Hits Sterile Teaching of Religion
The ANCHOR
OTTAWA (NC) - Archbishop Joseph A. Plourde of Ottawa has blamed the number of Catholics leaving the Church on a sterile teaching of religion. "One of the reasons why this happened is the fact that religious teaching w.as aimed mainly at training children to memorize answers to questions that summed up the theology contained in seminary textbooks, and at training their will by imparting a set of moralistic values to abide by," he said. "This was all right for a given time and certainly contributed
An Anchor of the Soul, Sure and flrm-St. Paut
Fall River, Mass., Thursday, July 10, 1975 PRICE 15c Vol. 19, No. 28 漏 1975 The Anchor $5.00 per yur
Publishes Guidelines On Local Ecumenism VATICAN CITY (NC)-The Voa:tican, ~SiSuing .papaHy approved guidellines for ecumenic1rl action at ,the ",regional, national and 'local 'levels," 'has emphasized that looal needs and probJems determine ecumen'jca:l action. The document, published July 7 by il!he SecretaTiiat for Promoting Chrisltrlan Urrity, aIso oaUed it "the responS!ibility of the regiona'l or national episcopal conference to decide on the acceptability and the approp'l'iateness of all forms of local ecumenical action." Such decistions by the bishops shouJ!d be made "tin coopera,tion Wlith rthe appropriate organ of the Holy See, to wit the Secretarlat for Promoting Ohristian Unity."
A foreword to the 30-page, lSeven-.ahapter booklet sdgned hy Oar'Ci'inal Jan WtiHebrands, pres,idenrt of rtlhe Secretariat, sta,tes that tlhe Pope had -it "sent to alI episcopal conferences as an wid to ,1Jhem in carrying OUit their ecumenIc'a'1 responv~bi':!1~ies." 'While encouraging ecumenical aotivi~ity on rthe loca'l Jevels the document cautiollJs that ecumendcal endeavors must rema,jn tin the bonds of OathoHc commu-
to forming outstanding Christians. But it would not be sufficient today." Archbishop Plourde said the new approach in teaching religion has resulted not only in knowledge of the truths of the
Religious Education Consultants of Ontario, Archbishop Plourde said the need to change the approaches to the teaching of religion resulted from the changes in contemporary society.
"The catechetical renewal was geared, not merely to imparting a body of truths, but-and this is the capital point-to handing down a life-giving message. oIts concern was not mere knowledge, but conveying a spirit; its goal was not only to provide the Church with members free of doctrinal error, but also to raise' dynamic men and women capahie of assuming more responsi-
bility in the Church and of preparing the Christian community of tomorrow." The archbishop observed that
this called not only for a new approach and a new methodology in teaching religion, but also a new formulation of eternal truths. "For some people, this spelled near disaster and they are all the more disturbed as not all teachers, not all priests even, were prepared to do that in a true and prudent fashion." "On their own initiative and of their own authO!l"ity, they went from a needed change in
formulation to changing ecclesiasitical laws and the official teaching of the Church. This proved most damaging against the catechetical renewal and the Canadian CllItechism." The NatiollJal OatechetJicaJ1 Directory now being prepared in rthe Un~ted Sba'tes with ~nput from aU segments of the CathoNe commun'ity aims at presenting both contellJt and a method of impading and dmprov~ng the teaching.
n1jon." J,t oontains '11 series of illustrations of IDeal ecumenical arttempts ,such as pr,ayer _groups, istudy. of the ScrJiptures, joint pastoral oare, collabomtion dn education and ~n communications media, appl'Oaohes to soTurn to Page Two
f faith "but also in astonishment and thanksgiving on discovering God's gifts and presence to mankind." Addressing delegates attending the convention of the Catholic
LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL The momentous year of 1776 lauched an era of new freedom and expanding horizons, not only in the Anglo society of our eastern seaboard but in our Mexican~Hispanic Southwest as well. Recent research has dispelled some of the dark legends of royal oppression in the Spanish colonies of our borderlands, and it has also revealed sympathetic activity, promoted in the Southwest by the Spanish crown it路 self, aiding the cause of the American Revolution. The Catholic Church played an essential role in fostering this activity, in expanding frontier horizons, and in increasing frontier freedoms generally. lin May of 1776, two months before the Declaration of Independence, Spain granted local government to the frontier prov'inces of New Spain, and urgent appeals no longer had to go all the way to Mexico City. High-level decisions, pending royal approbation, could be made in the city of Arispe 'and affect our borderlands from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Arispe, in present-day Mexico near the Arizona border, and
tion at Arispe listed some thirtyfive Indian missions for Spanish Sonora, including Arizona, and twenty-eight for New Mexico, administered by Franciscans from Mexico City, Queretaro and Guadelajara.
By FR. KIERAN McCARTHY other Spanish settlements in the Arizona-Sonora desert, had also been hampered in Church matters by distance. Their episcopal See, Durango, was 800 miles eastward on the opposite side of the Mexican Rockies. In May, 1779, th!1"ee years after the designation of Arispe as civil capital of the northern provinces, Pope Pius VI declared' Arispe the headquarters of a new and independent diocese. The Southwest was mainly mission territory at this time, and would be for a long time to come. The new civU jurisdic-
The dream of independence from Britain in the Atlantic coast colonies coincided in the Mexican-Hispanic- Southwest with dreams of new horizons and new beginnings. Catholic churchmen played an outstanding part in this heroic task of exploration and new settlement. Such were the Garces路Anza colonizing expedition from Tubac (Arizona) and the Dominiguez-Velez de Escalente expuoration trek from Santa Fe (New Mexico). Both were. taking place in 1776, the year of our Declaration of Independence. Father Francisco Garces, Franciscan missionary at Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson, was pathfinder fo~ th.e expedition that founded the first Spanish colony 011 the shores of San Francisco Bay. Earlier in the decade he had explored southwestern Arizona and southeastern Turn to Page Ten
BLESSING OF FLEET: Bishop Cronin blesses one of the 35 boats of the Provincetown fishing fleet during the 28th annual Blessing of the Fleet at Provincetown. At the Bishop's left is Rev. John A. Perry of St. Peter the Apostle - Parish, Provincetown and a Provincetown youngster enthralled with the event.