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Implications and Applications of NDC
Most Reverend Richard J. Malone, STL, ThD
Bishop of Portland (Maine)
Let me begin this brief look at implications and applications of the NDC with a few clips that may put some flesh on some of the challenges we face:
- The 28 year old daughter of parents strong in their Catholic faith arrives at her parents’ home for Christmas dinner. When asked where she and her fiancé went for Christmas Mass, she answered, “In Boston, at Trinity Church in Copley Square. It was a little different from the Masses I am used to, but it was a beautiful Mass.” Trinity Church is an elegant and historic church in downtown Boston, a jewel in the crown of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
- Next Tuesday, I will be hosting our annual bishop’s luncheon for members of the state legislature. When asked for some talking points, my public policy man said, “Talk about the role of the Church in the public square, just the basics about why we take positions on public policy. Some still just don’t get it, including some of the Catholics.”
- A third year seminarian is asked what preparation he has had in seminary curriculum in the field of evangelization/ catechesis. His answer: “A two hour tour of the diocesan office of religious education when I was in 1st theology.” Have you studied the GDC? “No.” Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us? “No.”
A high ranking education official in a U. S. archdiocese says: “I don’t have much interest in promoting Catholic social teaching. Catechesis is all about Christ, the sacraments, prayer…not social doctrine.” (She has gone on to a new line of work.)
- A sophomore in a theology class approached me after class, and announced, “I agree with just about everything you are teaching us, Father.” “Just about everything?” I asked. “Yes…I don’t agree with what you said about reincarnation not being compatible with Christian faith. I am sure that it is.” “Where did you get that idea,” I asked her. “My high school religion teacher told us that.” When I explained how contrary reincarnation is to Christianity, her response was “You have your opinion and I have mine.”
- A neighbor at home, a Catholic who has not gone to Sunday Mass for 25 years and does not intend to start, announces with great pride that she had just served as the godmother of another Catholic neighbor’s newborn son. No one had inquired about her commitment as a Catholic. Her friend, the baby’s mother, didn’t consider it important.
- A pastor called to tell me that he had come upon a parish catechist who is not a regular Mass-goer. His question to me: “Is there a diocesan policy that requires that?” My thought: If this pastor needed a policy to help him figure that out or deal with it, we are in trouble.
If we had time, we could expand the list exponentially with examples from your experience. Most of you will be saddened but not shocked, for instance, to hear that in much of New England, the rate of Sunday Mass attendance on the part of the known Catholic population ranges between 23 and 30%...and this predates the sexual abuse crisis by some years!
We have lots of work to do. And we have what it takes to do it, since it is the work of the Holy Spirit into which we have been drawn. We have wonderful people who want to do the work. We have some excellent things already happening. And now we have the NDC!
We are going to look, all too swiftly, at some implications and applications of the NDC for our ministry in the United States. First, I see four “meta-implications” upon which all else depends:
- Everyone in ministry in the diocese/parish/school or other program or institution must appreciate the fact that evangelization and catechesis are in some way part of their own responsibilities. The GDC mentions in particular the offices for evangelization, liturgy, persons with disabilities, youth ministry, priestly formation and continuing education, missions, ecumenical and interfaith affairs, family life, social justice, ministry in higher education, Catholic Charities, and communications (59). There may well be more.
- Everyone must be “on the same page” regarding the three purposes of the NDC as a major resource for the continuing renewal of catechesis, i.e., they
- affirm NDC/’s fundamental theological and pastoral principles for catechesis;
- embrace the guidelines for application of those principles; and
- agree on the nature, purpose, object, tasks, content, and some methodologies for catechesis.
- All must agree to engage in evangelization and catechesis in the context of an overall pastoral plan;
- Attention is paid to the cultural context for evangelization and catechesis, with regard both to its challenges and its opportunities.
I believe that this fourth meta-implication—the analysis of the culture in which we minister--is so important that I want to dwell on it for a moment.
There is much that is very encouraging in the catechetical renewal that is already well underway in the United States. NDC notes the positive developments in its introduction, e.g., strong attention to scripture and tradition, including magisterial documents, leadership of the bishops, substantial planning, effective formation, lay leadership, the RCIA, adult faith formation efforts, comprehensive youth ministry, catechesis with persons with disabilities, improved texts…all of these factors and more make the soil rich for the growth of the seed of faith.
