The Catechism of the Catholic Church
—Ten Years Later—

by Most Rev. Daniel M. Buechlein, O.S.B.

In chapter six, verse 34 of the Gospel according to St. Mark, we read: "As he landed he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things." Notice, He began to teach them many things. Teaching many things is an important pastoral concern in a culture that tends to value not so much what is true, but rather what pleases. Concern for the doctrinal content of catechesis is an eminently pastoral concern. For the past 10 years the Catechism of the Catholic Church has provided the basis and the stimulus to renew the pastoral teaching of the faith in our Church.

For a good reason Pope St. Pius X chose as the motto for his pontificate, "Instaurare omnia in Christo." "To restore all things in Christ" conveyed his perception that ignorance threatened the Catholic faith of believers nearly a century ago. He said that "it is useless to expect a person without formation to fulfill his Christian duties." He repeatedly stressed the need to teach the doctrine of the Church, and his concern led to the publication of the Catechism of Pius X.(1)

St Pius X's concerns still apply today. It is pastorally urgent to present the Church's teaching about the meaning of life and our eternal destiny, about the meaning and sanctity of marriage and family life, indeed about the sacredness of life itself.

In Redemptoris Missio Pope John Paul II reminded us that "faith is strengthened by sharing" (no. 2). In his apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, the Holy Father proposes evangelization as the challenge for our times. Once I heard him remark that the Catechism of the Catholic Church may be the greatest legacy of his pontificate (Ad Limina, March 1993). Catechesis lies at the core of evangelization and it is eminently pastoral.

A significant part of the corporate pastoral and magisterial legacy of the bishops of the United States of the present era may well be their response to the challenge of implementing the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Thanks to the Catechism, we bishops have been restoring our direct responsibility for evangelization and catechesis in our country.

The original inspiration for the Catechism of the Catholic Church was the perceived need for a common language in service to the unity of our faith and in the global context of cultural diversity and religious illiteracy. Dominican theologian Fr. J. Augustine DiNoia once expressed his concern that contemporary religious education has produced a "creedless Christianity," a "catechetics without content," which hampers the fulfillment of the new evangelization and our pastoral catechetical mission.(2) The publication of the Catechism brought about a new moment for the faith of our Church, a moment in which our bishops recognized an opportunity for a genuine pastoral renewal of our catechetical mission and our episcopal leadership in fulfilling that mission.

The bishops established the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1994. With the assistance of theological and catechetical experts, this committee of bishops prepared a process for the review of catechetical materials to ensure their conformity with the teaching of the Catechism. Since beginning the review process in 1996, more than 100 reviews of texts and series of texts have been concluded. From start to finish, approximately 400 hours are required of the experts for reviewing a catechetical series and most materials have required substantial revision. Publishers have come to appreciate this process and we bishops prize the positive relationship we have been forging with them.

The fullness of doctrine presented in the resources we use for catechesis has suffered since Vatican II. Our bishops' committee has detected a discernable pattern of doctrinal deficiencies, which thanks to the Catechism are being corrected. Our experience mirrors the summation of contemporary catechetical challenges cited by the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC). The GDC was published by the Congregation for the Clergy in 1997 and provides direction for the teaching of religion and religious formation since the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The challenges identified in the GDC are as follows:

• The conciliar concept of Tradition is much less influential than Revelation as an inspiration for catechesis.
• The interrelation of Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium does not yet harmoniously enrich catechesis.
• It is necessary to arrive at a more balanced presentation of the entire truth of the mystery of Christ.
• There are certain doctrinal lacunae about God and humanity and grace and sin.
• It is still easy to fall into a "content-method" dualism (GDC, no. 30).
  

When I was in Rome for an Ad Limina visit in June 1998, a bishop asked the Holy Father during lunch which, of all the encyclicals and apostolic letters he has written, he considers the most important. Without missing a beat the Holy Father responded, "The first one."

On my return to Indianapolis, I re-read that first encyclical, entitled Redemptor Hominis (The Redeemer of Man). In that first work written just months after his election as Pope, the Holy Father set the agenda for his pontificate with an eye to the Great Jubilee, the new millennium, and beyond. Not surprisingly, all of his subsequent writings have their roots in that first letter.

Because of my familiarity with our catechetical resources I made an unexpected discovery as I re-read his letter. Pope John Paul II pointedly addressed all of the areas of deficiency that the General Directory for Catechesis outlines and that our Ad Hoc Committee has discovered in our review of catechetical materials.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, a respected Church historian, has remarked more than once that the public articulation of the major theological deficiencies in catechetical materials in the United States will mark an important moment in our recent Church history. If so, it is thanks to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

In June 2000 the media hardly took note of an important vote at our U.S. bishops' meeting which is also of historic significance. We voted to establish a standing bishops' committee on catechesis beginning in November 2002. Some issues that extend beyond the mandate given to the Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism challenge contemporary catechesis, for example, the treatment of human sexuality. This complex topic lies beyond the mandate of the ad hoc committee because the Catechism only addresses the moral dimension of human sexuality. Physiological and other aspects of the important topic lie beyond its scope. The committee on catechesis might also address more effectively the tension that exists in the debate over catechetical content versus methodology.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church was being presented to the worldwide Church 10 years ago, Pope John Paul II noted that the new evangelization requires attention to inculturation and that local catechisms would be needed. When the new Catechism was first promulgated and published in English in 1994, the bishops of the United States chose to take time before addressing the matter of a national catechism in order that the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church would first be received and welcomed in our country. In 1998 the Congregation for the Clergy, which is responsible for the mission of catechesis in the Church, began to urge us to address the question of a national catechism. In June 2000 the U.S. bishops voted unanimously in support of developing a national adult catechism. As of this writing the first draft of the National Adult Catechism is in the hands of the bishops for their review and comment.

Comparable to the notion that our National Adult Catechism is intended to "inculturate" the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for our country, so the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops has undertaken the development of a National Directory for Catechesis in order to "inculturate" the GDC as encouraged by the Congregation for the Clergy. The draft of this document is also in the hands of the bishops for review.

The promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992 set all of this and more in motion. It was His Eminence, Cardinal Bernard Law, speaking on the floor of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the 20th anniversary of Vatican II in 1985, who first explicitly requested the development of a new catechism for our Church. The rest is a wonderful and still unfolding history.

Most Rev. Daniel J. Buechlein, O.S.B. is the Archbishop of Indianapolis and the newest member of CUF's episcopal advisory council.

Endnotes:

1. Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God (London: Sceptor, 1990), vol. 7, 97-98. (return to text)

2. Symposium on Catechesis, Archdiocese of San Francisco, November 1998. (return to text)

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