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Antidote for Toxic Texts

WILL THE ARCHDIOCESE REVAMP CATECHESIS?

By James McCoy

It's "a sure norm for teaching the faith," said Pope John Paul II when promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church six years ago. Yet a leading catechetical consultant in the Los Angeles archdiocese is not sure whether conformity with the catechism will become the acid test for error-free religion texts.

The catechism is also, the pope said, an "authentic reference text for teaching Catholic doctrine and particularly for preparing local catechisms." But so far, only one out of five of the texts on the archdiocesan list of recommendations have been judged in conformity with the catechism.

"In conformity" means that a text presents "the doctrinal issues it treats completely and faithfully," according to the U.S. bishops' catechism committee. It is a positive endorsement, while the imprimatur is in a sense just a "negative approbation" that a work contains neither doctrinal nor moral error, the committee says. Yet most of the persons responsible for catechetics in Catholic schools or CCD programs around the archdiocese seemed unaware of this distinction--or even that the U.S. bishops have already judged 24 series by 10 different publishers to be in conformity with the Catechism (see table on page 7).

In fact, when the Mission called the directors of parish school religious and CCD instruction, of those who responded, only one had heard of the new criterion of "in conformity" and was hoping to implement it as soon as possible. In fact, many respondents, when asked what series they used, could not give the title at all (see table on page 8).

"It would seem that conformity is not uppermost in their mind," said Donna Steichen, who wrote "Teaching the Faith: The Long Road Back" for Catholic World Report magazine last May. "However, I have to say that just as a matter of prudence it would take a while to change everything. I'm glad to see that at least 20 percent (on the archdiocesan list) are in conformity. I hadn't expected that much."

Of the 18 series on the list of recommendations, four have been judged in conformity with the catechism by the bishops' committee. They are St. Paul Books and Media's Alive in Jesus, Benziger's Come, Follow Me, Brown-ROA's Walking by Faith and Sadlier's Coming to Faith: Keystone Edition.

That last is a good example of how confusing all this can be. There have been several editions of Coming to Faith. It is only the latest, the "Keystone Edition," which has been judged in conformity. So parents concerned about their children's education must look not only at the series' title but its publication date.

"It was a surprise to me and to some people when (Brown ROA's) new series Walking by Faith was ruled in conformity," Steichen said, "so they must have cleaned up their act." Steichen, who is author of Ungodly Rage (Ignatius Press), has not yet given such a series a before and after comparison.

Still, her own research into the catechism committee has convinced her that "in conformity" will not be just the rubber stamp by the U.S. bishops as a whole of any local ordinary's imprimatur. "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."

Steichen interviewed Father John Pollard, then-administrator for the catechism committee, headquartered at the National Council of Catholic Bishops building in Washington, D.C. He was the one who stressed that a text's being in conformity with the catechism was stronger than an imprimatur, according to Steichen.

Sometimes, however, that's not saying much. Sometimes imprimaturs are given "without sufficient attention ... as in fact we know they are," Steichen said.

For example, Tabor's Living Waters has an imprimatur, and it's on the archdiocesan recommended list. But according to Steichen, there's "poison" in Living Waters. "It's a terrible book," she said. "It's very lovely, quite reasoned, quite handsome...perfectly packaged neomodernism...It's a reflection of the 'new theology' as catetchetics...It's poison, and it's not in conformity.

"Not everything with an imprimatur is good for your faith," she concluded.

The catechism committee stops short of that conclusion. Instead, describing the imprimatur as "a more basic determination," the committee concludes that "it is possible for a catechetical work to free from doctrinal or moral error yet not be in conformity with the catechism." The statement, "Official Ecclesiastical Approval and Conformity with the Catechism," also says that even if the imprimatur is given, "no implication is given, however, that the work has been endorsed by those who have granted the ecclesiastical approval or that they agree with the content, opinions or statements expressed in the work."

Steven Ellair is the elementary catechetical consultant for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He said that before a text is approved for use in an Catholic school or CCD program "there's a few approval processes. Obviously there's the imprimatur, which is certainly part of the approval process." But unlike an imprimatur, a text's being in conformity with the catechism, while certainly a plus, "is not a requirement yet," Ellair said.

"We won't throw something out if it doesn't have that approval," he explained. "But it's a wonderful component to have that it went through that committee and used the Catechism. I think that people see the necessity and value of citing the Catechism in the text."

Next the archdiocesan committee charged with reviewing texts looks "at methodological issues," Ellair said. Among these issues are "grade-level appropriateness," a "multicultural aspect," and "parent components so the parents can be involved in the catechesis," he said. After that, the parish makes the final judgment.

You would think that any text which had made it through this screening process would be thoroughly known by a DRE or religion teacher. Yet when the Mission called 22 CCD programs with 1,000 children or more and 14 schools with more than 500 students, it found that catechists did not exactly have their series' names at their fingertips. In fact, often they could not even tell what publisher it was. But surprisingly, of the 10 that did respond more fulsomely, it seems that probably three, and possibly four, are using Sadlier's Keystone series which is in conformity. Benziger, Loyola and Silver Burdett are being used by the others--all of which have series that are in conformity with the catechism if you're looking at the latest editions. But the remaining parish, Immaculate Conception in Monrovia, is only using "different textbooks because our budget doesn't allow us to revamp the whole," said Martha Jansen, director of the CCD program there.

Will revamping include obtaining a series judged in conformity with the catechism by the U.S. bishops' committee? "That's why we want to revamp," replied Jansen, who had attended an in-service day provided by the archdiocese at which Ellair gave a workshop. Hearing about the new criterion of "in conformity," she has decided to adopt one of those series.

Which one?

"I haven't yet made my decision on that," Jansen said. But she hopes to have her 1,000 plus students learning with catechisms which are in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church by next school year.

During the survey, it seemed that several DREs thought a series' conformity with the Catechism would be a good thing, though most seemed unaware such a thing already existed. Georgia Taylor is a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a DRE at Epiphany, South El Monte. "We've been using Sadlier for years," she said. They were now using the newest one. When told that that Keystone Edition has been judged in conformity with the Catechism, Sister Georgia replied, "why use any other? Why use one that's not approved?"

Ellair declined to comment on whether conformity with the catechism will become an essential criterion for a text's recommendation by the archdiocese, just as the imprimatur is currently. It may become a moot point if the vast majority of publishers seek and obtain the judgment of "in conformity" as part of the regular routine of ecclesiastical approval. That's a trend that's already well under way, according to Ellair. And he seems to be right.

Several of the leading publishers have already voluntarily submitted their texts to the catechism committee, which is slated to exist for another five years. And at least one publisher, having obtained an "in conformity" for the latest edition, has already ceased publication of all the earlier ones. Sadlier has stopped selling all the Coming to Faith texts prior to the Keystone Edition. Between sound texts being sold and unsound ones being taken off the market, there could well be a dramatic improvement in the catechetical scene in the coming years.

"For this reason," the Holy Father said Oct. 11, 1992, "we thank the Lord wholeheartedly on this day when we can offer the entire Church this reference text entitled the Catechism of the Catholic Church for a catechesis renewed at the living sources of the faith!"

To which Steichen says, Amen! "God bless the Catechism," she said, "and God bless the Catechism committee. It's going to make a difference. It's making a difference. It's not going to make all the difference. But at least were moving in the right direction for a change."

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