I used to listen to a talk radio host who would say, “In the department store of life, sports is, after all, the toy department.” Surely that’s a useful message for us “weekend warriors.”

But let’s take that comment a step further. In the department store of life, is our faith merely a department--and a “boring” one at that, such as housewares or women’s clothing? If so, then what about the rest of the store? Are there parts of our life that our faith doesn’t affect?

I think it’s very easy to compartmentalize our day. If we’re not careful, however, this could lead to our assessing our spiritual development based solely or at least excessively on explicit religious observance. In other words, we might look to whether we “got in” our Rosary, chaplet, holy hour, or whatever other devotion(s) we set out to do each day, as if these admittedly good things were ends in themselves.

Or we might pride ourselves on our “orthodoxy,” but then check our faith at the door in certain areas of our lives, such as in our business dealings or even our highway driving. Yet deep down we know that religious observance and doctrinal orthodoxy, to be authentic, must inform the totality of our lives. More...

One of the hallmarks of the Church in our age is the renewed emphasis on the role of the laity. Drawing upon the rich, traditional teaching of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Church reminds the laity that all of us are called to holiness by virtue of our Baptism, and we are all called to play an active role in the apostolate, serving as leaven in the world.

All that’s well and good, but saying it doesn’t make it so. All Catholics--and not merely those who are called to the priesthood and/or religious life--need a sound Christian formation to be able to respond generously and well to their own personal vocation in Christ. We need ongoing catechesis. In short, we can’t expect the fruits of discipleship, such as growth in holiness, apostolic zeal, and so forth, unless we truly are disciples.

In recent decades the Church has called the family the “domestic Church.” This is a powerful image that suggests something more than a once-per-week catechism class and maybe a crucifix on the wall. More...

I think the word “catechesis” can be part of the problem when it comes to embracing the Church’s catechetical efforts. It is the ugly step-sister of “evangelization.”

Think about it. Evangelization is hip. According to Pope John Paul II, it’s “new” and exciting and capable of energizing the youth. After all, evangelization is about proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Everybody, Catholic and Protestant, is into that.

Catechesis, on the other hand, sounds foreign to many people. For all most people know, it’s an unpleasant procedure done at a doctor’s office. And even for those who might have an inkling as to what catechesis is, it certainly doesn’t conjure up the dynamic images of World Youth Day. Rather, to many it connotes the decidedly negative experience of mandatory CCD classes that bored them out of their minds--and often enough, out of the Church. 

Let’s look, then, at a more positive, biblically based understanding of catechesis, which nonetheless closely parallels the formal definition found in the glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Shortly before ascending to His Father, Our Lord commanded the eleven apostles to go “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you . . .”  (Mt. 28:19-20).

That is what catechesis is all about: forming disciples who sit at the feet of Jesus, leading them to the sacramental life of the Church, and instructing them in the body of teaching that Christ entrusted to His apostles (what we Catholics often call the “deposit of faith,” drawing upon imagery found in St. Paul’s letters to St. Timothy).

It would be great if the word “catechesis” were rehabilitated, but even more we need to foster a renewal of the substance to which the word refers. In other words, now is the time for us to recommit ourselves to the Church’s catechetical mission--a mission in which all of us share as members of Christ’s mystical body.

In the 1990s, shortly after the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the United States bishops formed the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism. Ever since, this body (and its successor, the bishops' Subcommittee on the Catechism) has helped to ensure that all catechetical materials are in “conformity” with the Catechism. The criteria are not particularly exacting, but the overall effect of this review process has been positive.

The head of the Ad Hoc committee for many years was Archbishop Daniel Buechlein of Indianapolis. As the committee started to review the many inadequate catechetical materials that were being used to teach our children, Archbishop Buechlein famously noted ten recurring errors in contemporary catechesis. For this “top ten” list, and for tips on identifying these errors, see CUF’s Faith Fact entitled “Where Do We Go Wrong? Top Ten Errors in Catechesis.”

Archbishop Buechlein has pointed out again and again that human action, human initiative, and human experience are commonly overemphasized in some catechetical materials, while the power and divinity of God seem to be understated. More...

