0 The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
--- Magic of Words --
What impact will new catechism have?
Coming soon to bookstores or
directly to homes where ordered
is the new "Catechism of the
Catholic Church." This is the first
such universal catechism pro-
duced in 400-years. Who will be
helped? Who will be hurt?
Wehope that no one will be
hurt by an orderly presentation of
our faith. The structure of the cat-
echism is fourfold. There are sec-
tions on the creed, the sacra-
ments, Christian life and
morality, and prayer.
Father Berard L. Marthaler,
editor of "The Living Light," the
U.S. Catholic Conference quar-
terly review of religious education, catechetics
and pastoral ministry, stated recently that the
new catechism might have an impact on homi-
lies. His contention is that priests may use the
text as a reference work and, therefore, provide
better catechetical material for their homilies.
Father Marthaler also notes that the cate-
chism will not automatically improve homilies.
The very discussion that this implies is that the
homily is the place to impart catechetical in-
struction.
The whole stress in this generation of post
Vatican II times is that the homily will help
By FATHER
JOSEPH ZILIAK
COLUMNIST
break open the Word of God that
was proclaimed at Mass. Further,
the Word and its clarification is
to lead to insights for the individ-
ual to live more attuned to God's
rhythm, or inspire to a closer
union with the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.
The homily is to gather the
people to a more fruitful time of
common prayer and worship. It is
to let the Spirit of God be known
and felt in the midst of busy and
distracted lives. This is in distinc-
tion to the sermon, which gave
emphasis to the teaching role of
preaching.
As a parish priest, I have been encouraged
now and then to use the precious moments of
the homily time as a teaching time. For instance,
a teaching series might involve spending ten
Sundays talking about the Ten Commandments.
Or another possibility might be to speak on the
Sacraments on seven successive Sundays.
Some may remember that this approach to
preaching was the norm as we entered into the
Vatican Council II era. As tempting as the teach-
ing style might be today, it seems to fly in the
face of worship and the Word of God that is
given for us to proclaim and reflect on Sunday
:::i:ill
by Sunday.
There are a number of books
lished these days designed to present a
and systematic approach toward theology
through the Sunday readings. This is
being attempted for liturgies of the word for
dren. It is also a major challenge in the
programming.
The difficulty is that the time allotted ]
homily is not very long. To presume that
few minutes even come close to
for an adequate explanation of faith
and practice is unreasonable. We are
grammed by television to receive
short sound bytes. Such a
preach to faith presentation is inadequate.!
Ross Perot recognizes the need for a longer:
fomercial time to deal with nuanced and
cated issues.
We'll withhold judgements on the
chism until it is published and in
catechism may be of great benefit for a
swer to a question or concept. Even then, a:
answer is but the beginning. Catech
only point the way to further exp
study. Such a reference tool, though,
necessity for each Catholic
of us could benefit from a hasic starting
study, prayer and understanding.
Golden Jubilarians
William and Catherine (Brenner) Gries of St. James will cele-
brate their sixtieth wedding anniversary with a Mass of
Thanksgiving at 2 p.m. April 3 at St. James Church, St.
James. All friends and relatives are invited to a reception
which will follow the Mass. Their daughter, Ruth Ann Mag-
ness of Ohio, will host the reception. They were married Feb.
28, 1933, at St. Philip Church, St. Philip. They have 12 grand-
children and seven great-grandchildren.
I I _ I I
C00trz C DNNECT00N
Your Cruise Specialist
July 26
August 15
August 22
Bishop
Continued from page 1
ton by Archbishop Agostino
Cacciavillan, apostolic pro-
nuncio to the United States.
Bishop Steib, who will be
installed at the Cathedral of
the Immaculate Conception
in Memphis, was named an
auxiliary bishop of St. Louis
in 1983. He is one of 12 ac-
tive black U.S. bishops.
He succeeds Archbishop
Daniel M. Buechlein, who
was appointed to Indianapo-
lis last July.
Born James Terry Steib
May 17, 1940, in Vacherie,
La., he entered the Divine
Word order at a high school
seminary in Bay St. Louis,
Miss.
• After studies at three Di-
vine Word collegiate seminar-
ies, he was ordained to the
priesthood in 1967.
Bishop Steib served his
order first at seminaries and
then as provincial of the Di-
vine Word's Southern
Province until his appoint-
ment as bishop.
He also was executive di-
rector of the National Black
Catholic Clergy Caucus, 1976-
77, and chairman of the Con-
ference of Major Superiors of
Men's Mission Committee,
1978-79. He was also a
CMSM vice president.
Bishop Steib has been
II
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III II ]11 I I I II I I
I IIIII
I II I III I I f ll i ii,
chairman of the U.S. Bishops'
Committee on Missions and
its Committee on Black
Catholics. He is a member of
the bishops' Administrative
Committee, Committee on
Budget and Finance, Commit-
tee on Priestly Formation,
and the Bishops' Welfare
Emergency Relief Committee.
He has also been episcopal
adviser to the National
Catholic Ca
and episcopal
Worldwide
counter.
Bishop Steib
Catholics must
culture known to a
nantly white
share their religion
tory to people
and outside
ties.
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