Pope Benedict and the Catechism

I have a simple wish for the new pope, Benedict XVI. I hope that he will encourage Georgetown Prep in Maryland to scrap the use of its erroneous religion textbook.

Granted, this is a specific request, but the media has been demanding many things of the new pontiff. Liberals have been crying for female priests, married priests, and permission to use contraceptives, without once examining the catechism to find why the church forbids such practices.

Specifically, I believe Pope Benedict should order a review of the religious textbooks used in many Catholic schools. The new pope was actually one of the main inspirations and sources for my new book God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling. The book, which Crossroad just published this month, is part memoir and part criticism of the disaster that befell Catholic catechism in the 1970s and 1980s. My premise is that while liberals and reformers had some good ideas in the 1960s, they went too far—reform turned into a radicalism that ultimately attempted (and still attempts) to reject Christianity itself.

I have no doubt that people are going to be angry about my book. I talk about things that happened while I attended Our Lady of Mercy, the grammar school in Potomac, as well as Georgetown Prep and Catholic University. Although I mention the wonderful teachers and friends I had at those institutions, I also write about things that may be embarrassing—things like drinking, drugs, hippy teachers, and bad catechism. Yes, people will be upset. But before old teachers start claiming that I was a lousy student and a troublemaker—facts that I don’t dispute in the book—I hope we can have an honest and fair debate.

In fact, I would like to avoid broadsides entirely and talk about details. Specifically, I’d like to discuss The Word Made Flesh: An Overview of the Catholic Faith, the textbook used in the freshman religion class at my old high school, Georgetown Prep. Georgetown Prep is famous in Washington—and elsewhere—for being a launching pad for the Ivy League. It’s the place where politicians, bankers, and other wealthy parents send their kids.

Unfortunately, this Jesuit institution no longer teaches Christianity. The Word Made Flesh has so many errors and questionable assumptions that it would take a year to list them all. Thus, in the interest of space, I’ll confine myself to two of the book’s most obvious flaws: its teaching on abortion and its claim that Christianity is not the only true faith. It is my hope that my old teachers and friends will both hear and address the problems found within The Word Made Flesh.

First, consider the book’s incorrect teaching on abortion. Anthony Marinelli, the author of The Word Made Flesh, uses the “seamless garment” approach, a favorite argument of liberal Christians. According to the seamless garment argument, abortion is wrong, but it morally equivalent to poverty or pay inequities between genders. As The Word Made Flesh states,

"The Catholic Church not only opposes abortion but strongly opposes the conditions that lead to the need for abortion: discrimination against women in the workplace, poverty, lack of adequate health care and child care. The church cannot take a stand against abortion unless it is also willing to take a stand against the conditions that lead to it."

Moreover, the book says, “The arguments used by the church [against abortion] are not religious ones at all. There is no appeal to faith or the commandments or to Jesus.” Yet the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls abortion “a grave offense” and offenders are punished with excommunication. Can abortion really be morally equivalent to paying a woman a lower wage than a man?

Of course, defenders of The Word Made Flesh may point out that the book was published in 1993, years before the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was first published. Even so, one question remains: why is Georgetown Prep still using The Word Made Flesh instead of the Catechism?

Yet the seamless garment argument is the least of the problems with The Word Made Flesh. The textbook also rejects Christianity in general and Jesus in particular. Again, it would take an entire volume to categorize the mistakes in The Word Made Flesh, but my vote for the most offensive paragraph is this:

"If faith is the human relationship with God, we must admit from the beginning that faith is broader than Christianity. Many people who are not Christians have a deep and real faith in God. The various religions of the world are the expressions of the faith of many and diverse people. Moslems, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians represent some of the “major” world religions. But there are also many other religious traditions among various groups and cultures throughout the world. Is one of them the true religion while all the others are false religions? The Catholic Church rejects such an interpretation of other faiths. In one sense, there can be only one faith because God is one. However, the expressions of that one faith can be diverse depending on the culture and traditions of a people. It is also possible that some “faiths” or religions express the one faith more fully, deeply and richly."

In other words, the Catholic Church makes no claim to be the one true faith. Indeed, it rejects such a claim. The preceding paragraph is bad enough, but the first sentence in the following paragraph should cause even the most liberal Catholic to pause: “The Catholic Church teaches that faith in Jesus Christ is not the only way to God but it is unique among all religions.” I actually read that sentence five times when I first came across it. Apparently, it is now possible to state the exact opposite of Catholic dogma and pass it off as truth.

