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WHY ARE OUR CATHOLIC LAITY SO ILLITERATE WHEN IT COMES TO THE CATHOLIC FAITH
Southern Orders ^ | May 31, 2013 | Fr. Allan J. McDonald

Posted on 05/31/2013 2:44:05 PM PDT by NYer

WHY ARE OUR CATHOLIC LAITY SO ILLITERATE WHEN IT COMES TO THE CATHOLIC FAITH--BLAME THE TEXT BOOKS, BLAME THE TEACHING METHODS AND BLAME THE PARENTS, BUT BLAME THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND CATECHISTS TOO, BLAME EVERYONE INCLUDING SATAN, EXCEPT NO ONE TEACHES ABOUT HIM ANYMORE OTHER THAN POPE FRANCIS, DON'T BLAME HIM!

Do our Catholic children and most adults know what these images teach?

All of us know one of the elephants in the room of the Catholic Church. Our religious education programs are not handing on the essence of our Catholic Faith, our parents are befuddled about their role in handing on the faith and the materials we use are vapid or if good do not make an impression on young minds. We are afraid of asking for memorization and thus most don't remember anything they've learned about God and Church other than some niceties and feel good emotions.

I teach each class of our grades 1-6 (we don't have 7th or 8th) each Thursday, rotating classes from week to week. For the last two years I have used Baltimore Catechism #1 as my text book. It is wonderful to use with children and it is so simple yet has so much content. If Catholics, all Catholics, simply studied Baltimore Catechism #1, we would have very knowledgeable Catholics.

These past two years I've used Baltimore Catechism #2 with our adult religious program which we call Coffee and Conversation following our 9:30 AM Sunday Mass, which coincides with our CCD program which we call PREP (Parish Religious Education Program).

This #2 book has more content and is for middle school, but upper elementary school children must have been more capable of more serious content back when this book was formulated and used through the mid 1960's because it is a great book to use with adults and not childish at all. We all use this same book as a supplemental book for the RCIA because it is so clear, nobly simple and chocked full of content!

Yes, there are some adjustments that need to be made to some chapters, but not that many, in light of Vatican II and the new emphasis we have on certain aspects of Church that are not present in the Baltimore Catechism. But these are really minor.

What is more important though is that when the Baltimore Catechism was used through the mid 1960's it was basically the only book that was used for children in elementary and junior high school. It was used across the board in the USA thus uniting all Catholics in learning the same content. There was not, in other words, a cottage industry of competing publishing houses selling new books and different content each year.

The same thing has occurred with liturgical music, a cottage industry of big bucks has developed around the sale of new hymnals, missalettes and new music put on the open market for parishes to purchase. It is a money making scheme.

Why do our bishop allow this to happen in both liturgical music and parish catechesis? The business of selling stuff to parishes and making mega bucks off of it is a scandal that has not be addressed.

In the meantime, our liturgies suffer and become fragmented because every parish uses a different resource for liturgical music and the same is true of religious formation, everyone uses something different of differing quality or no quality at all.

Isn't it time to wake up and move forward with tried and true practices that were tossed out in favor of a consumerist's approach to our faith that has weakened our liturgies, our parishes and our individual Catholics?


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catechism; catholic; catholicsects; ignorantprotestants; papalpromotion; traditionalcatholic
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To: MarkBsnr
The question was whether the blood mixes.

The assertion was that Christ got ALL of His blood from His mother.

1,441 posted on 06/08/2013 8:26:16 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: MarkBsnr
Jesus is plain.

Yup...


Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”


1,442 posted on 06/08/2013 8:27:20 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: MarkBsnr
Who knew that Judas would turn out as he did?

Probably a Being that has the prefix OMNI in front of a lot of His descriptors.

1,443 posted on 06/08/2013 8:28:47 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: MarkBsnr

Sorry, not sure what 21st century biology has to do with a Saving Gospel given once and for all 2000 years ago.


1,444 posted on 06/08/2013 8:29:13 AM PDT by bkaycee (John 3:16)
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To: MarkBsnr
Who knew that Judas would turn out as he did?

Who knew that Christianty would NEED People protesting the sins of the CHURCH to straighten it out.

