The Universal Catechism Reader: Reflections and Responses
The Universal Catechism Reader: Reflections and Responses Edited by Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
(San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990)
This book can be ordered from the Woodstock Theological Center for $19.95 plus $2 for postage and handling. There follows the first two paragraphs from each chapter of the book.
The most important Church document since the Second Vatican Council, The Universal Catechism [later renamed The Catechism of the Catholic Church], after revision, will guide instruction in the Catholic faith throughout the world. The proposed compendium of Catholic belief has already engendered controversy. Some within the American Catholic church see the catechism as an attempt to define legalistically what people must know, do, and believe to remain within the Roman Catholic church and to curb their power to think independently.
The Universal Catechism Reader is a response to the first draft (released in December 1989) of The Universal Catechism by fifteen American experts in theology and religious education. Each scholar explains, evaluates, and critiques the catechism from his or her field of expertise and makes recommendations that will be considered by the American bishops and the Vatican in suggesting revisions in the catechism. The views of the Reader's authors have been widely cited in stories about the catechism in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Associated Press, Religious News Service, Catholic News Service, Time, America, Commonweal, The National Catholic Reporter, The National Catholic Register, and many other papers.
This is the first collection of American responses, and includes some of the major figures in contemporary Catholic scholarship. [from the book cover]
For reviews of the Universal Catechism Reader.
Edited by Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
Introduction by Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
The Catechism Seen as a Whole, by Berard L. Marthaler, O.F.M.Conv.
The Structure of the Catechism, by Lawrence S. Cunningham
Scripture in the Catechism, by Mary C. Boys, S.N.J.M.
God in the Catechism, by John H. Wright, S.J.
Christ in the Catechism, by Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J.
The Church in the Catechism, by Avery Dulles, S.J.
The Liturgy and Eucharist in the Catechism, by Peter Fink, S.J.
The Sacraments in the Catechism, by David N. Power, O.M.I.
The Lord's Prayer in the Catechism, by Monika K. Hellwig
The Moral Vision of the Catechism, by William C. Spohn, S.J.
Social Morality in the Catechism, by David Hollenbach, S.J.
Sex, Gender, and Bioethics in the Catechism, by Lisa Sowle Cahill
Religious Education and the Catechism, by Francis J. Buckley, S.J.
Teenagers and the Catechism, by William J. O'Malley, S.J.
Bishops and the Catechism, by Most. Rev. Raymond A. Lucker
By Thomas J. Reese, S.J., the Woodstock Theological Center
The catechism fails to reflect contemporary developments in Scripture, history, liturgy, doctrine, catechetics, and moral theology.
In my opinion, the document needs to be totally rewritten.
The Catechism for the Universal Church is the most important document distributed in the Catholic church since the Second Vatican Council. The universal catechism, which is to serve as a "point of reference" for national and local catechisms, will determine how the faith is passed on to those who will live their lives in the twenty-first century.
Religious education, both for adults and children, has always been an important ministry of the Christian community. If the faith is not passed on, it will die. If the faith is taught in a distorted way, Christians will live warped lives. As a result, religious education is a concern of the entire Christian community: students, parents, catechists, priests, religious, theologians, bishops, and Vatican officials….
By Berard L. Marthaler, O.F.M.Conv., the Catholic University of America
A new catechism will not be very useful if it does no more than repeat traditional formulas.
The present draft of the catechism does not recognize aggiornamento as an issue. . . .
It is not necessary to compile a new catechism if it does no more than expound traditional doctrine.
The immediate impetus for the Catechism for the Universal Church is well known. When the synod of bishops met in 1985 to evaluate the results of the Second Vatican Council, it recommended that "a catechism or compendium of all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and morals be composed, that it might be, as it were, a point of reference for the catechisms or compendiums that are prepared in the various regions."
It is no longer a question whether a Catechism for the Universal Church is necessary or desirable. The recent distribution of a provisional text makes its ultimate appearance all but certain. The challenge now is to insure that the document, which is likely to shape the thought and attitudes of Catholics for generations to come, is the best we can make it. In the end, history will judge whether one catechism can serve the needs of a church that is truly catholic….
