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"dissenting members of the Church are not an authority".

Well, no kidding.

But......BUT their views are being rehashed over and over again in catechetical texts! Sure, the press companies and their wares have the conformity with the catechism monicker on the cover, or the press copyright page, by the USCCB. As if we can totally trust the USCCB??? Uh, I don't think so.

If you want examples you need go no further than any "Catholic Update" (St. Anthony Messenger Press) which focuses on the Holy Eucharist. Over and over again the focus of "The Real Presence" is the people (to refute that idea see CCC 1373 and Sacrosanctum Concilium 7).

These "Catholic Updates" are used not only in religious ed., but also RCIA. They are nothing more than the "New Age" movement revisited.

Even Archbishop Hughes said, after reviewing 25 catechetical texts they were "lacking doctrinally":

• The U.S. bishops’ Committee on Catechesis has begun work on four projects to benefit the American church, said its chairman, Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein of Indianapolis. Areas to be covered in the committee’s work are education in human sexuality, the education and formation of catechists and catechetical leadership, the development of doctrinal guidelines for high school-level catechetical instruction and a project to outline key doctrinal elements in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans said the ad hoc committee had reviewed 25 high school catechetical texts since mid-2001 and found most of them lacking in key doctrinal areas."

http://www.americamagazine.org/catholicnews.cfm?articleTypeID=29&textID=3295&issueID=461

(uh, fond this on a Google search in America magazine.......not exactly "in conformity" with the bishops is this magazine).

I suggest a search for these findings more thoroughly and get an opinion from a different website.

The PRE-DOMINANT way the "Real Presence" is being presented today is "in the assembly". Many "powers-that-be" DO NOT want to "go back" to the days of "coookie worship". After all, the will say, "The Eucharist is not confected to display in some baroque monstrance." Uh-huh. I guess this is why JPII is hammering Eucharistic Adoration so hard these days (see Ecclesia de Eucharistia #10, and The Year of the Eucharist #18).

Suggested reading to research bad catechesis which is still going on in religious ed. circles in the Church:

"Catechisms and Controversies" by Msgr Michael Wrenn and "Flawed Expectations" by the same author with Kenneth Whitehead (both printed by Ignatius Press). Also "In the Presence of Our Lord" by Fr. Groeschel.

My thoughts, FWIW.

Peace

If you want examples you need go no further than any "Catholic Update" (St. Anthony Messenger Press) which focuses on the Holy Eucharist. Over and over again the focus of "The Real Presence" is the people (to refute that idea see CCC 1373 and Sacrosanctum Concilium 7).

Looking at the Catholic Update feature online:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac0901.asp

On that Sunday, he had visualized the body and blood of Jesus, consumed in the form of bread and wine, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces, all the way down to the tiniest element, being carried to every part of his own body by his beating heart. He felt literally "nourished by Jesus" throughout.

He also felt deeply connected to those around him, he said. He felt the Eucharist, the presence of Jesus, at the very center of his being and at that point, he felt connected to that same central point in everyone else who had just received Communion. He experienced, in a mysterious way, the real presence of Jesus, an experience of both transcendence with God and of communion with the the Body of Christ, the Church, indeed the whole world. His experience points to an authentically Catholic understanding of the Eucharist.

Three themes, The Real Presence, the Mystical Body of Christ as the Church, and God as he claims the Universe. On this topic I don't see a problem.

Other topics, are not unacceptable, but doesn't resound with me personally. For example, the AIDS piece, without diving into the detail, do point to personal Sin as a cause for AIDS, but correctly, not the only one.

I don't see a new age influence as I have seen with Fox, Merton, or other new age people who purport to be Catholic. I don't doubt there are abuses. For example:
http://www.centeringprayer.com/intimacy/intimacy01b.htm

Quote:
At Lama they were pleased with my respect for Eastern religions, as most of them had not previously met a priest who was sympathetic with their experience. Catholics also found me sympathetic to the problems they had encountered with their early upbringing. During the first couple of years in my new home in Colorado, I visited several Eastern communities, where I continued to find the same percentages of Catholics.

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