Catechesis as the Foundation of Catholic Belief and Praxis

There is a very interesting article written by D.Q.McInerny, Ph.D. that appeared on the monthly newsletter of the North American District of the Fraternity of St. Peter, August 2008. The article was entitled, "The Collapse of Catechesis". The article commence with an anecdote about the Jewish Professor who was more knowledgeable about the Doctrine on the Immaculate Conception compared to a university student who graduated from a Catholic High School. The purpose of the anecdote was to illustrate how deficient is today's method of teaching catechesis. In that it fails to impart knowledge of the basic fundamentals of the Catholic Religion. If this kind of trend persists we will find out that entire generation will be deprived of the experience of having a full knowledge of sound catechesis which is the very foundation and bedrock of the Catholic Religion. as the author said,

"...catechesis , the passing on of the faith from one generation to the next, constitutes the very heart of Catholic Education, when the heart goes bad, then Catholic education as a whole becomes sickly and decrepit."

There is no wonder why even today forty years after the reforms, many Catholics have forgotten even the basic acts of piety in worship such as genuflecting when passing through the Blessed Sacrament, use of holy water, silence before the Blessed Sacrament, and many others. What is the reason for this? The reason could be that there is deficiency in the teaching of catechesis. What is bad is that modern methodologies of teaching taken from the secular and profane sciences are gaining foothold in the teaching of catechesis. Never realizing that this whole enterprise of teaching catechesis is the work of the Holy Spirit and does not come from the wisdom of men. The apostles never relied on human wisdom when teaching the gospel, but in simplicity declared the pure teachings of the Lord. There is an interesting quote from the article which I want to share with you:

"Our natural suspicion of conspiracy theories might lead us to be forgetful of the fact that there are after all, real conspiracies. We have an excellent example of one in what lay behind the destruction of Catholic catechesis."

This event that has transpired in the church has caused a lot of bewilderment to the faithful. Those who may not be knowledgeable about the whole thing simply went along without knowing that they are being fed with diluted milk. Furthermore the author said:

"One explanation for why the Catholic faithful as a whole did not rise up in arms against the wolves in sheep's clothing who were betraying the faith was that, so dazed and bewildered were they by the rapid-fire changes inflicted upon them in the aftermath of the council, they were not fully aware of what was happening. Others simply had the misfortune to trust people who were totally untrustworthy."

But with the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), there is hope that sound Catholic catechesis can be translated into teaching of the faith to young people.