About Catechetical Sunday
The
article below, “Does Catechetical Sunday Have a Future?” by
Carol Clement Dorr, is reprinted from the Fall 2000 issue of . Door provides background information about
the annual celebration and raises questions for the future. Use the
links below to move to the respective sections.
A
Synergy: CCD and Catechetical Sunday
USCC
Catechetical Sunday Books
Catechesis
for Children, Youth, and Adults: A Constant Theme
Catechetical
Week: A Once and Future Celebration?
Catechetical
Week in November—A Grassroots Idea
Themes
and Topics
Catechetical
Sunday—A Look into the Third Millennium
The
sixty-fifth anniversary of Catechetical Sunday raises the question: Is
one day enough?
By Carol Dorr Clement
September 17, 2000,
marks the sixty-fifth annual, national celebration of a day honoring those
involved in catechetical ministry. An attractive four-color poster for
Catechetical Sunday 2000 and an accompanying program kit have been created
to celebrate this anniversary. The quality of these materials indicate
the creativity and vitality of the kit’s authors and of the staff
at the United States Catholic Conference’s (USCC) Department of Education
and USCCB Publishing. Religious educators
in many parishes across the country will use the kit (booklet, poster,
prayer cards, and catechist certificates) throughout the year in the religious
education of adults and children. However, the decreasing percentage of
parishes utilizing the USCC’s program materials compared with the
increasing number of catechists in the United States signals that perhaps
something is amiss in the traditional observance of the annual event.
According to USCC
sales records, fewer than 50 percent of the eighteen thousand parishes
in the United States purchase the Catechetical Sunday kit to plan and
celebrate the day. In the past ten years, the USCC has experienced a 36
percent drop in the number of kits purchased, although the sale of prayer
cards and catechist certificates has increased significantly. At present,
the quantity sold is the only index available to indicate the number of
dioceses and parishes that celebrate the day. While many parishes and
dioceses do celebrate Catechetical Sunday, some do not, and thirteen dioceses
and archdioceses in the northeastern United States now promote a separate
catechetical week sometime in November.
These statistics call
for a revisiting of Catechetical Sunday and raise a number of significant
questions: Does Catechetical Sunday have a future? Is one Sunday too little
or too much? Is it celebrated at the best time of the year or should it
be shifted to another spot on the calendar? What will the celebration
be like on its seventy-fifth anniversary? Top
Three significant factors have shaped the history of Catechetical Sunday:
(1) its beginning in a decree of a Vatican congregation, (2) its promotion
by the national center of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD)
in Washington, D.C., and (3) the absorption of the CCD into the United
States Catholic Conference.
Prompted by the desire
to ensure religious instruction for children, young persons, and adults,
and by the interest of Pius X and Pius XI in teaching the Catholic faith,
the Sacred Congregation of the Council (now the Congregation for the Clergy)
issued “On the Better Care and Promotion of Catechetical Education.”
The decree of January 12, 1935, suggested, among other things, that a
catechetical day be established in every parish and stipulated that a
“celebration of Christian Doctrine be held with as much solemnity
as possible.” The congregation acknowledged that the different needs
and circumstances of each diocese would determine if and when such a day
could be celebrated. Directed to the entire Church and universally known
by its Latin name, Provido sane concilio, the decree also required
bishops to submit a report every five years on various aspects of the
“teaching of Christian Doctrine” in their parishes, including
“whether and how the Catechetical Day is celebrated?”1
Well aware of the
need for better catechesis for persons of all ages and animated by Acerbo
nimis (the 1905 encyclical letter of Pius X), Bishop Edwin O’Hara
organized the national center for the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
(CCD) in Washington, D.C. With the help of an episcopal committee, O’Hara,
then bishop of Great Falls, Mont., established the center as a bureau
of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in May 1935.2
The national center
staff worked through the summer to prepare for the celebration of a national
catechetical day on October 30, 1935, in Rochester, N.Y. Delegates from
around the country attended a one-day event that was later developed into
an annual series of national CCD congresses. By 1942 the national center
was distributing a small booklet to help plan the day. The Catholic News
Service reported in August 1944 that 80 percent of the diocesan confraternities
of Christian doctrine celebrated a catechetical day in the autumn of the
year to coincide with the opening of the new school term. The remaining
20 percent held the day “either in February, to stimulate flagging
interest in the middle of the school year, or in June to mark the beginning
of the Religious Vacation School program.”3
In its 1950 mid-century
survey on the CCD in the United States, the national center reported that
78 (or 69 percent) of the 113 reporting dioceses (out of the 128 officially
listed for the United States) celebrated an annual catechetical day. A
speaker at the following year’s CCD national congress urged the delegates
to celebrate the event on a Sunday, preferably in late September or early
October. By 1955 most dioceses celebrated the day on the third Sunday
in September, but the national center stipulated that “where no date
is set by the Ordinary, the parish priest is free to name his own date.”
