Thursday, February 21, 2008

Homiletics II

Here's a bit of welcome news.

Cardinal William J. Levada noted that the trend to eliminate catechetical homilies after Vatican II was not really in the spirit of "Dei Verbum," the council document on divine revelation.He said the Scripture commentary aspect of the homily was emphasized because it had been so lacking prior to the council.The cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the church should now seek to integrate these two aspects.

(From a keynote address at a meeting of 40 US Bishops....)

Ten Reasons goes on to mention the Pope's thoughts on the matter:

In Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict urges priests to deliver "'thematic' homilies treating the great themes of the Christian faith, on the basis of what has been authoritatively proposed by the Magisterium in the four 'pillars' of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the recent Compendium, namely: the profession of faith, the celebration of the Christian mystery, life in Christ and Christian prayer."

Now and then a little dogma is a good thing.

1 comment:

GOR said...

Yes! And about time too... As others have noted, having the Homily tied exclusively to the readings has not worked. Few priests seem to be able to do it well. Given the level of Catechetics these past 40 years there is a real need for adults to hear about Doctrine and Dogma.

Yes Bible reading and study is important for all, but only in the Catholic Church do we have a Magisterium that ensures correct interpretation. Else we become a 'sola Scriptura' church with individual and varied interpretation.