Bishop William Murphy is revamping religious education in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, NY, and that has Voice of the Faithful worried. If I read nothing else in the article, that leads me to believe he’s on to something good.
Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy announced a major shakeup of religious education yesterday that reconfigures the program that produced a generation of lay Catholic leaders, as well as many members of Voice of the Faithful, an activist group that has demanded the bishop’s resignation.
You will know them by their fruits. The previous model of religious education produced bad fruit—lots of it—so it’s time to cut down the tree and plant a new one.
But critics said they feared the changes - coming two weeks after he named a new seminary rector known for strict orthodoxy - signal a retreat from what they describe as the progressive, post-Vatican II model that had flourished under the late Bishop John McGann, to a more top-down setup.
The mandatory “Knowledge of Vatican II” exam
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This is good news. However, look at the spin the Newsday reporter puts on this news. According to her former “progressive” and “post-Vatican II” program produced: “lay leaders + Voice of the Faithful activists. Wow. Did it produce believing Catholics? Evidently the reporter and other think it odd that a bishop would expect a religious ed program to be based on the teachings of the Catholic Faith and that marriage prep programs would require adherence to the Church’s teachings on contraception. Revolutionary! Also she records fear about the appointment of a rector at the seminary of “strict orthodoxy” as opposed to what? You definitely get the spin: orthodoxy=conservative=bad. Progressive=good. Liberal and heterodox is never mentioned. Given that this spin appears in the anti-Catholic Newsday is not suprising.
At lot of these religious education bureaucrats are near retirement anyway. They are just getting a little push to help them along. As the bishop’s spokeman honestly observes the old programs have failed to keep Catholics going to Mass. Even if you are a progressive, the ought to mean something to you.
Dom wrote:
“If I read nothing else in the article, that leads me to believe he’s on to something good.”
LOL!!!
If only I could read an article like this every day! I offer a pray of thanksgiving for Bishop Murphy!
Aha! We have comprehension. VOTF is a pain in the bishop’s butt. This program is run by people in VOTF. People in VOTF are products of this program, as well. Therefore this program is a pain in the butt. It must be the heterodox content. Blink, blink.
After 40 years. Why did this take so d*** long. Are these people morons???
Hooray for Bishop Murphy though. At least he is brave *and honest* enough to get the ball rolling.
Did you notice he is decimating the staff at the RE office!! LESS Bureacracy is good for the Church!