it is everywhere, both in substance and in expression...
...1439, Is there a fundamental difference between teaching by which illustrates the meaning of penance with Jesus' story of the word of mouth and teaching by means of a book...
...The problem is not the accuracy and historicity of texts, it is a fundamental failure to understand the strategy of the biblical writings...
...The new Catechism could do more cal criteria, I find some things to be desired...
...prayer by the section on prayer...
...The fundamentals of doctrine and morals are un© Ecumenical Trends touched, and all the standard touchstones of Catholicism are The Monthly Publication of present: guardian angels, infant baptism, the seal of confession, The Graymoor Ecumenical Institute indulgences and merit, mortal and venial sin, sacramentals, tran- PO Box 306, Garrison NY 10524-0306 substantiation...
...this needs to be recognized...
...In sum, the primary do not like the Catechism will voice their criticisms in a sen- setting of religious instruction is caught up in a culture of speaksitive manner: and that those who promote it will continue to ing and listening-not in the mode of the lectionary at hand...
...The Catechism is of- mutuality of marriage partners...
...What if that were translated not as Dennis M. Do vle teaches in the religious studies department "deposit of faith" but as "deposition of faith...
...Two aspects of that sense of tradition particularly intrigue me...
...ter of transmitting faith to succeeding generations...
...ly scrutinized and endlessly reviewed...
...This hook does not care whether you agree with it or not...
...Sometimes I experiseem quaint even to the most pious imaginations...
...is published by Twenty-Third Publications...
...The pedagogical task is committed to those for whom this compendium was written, the authors of catechetical texts...
...When things go right, we hear the voice of Saint Francis in his religious order, sense the presence of Benedict in his monks...
...Subscribe to Ecumentcal Trends real history or to authentic theology have not up to now been today...
...ploys...
...since it was not a debated issue at the time of the Reformation, Thus, the Catechism almost begs to be "adapted...
...Although I approached the Catechism of the Catholic Church with professional curiosity, intending to examine its choice of content and its hermeneutical and organizational principles, after about twenty pages, the tables were turned: I was not evaluating the text...
...In Christianity, the very Wittgenstein is correct, we cannot hear God speak to some- eternal becomes the very human, the eternal has a history...
...icism and to an appreciation of narrative...
...It is much more scriptural, with some potential current offering with this relic of my youth, I find some things (though in this case not fully realized) openness to biblical critfor which to be thankful...
...far as this Catechism absents itself from history, it misleads...
...1993...
...mation of religious education programs...
...Many will raise FOUR RESPONSES legitimate criticisms about the particular selections of quotes and art works, but that they are present at all and that many are DENNIS M. DOYLE good is to be appreciated...
...It is totally unapologetic in its dogmatism...
...In my judgment, the authors are largely successful sexuality is equally schizophrenic...
...I assume that it is a commonplace that the Bible consists more of stories than general truths --and that in some sense it is one long story which for Christians culminates in the life story of one Jesus of Nazareth...
...Oral discourse mistakes the manner of address...
...By organizing and as men...
...Sin is dom: A Classic Spirituality for Contemporary Christians (both repeatedly discussed not simply in personal but in societal and Fortress...
...To be sure...
...Scholars will follow with closer analysis of continuity completely mystical idea: we often hear the voice of another and change...
...evidence for both is the way Mary I rather than Jesus is portrayed as the exemplar of faith...
...To give witness is to give personal validation to what is alleged...
...All the stuff is court...
...For example, the Resurrection, the drawn upon in the writing of local catechisms and in the forfoundation of our faith, is addressed in only one brief question...
...I assumed it had something to do The L'» irersity of Dayton with instruction, and so it does but in a special way...
...The pope asserts straightaway "The Lord entrusted his church with the mission of guarding the deposit Robert F. Drinan, S.J...
...So much for the new Catechism Forum on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition Today of the Catholic Church...
...Like the great ma- work through the people of Israel culminating in the saving acts jority of Catholics who have passed their fortieth birthday, I of Jesus...
...The actual presence may Dennis O'Brien is president of the University of Rochester...
...I have some wishes concerning the the "response to the revealing God [is] 'the obedience of faith...
...Almost every article suggests a question or an objection, demands further justification or explanation, and needs to be illuminated by an example drawn from our own experience...
...If "catechism" means what it says in the Greek: ly insightful and touching...