By Lawrence S. Cunningham, the University of Notre Dame
There is, alas, far too much of this "shoehorning" of extraneous matter in the text.
This draft, in short, suffers from what computer people would call "information overload."
Since the First Vatican Council is so identified with the definition of papal infallibility, it is easy to forget that the fathers of the council debated at length the utility of a universal catechism. They intended to adapt the catechism of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (which was written based on classes the great theologian conducted for laybrothers and children in Rome in the 1590s) to the needs of the day and impose it by precept on the church. The pressure to move to the papal question effectively sidetracked action on this issue, and despite the debate and the expressed mind of the council, the issue of a universal catechism became a dead letter for the time.
The conciliar discussion on the catechism in Giovani Mansi's Amplissima Collectio makes interesting reading. There was a genuine debate on: (a) whether a universal catechism was needed; (b) if it was needed, was it to be mandated for the whole church; and (c) what should the shape of that catechism be….
By Mary C. Boys, S.N.J.M., Boston College
The catechism tends to assemble Scripture texts without regard for the theological perspective of the source. Snippets substitute for sustained explication.
As a commentary on the Scripture, the catechism is an unreliable guide.
Whenever the church has given voice to its faith, it has drawn from Scripture, as the writer of Hebrews says, "in many and various ways." During its history, the church has found the Scriptures a source for responding to numerous needs: apologetics, devotion (e.g., lectio divina), liturgy, aesthetics, and theology. The texts have been appropriated according to need. Seldom have they been expounded with careful attention to methodology.
Church documents typically cite Scripture without due regard for historical context. Even the bishops at Vatican II, who restored the centrality of the Scriptures, employed considerable latitude in their use of the Bible. Most of them had little in-depth involvement with the biblical movement that had helped to inspire the council. As Enzo Bianchi points out, "their interventions were by no means inspired by the Bible even when they incorporated a formal recourse to it."….
By John H. Wright, S.J., the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley
No doubt faith is a kind of obedience . . , but its fundamental nature is much more openness, trust, acceptance, and commitment.
The paragraphs that are given on the relation between faith and science are not adequate.
If an opening paragraph of the prologue of the Catechism for the Universal Church (0003) had served as introduction and guide for the teaching on God, we would have a considerably different and much improved document:
Those who have received the grace of giving a welcome to the call of Christ and of answering it freely, have felt themselves urged on by the love of Christ (cf. 2 Co 5.14) to proclaim everywhere in the world the Good News of the merciful Father, of his Son who has given himself up for us (cf. Gal 2.20), of their Spirit of Love poured into our hearts (cf. Rom 5.5): "We cannot promise to stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard" (Ac 4.20).
This paragraph points out how much our knowledge of God is a matter of personal experience, how the revelation of the Holy Trinity is the disclosure of God acting in history to save us, and how the reception of this revelation through faith is a free and joyful act that leads to grateful proclamation. Unfortunately, the tone set here does not pervade the exposition of our belief in God, though it is not entirely absent. Often there is an endeavor to treat the doctrine of God religiously, within a context of divine love and human faith and service. Thus the catechism makes abundant use of Scripture and Vatican II documents….
By Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., the Catholic University of America
The figure of Jesus comes across as a cold fish, knowing everything, in complete control, at the same time totally submissive, moving through his paces, not very inspiring.
The ghost of Apollinaris haunts this catechism.
This Christ is far above our human struggles, and so rather useless for preaching, evangelization, and catechesis.
The Catechism for the Universal Church intends to present a synthetic, organic, complete, and precise picture of what the church believes, and to do so as a point of reference for national catechisms. How does it go about presenting Jesus Christ and the long-promised salvation that he announced and even brought about? And how might this serve the catechesis of the world church?
