THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (CCC) IN THE FORMATION
AND THE MINISTRY OF PRIESTS
Raffaello Martinelli
Especially in this Year of the Faith,
the CCC offers an excellent and indispensable aid to our priests in the
fulfillment of their mission - whether in terms of deepening their own
personal experience of the Christian mystery, or in terms of their parochial
pastoral duties: catechism, preaching, homilies, preparation for the various
sacraments, primary and ongoing formation of the lay faithful, of the
catechists, of the pastoral workers, as well as for their own ongoing formation
and for their own communal and personal prayer.
The CCC can provide this service,
given: (a) the nature of the text and
(b) the way it is presented. I will now
explain these considerations which can be useful as a model and a stimulus,
both in formation and in the priestly ministry.
A)
THE
NATURE OF THE TEXT
The nature of the
text is dealt with in the Constitution of approval of the Catechism Fidei
depositum, 1992, and in the apostolic letter Laetamu magnopere, upon
the promulgation in 1997 of its Latin edition.
a.1. - The
veritative dimension
The Catechism of the Catholic Church,
in transmitting the revealed mystery in its fullest form, devotes particular
attention to the truth, the Christian truth, which Christ revealed and
entrusted to His Church. Its intent is
to repropose the faith in all its “objectivity”, in its everlasting “doctrinal
identity”: presenting “what” has been announced - or, more
correctly, “who” has been
announced: Jesus Christ.
This is why it has been justly and
generally recognised that the CCC is infused with the veritative dimension
of the announcement, which must also emanate from the announcement of the
priest in his widely varied pastoral ministry.
For the Catechism, which enables the
systematic doctrinal exposition of the substance of faith (the “deposit of the
faith”) actually belongs more to the category of veritative announcement (“fides
quae”; faith as belief; the truth of the announcement), rather than the
category of communicative announcement (“fides qua”; belief as
faith; understood more as the act of communicating the faith, focussed on the
recipients and on the pedagogical methods).
It must, therefore, be an
authoritative, synthetic, and organic presentation of the substance of that
which is announced - “ut id teneamus quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab
omnibus creditum est”, to use the words of Vincenzo of Lerins). So the catechism of the Catholic Church,
focussing on the veritative dimension, offers the announcers of the Word the
fundamental and essential truths of the Catholic faith, as it is to be
announced, received, lived.
This is what the Holy Father writes in
the Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum, with which he approved the
CCC. As a matter of fact, in presenting
the CCC as “an exposition of the faith of the Church and of the Catholic
doctrine, witnessed or illuminated by the Holy Scriptures, by Apostolic
Tradition and by the Magisterium of the Church”, the Pope invites the Pastors
and the faithful to “receive it in the spirit of communion and to use it
assiduously in the fulfillment of their mission of announcing the faith
and of calling the faithful to the evangelical life”. He thus recognises the CCC “as a valid and legitimate instrument
in the service of the ecclesial communion, and as a reliable standard for the
teaching of the faith” (n.4).
a.2. - The CCC as
an instrument of study, of consultation, of comparison, of reference, of
proclamation of the faith of the Church
The CCC,
therefore, is a valid instrument of study, consultation, comparison and
reference for all those whose task it is to announce and to teach the Catholic
truth. It is also a valuable source for
those who are in search of a systematic and complete presentation of the
substance of the Christian faith and morals - as well as for those who wish to
deepen their own personal formation and that of their communities.
It is an instrument for “knowing” the
faith; of course not exhaustive, but certainly valid, genuine and truthful.
“A major problem for today’s Church is
the lack of knowledge of the faith; religious illiteracy... We must do everything we can for a
Catechistic renewal, in order that the faith may be known, and so God may be
known, Christ may be known, the truth may be known and unity may grow in the
truth” (BENEDICT XVI, meeting with the priests of Rome, lectio divina,
Aula Paolo VI, February 23, 2012).
The Catechism announces that truth; the
truth which the Catholic church believes, which it celebrates, which it lives,
which it prays.
It presents the truth the Church
proclaims - the whole Church, the
universal Catholic Church (not solely a single Christian or a single local
church); yesterday, today and tomorrow.
It celebrates the faith of the Church.
It contains the Catholic doctrine of the Church (indeed, its title is
the Catechism of the Catholic Church), it is the genuine and complete
presentation of the Catholic faith. It
is this truth that “the Catechism of the Catholic Church maintains and
transmits, the truth which is genuine in its meaning, entire in its content,
and systematic in its explanation”. (CEI, Message for the Publication of the
Catechism, December 5, 1992). The
Catechism proclaims that which the Church possesses as everlasting heritage of
its being and of its action. It is a
“text of faith” of the Catholic reality.
It proclaims the truth, that is Christ, as the Church lives in its
preaching, in its celebration, in its moral life, in its prayer.
