ARTICLES

People Looked at Me Strangely

Two Places You Can Find the Baltimore Catechism

by Robert Kumpel

The St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism No. 2 offers elementary age students a concise explanation of the purpose of the Mass in Lesson 27: "The purposes for which the Mass is offered are: first, to adore God as our Creator and Lord; second, to thank God for his many favors; third, to ask God to bestow His blessings on all men; fourth, to satisfy the justice of God for the sins committed against Him."

Unfortunately, most Catholic school children in the diocese will never read this explanation nor open a Baltimore Catechism. Once the sine qua non of texts for Catholic religion classes, the Baltimore Catechism is viewed by the Catholic educational establishment with suspicion and contempt and has long been discarded in favor of texts that teach children that the Mass is simply a "celebration" of "word" and "meal" commemorating "The Lord's Supper."

"The problem with the religion texts used in most Catholic schools is that they don't really emphasize or explain the sacraments sufficiently." So says Karen Koch, assistant headmaster at St. Ephrem's Academy in Fletcher Hills. Koch, a veteran of 21 years in the Catholic schools of Orange and San Diego dioceses, knows the smell of political correctness in religion textbooks. "When I was teaching in Orange County, I had a quote about God on the board that began with 'He'. One of the Sisters of Charity came in and told me to erase "He" and put "God" in its place. I refused."

The most commonly used religion texts in the Catholic schools are published by Sadlier and Benziger, neither of which Koch has much use for. "I've seen both texts and I don't think they work as well as the traditional texts do. I remember the Sadlier text for fifth grade religion incorporated sex education into the course, which I think is inappropriate. I remember the text had references to all the body parts and their uses. I have no problem with teaching human sexuality in a higher level biology class, but overall, it's the parents' task to teach sex education, and it doesn't belong in the classroom."

Benziger publishing offers interactive catechism games at their website, www.mhschool.com/benziger. Most of the questions omit any sense of dogma or absolute truth, focusing instead on self-esteem and feelings. For 7th grade level students, a typical question in their Family Life student game asks:

A person's sexual identity as male or female is called:

A. stereotyping.

B. equal rights.

C. gender.

D. we shouldn't discuss such things.

At St. Ephrem's Koch and headmaster Michael Horvath use the Baltimore Catechism as well as the Faith and Life series from Ignatius Press. The Baltimore Catechism covers are the same as they've been for decades, with illustrations of Jesus on the covers as Priest, Shepherd, and Lawgiver. The covers of the Faith and Life series show photos of famous Catholic sites, such as the interior of St. Peter's Basilica or classical religious paintings.

When Koch taught at Sacred Heart school in Ocean Beach, she said that she was treated with a bit of suspicion for using the Baltimore Catechism in religion classes. "A few people looked at me rather strangely, but my principal was totally supportive. But the texts I chose were certainly not at the top of their recommended lists. I use the Baltimore Catechism and Faith and Life series because of their traditionalism and their strong, true Catholic teaching about the sacraments."

Patricia Hansen, co-foundress of Sierra Madre Academy couldn't agree more. "It (Faith and Life) puts the story of Catholicism together thoroughly from its beginning, so that by the time a student is in the eighth grade, they have a strong sense of the complete picture of where their faith came from.

Sierra Madre opened in 1995 as a K-8 independent Catholic school. After adding a high school year each subsequent term, Hansen says that they re-evaluate their religion curriculum each year to make it more relevant. "For kindergarten, we use Our Mother and Father published by Our Lady of the Rosary. For the first through eighth grades we use the Ignatius Press Faith and Life series. We also use the St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism. The content of the Baltimore Catechism is every bit as valid today as when it was 30 years ago, even though it's not used much anymore. I think the only thing that's changed is abstaining from meat on Friday. Here at Sierra Madre, we do a lot of memorization and the Baltimore Catechism is great for that."

"We're always supplementing. The grade-school children will get a story of a saint every day, so they have a strong sense of the Communion of Saints. In the high school, we are using a new series called the Catholic Formation Series published by Midwest Theological Forum. It's actually called the Didache Series and it's broken up into four volumes: Introduction to Catholicism, Scripture, Church History, and Our Moral Life in Christ. We supplement the high school texts with Tan Books' Father Laux High School Series. Those books are titled Chief Truths of the Faith, The Mass and The Sacraments, Catholic Morality, and Catholic Apologetics. We also supplement that with four volumes from CR Publications for high school students. They are Catholicism and Ethics, Catholic Life, Catholics and Society, and Catholics and Reason."

Sierra Madre's high school curriculum calls students to the fullness of their vocation from Confirmation. "We get them into apologetics because they need to know how to defend their faith. We have grades 9 through 12 read a papal encyclical every year. We go through the encyclicals very slowly, though. They can sometimes be difficult, but also our Pope writes in such a rich way, that there are often deeper layers of meaning in his words than you can get in just one reading."

When asked why she chose not to use the religion texts from Benzinger and Sadlier, Hansen was loathe to criticize the books or anyone who uses them. "All I can say is that we very carefully evaluated what was available when we opened the school and we wanted to use the very best."

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