Yesterday I attended workshop in our diocese entitled “The Challenge of Catechesis Today”\u00a0 given by Bishop Frank Caggiano\u00a0(Auxillary\u00a0Bishop of Brooklyn).\u00a0 Last fall the New York State Catholic Bishops released a new document called “The Catechetical Leader in the Third Millennium.”\u00a0 I just want to share a couple of highlights with you.<\/p>\n
Catechesis is the education for us to learn about our faith.\u00a0 We live in a world of high-tech communications.\u00a0 As a Church, we need to make use of technology to reach out to people, whether it be by texting, websites, blogs, social media, or any other means.\u00a0 This is the way our young people today communicate.\u00a0 If we wish to reach them, we need to “go” where they are at.\u00a0 The Internet is a big part of “where they are at.”<\/p>\n
I want to share with you two terms he used.\u00a0 The first is “Truth” with a capital “T”.\u00a0 Today there are people who feel there is no absolute truth when it comes to religion, ethics, or morality. Both\u00a0Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor have spoken of this as the danger of relativism.<\/em>\u00a0 As Catholics we believe there is.\u00a0 The Truth (with a capital T) comes from God.\u00a0 This Truth does not change.\u00a0 It is God who determines what is right or wrong.\u00a0 The goal of catechesis is to help us all know that truth.<\/p>\n The second term is “love”.\u00a0 He defined love in a way I had not heard before.\u00a0 He said love is effectively willing the good of the other.\u00a0 Do we care about the other enough to work for their good?<\/p>\n Bishop Caggiano also spoke of evangelization.\u00a0 When we think of evangelization, we often think of people who don’t go to church.\u00a0 Evangelization does call us to reach out to the people we know who don’t go to church but it begins with us.\u00a0 We need to learn more about our own faith so that we can better share it with others.<\/p>\n Peace,<\/p>\n Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday I attended workshop in our diocese entitled “The Challenge of Catechesis Today”\u00a0 given by Bishop Frank Caggiano\u00a0(Auxillary\u00a0Bishop of Brooklyn).\u00a0 Last fall the New York State Catholic Bishops released a new document called “The Catechetical Leader in the Third Millennium.”\u00a0 I just want to share a couple of highlights with you. Catechesis is the education …<\/p>\n