USCCB - Catechesis in the Catholic Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Catechism Update
Spring 1998

Official Ecclesiastical Approval and Conformity with the Catechism
From time to time the Catechism Committee receives inquiries from bishops, members of their staffs and publishers about the relationship between an individual bishop's review of a catechetical work for ecclesiastical approval (Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat) and the Committee's review of a catechetical work for its conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We have spent a good deal of time discussing this relationship and would like to summarize our thoughts.
The Catechism Committee recognizes a distinction between ecclesiastical approval on the one hand and our determination of the conformity of a catechetical text or series with the Catechism on the other. That distinction is two fold. First, the review for ecclesiastical approval is required while the Committee's review for conformity with the Catechism is voluntary. Second, the review for ecclesiastical approval results in a declaration that a catechetical work is free from doctrinal or moral error, while the Committee's review results in a determination of a catechetical work's conformity with the Catechism.
Canon 827 indicates that "catechisms and other writings dealing with catechetical formation or their translations need the approval of the local ordinary for their publication" (Code of Canon Law, Washington, DC: Canon Law Society of America, 1983, 827 #1). Thus a catechetical work must receive ecclesiastical approval from a local ordinary in order to be published. The official ecclesiastical approval process is a legitimate oversight function of an individual diocesan bishop.
The Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat are official declarations that a work is free from doctrinal or moral error. In a sense, this represents a negative approbation. It says the work contains no doctrinal or moral error. No implication is given, however, that the work has been endorsed by those who have granted the ecclesiastical approval or that they agree with the content, opinions or statements expressed in the work.
Catechetical texts or series are voluntarily submitted to the Catechism Committee for determination of their conformity with the Catechism. The Catechism Committee's review process seeks to discover whether or not a catechetical text or series conforms to the Catechism. This is a function of episcopal supervision of catechetical materials on the part of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops through the instrumentality of the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
In order for a catechetical work to be in conformity with the Catechism it must present the doctrinal issues it treats completely and faithfully. It must demonstrate more than freedom from doctrinal or moral error.
Thus official ecclesiastical approval is a more basic determination than conformity with the Catechism. Works that are found to be in conformity with the Catechism will be free from doctrinal or moral error and will ordinarily receive ecclesiastical approval from an individual diocesan bishop. But works that are free from doctrinal or moral error and have received ecclesiastical approval from an individual diocesan bishop will not necessarily be found to be in conformity with the Catechism. It is possible for a catechetical work to be free from doctrinal or moral error and yet not be in conformity with the Catechism.

Home Page Offers Catechism Quizzes
You may be familiar with the Conference's website, which features the role and work of the Committees of the Conference and their corresponding program offices. The Conference's website address is wwwnccbuscc.org.
The Catechism Committee's home page provides information relative to the objectives of the Committee, including documents of the Committee, back issues of Catechism Update, articles on the Catechism and interactive quizzes which allow users to answer questions related to Church teaching as found in the Catechism.

High number of hits to home page indicates popularity of the quizzes.
Quizzes can be accessed by clicking the button marked "Test Your Knowledge of the Catechism" located on the Catechism home page.
Quizzes consist of multiple choice, true/false and fill-in-the blank questions.
Answers are taken directly from the text of the Catechism and cite paragraph references.
New quizzes are added regularly.

Fr. Terry Tekippe Serves as Consultant
In January, 1998 Father Terry Tekippe, a priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, a member of the Committee's task force to study the feasibility of a national catechism/catechetical series, began a six-month term serving the Committee as an in-house theological consultant. The Committee has expressed its gratitude to Archbishop Francis Schulte for releasing Father Tekippe for this work. Father Tekippe will continue to serve on the task force and will assist the Committee and the staff of the Office for the Catechism in facilitating reviews for copyright permission and conformity with the Catechism.

Committee Policies: Reporting of materials reviewed as to conformity with the Catechism
In recent months, the members of the Catechism Committee and their staff in the Office for the Catechism have received requests for information on texts and series submitted for review as to their conformity with the Catechism. In accordance with the wishes of the publishers, the Committee maintains confidentiality in regard to materials that are in the process of review. Therefore, it does not respond to inquiries regarding whether or not certain materials have been submitted for review. The Committee reports only those catechetical series or individual textbooks that have completed the conformity review process, been revised, if required, and found to be in conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. At no time does the Committee release any information relative to the process or content of the conformity review regarding a particular series or text. However, a particular series or text found in conformity is included in the Committee's list only after the publisher releases the Committee from the agreement of confidentiality.
The Committee normally reports their list of materials found in conformity to all bishops, diocesan vicars of education (or equivalent) and publishers through the quarterly publication of Catechism Update. Between the quarterly publication of this list, the Committee will confirm the conformity of additional series or texts that have been so found since the latest published Update.
This confirmation can be given by telephone inquiry to the staff of the Office for the Catechism. As before, the confirmation of conformity will only be released after release of confidentiality from the publisher.

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