In keeping with Christian life itself, the placement of Jesus Christ in the catechism is central and pervasive. The opening and closing lines of the whole catechism refer to Christ. Each of its three main divisions of creed, sacraments, and commandments keeps a steady eye on his significance. In the creedal section under "I Believe in God the Son" (part 1, section 2), fully 276 paragraphs (1254-530) deal with his life and meaning. In addition, christological material appears in connection with creedal confession of the Father, the Spirit, and the church. The section on liturgy and sacraments positions Christ at the center of Christian worship, and the ethics section presents him as the exemplar and inspiration of Christian moral life. The epilogue presents the Lord's Prayer as the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to say….
By Avery Dulles, S.J., Fordham University
The catechism overlooks the corporate significance of non-Roman-Catholic churches and ecclesial communities in God's saving plan.
One wishes that the questions of papacy, episcopacy, collegiality, and magisterium could have been discussed more thoroughly and less frequently.
The Catechism for the Universal Church, in its present draft, suffers from several inner tensions, partly induced by the conflicting desires of those who called for this work at the Extraordinary Synod of 1985. Aspiring to be a pedagogical tool in the style of the sixteenth-century catechisms, it adheres to the four-part structure of Apostles' Creed, sacraments, commandments, and Lord's Prayer (0011). Presenting itself as a "compendium of the whole of catholic doctrine, both of faith and of morals" (0016), it seeks to incorporate in an "organic" way (0021) the authoritative teaching of the magisterium, including that of recent popes and councils. Beyond this, the new catechism attempts to be faithful to the inspiration of Vatican Council II as "the great catechism of modern times" (0010). Finally, it wishes to draw extensively on Sacred Scripture, the church fathers, and the liturgies, including those of the ancient East (0017).
The various aspirations impose different and partly incompatible priorities. Can a complete and coherent presentation of Catholic doctrine be achieved in the framework of the traditional four-part catechetical structure, and can an authoritative synthesis of traditional teaching be combined with the generally open and phenomenological approach of Vatican II?….
By Peter E. Fink, S.J., Weston School of Theology
The catechism is somewhat faithful, somewhat innovative, and somewhat regressive all at the same time.
The catechism presents a collage of theological insights that clash rather than form a unified whole.
Vatican II's "Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy" (Sacrosanctum Concilium) greatly enriched and significantly advanced Roman Catholic understanding of the liturgy in general, and of the Eucharist in particular. This enrichment continued in the postconciliar reformed rituals with their attending introductions (praenotanda). For the Eucharist, the Roman Missal of Paul VI with its General Instruction present in both the form of prayer (lex orandi) and the form of teaching (lex credendi) the fullness of eucharistic faith as it is celebrated and proclaimed by the contemporary church.
The proposed Catechism for the Universal Church aims to offer a "compendium of the whole of catholic doctrine" (0016). It devotes its entire second part to the liturgy in its many forms under the title, "On the Celebration of the Christian Mystery." To assess this treatment of the liturgy and eucharistic faith, it is important to examine the catechism in light of both Sacrosanctum Concilium and the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, for these remain primary and foundational statements of the postconciliar church's magisterium….
By David N. Power, O.M.I., the Catholic University of America
The universal catechism seems to favor a post-Tridentine approach to the sacraments, rather than what has developed following the mandates of the Second Vatican Council.
An institutional and instrumental understanding of sacrament still prevails.
The Catechism for the Universal Church treats the liturgy and the seven sacraments of the church in part 2, "On the Celebration of the Christian Mystery." Following a short introduction, this part of the catechism is divided into two sections, "The Sacramental Economy" (2009-2163) and "The Seven Sacraments of the Church" (2201-2883). Each section is further divided into chapters and articles.
The two sections have not been well integrated. The first section, treated in the previous essay, is more concerned with the positions of the Second Vatican Council and with the liturgy of Eastern churches, whereas the second section primarily takes up the positions fostered by the Council of Trent and scholastic theology….
By Monika K. Hellwig, Georgetown University
While giving an excellent explanation of the biblical foundations for calling God "Father," it misses the gender question, passing it by without the slightest acknowledgment.
