Saving Our Parish: On catechesis

Friday, July 12, 2013

On catechesis

Repenting of the Failure of Parish-Based Catechesis: Time for An Old Idea

From the article:

It's long past time for the Catholic Church in the United States to acknowledge and address the fact that in many, possibly most, dioceses, parish-based catechesis has been an abject failure. In the vaunted Year of Faith, it should sting all of our leaders and pastors that few of the ever-dwindling percentage of Catholics in the pews on a Sunday morning could pass a basic catechetical quiz. How many Gen X Catholics could name one of the precepts of the Church or recall any one set of the Mysteries of the Rosary? How many of our teenagers could list all Ten Commandments? How many First Communicants could recite the Acts of Faith or Hope, or name the Seven Sacraments? The terrible, tragic, and fundamental truth for 21^st-century Catholicism is, not many!

(H/t to Cleansing Fire)

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Quotables

If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. --Jesus Christ

The devil owns the fence. -- Unknown

…[W]e don’t hear God because we don’t want to be disturbed, and so we remain indifferent to evil…. ‘the sleepiness’ is ours, of those of us who do not want to see the full force of evil and do not want to enter into his Passion.” —Pope Benedict XVI

In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it. It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broadminded about sin. Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the sellers from the temples has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth. -- Bishop Fulton Sheen

Evil can be undone, but it cannot ‘develop’ into good. Time does not heal it. -- C.S. Lewis (The Great Divorce)

A struggle is in progress, which so to speak increases each day in its proportions and in violence; hence it is necessary that all Christians, but especially all Catholic militants, be on their toes and fight, even to the death if necessary, for their Mother the Church, with the weapons permitted to them. -- Pope Pius XII (Doc. pont., 1953, p. 630).

Just as it is licit to resist the Pontiff who attacks the body, so also is it licit to resist him who attacks souls or destroys the civil order or above all, tries to destroy the Church. I say that it is licit to resist him by not doing what he orders and by impeding the execution of his will. It is not licit, however, to judge him, to punish him, or to depose him, for these are acts proper to a superior. -- St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice. II.29.

We hate the people we deceive. -- Anthony Esolen

The time is coming when people will be insane, and when they see someone who is not insane, they will attack that person saying, "You are insane because you are not like us." -- St. Anthony the Great

But what if a bishop, if a deacon, if a widow, if a virgin, if a doctor, if even a martyr, have fallen from the rule (of faith), will heresies on that account appear to possess the truth? Do we prove the faith by the persons, or the persons by the faith? -- Tertullian, Church Father

When circumstances make it necessary, it is not prelates alone who have to watch over the integrity of the faith. -- Pope Leo XIII

We need to remember that tolerance is not a Christian virtue. Charity, justice, mercy, prudence, honesty — these are Christian virtues. And obviously, in a diverse community, tolerance is an important working principle. But it’s never an end itself. In fact, tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of serious evil. -- Archbishop Charles Chaput

They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority. -- Gerald Massey

The person who does not become irate when he has cause to be, sins. For an unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices. It fosters negligence, and stimulates not only the wicked, but above all, the good to do wrong.

--St. John Chrysostom c. 347-407 AD

It is public knowledge that some ecclesiastics today seem to want to create a new Church. By doing so they betray Christ, for they change spiritual aims—the salvation of souls, one by one—into temporal aims. If they do not resist this temptation, they will leave their sacred ministry unfulfilled, lose the confidence and respect of the people, and create havoc in the Church. (St. Jose-Maria Escriva, Christ is Passing By, no. 79)

I was cold with the awful impression my first making it gave me — the sign of the cross of Christ on me! Deepest thoughts came with it of I know not what earnest desires to be closely united with Him who died on it. Oh, that last day when it is to be borne in triumph! -- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, on making the sign of the cross for the first time

Indeed, it is to [God] and his grace alone that we owe what we are as Christians. Since nothing and no one can replace him, it is necessary that we pay homage to nothing and no one else but him. No idol should pollute our spiritual universe or otherwise, instead of enjoying the freedom acquired, we will relapse into a humiliating form of slavery. -- Pope Benedict XVI, The Apostles

