Uh, nooooooooo, I was referencing Volume 1 of the Baltimore Catechism (I did check it at home, briefly - don’t have one here at the office), not some New Saint Joseph version of the great earlier work (am I the only one that tends to distrust anything labeled as “new” in the area of catechesis?).
Volume 1 as it sits on my shelf does directly reference purgatory, as it should, and describes, in simple terms, what the Church means by that term.
Washing machine? Yikes, that’s horrid. That is most certainly NOT in the Baltimore Catechism (and shouldn’t be in any catechism…).
As my home internet is out, I will take this time to wish all of you, espcecially you, Marietta, a peaceful and Christ-filled holiday.
In His peace,
Terry
The edition of the Baltimore Catechism that I own, and from which I quoted, is “dedicated to St. Joseph, the Foster Father of Jesus, the First Teacher of these truths.” Inside the front cover is this: “The text of Catechism No. 1 contained in this book is reproduced by the license of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., the only owner of the copyright of the Revised Edition of the Baltimore Catechism No. 1. Used with its permission. All rights reserved. Nihil Obstat: Richard Kugelman, C.P., S.T.L., S.S.L., Censor Deputatus; Imprimi Potest: Gerard Rooney, C.P., Provincial; Nihil Obstat: John A. Goodwine, J.C.D., Censor Librorum; Imprimatur: Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York.”
The copyright is 1964, Catholic Book Publishing Company, New York. This is the book from which I was taught in Catechism classes from 1964 up until my mid-latter teens. I didn’t just buy the book from the inside of some bum’s trench coat.
“Washing machine?” you exclaim, *“Yikes, that’s horrid. That is most certainly NOT in the Baltimore Catechism (and shouldn’t be in any catechism…).”
*
The passage quoted above can be found in my edition of the Baltimore Catechism in Lesson 33, page 160.
What does your version say?
palmas85 writes:
*"You sound very very bitter and very very angry. Why? Because a doctrine of the Church doesn’t jibe with what you want to believe? Or perhaps the way that doctrine was presented to you? Or perhaps because you can’t see a just God having a place like Purgatory or maybe even Hell for that matter?
Do you have issues with other areas of Church doctrine as well? Or is it just this one specific thing?"*
Over the last 40 years, bitterness has made way for disgust, not just with any particular doctrine of the Catholic Church but the way the Catechism was taught, with rigidity and threats from laypeople and nuns alike; it was a fear-based marketing effort and after giving it the good ol’ college try I sought spiritual connection elsewhere.
A nun asks an 8-year-old child a question about the Crucifixion. The child answers the nun correctly. The nun says, “Well done, my child. I have a little reward for you.” The nun holds out her hands: one holding a piece of rhinestone jewelry, multi-colored, glittering, enthralling; the other holding a brown wooden crucifix. The manipulation is staggering. Should the child take what she wants and hold tight to the colored trinket? Or should she begrudgingly take the crucifix, even though her home has one in every single room and she knows that’s what the nun wants her to do?
This type of shrewd yet fraudulent indoctrination method was in play every week in my CCD classes in the sixties (and this particular episode took place outside the classroom, in a dark, quiet hallway where no one could observe the incident). When I came into my mid-teens I called it as I saw it, but when I was younger, and so tender and impressionable, this tactic was a violation of trust and gave me a lasting impression of God, of Jesus, of the Church and Her representatives. So we’re in a once burned - twice learned standoff. The main reasons I left the Church are 1) I refuse to be manipulated if there is any way I can avoid it, and 2) I will not be lied to in the name of salvation. I’d rather be out here without a roadmap than be lied to.
marietta
Then you’ll get a sense of who is in the classroom.
. . . ).