Just Wondering

I was reading this article, in CNA,  on the Pope asking forgiveness for cradle Catholics for not passing on their faith.  It made me wonder about my own catechesis.

My formative years were spent in public schools.  For Sunday School, I went to the children's Mass, which was held in the basement of the church.  Adults went upstairs and we kids went down.  The entire basement church was all kids supervised by a few Notre Dame de Mure Sisters.  All I remember is the Sisters teaching us to sing the songs that went to the Mass.  They were the old Catholic hymns.

But what has me wondering was the catechesis.  We didn't have the sisters; we had high school kids.  After Mass we went upstairs.  Maybe it was girls upstairs, boys down, I really don't remember that.  But upstairs there were about 5-8 kids in a pew, with a high school kid.  Then you skip a few pews.  Then another 5-8 children with a high schooler, and it continued like that through out the church.

The lesson was to just check our memorization of the Baltimore Catechism.  I got a star if I knew it well.  I'm sure the high school kid explained it too, what else would they have done with the time?

By the time I became a high schooler, the parish had built a school, and Sunday School had moved into a classroom, taught by parents.

So...I was thinking.  Maybe the catechesis wasn't so great -- memorizing the catechism.  Maybe it was our high school teachers that were learning.  When you teach is when you learn.  


Maybe we should have the confirmandi teach catechism to the candidates for First Communion.

....just wondering.

Humanizing Communication

Image via Wikipedia

Christianity is needed to "humanize communication," says Pope Benedict XVI.  This comment is from an audience B16 had with participants in the Pontifical Council for Culture's four-day conference on the topic, "Culture of Communications and New Languages,"  reads an article in CNA.

That includes blogging.

The discussions included the effects of the internet, the social venues, news, learning, and even the way people communicate through food.  (Didn't your mother tell you the way to a man's heart is his stomach?  How's that for communication?)

In this audience, B16 said that "...communication touches crucial world cultures, and for believers, it means getting closer to God, Who, in His wisdom, is making Himself manifest in this new way.  The Pope spoke of "profound cultural transformation" taking place due to the great changes in modern communication.  The Church has to adapt to be a player in the modern world.

The Church wishes to enter into dialogue with all people in the world, he said. But, to reach people today, especially young people, it must "tune in" to the same frequency.

"Today not few young people, stunned by the infinite possibilities offered by information networks or by other technologies, establish forms of communication that do not contribute to growth in humanity, but risk rather to increase the sense of solitude and confusion," the pontiff warned.

He explained that education is needed to promote a "humanizing communication."

IOW,  bring Christianity into the communication.  We must write with our religious mindset and remind people  of God's presence.  Our values are needed.  Reaching out and pulling in should make community, not "solitude and confusion."  Our love will warm those searching.

Related articles

• Internet users risk 'solitude and disorientation' - pope (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• The Pope: The Internet has Numbed Young People (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• Christian tradition can purify new forms of communication, Pope explains (catholicnewsagency.com)
• The Pope is right about the internet (telegraph.co.uk)

Solidarity with Bui Thanh Hieu

Fr. Tim Finigan, who writes the blog: The Hermeneutic of Continuity asks that bloggers post about a catechumen of the Archdiocese of Hanoi, Bui Thanh Hieu, who writes under the pen name Nguoi Buon Gio, which means “Wind Trader.” He has been arrested and detained for criticising the Vietnamese government's distortion of the Pope's speech to the Vietnamese Bishops at their Ad Limina visit.

The Wind Trader needs our support and the Vietnamese government needs to know that its distortion of the Holy Father's message is not acceptable..

VietCatholic news: Pope's speech distorted, catechumen, dissident bloggers arrested

See also the CNA article Vietnamese blogger arrested for challenging media distortions of Pope's speech