It's good to be back! I didn't have a chance to post here at Catholic Hour most of last week. I was attending a catechetical conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where I was letting people know about our new online courses here at My Catholic Faith Delivered. Besides being on the short list of excellent Catholic colleges and universities, Franciscan University also hosts some fantastic conferences during the summer. For more information, click here.

Speaking of catechesis, last week I likened the deposit of faith--all that Christ has revealed to us through His Church--to a bank deposit, with the Church being the bank and the apostles and bishops having special authority to safeguard this deposit so that it might bear interest for the kingdom of God.

Another way of approaching this reality is to think of the Church’s Magisterium, or teaching office, as a fence or wall. If the deposit of faith is understood as a body of teachings regarding what we are to believe and how we are to live as Christians in the world, one important role of the Magisterium is to give this body definition and shape. More...

“O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you” (1 Tim. 6:20).

This sort of language is a recurring theme of St. Paul as he instructs his successor Timothy. In fact, St. Paul tells Timothy that “what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2; see also 2 Tim. 1:14).

But what exactly was entrusted to Timothy? More...

While the Catholic landscape is improving, I still frequently hear about problems with catechesis along with complaints that many Catholics are ignorant of the faith. We rightly examine the various factors that contribute to this phenomenon, from defective catechetical materials to lackluster teaching and a lack of parental support. There seems to be plenty of blame to go around.

While all of the above is true, I nonetheless think it’s fair to say that the problem is not so much a failure of catechesis as it’s a lack of evangelization (and thus a lack of faith).

Catechesis is about helping a person mature in the faith. In other words, it’s about “educating the true disciple of Christ by means of a deeper and more systematic knowledge of the Person and the message of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Pope John Paul II, On Catechesis in Our Time, no. 19). 

Notice that the Holy Father assumes here a living faith, that the person being catechized is already a disciple. In practice, that’s an assumption we cannot afford to make, especially in today’s culture. The Holy Father admitted as much, and also said that catechesis must not only concern itself with nourishing and teaching the faith, but also unceasingly arousing it. While all of this is part of  ”evangelization” in a broad sense, arousing one to a personal commitment to Christ is evangelization in the stricter sense, and that’s the sort of evangelization that I think is often lacking, and when it is, catechesis just doesn’t stick.

Let’s look at it this way. Most Catholics are baptized as children. They receive the gift of faith, and so in a real sense their Baptism is a moment of conversion. Yet, infant Baptism presupposes an integral Christian formation ordered to a personal appropriation of one’s baptismal faith. After all, Our Lord told the apostles to “go and make disciples,” not “go and make baptized babies.”

When baptized children are not raised in an environment that fosters a personal relationship or commitment to Christ and His Church, is it really surprising that they are not actively engaged in their religion class? Isn’t this the next generation of “Sunday Catholics” (at best) who look upon the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with blank, glassy stares? Trying to teach the faith to those who have not in some meaningful measure committed themselves as Christian disciples is like reading the owner’s manual to a new pc to someone who hasn’t yet decided that he wants a computer. The information will come in handy at some point, but the timing is not right. More...

A few days ago, I wrote this post about the merits of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, explaining how it wonderfully summarizes the Catechism for us in a very helpful format. Yet, that begs the question of the value and purpose of the Catechism itself, this 900-page beast on my desk. Why do we keep this space-eater on our desks or in our bookcases? More...

Since its publication in 2006, and even more so in recent months as I’ve grown increasingly accustomed to using it, I’ve thought the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a godsend to all who are involved in teaching (and learning) the Catholic faith.

Of course, being a document of the Holy See and published in the United States by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops isn’t the recipe for a best-seller. Surely the book’s title is accurate, as a “compendium” is a brief summary of a larger work, but it’s not as accessible or endearing as The Catechism for Dummies or Cliff Notes for the Catechism. I’ve found it shocking that many Catholic school teachers and catechists are still unfamiliar with the Catechism itself, let alone its “compendium.”

But marketing concerns aside, I want to provide five reasons why everyone who is interested in teaching (and learning) the Catholic faith should own a copy of the Compendium:  More...