Need more help re teaching CRE class

[CarolAnnLyon]

Greetings again!

I want to thank everyone who responded to my first thread. THANKS!!! Your support helped me choose to teach the class. I now have the quote pertaining to all the chapters in Genesis up to Abraham being “myth”, and would like to share it with you. This is from The Catholic Youth Bible:

"Some Christians believe that God actually created the world in seven twenty-four-hour days. Such a belief comes from a literal reading of the first chapter of Genesis, as though it were a scientific textbook. However, Genesis was written not as a science article but as symbolic stories, sometimes called mythic stories, that convey great moral and spiritual truths. We should not try to come to any scientific conclusions about the creation of the world from reading these stories.

Mythic stories are one literary type, or genre. You just have to look in a newspaper to see examples of different literary genres: News stories, advice columns, editorials and comics. Each genre has different rules for interpreting its meaning. The Bible also contains many types of literary genres, including hero stories, poetry, laws, legends, fictional satire, debates and letters. To properly understand the Bible, pay attention to the literary genre–otherwise, you might believe the Bible is saying something God doesn’t intend."

I’m told that in the companion Bible for younger children it is more simply explained:

1. There was actually no “one” Adam or Eve.
2. Eve was not “formed” from the rib of Adam.
3. Adam was not really given the job of naming all of the
   creatures.

During the course of conversation, the Education Director did concede that “We believe now that the story of Noah is probably true because of recently found scientific evidence of a great flood that has been verified by several sources .”

It makes my heart hurt when I think of the damage this type of “interpretation” is causing to our young people. I know this thinking to be untrue, but it is actually being printed in Bibles with a nihil obstat and an imprimatur.

Can someone please explain how this can happen?

I would greatly appreciate any information from anyone that I could print out and present to the Education Director explaining the error of these teachings, not to prove her wrong, but in the hope that she will reconsider what she has been teaching.

There may have been an encyclical written some time during the 1950’s refuting this way of thinking, but I don’t know how to locate such a thing.

I apologize for the length of this. But I would like to offer many thanks and blessings to anyone who can help me with this situation.

Carol

“Come, Holy Spirit”

 

[Todd_Easton]

I now have the quote pertaining to all the chapters in Genesis up to Abraham being “myth”, and would like to share it with you. This is from The Catholic Youth Bible:

"Some Christians believe that God actually created the world in seven twenty-four-hour days. Such a belief comes from a literal reading of the first chapter of Genesis, as though it were a scientific textbook. However, Genesis was written not as a science article but as symbolic stories, sometimes called mythic stories, that convey great moral and spiritual truths. We should not try to come to any scientific conclusions about the creation of the world from reading these stories.

Mythic stories are one literary type, or genre. You just have to look in a newspaper to see examples of different literary genres: News stories, advice columns, editorials and comics. Each genre has different rules for interpreting its meaning. The Bible also contains many types of literary genres, including hero stories, poetry, laws, legends, fictional satire, debates and letters. To properly understand the Bible, pay attention to the literary genre–otherwise, you might believe the Bible is saying something God doesn’t intend."

The Church acknowledges, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that some symbolic or figurative language was used by the sacred writer(s) to describe realities and primeval events in the first few chapters of Genesis:
337. God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine “work”, concluded by the “rest” of the seventh day. On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation, permitting us to "recognize the inner nature, the value and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God."362. The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that “then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.375. The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in an authentic way, in the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were constituted in an original “state of holiness and justice”. This grace of original holiness was “to share in…divine life”.390. The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.396. God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” spells this out: “for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die.” The “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.

1. There was actually no “one” Adam or Eve.

The above statement seems to be contrary to the teaching of Catholic Church as expressed by Pope Pius XII in his 1950 encyclical, Humani Generis:37. When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which through generation is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own.

 

[CarolAnnLyon]

Thank you so much!

All of your references were most helpful, especially the one from Humani Generis.

I’m curious as to whether many others have run into this sort of teaching in Religious Education classes. And I wonder if all youth Bibles have this information now as an introduction. I truly can’t understand how these Bibles could be approved by a Bishop.

Any thoughts on this matter?

Thanks, Carol

“Come, Holy Spirit”

 

[Liberian]

Todd (and Carol),

I would note that symbolic language does not exclude literal truth. Humani Generis is still in force–and will continue to be in force until the end of time.

Interestingly, science is once again beginning to catch up with the teachings of the Church. Geneticists a few years ago analyzed the mitochondrial DNA in women the world over (mitochondrial DNA is passed ONLY from the mother to the child) and concluded that at least 90 percent of all women alive now are descended from one woman. They dubbed her “Eve;” I have heard her called “the real Eve”–as if she is someone distinct from the Eve in the Bible. But this is a distinction without a difference.

• Liberian

 

[Veritas41]

Thank you so much!

All of your references were most helpful, especially the one from Humani Generis.

I’m curious as to whether many others have run into this sort of teaching in Religious Education classes. And I wonder if all youth Bibles have this information now as an introduction. I truly can’t understand how these Bibles could be approved by a Bishop.

Any thoughts on this matter?

