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Religious Education for the Locals
In a section on the Diocese of Owensboro's web site aimed at Directors of Religious Education, the above ad appears. What can our diocesan DRE's expect from this session? On what exactly will they reflect? What will they learn? I wonder what types of ideas our DRE's will come back with to pass on to us and our children that are enrolled in Parish School of Religion programs. Lets find out. A "Liturgical Arts Adventure Workshop" sponsored by Ministry and Liturgy Magazine to be held in August, 2001, featuring a "ritual track" by Michael Mansfield called "Dancing Church 'Advent'ures" says, What are the movements of Advent? Personally? Communally? Together we will explore the themes of Advent Week One, Advent Evensong, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Christmas and Epiphany. Empowering the Advent and Christmas liturgies, rituals and prayers so that they do justice to the seasons' calls is the task of the dance minister. What will we birth into being out of our community this year? That is the dance of Advent and Christmas. Although, granted, most liturgies celebrated nowadays are desperately in need of something, they certainly don't need to be "empowered" by dance and other "movements". It is precisely these types of trendy fads that have turned our Holy Masses into ridiculous spectacles that must be painfully endured by those of us who are simply seeking a reverent Mass faithful to and respectful of our Catholic Tradition. Indeed, these "adventures" bear little resemblance to the actual liturgical reforms that were actually called for by the Second Vatican Council. A source listing Mansfield's credentials says that he has been "integrating ritual dance and drama into worship, education and theater for the past 22 years", and "teaches dance, theater, ritual, justice-making, and spirituality" at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, CA, and also "ministers" at several Catholic Churches and a school in California. Too bad for them. Another "Liturgical Catechesis Convention" featuring Michael Mansfield will be in Kansas City, MO, in October. This convention offers "tracks" for liturgical ministers and catechists. The four liturgical tracks are "ritual, environment, music, and movement". The four catechetical tracks are "word, space, time, and action". Listed endorsers of this convention include the Diocese of New Ulm Office of Religious Education and the Diocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis Office of Worship (this alone is reason enough to avoid it like the plague). The advertisement calls this an "exciting opportunity for true renewal" for the "vigilant faithful" who have been called to "full and active participation". This "full and active participation" quote is a favorite among the liturgical fadsters and is one of the most misinterpreted statements in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. What is actually meant by this statement was for the faithful to participate by paying closer attention to the actions of the priest and actively saying the prayers and responses of the congregation rather than just waiting around for Communion. It does not mean running around dancing, waving banners, circling around the altar, assembling a platoon of extraordinary ministers to distribute Communion when there is no genuine need for them, or dreaming up other creative ways to liven up the Mass and give everybody something to do. Several other conferences and "adventures" were found on the Ministry and Liturgy Magazine website that were basically the same as the ones above. Does our Diocesan Office of Religious Education consider this to be "religious education"? Apparently. A link to a website called "Resources for Christian Educators" (www.silk.net/RelEd/) is enthusiastically endorsed on our diocesan DRE web page. A statement says, "This is a wonder (sic) site, full of resources for teachers and families. Do yourself a favor and click on the (link)." I did myself a favor and clicked on it. Although there was some good information, among the resources I found were links to articles about liturgical dance, Buddhism, promoting ordination of women, etc., as well as links to many notoriously dissident web sites that do nothing less than poison the faith of unsuspecting Catholics and falsely represent the Catholic Church to curious non-Catholics. There are other web sites that have good, solid Catholic resources for educators, The Nazareth Resource Library, the New Advent Catholic Supersite, CatholiCity, Biblical Evidence for Catholicism, the Catholic Liturgical Library, the St. Lawrence Catholic Resource Site, the Librarian's Guide to Catholic Resources on the Internet, to name only a few. Does our Diocesan Office of Religious Education recommend any of these sites? Nope. Instead we are referred to sites like the one above. To read documents about the Holy Eucharist we are led to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' web site. One can always depend on Cardinal Mahony for good solid theological articles... right. Some of the sites our youth are encouraged to check out are American Catholic Youth and LifeTeen; sites with little to offer young Catholics except perhaps inadequate explanations of what we believe. More Reading:
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