Throughout its sixty-five-year history, the date for the observance has
been optional, although there have been periodic efforts to standardize
it. Top
Prior to its reorganization with the USCC in the mid-1970s, the national
center gave both motivation and practical support to the observance of
Catechetical Sunday. Its manuals for diocesan CCD directors stressed their
role in the celebration of the day across the nation. Manuals for the
parish CCD emphasized that “a Catechetical Day or Confraternity Sunday
shall be celebrated annually as the feast of Christian Doctrine.”
At the national level,
the center organized annual CCD congresses until World War II. After the
war, the congresses took place every five years until 1971, and the center
coordinated Catechetical Sundays with them. During congress years, the
center urged all dioceses to hold the event on the same day across the
nation.
Center publications
helped parishes to organize the day, and the center distributed “sermon
helps” that addressed various issues relevant to catechesis. The
center asked the CCD diocesan directors to report back on how their parishes
commemorated the day, thus providing yearly data on parish involvement.
Our Parish Confraternity, the national quarterly CCD newsletter,
publicized the event and gave celebration tips. In 1975 another reorganization
streamlined the staff and reorganized its tasks within the USCC’s
Department of Education. Despite its limited staff, the USCC then began
publishing an excellent series of annual booklets for organizing and implementing
the day. Top
As they so often would do in years to come, the editors of the first Catechetical
Sunday booklet focused on an important catechetical document of the U.S.
bishops, in this instance To Teach As Jesus Did: A Pastoral Message
on Catholic Education. Timeliness with regard to national and worldwide
church events and documents is a usual characteristic of the annual booklets
published by the USCC.
A team of writers
produced this 1973 booklet. Its “modules” gave suggestions on
composing the homily and general intercessions of the Sunday liturgy,
on planning a meeting with parents in regard to religious education, and
on initiating an adult religious education program for the year. The booklet
also proposed a ceremony for commissioning parish religious education
personnel.
According to records
in the USCC archives, ninety-nine diocesan directors later evaluated the
booklet and also indicated how they observed Catechetical Sunday. Twenty-three
dioceses made an “all-out effort” to promote the day; thirty-nine
gave moderate support, and twenty-five dioceses promoted the day “to
some degree.” Fifty-nine dioceses mailed the 1973 Catechetical Sunday
booklet to their parishes. Eighty-two diocesan directors stated that a
similar booklet for 1974 would be helpful, but some asked for more liturgical
assistance or more material on adult education and high school catechetics.
Others wanted posters or a more pastoral orientation. Some asked for a
less expensive format, and several directors pointed out that the occurrence
conflicted with planned programming in their dioceses. A few indicated
that there was no need for Catechetical Sunday.
Responding to these
1973 evaluations, Carl Pfeifer and Janaan Manternach, then assistant directors
of the National Center of Religious Education, prepared a bigger, more
comprehensive booklet for 1974. In it they were careful to state that
while the national celebration would take place on Sunday, September 15,
“local conditions may dictate another date.” Their work became
the prototype for subsequent annual issues.
Booklets from 1979
and 1980 addressed and resolved two issues about Catechetical Sunday.
First, apparently in response to the issue of liturgical appropriateness,
the 1979 booklet argued that the designation “Catechetical Sunday”
did not supplant or substitute the names or meanings of the day on which
the community gathers for worship (the Day of the Lord, the Day of Resurrection,
etc.). Rather, the special Sunday recognizes the community’s role
in handing on the faith. Second, the same booklet pointed to a trend in
some parishes of splitting the single observance into multiple Sunday
“observances” such as Youth Sunday, Family Sunday, Social Development
Sunday, School Sunday, and Lay Ministry Sunday. This booklet called for
a more holistic concept of ministry and the development of an overall
pastoral plan for the parish. Editors of the 1980 booklet resolved the
question of multiple celebrations, citing the 1971 General Catechetical
Directory’s definition of catechesis as a form of ministry of the
word. Using this more comprehensive concept, the editors noted that “catechesis
functions within the context of all parish ministries, to the extent that
those ministries proclaim the Word through formal instruction and action.”