“It is a true gift; a gift, that
is, that presents the truth which God revealed in Christ and which He entrusted
to His Church. The Catechism displays
this truth, in the light of the Vatican II Council, exactly as it is lived,
believed, celebrated, and prayed by the Church. And it does this in order to
aid in the indefectible approach to the Person of Christ.” (John Paul II, Promulgation
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, December 7, 1992, n.4).
“With the aid of such a Catechism, it
is the Catholic Church itself, the Church as it is today, on the threshold of
the twenty-first Century, which presents its own belief in, celebration
and experience of, and prayer to Him, to Him who is its founder and its model,
its center and its culmination: Christ
the Lord. And in doing so, it draws deeply
upon that immense heritage of the past - our Biblical, liturgical, Councilar,
magisteral, our spiritual heritage. And it tries to give a new voice and fresh
expression to that heritage, that truth, at the same time as bringing out its
immutable freshness and rich vitality.” (J. RATZINGER, Report to the Eighth
Plenary Session of the International Council for Catechesis - COINCAT,
in: Regno, anno XXXVII, n.692, November 1, 1992, pp.588).
Now it is true that this faith of the
Church takes on different comprehensive and expressive forms, in various
different times and places, and depending upon particular persons, liturgical
characteristics, and so forth. But it
is also true that the essential and fundamental substance of the Christian
faith is, was, and always will be the same.
No matter where, no matter when.
This faith is contained and expressed in the “Sacred Deposit” of the
Bible and of the Tradition. This
ecclesial truth is witnessed by and in the Catechism.
That “depositum fidei”, which has
forever been the heritage of the Church, and which over the centuries, through
the generations, has always been clarified by the special aid of the Holy
Spirit - that timeless heritage is witnessed in and by the Catechism.
CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CCC
b.1. Presentation of the Christian mystery in its
indivisible unity
“Reading the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, we can perceive the marvelous unity of the mystery of God, of his
design for salvation, and we see the centrality of Jesus Christ, the One and
Only Son of God, sent by His Father, become man in the womb of the Holy Virgin
Mary by the Holy Spirit, come to be our Savior. Dead and resurrected, He is always present in His Church, and
particularly in the Sacraments. He is
the wellspring of the faith, the model for Christian life, and the Master of
our prayers” (Fidei Depositum, n.3).
The four parts of the CCC are woven
together, as harmonically synchronised as a symphony, closely assembled as the
tiles in a mosaic. Evidence of this are
the many cross-references in the margins.
Such an interconnection among the parts
of the Catechism, and the fundamental rapport of the various topics presented
therein, are an expression - an embodiment - of the deep and symphonic unity of
the Christian mystery itself.
“The four parts are linked together:
the Christian mystery as the object of our faith (first part); as it is
celebrated and communicated in liturgical acts (second part); as it accompanies
us to sustain and illuminate the children of God in their/our lives (third
part); as it is the foundation of our prayers, whose highest expression is the
“Our Father”, and as it is the object of our supplications, of our praise, of
our intercession (fourth part).
The Liturgy is prayer as well;
confession of faith is at home in the celebration of the cult.
Grace, the fruit of the sacraments, is
the ineluctable condition for Christian action, just as participation in the
Liturgy of the Church requires faith.
If faith does not develop in action, it is dead and can no longer offer
the fruits of eternal life.” (Fidei Depositum, n.3).
b.2.- Conjugation
of the various different and complementary languages of the faith: biblical,
patristic, liturgical, magisteral, testimonial.
This requirement emerges very clearly
in the CCC, where these different languages clarify and complete one another in
intimate and complementary circulation - and all the while they are leading us
forward to an ever deeper and clearer understanding of the Christian mystery.
This deeper and clearer understanding
ought also to be the commitment of every priest in his announcing of the Word
of God, and especially in the celebration of the liturgy and in the catechesis
in a wide range of places and with a wide range of different people.
So the enunciated Catholic catechism,
steeped in the sources of faith, is thus expressed through a skillful
conjugation, an enriching symbiosis of continuity and novelty of language.
The truth of faith also comes to us
through many other channels of communication of the unitary Word of God (and
not only through the Bible). In the
same way, the globality and plurality of the voices (languages) express the
profound and multiform richness of the People of God. These voices renew and refresh the unitary Word of God, in both
the dimensions of time and of space (think of the difficult but impelling
process of inculturation).