This is the demanding rule of the following of Christ: one must be able, if necessary, to give up the whole world to save the true values, to save the soul, to save the presence of God in the world. -- Pope Benedict XVI, The Apostles

Go round Zion, see it all,
count every tower.
Feel its strength,
visit its palaces,
so that you can tell the next generation –
Here is God, our God,
here he remains for ever;
and for ever he will lead us and guide us. -- Psalm 47

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is the word of the LORD...."Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," Says the LORD of hosts. (Zech. 4:6)

Hearing a nun's confession is like being stoned to death with popcorn. --Abp. Fulton Sheen

In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. -- Ayn Rand

In a society where the Church seems legalistic and “institutional” to many people, our most urgent challenge is to communicate the joy born of faith and the experience of God’s love. --Pope Benedict XVI

Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won’t last forever. We must take it or leave it. – C.S. Lewis

Put not your trust in princes: In the children of men, in whom there is no salvation. -- Psalm 145 (146)

The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it. -- St. Vincent de Paul

The earthly temple ceases to be God's dwelling place when it becomes the center of mercenary interests. -- Life of Christ by Fulton J. Sheen

[The laity] have the right, indeed at times the duty, in keeping with their knowledge, competence and position, to manifest to the sacred Pastors their views on matters which concern the good of the Church. They have the right also to make their views known to others of Christ's faithful, but in doing so they must always respect the integrity of faith and morals, show due reverence to the Pastors and take into account both the common good and the dignity of individuals. -- Code of Canon Law, 212, Sec. 3

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The attacks on the Pope and the Church come not only from without. [...] The greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church, and the Church thus has a deep need to relearn penance, to accept purification. --Pope Benedict XVI

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. --Plato

He who labours as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands. --St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Move forward with firm resolve to use wisely the blessings of freedom, in order to build a future of hope for coming generations. --Pope Benedict XVI

It is a high crime indeed to withdraw allegiance from God in order to please men, an act of consummate wickedness to break the laws of Jesus Christ, in order to yield obedience to earthly rulers, or, under pretext of keeping the civil law, to ignore the rights of the Church; 'we ought to obey God rather than men.' -- Pope Leo XIII

"We belong to the Church militant; and She is militant because on earth the powers of darkness are ever restless to encompass Her destruction." --Pius XII, AD 1953

'Spiritual combat' is another element of life which needs to be taught anew and proposed once more to all Christians today. It is a secret and interior art, an invisible struggle in which (we) engage every day against the temptations, the evil suggestions that the demon tries to plant in (our) hearts. --Pope John Paul II

Humility and charity are the two master-chords: one, the lowest; the other, the highest; all the others are dependent on them. Therefore it is necessary, above all, to maintain ourselves in these two virtues; for observe well that the preservation of the whole edifice depends on the foundation and the roof. --St. Vincent de Paul

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. -- Mark Twain

We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials. -- St. Teresa of Avila

If some senseless decree were to order the total or partial destruction of basilicas or cathedrals, then obviously it would be the educated — whatever their personal beliefs — who would rise up in horror to oppose such a possibility...We are referring to the Roman Catholic Mass...it belongs to universal culture as well as to churchmen and formal Christians. -- Petition to Pope Paul VI (to save the Latin Mass)

Silence gives consent. --Pope Boniface VIII

Be not afraid! --Pope John Paul II

He who is afraid is half beaten. -- Aleksandr Suvorov

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. --Mother Teresa

When you see the storm coming, if you seek safety in that firm refuge which is Mary, there will be no danger of your wavering or going down. --St.Josemaria Escriva

If an offense comes out of the truth, it is better that the offense come than that the truth be concealed. --St. Jerome

"Have you ever noticed," said Dimble, "that the universe, and every little bit of the universe, is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point? ... If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family - anything you like - at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren't quite so sharp; and that there's going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing." --C. S. Lewis, in That Hideous Strength

Peace is not just the absence of war. Like a cathedral, peace must be constructed patiently and with unshakable faith. --Pope John Paul II

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. --John Adams

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. --St. Augustine

Your very silence shows you agree. --Euripides, on tyranny

This is the word of the LORD...."Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit," Says the LORD of hosts. --(Zech. 4:6)

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. --Thomas Jefferson

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. -- Winston Churchill

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. --C. S. Lewis

Ora et labora (Pray and work). --St. Benedict

Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest. --Mark Twain

If you are discouraged it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own power. Your self-sufficiency, your selfishness and your intellectual pride will inhibit His coming to live in your heart because God cannot fill what is already full. It is as simple as that. --Blessed Mother Teresa

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes'? Jesus Christ

For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are ~ Niccolo Machiavelli (from The Prince).