They declared that if the purpose of the commemoration “is to call
attention to the parish’s ministry of the Word, there is a need to
celebrate it via a total parish approach.” Top
During the next quarter-century, the booklets continued to be timely and
practical. Anticipating the 1976 national bicentennial, the 1975 Catechetical
Sunday celebration had as its theme “Liberty and Justice”; and
for the first time, the USCC printed two editions, one in English and
one in Spanish. A wall poster accompanied the booklets. Subsequent booklets
contained essays on multicultural approaches to catechesis, on religious
education for those with special needs or disabilities, and on the scriptural
background for the Sunday homily. Well-known authors and catechetical
leaders contributed essays on the Bible, liturgy, justice, stewardship,
catechetical theory, the parish community, inculturation, and God’s
wisdom and mercy. Editors included quotations from recent church documents,
prayers for catechists, practical tips for publicizing Catechetical Sunday,
and model programs to promote religious education in the parish. Recent
booklets have added suggestions for the spiritual formation of the catechist.
Booklets for the years 1997-2000 have emphasized preparations for and
celebration of the jubilee year. Another topic covered routinely is how
to provide catechesis in Native American, African American, and Asian
American cultures. During the last twenty-five years, the booklets have
evolved into manuals that give theological and catechetical updates for
diocesan and parish catechetical leaders. The materials also provide tools
for them to use in their annual religious education programs. Top
Not to be confused with pedagogy for children, catechesis addresses itself
to persons of all ages.4 Provido sane concilio asked the world’s
bishops to report on the catechetical instruction of both children and
adults. Every five years the bishops were to answer the question: “What
means according to the different circumstances of time and place are deemed
most fitting to bring about a more fruitful religious instruction of adults?”
As early as 1942,
in its first promotional materials, the CCD’s national center proposed
that the parish Catechetical Day program demonstrate an adult discussion
club. The clubs functioned to help adults to discuss their faith and then,
in turn, to help them act as instructors of the faith at home. National
center bulletins often reminded parish leaders to develop other programs
for adults. The USCC booklets have consistently featured articles on young
adult, family, and adult religious education, some with these titles:
“Adult Catechesis and Following in Jesus’ Steps,” “Getting
to Know God’s Many Faces,” and “Involving the Family in
Catechesis.” However, the close connection between Catechetical Sunday
and the beginning of school for parish children in the fall may have served
to reinforce the misconception that education in faith is primarily for
children. Top
Half a century ago, the national center suggested that the week following
Catechetical Sunday be a time to promote and organize catechetical activities.
Parish leaders attended a “Diocesan Confraternity Day” one week
prior to each year’s event. At that time, diocesan officials outlined
the CCD program for the coming year, exhibited CCD literature, demonstrated
various phases of the CCD, and promoted attendance at regional CCD congresses.
Beginning on each Catechetical Sunday, parish leaders then sponsored a
week of organizational, promotional, and spiritual activities connected
with the CCD program. By 1960 the national center was asking parishes
to hold a formal reception ceremony on the following Sunday for those
new members of the CCD who had registered on Catechetical Sunday itself.
Thus, in a loose sense, Catechetical Sunday took two weeks, one of preparation
and one of implementation.
In order to promote
“a greater appreciation of the total educational mission of the Church,”
the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) joined with the USCC
in a September 1972 celebration of “Christian Education Week.”
Staff at the national level encouraged diocesan and school administrators
to use Catechetical Sunday to reach those six million children and youth
in public elementary and high schools and “another five million entirely
untouched by religious education.”5 The program for the final Sunday
of Christian Education Week was to emphasize total religious education
for “all the people of God.” Both in the homily and in the Sunday
programs, “the people should be alerted again to the crisis in Catholic
education which follows hard upon a kind of crisis in faith.”
