HOPEFUL SIGN?

By Fr. Wilson ( articles ) | Dec 03, 2003

Unfortunately it is not (yet) online, something I'll look into to see if it can be done, but in the Nov 20th Wanderer Paul Likoudis has an interesting and hopeful article on the November bishops' meeting.

"The Conference," he writes, "is clearly seeking to repair the damages the Church in the United States suffered in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Among the indications: proposal for a new sex education document that emphasizes the teaching of morality and parental rights, a brief pamphlet explaining why contraception is immoral and harmful to marriage, a document on faith and politics, which reminds Catholic voters and politicians they have a serious moral obligation to manifest their Catholic Faith in public life by their votes, political activity and legislation; a user-friendly pamphlet outlining the Church's opposition to legislation supportin 'same-sex unions;' production of an adult catechism based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and development of guidelines for high school catechisms."

Apparently the conversation was quite blunt at times, the tone having been set by Archbishop Hughes of New Orleans, who told the whole conference right at the start that the majority of religion texts used by high school students in America are not Catholic and are incapable of being made Catholic. There was some good discussion over the Religious Education establishment and the need to "form the educators."

All in all, Paul detects a change in direction, which is hopeful. Hopeful, too, are the signs that the USCCB is in for belt-tightening as revenues decline. I am hearing talk of discussions over completely changing the format of the USCCB so that it is more an occasional convocation and less a standing bureaucracy, which would, I think, be a huge step in the right direction