Tuesday, December 18, 2007

News from Austria, Catechesis, freedom

There is a new Mike Lee newsletter.



I read a reference to the 1979 National Directory for Catechesis in the book I'm reading. Apparently after four years of development by a committee under the guidance of the bishops, it received extensive reworking in open session by the body of bishops before it was released. Such errors as the loyal dissent of the lay faithful were removed, and the silence on memorizing the basics of the faith ( creed, mass responses, prayers, devotions) was broken by adding sections requiring what was already proving to be an extreme deficiency. Such changes prompted committee members to make such comments as the bishops "ravaged" the document, and apparently Bp. McManus, head of the project, asked for a single bishop to move to strike the memorization amendment; no one stepped forward. Four years to develop a document that had to be re-written on the spot. fascinating. If they get their way (Art and Architecture, All our Children) they use the document as a weapon, brooking no dissent; but if it goes the other way, the document effectively disappears?

National Directory for Catechesis
Where Are We in Catechesis? Situating the National Directory for Catechesis




An interesting observation, made almost in passing, by the author of "The Battle for the American Church" is that the full frontal attack on all aspects of the Church (led by church men), was founded on a notion of a personal moral autonomy while at the same time rigidly promoting (and accepted by their adherents) a statist approach to dealing with all social issues. The illusion of personal freedom therefore masks the surrender of actual freedom. Such a contrast from the prior notion that the man who is not a slave to his passions, is the one who is free.

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