In 1973, the Catholic
schools, with the sponsorship of NCEA, then moved their Catholic Schools
Week to February, thus beginning an annual and successful celebration
for Catholic elementary and secondary schools. That same year the USCC
suggested that Catechetical Sunday be extended over the following week
to include “meetings with parents and . . . the continuing education
of adults.” The USCC also noted that “Catechetical Sunday has
taken on new importance at this time of crisis for Catholic schools and
the rapidly growing enrollment of Catholic youngsters in public schools.”
Annual booklets for the late 1970s sometimes referred to a catechetical
week, presumably in September, and more recent books have suggested extending
the day’s theme throughout the year. In some parishes, the theme
and kit will indeed inspire the year’s activities, but in others
the booklet may serve only to help parish directors of religious education
(DRE) plan for just one Sunday in September.
The Catechetical Sunday celebration is often the responsibility of the
DRE (or another specified leader), who is usually already busy in September
with registering students, recruiting teachers, and organizing classes
for the parish school of religion. Practically speaking, then, DREs find
little time in August and September to organize and promote a week similar
to that of the February celebration of Catholic Schools Week. Thus, the
best-known aspect of Catechetical Sunday is often the commissioning of
parish catechists.
Consequently, parish
catechetical personnel might continue to commission catechists without
purchasing the USCC kit every year, or they might under-utilize the kit.
Certainly, many find it impossible to begin a parish program for the year
while simultaneously conducting a September catechetical week. Top
Parish administrators in several northeastern states have found the month
of November to be a more suitable time to tell the story of religious
education in parishes and to acknowledge the work of parish catechists.
Several catechists
in the Diocese of Worcester, Mass., asked Msgr. Louis Piermarini, diocesan
director of religious education, if they could publicize the work of religious
education in the parishes of the diocese. They wanted to develop a week
comparable to Catholic Schools Week. The director endorsed the idea, and
the diocese held its first religious education week in November 1997.
The Catholic Free Press, Worcester’s diocesan newspaper, published
a special religious education supplement to recognize and thank the catechists
and volunteers in the religious education programs of the diocese. Parishes
included special quarter-page or eighth-page notices in support of their
programs. Publishers of religious education materials, religious goods
stores, and various diocesan offices and ministries also contributed advertisements.
The supplement featured articles interviewing Bishop Daniel Reilly and
Msgr. Piermarini, as well as features on parish programs.
As president of the
New England Conference of Diocesan Directors of Religious Education, Piermarini
presented the results of Worcester’s 1997 experience, and by 1998
all ten dioceses and two archdioceses in New England celebrated a “religious
education month” during November. They could choose one week during
the month “to celebrate in a variety of ways the good work of our
parish catechetical programs.” Directors of the New England dioceses
talked of a National Religious Education Week but agreed to a trial run
in New England first.
Piermarini has emphasized
that the week’s purpose is to “set aside time to acknowledge
the importance of what people are doing in their parishes,” and this
includes religious education for adults. The The Catholic Free Press’s
1999 religious education supplement emphasizes the work of adults in both
learning about and handing on their faith. In its section devoted to Religious
Education Month, Church World, the Diocese of Portland’s weekly publication,
discusses faith formation and family catechesis, describes the work of
parish religious education, and runs essays by two national catechetical
leaders. Newspapers for the participating dioceses have served a triple
function in presenting the efforts of parish faith formation work, in
recognizing catechists and volunteers in the parishes, and in educating
diocesan readers about the theory and practice of religious education.6
In the meantime, not aware of the New England efforts, catechists of the
Diocese of Brooklyn asked its Office of Religious Education to conduct
a week for religious education that would be comparable to Catholic Schools
Week. With Bishop Thomas Daily’s approval, the diocese held its first
catechetical week in November 1999. The impetus of the week was to inform
the people of the diocese of the great work being accomplished by wonderful
people. Parishes sponsored a variety of activities to recognize catechists
and to publicize the work of religious education. Holy Family parish included
a special luncheon for the grandparents of the children in the religious
education program. Although most parishes participated, some were not
ready in 1999 but promised to be so in 2000, while some others suggested
that the week be celebrated at a different time of year. As part of Catechetical
Week 1999, William H. Sadlier Publishers sponsored a dinner for almost
three hundred catechetical leaders in the Brooklyn diocese.7
Commenting on the
weeks in the northeast, Daniel Mulhall, assistant secretary for catechesis
and inculturation in the USCC’s Department of Education, commends
them. Reflecting on such developments in a direct interview, he emphasizes
that “whatever we can do to honor and support catechists and the
work of religious education itself is praiseworthy. That includes fostering
creative programs that strengthen catechetical ministry.” Top
This brief survey of the sixty-five years of the observance of Catechetical
Sunday indicates the strengths and possible future direction for the day’s
celebration.
