CATHOLIC CATECHISM
From Philosopedia
CATHOLIC CATECHISM
In 1994, a Catechism of the Catholic Church was issued and became a runaway best-seller for its sixteen different publishers.
Catechism, a word rooted in the Greek for “oral instruction,” has meant a manual of religious doctrine since the late Middle Ages. Johannes Paulus II (John Paul, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God for Everlasting Memory) wrote an introductory note, and in a separately bound introduction Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the Vatican official in charge of doctrine, wrote a note striking out against “those interests which portray the Catechism as inimical to progress.” He singled out by name Hans Küng, the Swiss theologian known for his liberal Catholicism and complaint that the work is an assertion of power by the Church’s “Roman party.”
Some Americans were critical of the Vatican’s decision to continue using gender-insensitive words, for example using “Man” for “Humanity.”
Other Americans, although finding the 853-page work has its good points, are aware that many do not agree with the Church declarations in regard to contraception, divorce, and abortion. They note that the catechism persists with the medieval teaching that the only legitimate end of sex is procreation. In fact, contraception is said to be “intrinsically evil,” and it is condemned more harshly than homicide, which is declared sometimes permissible. The catechism also condemns in vitro fertilization, even if the husband and wife supply their own sperm and egg, inasmuch as such “established the domination of technology.” Further, it is “not possible” for women to be ordained.
Catholics generally accept the idea that some items of doctrine have to be accepted . . . on faith. For example: the divinity (and humanity) of Christ; his death and resurrection; the virginity of Mary; the power of prayer. However, many Catholics do not agree with Pope John Paul that the “ordinary magisterium”—all church teaching—requires absolute acceptance. In fact, that teaching has changed over the years. For example, at one time the Roman Catholic church banned artistic images of Christ, prohibited the payment of interest, allowed priests to marry; and expected inquisitors to torture. Pope Paul VI abolished the Index Prohibitorum. John Paul II retracted the church’s 17th-century denunciation of Galileo. A 1907 encyclical condemning “modernism,“ The Economist has observed (29 April 1995), “is now regarded as an embarrassment at best.”
(See entry for the Rev. Richard P. McBrien, an outspoken liberal Roman Catholic theologian.)