The epilogue vacillates between being a line-by-line commentary on the Lord's Prayer and a treatise on prayer in general.
As might be expected, the topic of Christian prayer occurs frequently in the draft of the Catechism for the Universal Church. Prayer is dealt with in each of the four parts. Part 1 on the Apostles' Creed ("the faith professed") describes the search for God, the quest to know God. The treatment is sketchy, and is perhaps done better in the Dutch bishops' A New Catechism for adults which has been is use in a variety of languages including English since the 1967. This description of the search for God might will be expanded and tested in RCIA programs, because for an increasingly large number of people in industrialized and industrializing countries it may be the most significant question dealt with in the catechism.
Part 2 on the sacraments ("the faith celebrated") deals with liturgical prayer and is analyzed in two essays earlier in this collection. Part 3 on the Ten Commandments ("the faith lived") treats prayer when discussing the first three commandments. Here the catechism deals with the importance of worship, the use of images in worship, the habit of prayer, the meaning and efficacy of prayer of petition, what is meant by the exhortation to pray always, the role and significance of liturgical prayer, and the meaning of Sabbath/Sunday observance….
By William C. Spohn, S.J., the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley
The language of law dominates the fundamental moral vision of the catechism, just as it did moral theology following the Council of Trent.
A more adult ethics sees the moral life as taking responsibility for discovering humane solutions to the problems of personal and social life.
Did some Roman Rip Van Winkle write the moral section of the proposed Catechism for the Universal Church? At first glance it appears that its author has slept through the last thirty years of development in the field of Christian ethics. Since this has been one of the most fruitful era in the entire history of moral theology, our author has missed a great deal.
Perhaps the experts consulted by the Pontifical Commission for the Catechism lacked exposure to moral theology beyond the average seminary studies of the 1940s and 1950s. What was taught to them became canonized as the Catholic tradition. The outline of the catechism's "Part Three: Life in Christ" follows the patterns of preconciliar textbooks: conscience, natural law, sin, virtues, the Ten Commandments. Some biblical material has been interjected, but it only buttresses the legalistic approach that characterized most pre-Vatican II moral theology….
By David Hollenbach, S.J., the Weston School of Theology
"If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will get ready for battle?" (1 Cor 14:8)
The catechism in its present form will reinforce long-standing tendencies toward a dualism of the sacred and secular, the spiritual and the social.
During the years since the Second Vatican Council, reflection on Christian responsibility for the quality of social life has been developing rapidly. These developments have been marked by both creativity and conflict.
The creativity is evident in numerous ways: the council's close linkage of the church's mission in society with its duty to proclaim the gospel; the initiatives taken by popes, bishops, and laity for the promotion of human rights; the rise of liberation theology; the pastoral letters of the bishops of the United States on peace, economic justice, and the concerns of women; and the increasing efforts by lay Christians to integrate their faith commitment with their work and public lives….
By Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College
Does this teaching really arise from experience, or is it merely superimposed on it?
The catechism's basic frame of reference for understanding sexuality's meaning is heterosexual, permanent, procreative marriage.
A catechism is scarcely the place to find new ventures in moral theology. Above all in the realm of sexual morality, the positions taken by the Catechism for the Universal Church come as no surprise. At the same time, such factors as context, phrasing, and choice of emphasis in presentation can be crucial in giving standard magisterial teaching a distinctive tone, or even a fresh spirit. For example, the U.S. bishops' draft pastoral on women's concerns, "Partners in the Mystery of Redemption," stayed within officially prescribed limits on sexual behavior, ordination, and women's roles, but it managed at least to raise the episcopacy's profile regarding receptivity to criticism, concern for the economic and social disadvantages faced by women, and consciousness of sexism as a serious sin.
