One Church and Two or is it Three, “Official” Catechisms?

Is somebody in Washington D.C. attempting to sabotage the American Catholic Church? I don’t mean foreign agents, I don’t mean the U.S. government. I mean the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)!

Within a month of the publication of the Compendium to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, promulgated by our late, beloved Pope John Paul II, a second new catechism, “The United States Catechism for Adults”, is being offered for sale by the USCCB.

A little history might be in order here.

The Second Vatican Council (1962-5) has been rightly praised for the changes made in the liturgies and practices of the Church that had not been altered since the Council of Trent (1545-63) that was itself the major Catholic response to the Protestant Revolutions and Schisms.

The essential dogmas and traditions of the Church are fixed forever, but the most obvious change coming from the Council was the change from Latin to the use of the vernacular, in our case, English, in the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Forty years later, many people are studying the Council and its documents and are reporting that many of the changes put into effect are not what the delegates to the Council or the Church’s Magisterium actually intended. Principally, the Latin language was not to have been abandoned and the musical tradition of the Church, Gregorian Chant, and the centuries of beautiful music were not to have been abandoned either. But that’s not for discussion today.

After this attempt to modernize the Church, although not really caused by it, came the departure of tens of thousands of priests, brothers and nuns for secular society. Breathing the air of the new 60’s revolutions of rights, freedoms and hedonism most likely was the cause of those departures. This was accompanied by a precipitous decline in new vocations to replace them. Logically, young people were breathing that same air.

This began the near destruction of the Catholic parochial school system and also the death of the Baltimore Catechism, both of which were nearly 100 years old. While the school system does remain today, it is generally only available to children whose parents can afford to pay significant tuition fees to schools with mostly lay teachers.

Not only is the Baltimore Catechism no longer used to each our children their faith, a case can be made that few schools teach much Catholicism at all. And of course those not going to Catholic schools today must rely on CCD programs that are more proficient in teaching arts and crafts and stories than they are in teaching religion to their young students.

The religious education of Catholic children has been almost abandoned in most areas of the country. Our children have been and are being raised as Catholic illiterates.

The Church, always slow to move on virtually any issue finally authorized a new 20th Century Catechism, that resulted in the publication of a 700 pp two inch thick version in 1992. The is a comprehensive and very orthodox book that is wonderful for college religion classes, but not much help for elementary, junior and senior high schools or, needless to say, CCD classes.

Last month, fourteen years later, a 200 pp. “Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church” a condensation and reformatting of that huge 1992 Catechism has finally appeared in English in the U.S.. While perhaps not appropriate for students in the early grades, it is a major step and I have no doubt but that school catechisms consistent with the Compendium are already being written.

The Compendium itself is a wonderful tool for those millions of Catholics who have not been taught any religion, in school, or from the pulpit, because it uses the extremely effective question and answer method first used by the Baltimore Catechisms. The 1992 version contains 2,865 sections outlining our Faith.

Today, about 30 days after the publication of the Compendium, I received a professionally written email proposing to me that I purchase a new catechism. The Compendium, as one might expect? No. It is another, entirely new catechism, authorized and printed by the USCCB entitled “The United States Catechism for Adults.” 627 pages. At that size I don’t know if it is intended to be marketed against the original 1992 (slightly revised in 1997) Catechism, or the new, shorter, Compendium.

This cannot be an unfortunate coincidence. While Rome was still drafting and approving and printing the Compendium, a book that appeared in other languages several years ago, the bureaucrats in Washington apparently decided that Rome was not qualified to write a Catechism for the American Church and so they decided to do one themselves. I’m aware of little public discussion that has led up to this unfortunate occurance.

In the debate leading up to the recent Bishop’s meeting in Los Angeles two weeks ago, many of the U.S. Bishops, darned few of who can speak the language, held a similar position in that Rome was not qualified to determine how Latin should be translated into English.

Not having seen the text or format of the new “Adult” Catechism, something that from the email order form appears not to be in print yet, I can’t speak to its orthodoxy or whether or not it might be an improvement over the Compendium or the 1994 Catechism.

But what I can tell you is that 65,000,000 Catholics in this country, most of them barely catechized, are going to be very, very confused. And since there are bound to be differences, significant and insignificant, between the two books, the American Church is going to be further fractured, not just between liberals and conservatives, but between divisions within those groups.

Jesus Christ created the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The USCCB seems intent on creating and perpetuating the Two (or more), Holy, semi-Catholic and Apostolic Church.

I don’t know whether to consider this to be sabotage, apostasy, heresy or what. Time will tell as people far more able than I study both catechisms and detail for us the differences, major and minor, and speculate on what effects it will have the Church.

Holy Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our deaths. Amen.