...Like the Duchess in Alice in Wonderland, the Catechism rushes on after every story to say: "And the moral of that my dear is._I hesitate to say that a book so grandly labelea as Catechism of the Catholic Church is "heretical," but while its content is orhh Call 1" 1 ,,,h...
...This is not a tive...
...a Look to the Future I was in trouble from the first sentence in Pope John Paul II's introductory letter...
...The Catechism about the issues that were being debated at that time: which contains within itself a kind of tool kit that can be used to transchurch is the one true church, the only one founded by Jesus, form it into what some may consider an upgraded version...
...Deposit of faith" has never conjured happy im- J. Bryan Hehir ages for me: one thinks of bank deposits and other even less Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton pleasant passive leavings...
...It does Beatitudes and then gives a fine exposition of freedom, conso not only by its individual statements but in its entire ar- science, sin, grace, and the law...
...The short paragraph format in place of LUKE TIMOTHY JOHNSON the old questions and answers retains the distinctiveness of inSARA BUTLER dividual points while leaving room for more explanation when necessary...
...If we believe the biblical tale...
...As Cunningham positions of faith which are "the church," we are addressed...
...My favorite passage is No...
...Rudolf Otto spoke of awe as that combination of fear and fascination generated by that which is truly "Other...
...but these most recent voices join a larger chorus * Bernard Ilaring's compelling arguments on made up of members from every century...
...Religious it did not call for much attention...
...I am grateful to them especially toward homosexuals is positive and affirming...
...We are not hearing God speak to someone else-we would orous responses...
...It does not claim to The Baltimore Catechism, published in 1885, is a direct de- be a formulation of timeless truth, but admits intrinsically of a scendant of Robert Bellarmine's catechism of the sixteenth cen- need for interpretation and pastoral application...
...I Name I There are some aspects of the Catechism which reflect the I I I Address I movement of Vatican II toward the world...
...The new Catechism is in many ways a significant advance over the Baltimore Catechism...
...the text was evaluating me...
...He is the authorofGod and the New Haven Railway (Beacon...
...is a strong affirmation of solidarity between peoples and na- Luke Timothy Johnson is professor of New Testament at the tions, and as well a muted but real sense of commitment to eco- Chandler School of Theology, Emon, Unihersity...
...Catechism's reception: that no teacher will ever misuse the And what does "obedience" mean...
...Taken as a whole and in one bite, this catechism does what I found the segments on Christ and the Holy Spirit particuit needed to do: establish for a generation swept as none be- larly eloquent...
...The new Catechism's overall interpretation of Vatican II is conservative, but it should be noted that a conservative version V1 When I measure the new Catechism solely of Vatican II is much more up-to-date than even a liberal veragainst current theological and catecheti- sion of the Council of Trent...
...It is also seasoned throughout with pertinent quotes THE CATECHISM from saints, theologians, and church leaders...
...When I compare the tionalism...
...A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" is worth as much on the ou can't hear God speak to page as on the tongue...
...The sections on sacraments, moral word means "to sound a thing in one's ears" and "to teach by life, and prayer, for all of their difficulties, were often spiritual- word of mouth...
...The In Platonisms, the eternal is so real that history fades to mere ilBible is a product of an oral tradition not merely by accident of lustration...
...It is as certain about economics as it is about the economy of salvation...
...The Catechism even contains some language that might be read as hopeful by those alienated by traditional teaching: al- Sara Butler though the line is held on women's ordination, for example, several places contain language with reference to women that might open to future development: the appropriateness of using The Catechism completes the work of Vatican II "motherhood" language about God and the assertion that the by presenting Catholic teaching in straightforward, image of God in women shares in the divine perfection as much positive, even joyful, terms...
...tell, the contributions of critical biblical scholarship either to Keep up to date...
...he trivial if the speaker is simply conveying a general fact...
...You might remember that our 1992 issues...
...1419 thodox to a fault, its grammar smacks of neo-Platonic deviance...
...structural terms...
...It speaks with a clear and hold voice...
...However, in the "depositions" of the law, it is a particular person who is the witness...
...The popular press will weigh in first with a never hear him so-we are hearing God because his life has catalogue of "what is important" (meaning, what is provocaentered into the life of the one who addresses us...
...Stale The legitimacy of a diversity in rites is recognized, but inter- --lip I communion with Protestants is still forbidden...