Thanks, Carol

“Come, Holy Spirit”

I have. Last year we used a handout called “Visions” to supplement our junior high curriculum. Several times I found problematic content and brought it to the attention of our DRE, who shrugged and said the material had an imprimatur, as if that were some kind of guarantee of infallibility. The problems I encountered had more to do with facts of church history and particular Church teachings – most of it not blatantly wrong but more subtle. For example, in one issue war, the death penalty and abortion are all put on the same moral plane, and I had to point out to my class that they’re not all on the same moral plane in Church teaching.

My thoughts are simply of frustration – I don’t know if the bishops are that ignorant or if they are intentionally letting erroneous ideas get into circulation. Maybe they pass on the job of reading such materials to underlings who don’t know better or have an agenda. I have no idea. So I’ve learned not to put alot of stock in imprimaturs unless it’s from a bishop I know is orthodox.

 

[CarolAnnLyon]

Thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut!

It just stuns me that we can have orthodox and liberal bishops who are putting out opposing teachings. How can we be one Church when the teachers can’t even agree on Church doctrine? I wonder why our Holy Father allows Bishops to continue to lead the Church when they pass on unorthodox and misleading doctrine. I’m not faulting our Holy Father; I really am curious how this happens. Is there no safety net in place? Does our Pope not get reports on problems such as this?

These particular youth Bibles are published in Minnesota, with the imprimatur by the Bishop of Winona, Minnesota. We lived in Minnesota for about 10 years, and it is a very liberal state, so I was not surprised when I noticed the books were from there.

Does anyone else feel as frustrated as I do? I want our youth to receive the fullness of our Faith–the true fullness of our Faith, not some intellectual pseudo-doctrine. These young people are our future and the future of our Church.

Mother Angelica once commented that too many people have been “educated beyond their intelligence”. I now understand all too well just what she meant.

Any ideas on how we can get the real truth of the Church to our youth? Maybe a grassroots orthodox movement?

Blessings,

Carol

“Come, Holy Spirit”

 

[Crumpy]

Thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut!

It just stuns me that we can have orthodox and liberal bishops who are putting out opposing teachings. …
Does anyone else feel as frustrated as I do?

Yes

You might be interested in this (rather deep) article:
ignatius.com/magazines/hprweb/austriaco2.htm

The author answers Catholic creationists by arguing
that contemporary exegetes have sufficient
reason to go beyond a literalist reading of Genesis.
Reading Genesis with Cardinal Ratzinger
By Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco

And,

SCOTT HAHN ON THE POLITICIZED BIBLE
By KARL KEATING
This Rock
Volume 7, Number 9
September 1996

which you can navigate to above by clicking on “This Rock” way up there at the top of this page.

 

[TOME]

Crumpy,
Thank you for your post and this very important link. I hope all who are active in this thread read this link. This is my opinion, but I think what the article shows (besides the great spiritual intellect of our Holy Father) is the deep richness of a “Living Bible” that speaks God’s truth to all men (people) for all times.

 

[Veritas41]

Thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut!

Any ideas on how we can get the real truth of the Church to our youth? Maybe a grassroots orthodox movement?

You’re welcome. Probably the way to do this will vary from parish to parish. Right now I’m involved in teaching the 7th and 8th graders at my parish, and I basically create my own lesson (from our lame lectionary-based curriculum that doesn’t teach anything solid). I made this clear to our DRE I would be doing that because I think the curriculum is severely dumbed down. Of course, that doesn’t help the kids in the *other *classes. Perhaps find out if your parish chooses faith formation curricula through a committee, and maybe you could volunteer to be on that committee and offer you (name removed by moderator)ut and hopefully get to help select suitable material. I know it’s hard - there doesn’t seem to be an easy, pat answer. I would just pray a whole lot for God’s guidance and wisdom, and for the conversion of those in leadership in the parish who are promoting this material (I have been offering up fasting as well for this intention). I’m trying to proceed with charity so that I don’t cause unnecessary problems by handling things the wrong way. In my situation, God has opened doors for me to step through and be an influence for truth. I’m also involved in a women’s Bible study that was originally started by our less than orthodox DRE. We were studying the Sunday Mass readings and she frequently had erroneous commentary on the passages we were studying (and Scripture in general). After gently correcting her at different times or explaining the Church’s true teaching, she backed off coming, which opened the way for us to choose our own Bible study, which is orthodox. And I was surprised when we recently chose a new Bible study, the women were asking for my (name removed by moderator)ut if I thought the material was okay, which made me realize that God has used me there to counter some of the bad teaching they were getting from our DRE.

 

[CarolAnnLyon]

So many thanks and blessings to you, Crumpy!!! I have already printed out the Scott Hahn article, and will be checking out our Holy Father’s writing next. I believe this is exactly what I need to present to our DRE.

And I want to thank Veritas41 for your very helpful (name removed by moderator)ut on how you were able to affect the curriculum in your parish. God always leads us where we are needed. Isn’t He awesome?!! Can I get an AMEN?

I would greatly appreciate any additional (name removed by moderator)ut or info anyone may wish to suggest. I would like to be as well prepared as possible.

Thanks, Carol

“Come, Holy Spirit”

 

[Verbum]

Hi CarolAnn,

I am glad that you have found what you are looking for. By this time, I am sure you understand that this is not a simple question. But I think that young children, and even older ones, should not be exposed to religious controversy. We should emphasize the lessons that the Bible teaches rather than the “stories” that it contains.

Verbum