Bishops propose new catechism

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 6

Bishops propose new catechism

NZPA-Reuter Vatican City Bishops at a synod assessing the last 20 years in the Catholic Church have proposed a new, world-wide book of catechism for teaching the faith. The proposals were put forward in meetings of bishops’ language groups over the last few days, which ended yesterday. Several of the language group reports,, which were read to the entire synod, showed support for a similar proposal for a new teaching instrument made last week by the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law.

Cardinal Law proposed that a commission of cardinals be formed to draft a catechism for use worldwide that would reflect the teachings of the 1962-1965 second Vatican Council. Cardinal Law said that in a modern world individual catechisms prepared by national bishops’ conferences could not fill the need for a clear articulation of Catholic faith and doctrine. In its report the Italian language group also proposed a “book of the Christian faith” to explain Catholicism to non-believers and another book on the church’s moral teachings. Many catechisms are prepared locally and must be approved by a bishop. The synod is preparing a draft of a pastoral message to Catholics to be issued when the two-week gathering ends on Sunday. The language group reports basically repeated themes expressed by bishops last week. All reports said that members were committed to the reforming documents of the council, which opened the church to the modern world. Some group reports repeated a need for clarification of the relationship between local churches and the Vatican, for ecumenical dialogue to continue, and for the Church to clearly express its support for the poor.