USCCB - Catechesis in the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism Update
Fall 2000

Updates From The Chairman...
Work Begins On The Development Of A
National Adult Catechism

In June of 2000, the bishops of the United States voted to undertake the development of a national adult catechism and entrusted oversight for the project to the Catechism Committee. As work on this project progresses, it is my intention to use this newsletter to keep you regularly informed about the adult catechism. Since the vote in June, the following developments have taken place.

During the summer, an episcopal Editorial Oversight Board was established to help the Catechism Committee with this project. This board will be asked to help the Catechism Committee by conducting consultations, reviewing the results of any consultations, meeting with the writer or writing team as necessary and reviewing drafts of the text as they are produced. The Editorial Oversight Board is chaired by Bishop Donald Wuerl. Members of the board include Archbishop William Levada, Bishop William Lori, Bishop Richard Malone and Bishop Gabino Zavala.

A preliminary time line was also developed. This time line calls for a consultation this fall and winter to gather information in preparation for the development of a first draft. It is expected that the first draft will be ready by January of 2002. Allowing for a six month consultation on the first draft, followed by a period of reviewing and rewriting the text, the time line calls for a presentation of a final draft of a national adult catechism to the General Assembly in June of 2003.

Since the development of a draft text of a national adult catechism is taking place at the same time as the development of a National Directory for Catechesis, it is important that those working on both projects maintain an awareness of how each is developing. We plan to address this need by establishing a coordinating committee composed of bishops and staff working on each project, and holding regular meetings between the episcopal Editorial Oversight Board for the adult catechism and a similar group established to oversee the development of the National Directory for Catechesis.

It was in July of 1996 that the Catechism Committee began accepting catechetical materials for review to determine their conformity to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In a little over four years, the Committee has been asked to conduct seventy-two reviews. The materials reviewed fall into the following categories:

Religion textbook series for students in Catholic elementary schools and/or in parish Religious Education programs;

Religion textbook series for junior high students in Catholic schools and/or in parish Religious Education programs;

textbooks for sacramental preparation programs in Catholic schools and/or parish Religious Education programs;

Religion textbook series or individual high school texts for students in Catholic high schools or parish Religious Education programs;

teacher manuals or catechist manuals designed to accompany any of the above;

student Religion workbooks or booklets;

student catechetical texts or series dealing with human sexuality education that are clearly focused on chastity and the morality of human sexuality.
There are also some genres of catechetical materials that the Catechism Committee has declined to accept for conformity review. Materials that fall into this category include:

catechetical materials which provide the doctrinal content in teacher or catechist manuals rather than in the student materials;

catechetical materials that are published as regularly updated periodicals since conformity reviews for these materials would need to be continuous in nature and completed in a smaller time frame than is currently possible;

individual monographs (materials which focus specifically on individual topics, teachings or devotions);

audio tapes, video tapes, DVD's or CD-Rom's.