Naturally these
various languages do not all carry the same weight; they are not all of equal
value. Our primary source is of course
the Bible, and the Apostolic Tradition takes precedence over “ecclesial traditions”.
b.3. Synthetic
announcement of the Christian truth
This is the general stance of the CCC,
which lays out the essential and fundamental substance of the Christian
truth. The CCC is, in fact, an
instrument for the transmission of the essentials and fundamentals of the
Christian faith and of Christian morality (ʻtam de fide quam de
moribus”), in a complete and concise manner (“non omnia sed totum”). The aim is to present, in a concentrated and
schematic format, that which is essential and fundamental to ensuring the unity
of a sure and secure faith, maintaining the systematic, organic and harmonious
interconnections of the very substance of faith.
On those occasions when the CCC points
out secondary aspects, it does so in order to better illuminate the
fundamentals, as when certain individual tiles of a mosaic enhance our
perception of the beauty and completeness of the whole.
This primacy of the “essential” is
particularly apparent in the formulae used in the catechism, in that these are
distilled propositions, summarizing truly important material in simple and
concise terms. These formulae stand as
the “memory” of the faith of the Church, in that - over the centuries and in so
many different places and situations - they have helped, and continue to help
the expression, the memory, the very experience of the unitary faith.
The Catechism attends to the
fundamental and essential elements, and tries to avoid theological opinions,
pronouncements emanating from a particular theological school; individual
interpretations which have not been sufficiently ratified by the sensus
fidei of the People of God; the mixing up of Biblical revelation,
dogmatic explanations, theological conclusions, without regard to rank or
importance.
All of this offers considerable
exemplary material, for the homily in particular, whose task it is to
illustrate the Word of God to the congregation of today, in a clear and concise
manner.
b.4. Announcement
employing an attestative language
The CCC employs a type of language that
can stand as a model - or at least a point of reference - for the language
which the priest uses in his daily work in fulfillment of his mission.
The type of language used in the
Catechism is referred to as “attestative” language. On the subject, the then Cardinal J. Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict
XVI) observed: “In response to the urgings of the majority in the consultations
with the worldʼs Bishops, the drafters of this Catechism chose to employ
“attestative” language, rather than “argumentive” or “apologetic”
formulations. In this way they have
been able to express the truth in a more positive and serene manner (“narratio
mirabilia Dei”), never neglecting the magisterial nature of the text, nor
the need to better correspond to the expectations of todayʼs world” (J. RATZINGER, Report to the Eighth
Plenary Session of the International Council for the Catechism - COINCAT, in:
Regno, anno XXXVII, n.692, November 1, 1992, p.589).
So it is a more kerigmatic type of
language; more proactive, expositive, ostensive, declarative of the good news
of the Gospels, rather than an intellectual or apologetic type of
language. It is a form of words which
does not follow the schemata of professional theology (dialectical/probative)
but which is expressive of the serene affirmation of and prayerful
ecclesial meditation upon the revealed truth.
This type of language seems to be very
appropriate and harmonious with the very nature of faith itself: faith has its
own logic, its own way of proceeding and revealing itself. This brings us not so much to disputation as
to testifying; it is the language of witness.
So the Catechism has chosen the path of
serene revisiting; of positive, not polemical, meditation; of the Christian
truth in its entirety, in its totality and its harmony. Its intention is to bring the Good News as a
gift, as a blessing, as an act of love which fills us to completion.
The Catechism is, therefore, a good
model to follow - for every priest, in the fulfillment of his difficult
mission as catechist, homilist, proclaimer of the faith!
b5 - Magisterial
text
But it must not be forgotten that the
Catechism is a Magisterial text, in that it was proposed by a Synod of
Bishops, willed by the Holy Father, drafted by Bishops, fruit of consultation
with the world-wide episcopate, and approved by the Holy Father, as his
ordinary magisterium.
It outlines the Catholic identity, and
carries therefore the degree of authority, of validity, of authenticity
appropriate to the ordinary magisterium.
Naturally, being a Catechism it does
not propose to identify new truths; it puts forth those truths which are already
in the possession of the Church; this is why its affirmations enjoy that
degree of certainty which is proper to them in the overall system of Catholic
doctrine.
Nevertheless it is necessary to
evaluate them, item by item, paragraph by paragraph, and check the conformity
of every single affirmation with Catholic doctrine, as well as the degree
of accuracy, the place that every single statement occupies in the architecture
of the Christian mystery.
But while focusing more on content, on
the veritative dimension, the CCC does not forget that faith is life: it
engages the entire person, throughout life in its every dimension. The
announcement can therefore never be separated from the life witness of those
who make the announcement and those who receive it. Every testimony is
especially a testimony of love. And
that is why the first part of the CCC is intimately connected to its third
part, which presents moral life which is centred on charity in its twofold
dimension, descending and ascending, vertical and horizontal. Faith and moral life feed each other,
explain each other, are experienced in prayer, both liturgical and personal.
Divine truth, known and accepted, become praise and worship; light and beacon
in man’s daily labours; commitment and service in building up the Kingdom of
God.