With the leadership
and support of the national center, Catechetical Sunday activities publicized
and helped to organize CCD work in the parish, diocese, and nation. As
such, the day has enjoyed the support of a relatively large and enthusiastic
national center staff. In the years following Vatican II, when the bishops
of the United States organized the USCC and CCD became part of the Department
of Education, Catechetical Sunday underwent two major changes. First,
the USCC began publishing an attractive and educational annual catechetical
kit. Second, because of staff limitations at USCC, the responsibility
for local promotion of the day devolved upon diocesan directors of religious
education (formerly the diocesan CCD directors) and upon individual parishes
(often the DRE or another catechetical leader in the parish). Dioceses
no longer reported to a central office about their observance of the day,
and a central office no longer could help them on a year-round basis.
Autonomous diocesan directors are responsible for numerous aspects of
religious education in their dioceses, and the USCC can only offer its
Catechetical Sunday kit in support of their efforts. But the USCC could
also serve as a locus for the beginning of a conversation on the future
direction of the commemoration of Catechetical Sunday and/or a National
Religious Education Week or Month.
The resurgence of interest in a catechetical week, as evidenced in New
England and the Diocese of Brooklyn, suggests that a week of celebration
and education across the nation is a sound possibility. Flexibility demands
that dioceses and parishes be able to choose the proper time; a nationwide
observance requires that the week be held within a small time frame or
“religious education month” in order to focus interest and energy.
What would become,
then, of Catechetical Sunday? If it remains in its present place on the
third Sunday of September, where it marks the beginning of parish programs
of religious education, a catechetical week could follow in late October
or in November. Or the bishops of the United States might switch the day
to one in October or November when a religious education week occurs.
The latter seems more practical. The present “Rite of Commissioning”
could continue to be held on a Sunday in late September, as parish catechists
begin their new programs. Parish and diocesan leaders would then be free
to publicize their efforts and explain their programs during a catechetical
week later in the year.
The USCC theme for
2000 “A Year of Favor: Making All Things New” may be prophetic
for Catechetical Sunday itself. Not in decline, but in transition, the
day—and the week that it may inspire—promise new development,
possibly before Catechetical Sunday approaches its seventy-fifth anniversary.
Top
Carol Dorr Clement
has been, until recently, DRE of St. Bernard’s Parish in Riverdale,
Md. Dr. Dorr is currently writing a history of Catholic religious education
in the United States based on the lives of outstanding women.
- Sacred Congregation of the Council, “Decree:
On the Better Care and Promotion of Catechetical Education” January
12, 1935 (Washington, D.C.: National Center of the Confraternity of Christian
Doctrine): AAS 27 (April 5, 1935): 145-154.
- Cf. Berard Marthaler, “The Rise and Decline of the CCD,”
in Sourcebook for Modern Catechetics, vol. 2, ed. Michael Warren (Winona,
Minn.: St. Mary’s Press, 1997), 220-231. First published in Chicago
Studies 29:1 (April 1990): 3-15.
- Catholic News Service, report on National Catechetical Day, August
1944.
- Cf. Congregation for the Clergy, General Directory for Catechesis (Washington,
D.C: United States Catholic Conference, 1997), nos. 51-52.
- Quotations in this and the following paragraph are taken from Catechetical
Sunday booklets from the years 1972 and 1973. Special thanks to CUA assistant
archivist, William J. Shepherd, and to USCC archivist, Nancy Patterson.
- Cf. Religious education supplements to Worcester’s Catholic diocesan
paper, The Catholic Free Press: November 14, 1997, November 13, 1998,
and November 12, 1999. Also cf. Diocese of Portland’s Catholic weekly,
Church World, November 11, 1999: 11-21.
- Ed Wilkinson, “Catechetical Week Teaches a Lesson About Religious
Education,” The Tablet (Diocese of Brooklyn’s newspaper), December
4, 1999: 14.