But the remaining challenges must galvanize our renewal energies. The vignettes I related are symptomatic of significant obstacles that are more and more embedded in contemporary thinking and attitudes, becoming part of the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times.
If we follow the wisdom of the General Directory for Catechesis and analyze the soil of the field in which we want the seed of faith to grow and sprout and flourish, we see, along with many rich nutrients, some weeds, rocks and hard places: confusion about what to believe, lack of understanding and appreciation, the disconnect between faith professed and faith lived, a cavalier dismissal of Catholic doctrine and discipline, to name a few.
It is crucial that we pay attention to the various circles of cultural context in which we live and serve. They are like the rings of an onion. Cardinal Dulles has noted that “culture almost defies definition because it is a pervasive atmosphere rather than an articulated system.”
A helpful resource on this question of cultural context is Fr. Michael Gallagher’s Clashing Symbols: Introduction to Faith and Culture. Gallagher asserts that culture is never neutral, but rather a hidden set of control mechanisms that shape us. It is like an “unrecognized ocean in which we swim,” a “hidden persuader in our midst.” When we swim in this ocean or see through this lens or receive the transmission of this force around us, everything seems utterly normal and neutral. Awakening to its non-neutrality is a first step towards a Christian response to culture in practice.
Some of the features of this “non-neutrality” that affect our ministry are noted in the NDC: pervasive secularism, religious indifference and ambiguity, growth of cults, “new age” thinking, defective anthropologies, a frantic pace of life, consumerism and relativism. All who are committed to faith formation ministry in the Catholic Church in the United States need to pay close attention to these forces.
We do not evangelize and catechize in a vacuum. Even as we affirm and build on culture’s positive elements, we must recognize and confront those elements that are roadblocks to evangelization and catechesis.
There are numerous significant implications and applications woven through the NDC. Included among them are the following:
- All catechesis must be intentionally evangelizing catechesis. Our aim must always be to arouse faith as well as to mature and inform faith. I am grateful for the almost shocking candor of the NDC, reflecting the GDC, when it refers to the massive challenge presented by baptized but uncatechized, to say nothing of unevangelized, Catholics.
Related to this evangelizing intentionality in our faith formation efforts, all catechesis calls people to conversion. “Some level of conversion is necessary…if catechesis is to be able to fulfill its proper task of education in the faith” (NDC, 19, D).
- All catechesis is Christocentric, Trinitarian and ecclesial. Catechesis presents the truths of scripture and tradition in an unadulterated way, without additions or deletions. Catechists teach only what the Church teaches, and teach it in its fullness and integrity. I had the privilege recently of giving the keynote address at the Johannes Hofinger Religious Education Convention in New Orleans. The theme was “Deepening the Call to Discipleship.” A point we were stressing was that authentic disciples want to be faithful to their master and teacher. They want to understand and communicate faithfully and fully his teaching as it comes to us through scripture and tradition. The role of the Church as authoritative teacher needs priority in our catechesis.
- Catechetical method is informed by the divine methodology, which is rooted in revelation, God’s gracious self-disclosure in Christ and the Holy Spirit. Revelation “rules,” in other words. Marshall McLuhan argued that the “medium is the message.” While that is an exaggeration, it is surely true that the medium affects the transmission of the message. We must monitor catechetical methods closely in the light of one overriding question: Do they serve divine revelation and connect that revelation with people’s lives? Human experience is a constituent element in catechesis, as catechesis links it to God’s revelation. Dogmas are “lights along the path” of our lives (CCC, 89). Catechists must connect the dots between scripture/doctrine and human experience.
- The witness of the community of faith (family, parish, school) is a critically important element. Vitality of total parish life is a key issue here. Participation in the life of the faith community is powerfully formative. Whole community catechesis holds tremendous promise if well conceived and carried out.
- Accent on memorization! It fell out of usage in an overreaction, I am convinced, to the rote method of the Baltimore Catechism. Now it is back…as it has always been in educational practice in the rest of the universe. I never have regretted learning the catechism answers…never. The NDC calls for “learning by heart,” as was the way people learned the faith for centuries. As the GDC puts it, “Use of memory…forms a constitutive aspect of the pedagogy of the faith since the beginning of Christianity” (342). The Holy Father in Catechesi Tradendae says it more poetically:
The blossoms…of faith and piety do not grow in the desert places of a memory-less catechesis. What is essential is that the texts that are memorized must at the same time be taken in and gradually understood in depth, in order to become a source of Christian life on the personal and the community level” (CT 55).
