The Catechetical Review - Communicating Christ for a New Evangelization

Articles Under: Articles from Bishops

From the Shepherds: A Half Century of Progress – The Church’s Ministry of Catechesis Part Five
Catechetical Committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1992–2012 This series of articles seeks to explore an extraordinary fifty-year period in the history of the Church’s catechetical mission. We have already looked briefly at the outcomes of the International Catechetical Study Weeks, the General Catechetical Directory (1971), Evangelii Nuntiandi (1974) and Catechesi Tradendae (1979), Sharing the Light of Faith: National Catechetical Directory of Catholics in the United States (1979), The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (1987), and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993). In this article, we will turn our attention to the remarkable developments within the... Read more
The Spiritual Life: How the Eucharist Catechizes about the Meaning of Life Free
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is currently undertaking a Eucharistic revival. The idea for it began in 2019 when the bishops decided that we needed to respond to the moment of crisis in belief in the Eucharist in which we find ourselves—not only the discouraging results of the 2019 Pew study that reported that less than 30 percent of Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist but also the yet-unknown impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Eucharistic practice of Catholics. [1] The response to the idea from the body of bishops has been... Read more
From the Shepherds – A Half Century of Progress: The Church’s Ministry of Catechesis, Part Two
International Catechetical Study Weeks (1964–1968) We continue this series from the last issue of the Catechetical Review here in the From the Shepherds department because of its reflections on the writings of the bishops of the universal Church. The five decades between the Second Vatican Council and the publication of the third general catechetical directory in 2020 have been an extraordinarily important period in the history of modern catechetics. During this time the Church’s catechetical ministry has been afforded unprecedented support in documents of the universal Church as well as those of the bishops of the United States. This series... Read more
El RICA adaptado para las familias: todo tiene que ver con los padres de familia: Segunda Parte: Desarrollar un proceso
"Y le anunciaron la Palabra del Señor a él y a todos los de su casa" Hechos 16,32. En la primera parte establecimos la razón fundamental por la cual el sabio proceso del RICA debe de tomar la delantera de nuestros esfuerzos por evangelizer y catequizar a familias enteras. Guiándonos del Directorio para la catequesis , nuestro enfoque es “una catequesis de inspiración catecumenal para aquellos que han recibido los Sacramentos de Iniciación Cristiana, pero que aún no están suficientemente evangelizados o catequizados, o para aquellos que desean reanudar el camino de la fe” [1] . Este artículo explora los... Read more
From the Shepherds: The Paradigm of Mercy in the New Directory for Catechesis Free
On June 25, 2020, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, headed by its president, His Excellency Archbishop Rino Fisichella, presented for the Universal Church a new Directory for Catechesis . The first directory, named the General Catechetical Directory , was issued on April 11, 1971, by the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy and approved by His Holiness St. Paul VI. The second directory, named the General Directory for Catechesis , was promulgated by the same Congregation on August 15, 1997, and was approved by Pope St. John Paul II. In 2013, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI... Read more
Perspectivas sobre el nuevo Directorio para la catequesis – Estímulo para el contenido: apertura a los signos de los tiempos Free
El 25 de octubre del año en curso, El Pontificio Consejo Vaticano para la Promoción de la Nueva Evangelización publicó el nuevo Directorio para la Catequesis . Este es el tercer documento apostólico explícito y oficial sobre la catequesis en tiempos recientes. El primero, el Directorio Catequístico General de 1971, hizo hincapié sobre los resultados del Concilio Vaticano Segundo, mientras que el segundo, el Directorio General para la Catequesis de 1997, se refirió extensivamente al Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica que había aparecido unos años previos en 1992. En esta nueva edición, se ha destacado a la catequesis como proceso... Read more
Perspectives on the New Directory for Catechesis – Encouragement for Content: Openness to the Signs of the Times Free
On June 25th of the current year, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization released the new Directory for Catechesis. This is the third explicit apos- tolic and official document on catechesis in recent times. The first one, the General Catechetical Directory of 1971, emphasized the results of the Second Vatican Council, while the second one, the General Directory for Catechesis of 1997, referred extensively to the Catechism of the Catholic Church that had appeared some years before in 1992. In this new edition, catechesis as a process has been underlined even more than in previous... Read more
From the Shepherds: Proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ with Enthusiasm Free
Psalm 42:1, “Like a deer thirsting for running water,” illustrates the soul touched by the grace of God. The enthusiastic catechist needs to be confident that God is already at work in the student. However, amid the increasing isolation of youth in the secular culture, it is easy to be less than confident. The growing number of “nones” (those who identify with no formal religion) include those who have, at times, searched for the truth and found the Gospel wanting. Perhaps more typical are those youth who are less motivated to search and too ready to give a shrug and... Read more
From the Shepherds: Evangelizing Through Catholic Schools Free
Ample research has shown that a great majority of young people are leaving the Church before age 22 and choosing to never return. Many studies have been done on the Millennial Generation to discover their affinity (or lack thereof) to the Christian Faith. The Church’s response to this lack of faith is the New Evangelization. In 1990, Pope John Paul II issued his encyclical letter Mission of the Redeemer , in which he said, “ I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to a new evangelization …. No believer in Christ, no institution... Read more
From the Shepherds: The Universal Call to Holiness Free
Amid the dark shadows that have at times been cast over the face of the Church, too often obscuring for our contemporaries the clear light of Christ shining from her (see Lumen Gentium n. 1), we need to focus anew on the universal call to holiness . It is very striking that, amid all the crises of the 20 th Century, the central message of the Second Vatican Council was simple, direct, and clear: that every one of us, in every state of life, is called to the fullness of the Christian life and the perfection of love; that is,... Read more