Bishops To Vote On Adult
Catechism At November Meeting

WASHINGTON (November 8, 2004) — The U.S. bishops are slated to vote on an adult catechism during their annual Washington meeting, November 15-18, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill.

The publication, which will be known as the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, will be the nation’s first national catechism intended for adults and has been in preparation since June 2000.

It was developed under the oversight of the Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism, chaired by Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans. This Committee was aided in its work by an Editorial Board of bishops chaired by Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh. The Editorial Oversight Board has sent an outline and three previous drafts to the U.S. bishops for consultation.

The adult catechism responds to a Vatican request that bishops or bishops’ conferences develop such catechisms to complement the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church issued in 1992 by Pope John Paul II.

The proposed catechism must be approved by at least two-thirds of all active bishops and then receive “recognitio,” or confirmation, from the Holy See before it becomes official.

The text follows the four-part general structure of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, starting with the creed and then treating the sacraments, moral life and finally prayer.

At times, the text addresses specific issues, concerns and questions arising from the social and cultural context in which U.S. Catholics live. Examples of issues addressed include various approaches to understanding the truth of Scripture, the relationship between science and faith, linking faith to everyday life and various pertinent medical moral issues.

The proposed catechism for adults includes 36 chapters. Each opens with a story or lesson of faith, many of them biographical sketches of American saints and other outstanding Catholics to “give us glimpses of how Catholics participated in the unfolding of American culture from Colonial days to the present.”

The text notes that some stories about people were chosen to serve as “examples of Catholics…(whose) lives or actions illustrate a particular church teaching,” Among the famous American Catholics highlighted are St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the country's first native-born saint and founder of the Catholic school system in the United States, Dorothy Day; founder of the Catholic Worker movement, who had an abortion as a young woman but repented and spent her life caring for the poor and fighting all forms of violence; and Isaac Hecker, founder of the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle (The Paulist Fathers).

Each chapter contains questions which can be used for reflection or discussion, and ends with a meditation and a prayer.

The book also includes a glossary of terms and the texts of 27 traditional Catholic prayers, from the Sign of the Cross, Our Father and Hail Mary to the Angelus, grace before and after meals and the prayer to a guardian angel. That section concludes with instructions on how to pray the rosary and a list of the 20 mysteries of the rosary.

Media covering the meeting may pick up their credentials at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill starting at 2 p.m. Sunday, November 14.




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