The catechism's authors try to uphold high ideals of sex and marriage, as part of a total communion of persons. Unfortunately, from my perspective, Rome has again missed an opportunity to highlight the essential, the positive, and the hopeful elements in the Roman Catholic vision of sexuality and family, and to manifest a real interest in dialogue about its value with the church as a whole. One suspects that the authors' sensitivity to and interpretation of Christian moral experience in those realms is still governed above all by a precommitment to shore up the familiar negative norms about contraception, divorce, homosexuality, and so on. Some of the positive dimensions of sexuality seem worked out primarily to serve as foundations for those norms, while the laity are warned that their sexual and marital experiences will conform to the magisterial framework….
By Francis J. Buckley, S.J., the University of San Francisco
The division into creed, sacraments, commandments, and the Lord's Prayer assumes and prolongs a false split between faith and life, between doctrine and liturgy, between morality and spirituality.
The catechism makes little attempt to present its content as a message of liberation, connecting Christ and the church to existing cultural values, human needs, and hopes.
In the catechism one finds no dialogue, no listening. There is only a monologue.
The prologue to the Catechism for the Universal Church, citing Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's address to the 1987 synod of bishops, makes it clear that the catechism is not written to be read by children, much less to be memorized by them: "This catechism is intended for those whose responsibility it is to compose and/or to approve national and/or diocesan catechisms. It is therefore intended first of all for Bishops, as teachers of the Faith" (0018).
Children will be affected by this work only indirectly, through their teachers and graded texts. "Through the bishops, doctors of the faith, this catechism is intended for those who draw up catechisms, for catechists and so for the whole People of God" (0019)….
By William J. O'Malley, S.J., Fordham Preparatory School
Quotations from Iraeneus of Lyons and Nicholas of Flüe--or even from Vatican II--carry little clout with the audience the church has missioned me to serve.
If the overall thrust of the catechism were successful, our schools would turn out many loyal conformists but not a single apostle.
I find it not just unhelpful for its ultimately intended audience, but a positive obstacle.
I write as a religious educator, the intended beneficiaries of the Catechism for the Universal Church. According to its prologue, it offers itself as "a point of reference for the Catechisms or compendia that are drawn up in different regions" (0016). There is much in the catechism no genuine Christian could cavil with (Jesus' divinity, the resurrection, the obligation to worship and serve), and much that is admirable (some of part three, "The Law of Christ," the epilogue on the Our Father). But I would not serve the church if I were to say the catechism is a helpful document. If I were set the task of translating it into a useful tool for catechizing the young, I would find it more hindrance than help.
In honesty, I was not "disappointed" in the catechism, since a much of it was just what I feared: the mind-viseing prose, the suffocating proliferation of supporting quotations from Scripture and tradition (each with its parenthetical references), its consistently sexist language ("man inevitably asks himself questions" [0120]). Far more important, however, is its resolute legalism, its overemphasis on the transcendence of Jesus at the expense of his humanity, and its painful concern for sin. What is more, it resolutely avoids even supportive evidence from other disciplines--psychology, physics, biology--as if nothing had been discovered about humanity since the closing of the Deposit of Faith. Similarly, until three-quarters of the way into the book, the catechism does not concern itself in any way with the problems of the world in which we presently find ourselves. Worst of all, the catechism completely avoids any consideration of the majority of the audience it intends to serve: not the relatively few adult, educated catechumens, but the young who are baptized but not yet converted….
By Bishop Raymond A. Lucker, Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota
Unity can be achieved, indeed is enhanced, by a pluralism of expressions.
"Slow down; consult broadly; give us more time to consult pastors and lay people."
The Catechism for the Universal Church recently released by the Holy See is written "ad episcopos," for bishops. The provisional text has been sent to individual bishops for consultation. As Pope John Paul II pointed out to the Commission on the Catechism in 1986, it is intended to be "an important help in guaranteeing the unity of the faith." Three years later, he declared that there is a need, indeed an urgency, for "a concise and clear exposition of the essential and fundamental contents of the faith and of Catholic morality."
The 1985 synod of bishops called for the preparation of a catechism "of the whole of Catholic doctrine, both of faith and of morals." So, the catechism is to be a compendium of the faith of the church….