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen. (St. Michael Prayer in Latin)

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

For a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the whole world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord attested (cf. Matthew 24:23; 13:24-30, 36-43). Caught in this conflict man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is to cling to what is good. Nor can he achieve his own integrity without valiant efforts and the help of God’s grace. -- VII Dogmatic Constitution, paragraph 37

Treachery, though at first very cautious, in the end betrays itself. -- Livy

We've had enough of exhortations to be silent! Cry out with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that the world is rotten because of silence. -- St. Catherine of Siena

The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! -- Judges 7:18

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. -- George Orwell

Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of ‘touching’ a man’s heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it. -- G. K. Chesterton

Do not move your neighbor's boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess. --Deut. 19:14

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." -- Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (John 14:27)

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito!

Your good Spirit will lead me to the land of justice... -- Psalm 142

Let the faithful celebrate his glory,
rejoice even in their beds,
the praise of God in their throats;
and swords ready in their hands,
to exact vengeance upon the nations,
impose punishment on the peoples,
to bind their kings in fetters
and their nobles in manacles of iron,
to carry out the sentence that has been passed:
this is the glory prepared for all his faithful. -- Psalm 149

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day. -- Psalm 91:5

How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep-- So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, And your need like an armed man. --Prov. 6:9-11

Take care, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to show forth the unity of His Blood; one altar, as there is one bishop, along with the priests and deacons, my fellow-servants. -- St. Ignatius of Antioch

Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. --Elie Wiesel

Do not forget that the devil is not afraid of our [parish] sports fields and of our movie halls: he is afraid, on the other hand, of our holiness. -- Bl. Ildephonso Schuster, Archbishop of Milan

Don't be so blind or so thoughtless that you fail to 'go into' each tabernacle when you glimpse the walls or the steeple of each house of our Lord. He is waiting for you. -- St. Josemarie Escriva (The Way, #269)

As you make your usual way through the city streets, aren't you happy when you discover another tabernacle? -- St. Josemarie Escriva (The Way, #270)

When the exercise of religious liberty is not thwarted, Christians construct buildings for divine worship. These visible churches are not simply gathering places but signify and make visible the Church living in this place, the dwelling of God with men reconciled and united in Christ. -- The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1180

A church, "a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and reserved, where the faithful assemble, and where is worshipped the presence of the Son of God our Savior, offered for us on the sacrificial altar for the help and consolation of the faithful - this house ought to be in good taste and a worthy place for prayer and sacred ceremonial." In this "house of God" the truth and the harmony of the signs that make it up should show Christ to be present and active in this place. -- The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1181

Finally, the church has an eschatological significance. To enter into the house of God, we must cross a threshold, which symbolizes passing from the world wounded by sin to the world of the new Life to which all men are called. The visible church is a symbol of the Father's house toward which the People of God is journeying and where the Father "will wipe every tear from their eyes."6Also for this reason, the Church is the house of all God's children, open and welcoming. -- The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1186

I rejoiced when I heard them say 'Let us go to God's house' -- Psalm 122

Keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the LORD. --Leviticus 26:2

O God, you are my God, for you I long
For you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
Like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory. -- Psalm 63: 1-2

Open the gates of victory; I will enter and thank the LORD.
This is the LORD'S own gate, where the just may enter. -- Psalm 118

The fearful danger of the present time is that above the cry for authority, we forget that man stands alone before the ultimate authority, and that anyone who lays violent hands on man here, is infringing eternal laws, and taking upon himself superhuman authority, which will eventually crush him. -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Most fraudulent are those Catholic leaders, or alliances of Catholics, that insist that the radically evil injustice of abortion need not be directly opposed, but rather, that somehow solving the dilemma of the poor in a sweeping act of charity will cause the foundation of this monstrous crime to crumble...the foundation and cause of abortion is not poverty but...an idolatrous worship of personal convenience." -- Bishop Robert W. Finn