What should be memorized? The Directory includes the following: prayers, facts about scripture, key themes and major figures of salvation history, facts about the Church, worship, and the Church year, devotions, holydays, the saints, the works of mercy, mysteries of the rosary, stations of the cross, the ten commandments, the beatitudes, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, theological and moral virtues, precepts of the Church, principles of Catholic social teaching, the examination of conscience…and songs (NDC, 29, F).
- Attention to media: its “formative” impact for better and for worse. Understand it, critique it, use it. In many ways, it can be argued that television and cinema are more formative influences than catechesis, especially in the lives of our children and young people. We must teach media literacy as well as learn to employ the media effectively in our faith formation efforts.
- The RCIA gives us the recipe for sound catechesis at all levels. It has all of the ingredients for effective catechesis: instruction, formation, gradual stages, rites, symbols, biblical and liturgical signs, the experience of community, worship and prayer. It is a true school of faith. Mystagogy is lifelong formation as well as a specific period of deepening of faith following the Easter sacraments.
- Since Eucharist is source and summit of the Church’s life, catechesis presents it as the heart of the Christian life. The Directory describes the several necessary elements of catechesis for Eucharist and the others sacraments.
- Catechesis for Penance: God’s love, the reality of sin (including the distinction of venial and mortal sin), and the capacity to commit sin, and especially, the gift of God’s forgiveness must be communicated fully. Easter duty remains a requirement for Catholics.
- Catechesis for life in Christ: We must break through the disconnect between faith as believed/professed and faith as lived. The understanding of human dignity and freedom, grace, virtue, conscience formation, and Catholic social teaching must be communicated faithfully.
- Adult faith formation, according to the Holy Father, is the “principal form of catechesis” (CT). “…all other forms of catechesis are oriented in some way to it…” (NCD, 188). We must set about a serious and sustained implementation of the USCCB’s Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us. The potential is profound.
- Roles in catechesis. The NDC has much to say about the roles and responsibilities of bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity in the work of catechesis. Please note this strong affirmation: “The single most critical factor in an effective parish catechetical program is the leadership of a professionally trained parish catechetical leader” (NDC, 19, E). The challenge here is clear, and together we must respond to it.
- Also, seminary curricula and ongoing education programs for priests must offer formation regarding the Church’s vision and principles of evangelization and catechesis, and emphasize the role and responsibility of clergy in this ministry.
- Catechist formation. The urgency of providing strong catechist formation is a major principle in the NDC. While there are many approaches to this crucial work, it must be done with thoroughness, care and consistency. It is an “absolute priority” for our dioceses.
As we review these implications and applications of the NDC—and you have thought of others--we quickly see that we are doing some things very well; that there are some things we need to do more effectively; and that there are other things we are not doing, and need to do. Chapter 9, “Organizing Catechetical Ministry,” helps us to look at our structures. As diocesan catechetical leaders, we need to examine every aspect of the catechetical situation in our dioceses, beginning with what the GDC refers to as an analysis of the “soil” in which the seed of faith is planted: what are the unique challenges and forces affecting evangelizing catechesis in our dioceses? How do we plan effective faith formation in light of these challenges?
Bishops need to call all diocesan leaders whose responsibilities touch in any way on evangelization and catechesis to embrace their role in evangelization and faith formation. This is not only to ensure coordination. Catechesis also intends to communicate the unity of our faith. As the Directory notes, “these and other collaborative catechetical efforts should not be organized as if they were ‘separate watertight compartments’ without any communication between them” (NDC, 59, D).
Some years ago, I was given a copy of Emmet Murphy’s The Genius of Sitting Bull. It is a study of effective leadership qualities. The book compares what it calls General Custer’s “winner take-all egotism” with Chief Sitting Bull’s emphasis on commitment, teamwork and trust. Are not those also the virtues that will help us to work together in an effectively collaborative way across the spectrum of different ministries, and to know at the same time the solidarity that is ours as disciples called to this holy work by the Lord Jesus.
Thank you for your kind attention. I will leave here today stronger in my faith and hope for having spent this time with you.
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