ARTICLES

A New Weapon

WILL LOCAL SCHOOLS MEET BISHOPS' CATECHETICAL CRITERION?

By James McCoy

Catholic parents, who have been fighting a 30-year war for sound Catholic religious instruction for their children, now have a new weapon available to them. Last March, the National Council of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for the Catechism issued a list of religion texts which it judged "in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church."

The question is, will Catholic schools follow the list? Sacramento and Oakland catechetical experts contacted for this story stressed that all texts approved for use in their dioceses have the "imprimatur." But whether a text bears the imprimatur or not is no longer the final question. The director of the bishops' catechism committee, Father John Pollard, has said that "in conformity with the catechism," not "Imprimatur," is the new critierion for acceptable catechetical materials.

Donna Steichen, an Ojai-based journalist who wrote about this issue for Catholic World Report in May, told the Faith that "when I was interviewing people, that is Father Pollard, and the people at the NCCB office, they brought up the difference ..."

Steichen, the author of Ungodly Rage (Ignatius Press), said that the past 30 years have unfortunately proven that an imprimatur can be "given without sufficient attention." But "even assuming it's deserved," she said, "all that means is that there's nothing in there positively harmful, whereas the conformity ruling says that this is actually in conformity with the catechism. And that's a stronger statement."

"Imprimatur" in Latin means "let it be printed." Typically, the diocesan bishop gives a book an imprimatur after his "censor librorum," or censor of books, has found it to be free from doctrinal or moral error. All the bishop does is second that judgment when he gives his imprimatur. He does not actually endorse the text.

But when Pope John Paul II promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, he didn't just say, let it be printed, but, "this catechism is given to (the Church's pastors and faithful) that it may be a sure and authentic reference text for teaching Catholic doctrine..." That's an endorsement. Likewise, the U.S. bishops, by judging some texts in conformity with the catechism, are actually endorsing them -- and ultimately giving them the endorsement of the Holy See.

Jeanne Akin is curriculum director in the Diocese of Sacramento schools department. "Nineteen ninety-one was the last time that an in-depth analysis was made in the diocese of the texts," she said.

The bishops' list specifies particular series by publishers; other series by the same publisher might not be in conformity with the catechism. The Sacramento diocese, however, does not have a list of approved titles but rather of approved publishers, according to Akin. "Each of these texts bears an imprimatur," she said.

Asked whether the next diocesan-wide analysis of texts would include "conformity with the catechism" as a criterion, Akin seemed to say that that had already been met. "They are," she replied. "Absolutely. Absolutely. Because no text is used without an imprimatur."

But what about Father Pollard's statement that "in conformity with the catechism" is a stronger criterion than an imprimatur? Replied Akin, "Keep in mind that in each of our schools -- with rare exceptions, these are parish schools -- the head of the instructional program is the pastor, who is certainly involved in determining these things as well. So you can be sure that our curriculum does reflect the catechism."

Steichen, however, was skeptical. "If the pastor is going to insist on using, say, orthodox material ... he'd better be prepared to fight city hall. Maybe technically he has that authority, but there aren't many of them who are willing to fight to that extent."

Marc Gonzalez is a catechetical resource director for the Diocese of Oakland. "We do not publish an approved series of textbooks," he said. "A textbook is approved if it holds an imprimatur."

Gonzalez said that his office has material to help parishes judge whether a particular catechetical text would be good for them. For example, parishes should consider: "Is the reading level too high, too low?" "Are the catechists able to understand and use the teacher's manual?"

"Content is important," Gonzalez said, "and I can't emphasize that enough, but does it lead to full participation in the liturgy? Does it lead to service in the community?"

One Oakland parish, St. Augustine in Pleasanton, uses no particular series for its 1,500 students. "The program here uses a variety of materials," said Jim Campbell, the parish director of religious education (DRE), "no particular series."

"I'll be frank," said Steichen. "I think what we've got today (is) a situation of catechetical illiteracy, and we've had it growing continually worse for 30 years. And the reason we've had it is because the people who are responsible are looking for something else. They're not looking for knowledge of the faith."

"Yes, they want everyone to be nice," Steichen went on, "and to work in the soup lines. They don't have to know anything about the faith to do that. And they have not learned anything about the faith."

Gonzalez praised the bishops' catechism committee for doing the "mammoth task" of reviewing all texts for all grade levels. "Doing a review process is something I have had in the back of my mind," Gonzalez said, "but it is a large process because to be fair I would have to do a review of all the textbooks on the market."

Steichen said that the catechism committee is slated to continue its work for another five years or so. So far, it has found 25 texts in conformity with the catechism. More are likely to follow as publishers scramble to revise their materials so that they are in conformity.

Gonzalez said that he has colleagues in the companies which publish catechisms, and friends in the catechetical community who tell him that their copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is "dog-eared." The pope's endorsement of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as "a sure and authentic reference text for teaching Catholic doctrine and particularly for preparing local catechisms," was "exactly what that document was produced for," Gonzalez said.

Ironically, it is the same publishers who for years have been considered by some bastions of heterodoxy -- "there's been the top three or four in the past 30 years," according to Steichen, "Benziger, Sadlier, Silver Burdett ..." -- who have made it first onto the conformity list. On the list are the "Share the Joy" and "Come Follow Me" by Benziger, "This Is Our Faith" by Silver Burdett Ginn, and no less than 10 series by Wm H. Sadlier, Inc. (see sidebar).

"And that's what worries me," says Steichen, referring to this irony. "That's what worries me about this process and I'm happy to have the opportunity to say it. How come the same publishers -- and in some cases the same writers -- are overnight able to turn out material that's in conformity after 30 years of turning out material that's not?" "Does that mean that all the time they knew?" she asked. "It sure suggests it ..."

Or does it mean that the U.S. bishops' committee is giving texts which already carry a blurry imprimatur yet another rubber stamp?

"If it's a rubber stamp, they sure fooled me," Steichen replied. "They sounded like they were really serious and trying to be firm, and trying to be clear."

Once the great majority of texts on the market have been examined by the bishops' committee, will "in conformity with the catechism" become a catechetical criterion in the Oakland diocese? Replied Gonzalez, "I would have to consult with the bishop [John Cummins] on that. That is a decision I would not and could not make on my own."

"Think of it," Steichen said. "Here's the catechism which is the statement, a basic statement, of the contents of the faith, and he's gonna check with the bishop to see if that's what they want to teach?"

But eventually, won't most of the U.S. bishops be on the same page with their very own committee? "What I see most useful in that committee," Steichen replied, "as I see most useful in the catechism itself, is that it gives the believing faithful a weapon, so that when they go to the DRE, or the diocesan DRE, or the bishop, and say, 'they're not teaching my child the faith,' or, 'they are teaching my child a different faith,' they have something to point to. And people can't say to them, 'Oh, well, we don't teach that anymore since Vatican II.'"

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