1,445 posted on 06/08/2013 8:30:01 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: MarkBsnr
That wasn’t the point of the post.

WHICH 'post'?

I at LEAST want to know WHAT I am supposedly 'wrong about'.

1,446 posted on 06/08/2013 8:31:06 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: MarkBsnr
But only if you persevere to the end. Only if you remain in the Faith until the end. I believe that you have said that you have repudiated it. I wonder how that is going to work out.

Nope. I am saved NOW.

I don't remain in *the Faith*. I remain in Christ.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Philippians 3:8-9 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith...

2 Corinthians 6:2 For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 10:25-30 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Ephesians 1:13-14 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

2 Corinthians 5:4-8 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

I am saved, not because of my own righteousness, but because the righteousness of Christ is counted to me. I have already been transferred into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

If you aren't saved by the time you die, you never will be.

1,447 posted on 06/08/2013 9:02:46 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: MarkBsnr; Elsie
Who knew that Judas would turn out as he did?

Jesus did.

1,448 posted on 06/08/2013 9:03:30 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: MarkBsnr; Elsie
Elsie:"What must we do..."

MB:Jesus is plain.

That's right. He said we must be perfect.

If you're depending on doing the works that you are referring to in Revelation, then have you done them perfectly? If not, you are not saved.

Now what?

1,449 posted on 06/08/2013 9:05:55 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: Elsie
I at LEAST want to know WHAT I am supposedly 'wrong about'.

Everything, you heretic!!!!

- Catholic dude.

1,450 posted on 06/08/2013 9:09:36 AM PDT by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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To: metmom

2 Thessalonians 2:15.


1,451 posted on 06/08/2013 10:59:36 AM PDT by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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To: Elsie

The Wedding...Between the groom (Jesus) and the bride (the church) takes place before the Millenniel reign...The White Throne Judgment is afterward...


1,452 posted on 06/08/2013 11:43:24 AM PDT by Iscool
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To: Iscool
"The Wedding...Between the groom (Jesus) and the bride (the church) takes place before the Millenniel reign...The White Throne Judgment is afterward..."

The entire courtship ritual between Christ and His bride, the Church, is played put completely in the Mass.

Peace be with you

1,453 posted on 06/08/2013 12:20:51 PM PDT by Natural Law (Jesus did not leave us a book, He left us a Church.)
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To: Natural Law; Iscool

Iscool does not participate in the Mass. He is above and beyond that. There is no need of the Mass for those who define their own Christianity.


1,454 posted on 06/08/2013 12:59:41 PM PDT by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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To: metmom
That's right. He said we must be perfect. If you're depending on doing the works that you are referring to in Revelation, then have you done them perfectly? If not, you are not saved. Now what?

That is up to the Judge.

1,455 posted on 06/08/2013 1:53:17 PM PDT by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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To: metmom
Who knew that Judas would turn out as he did?

Jesus did.

Then why pick him?

1,456 posted on 06/08/2013 1:54:06 PM PDT by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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To: metmom
Nope. I am saved NOW.

Uh huh. I'll wait until the Judge says you are saved.

1,457 posted on 06/08/2013 1:55:21 PM PDT by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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To: Elsie

There was a claim that the blood of the mother and baby NEVER mix. That is false.


1,458 posted on 06/08/2013 1:57:25 PM PDT by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so.)
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To: MarkBsnr

Then when does the blood mix?


1,459 posted on 06/08/2013 2:54:59 PM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: Natural Law
The entire courtship ritual between Christ and His bride, the Church, is played put completely in the Mass.

Thought that was the sacrifice and then you eat Jesus...So now it's the wedding too???

Well, some of us know better...God gave the instructions in the book...And we can read and understand the book...

I mean what happened to you guy's man made common sense and reasoning that you brag so much about...

How in the world is the wedding played out in the Mass (whatever that means) when you guy's don't even know if you're going to heaven??? Certainly you don't think the groom marries the bride and then later the bride goes for the judgment to see if the bride is worthy to marry the groom...

And on top of that, you have to completely ignore the words of God in the scriptures...

1,460 posted on 06/08/2013 3:01:46 PM PDT by Iscool
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