National Catechetical Month (September 2006)

SHARE THE SECRET!

The Biishops of the Philippines declared 2006 as the “Year of Social Concerns”. The target is to invite people to deepen their understanding of the current social situations in light of their Christian faith. At the heart of the celebration is the study of the Compendium on the Social Doctrine of the Church. The famous book refers to the Social Doctrine of the Church as the church’s “best kept secret”. Church leaders claim that only a number of Catholics know Catholic Social Teachings from Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum to John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus. The phrase “best kept secret” has caught the attention of many pastors and theologians who struggle to make available to many church members the wealth of this tradition.

John Paul in his Sollicitudo Rei Socialis describes the social doctrine of the church as “principles for reflection”, “criteria for judgment” and “directives for action”. It is the gospel understood “in context”, meaning, the gospel in dialogue with the “social question”.

The clarion call of the catechetical month is for every Christian to share the secret to others through the movement of catechesis in all its forms and facets. As an ecclesial activity, sharing the secret will animate all Christian believers to make alive the gospel values of respect for human dignity and participation, charity and justice, solidarity and subsidiarity, the common good and value of the ecology in the service of a Culture of Life.

The CBCP also calls us to re–visit the Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines with its message of liberation and the image of the “Church of the Poor”. They have produced a treasury of pastoral exhortations worthy of our study: Politics, Economy, Culture and Spirituality. In fact, the first priority of the pastoral agenda is integral faith formation with its call to consider the study of the above documents in any catechetical moment. Its target is to form people of faith “in context”.

How many of our people really know that there is such a thing as the Social Doctrine of the Church? How many of them are aware of the wealth of this tradition as part of integral evangelization? Do we provide opportunities for catechists and religious educators to deepen their reflection and integration of the social doctrine? This month long celebration of catechesis and religious education provides an avenue to study, reflect and at best, to actualize the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Share the secret! Let us begin NOW!

1 August 2006