As I said, there are acres and acres of other errors, but there’s really no need to discuss them if we can’t agree on the fundamental doctrines of the church. Are the parents of students at the country’s oldest Jesuit school comfortable with their fifteen-year-old Catholic sons being told that Jesus is not the way to God? In fact, even the wording of that sentence is a problem. Catholics believe that not only is Jesus the way to God; He is God—a belief that The Word constantly sidesteps. It claims that “people saw God working through Jesus” and other such phrases that make Christ human and not divine.

I’m not looking forward to the angry emails and letters I’m sure to receive, but I do hope to at least start a debate about fundamental Catholic doctrines. As a Catholic, I believe that Jesus Christ is God. He’s the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Shouldn’t Georgetown Prep students be taught the same?

Mark Gauvreau Judge is a freelance writer who lives in the Washington, D.C. area, and the author of God and Man at Georgetown Prep (available from Crossroad General Interest). His book, Damn Senators: My Grandfather and the Story of Washington’s Only World Series Championship (Encounter, 2003), is now available in paperback.

Catholic schools can be a mixed bag. I had a religion teacher in high school who bordered on atheist. A full professor of Catholic theology at Catholic University taught us that the Resurrection was a psychological event in the minds and hearts of the Apostles and disciples.

Yet, I had more than one very good, very Catholic, and very devout teacher during those years, and many seeds were planted in these years that ultimately made me a more devout, more orthodox Catholic.

***************

I agree with Mr. Judge. This textbook should disappear.

---I had more than one very good, very Catholic, and very devout teacher during those years---

Theoretically, books opposed to Catholic doctrine shouldn't be providing unnecessary stumbling blocks.

Catholic officials find textbooks wanting
Friday, February 20, 2004 Posted: 1:46 PM EST (1846 GMT)

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- The Roman Catholic Church is handing out failing grades to most of the religion textbooks used to instruct the country's 680,000 Catholic high school students.

A church committee that studies the material found that some of the textbooks avoid saying adultery and premarital sex are sins. Others depict the Bible as little more than a history book, the group says.

That's not all: It claims one textbook explains that Jesus' miracles were the result of luck.

Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans, chair of the church's national education committee, has urged all bishops to pull any high school religion textbooks that have not been pre-approved by his committee.

"There are a number of doctrinally deficient texts that are still being widely used, supposedly to educate and form our young people in the faith," Hughes said in a speech to a general convention of U.S. bishops last December.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/02/20/catholic.textbooks.ap/

I agree with Mr. Judge. This textbook should disappear.

He actually needs to take this up with the bishop of the diocese.

I'll vote against it based on lack of coherence. Bad for the mind.

The Catholic Church...opposes abortion...The church cannot take a stand against abortion...

this rings true for me. I went to Catholic schools from 7-12 grades and received abysmal catechesis. Pretty much everything I know about my faith, I had to learn on my own. The textbooks we used in religion class weren't the problem - I barely remember them at all. It was the teaching. The teachers simply did not present the faith, did not explain things, or promoted outright errors (like the seamless garment theory). Occasionally a priest would visit religion classes at my high school. He attempted to teach us real Catholic doctrine, but was usually not very successful due to the fact that the girls misbehaved terribly during his lectures (it was an all-girls high school) and due to the fact that we were all so poorly catechised to begin with. I remember one day when the priest attempted to give a lecture on Purgatory. When he had explained the concept the reaction from the class was stunning. Despite the fact that most of these girls had been in Catholic schools since kindergarten, none of them had heard of Purgatory. Many became hysterical and mouthed off to the priest saying "well you can't make me believe that!" So sad.

This is so totally out of sync with what the Holy Father said in his book "Truth and Tolerance," that one wonders how they could get it so wrong. Stupidity?

It is also possible that some “faiths” or religions express the one faith more fully, deeply and richly."
...one wonders how they could get it so wrong. Stupidity?

They've either conformed themselves to the world - wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and make it more difficult to believe the truth - or they don't actually believe it is an actual fact that one faith or religion is the full expression of the truth. It is agnostic, saying it is a possibility. 'Who can really know?'

Of course, the dark vision is that the textbook is purposely misleading the students.

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