Anyone who conceals the Truth for fear of some authority calls down the wrath of God upon himself, because he fears men more than God... Both are guilty: he who conceals the Truth and he who speaks falsehood, because the former does not wish to make the Truth known and the latter desires not to refute it. -- St. Augustine

“My birth is imminent. Forgive me, brethren. Do not prevent me from coming to life." ― St. Ignatius (as he faced the prospect of being devoured by wild beasts for his faith.)

Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to the pastors that feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold I will visit upon you for the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. -- Jeremiah 23

For everyone who does what is hateful, hates The Light and does not come to The Light, lest his works should be convicted. -- Jesus Christ, John 3:20 (Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. -- H.L. Mencken

Like a muddied spring or a polluted well are the righteous who give way to the wicked. -- Proverbs 25:26

To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. -- Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae

If, therefore, someone shall say that the Roman Pontiff has the office merely of inspection and direction, and not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, not only in matters that belong to Faith and Morals, but also in those that relate to the discipline and government of the Church spread through the world; or assert that he possesses merely the principal part and not all of the fullness of this supreme power; or that this power which he enjoys is not ordinary and immediate, both over each and all the churches and over each and all the Pastors and the faithful: let him be ANATHEMA. -- (Pius IX, Constitution Pastor Aeternus or De Ecclesia Christi of July 18, 1870

The time is coming when people will be insane, and when they see someone who is not insane, they will attack that person saying -- "You are insane because you are not like us." -- St. Anthony the Great

Monks built Europe unintentionally. Their adventure is primarily, if not exclusively, interior. They are moved by thirst for the absolute, thirst for another world. Thus monasteries, pointing silently to heaven, are an obstinate reminder that there is another world of which this world is but the image, the herald, and the prefiguration. -- Dom Gerard, founder of St. Madeleine's Abbey, Le Barroux, France

"...if ever at any time it shall appear that any Bishop, even if he be acting as ... even the Roman Pontiff, prior to his promotion or his elevation as Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has deviated from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy: (i) the promotion or elevation, even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void and worthless; ... (vi) those thus promoted or elevated shall be deprived automatically, and without need for any further declaration, of all dignity, position, honour, title, authority, office and power." -- Pope Paul IV, Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio

“A Pope who is a manifest heretic automatically ceases to be a Pope and head, just as he ceases automatically to be a Christian and a member of the Church. Wherefore, he can be judged and punished by the Church. This is the teaching of all the ancient Fathers who teach that manifest heretics immediately lose all jurisdiction.” -- St. Robert Bellarmine

“If ever a Pope, as a private person, should fall into heresy, he should at once fall from the Pontificate. If, however, God were to permit a pope to become a notorious and contumacious heretic, he would by such fact cease to be pope, and the apostolic chair would be vacant.” -- St. Alphonsus Liguori

“In the case in which the Pope would become a heretic, he would find himself, by that very fact alone and without any other sentence, separated from the Church. A head separated from a body cannot, as long as it remains separated, be head of the same body from which it was cut off.” -- St. Antoninus

The greatest obstacle in the apostolate of the Church is the timidity or rather the cowardice of the faithful.” -- Pope St. Pius X

“The Pope should not flatter himself about his power nor should he rashly glory in his honor and high estate, because the less he is judged by man, the more he is judged by God. Still the less can the Roman Pontiff glory because he can be judged by men, or rather, can be shown to be already judged, if for example he should wither away into heresy; because he who does not believe is already judged, In such a case it should be said of him: ‘If salt should lose its savor, it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trampled under foot by men.’” - -Pope Innocent III

I will not walk with your progressive apes,
Erect and sapient. Before them gapes
the dark abyss to which their progress tends —
if by God's mercy progress ever ends,
and does not ceaselessly revolve
the same unfruitful course with changing of a name. -- (Mythopoeia, J.R.R. Tolkien)

Friday, July 12, 2013

On catechesis

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