...I am not entirely sure priests, for theologians and lay people - for anyone to whom the ecumenical movement is how I feel about this...
...I scups ('lease enter my subscription for[] 1 year 0 $10 I Also as anticipated, ordained priesthood is still different in essence 1 ($12 Foreign) or [1 2 years ('` $18 ($22 Foreign...
...The Christology is high, the attention given to IFILL OUT & MAIL TODAY Mary extensive and repetitive...
...There to and by a relationship to God, mediated by prayer...
...The teaching on the church is much less argumentative, incorporating Vatican II's focus on a wide range of scriptural images...
...And in this important sense, it is as welcome as an old and trusted friend to those of us who have never since found a hook as convincing as the Baltimore Catechism...
...His The Church Emerging from law is a form of witnessing...
...the hierarchy of truths and the development of there were loopholes for the invincibly ignorant...
...As long ago prodigal son...
...The catechism at hand, all 508 pages in my pho- November 5 - 7, 1993 tocopy, confirms the image...
...In the de- There certainly is a place for the Catechism...
...Its polemical posture leaves it with troduction), but rather is presented as a resource work to be certain topical imbalances...
...The "grammar" of this Catechism suggests, however, that the stories and story are dispensable, merely illustrationspf some general moral and religious "teachings...
...something eternal behind the everyday...
...I I need to keep ( urrent on all the important ecumenical phasis on the magisterium and its infallibility is as expected...
...On the other hand, the text makes repeated mention of or demanding that the Sabbath be a day of rest, or by calling the hierarchical nature of the church, and of the sacramental or the media to a standard of truth, but above all by insisting in iconic role of bishop and priest, reinforcing the teaching that its final section that all doctrine and morals must be directed reserves the ministerial priesthood to men...
...This view goes signifactions, especially concerning the Catechism's need to make more icantly beyond the propositionalism of the nineteenth century...
...There is much more emphasis given to the life, teaching, and Resurrection of Jesus than in the DENNIS O'BRIEN Baltimore Catechism...
...It does not equivocate...
...The Catechism does not seem to make great use of these truths expressed eternally for all times and places...
...But the Christian faith is not first of all someone else, you can hear to f him only if you are being ad- Celebrate the anniversary of two landmark documents dressed-that is a grammatical in the Church's social teaching at a remark," the linguistic philoso- Conference sponsored by the University of Dayton's pher Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote...
...It attempts to summarize the main points of the history of God's I have, however, another measuring stick...
...use of contemporary biblical scholarship...
...makes a speaker present to a listener...
...In so one else, we must hear for ourselves, we must he addressed...
...The rich theological exposition of Jesus' messianic ministry owes Ecumenical Trends is required reading for nothing to the efforts of historical critics...
...If the Christian faith were simply a Dennis O'Brien set of teachings, then whether these truths were conveyed in writing or in oral transmission would make little difference...
...In a world of cognitive and moral relativism, this catechism is truly "Other...
...Mostly, I think, I am pleased, for truth to important...
...used by Augustine and Aquinas, namely the doctrine of the church...
...Although the text repeats the old anti-Protestant definition of church found in former catechisms, it does not Dennis M. Doyle limit itself to such narrow institutionalism...
...the need for an ecumenical moral agenda The second thing which impressed me as a biblical scholar * Archbishop Weakland's summation on the is how completely this catechism ignores the results of critical current state of Orthodox-Roman biblical scholarship...
...I was led through a serious examina- teach by word of mouth, the lumpish written compendium of the tion of my conscience in the moral section, and I was moved to current catechism apparently rests on a "grammatical" mistake...
...his "mysteries" in a way that reveals how we share in them...
...the supernatural sense of the faithful and the primacy The understanding of revelation that permeates the Baltimore of conscience...
...It has a decidedly ecumenical tone, most notably toward the Eastern churches...
...Thus this cattury...
...The document's character ensures its being minutethere is some person who addresses us...
...Deposition" in at the University of Dayton...
...Yet there are pages and pages educators should take it at its word on that point...
...As Cunningham points out, the Catechism seems wholly oblivious to modern biblical scholarship...
...Not only they, however, but all Catholics with mature faith are now challenged to give "flesh," in word and example, to this rather "disembodied" and lofty, but truly life-giving "word" of faith...
Vol. 120 • May 1993 • No. 9
