Letters

Simple Catechisms

Rosanna Sherman

Contents - Sep 2005 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Support the 2005 Fighting Fund! - Peter Westmore Events: Sydney to host World Youth Day 2008 - AD2000 REPORT News: The Chuch Around the World Canadian Bishops' cave-in to 'renegade Catholicism' under fire Priesthood: America's 'vocation rich' dioceses: latest success stories analysed - AD2000 Report Can reverence at Mass make a comeback? - Michael Ryan Interview: Benedict XVI and the power of the Eucharist - Fr John Corapi Education: Catholic schools of the future - Br John Moylan CFC Cinema: The Church under Nazism: a sensitive film portrayal in 'The Ninth Day' - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) BOOKS: The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis - Thomas E. Woods Jr (reviewer) A religious response to evil ideologies - John Rego Letters: Liturgy - John Daly Letters: Liberal manifesto - Dr Peter Gilet Letters: Fatima and Benedict XVI - Paul MacLeod Letters: Society of St Pius X - Fr Kevin Robinson Events: C.S. Lewis Seminar - Sat 17 Sept 2005 2pm-9pm Letters: Ethical medicine? - Dr A.W. Hartwig Letters: Latin Mass - Richard Congram Letters: Simple Catechisms - Rosanna Sherman Letters: Gnosticism Letters: Good reading - E. Pickering Books: GOING AGAINST THE STREAM: Ethical Aspects of Ageing and Care, by Peter Jeffery - Kerrie Allen (reviewer) Books: THE ART OF GIVING by Francine Black - Kerrie Allen (reviewer) Books: THE PATH OF LIFE: Benedictine Spirituality for Monks and Lay People - Gabrielle Walsh (reviewer) Books: STAIRWAY TO THE UPPER ROOM: Daily Meditations on the Gospel Readings - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: The Holy Shroud, by Antonio Cassanelli - Gabrielle Walsh (reviewer) Books: More good reading from AD Books Reflection: Benedict XVI: how to make the new evangelisation more effective - Fr Dennis Byrnes PP

I make no apologies for my defence of the use of "simple catechisms from the early half of the 20th century" to pass on the faith to our children.

Perhaps, instead, I should have quoted the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, who said in an interview published in the book, The Ratzinger Report, under a headline, "A shattered catechesis", that "the first grave error in this direction was to suppress the catechism and to declare quite universally that the category 'catechism' was obsolete" (page 73).

Most telling were his statements: "Every Catholic must have the courage to believe that his faith (in communion with that of the Church) surpasses every 'new magisterium' of the experts, of the intellectuals"; and "The rule of faith, yesterday as today, is not based on the discoveries (be they true or hypothetical) of biblical sources and layers but on the Bible just as it is, as it has been read in the Church since the time of the Fathers until now" (page 76).

L'Osservatore Romano recently reported (6 July) the presentation of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church by the Holy Father.

It saw the light following publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992. Since then, there has been an ever more widespread and pressing need for a concise catechism that would contain all and only the essential, fundamental elements of Catholic faith and morals, simply expressed in a way that is clear, concise and accessible to all.

It seems we have come full circle.

ROSANNA SHERMAN
New Zealand

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 18 No 8 (September 2005), p. 16