By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — The saying that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church” should remind people of those literally willing to give their lives so they could witness to and be united with Christ.
That some people were so motivated to offer up a sacrifice of themselves had the effect of building up the Church on Earth by others left behind who were significantly impressed but weren’t called upon for this oblation.
Despite all that the world has gone through in 2020 — including the pandemic, economic collapses, urban rioting and looting in some locations, and political turmoil — some countries still aren’t as badly off as others.
Communist China and other Marxist redoubts, parts of the Mideast and Africa are reminders of an even heavier price to pay for religious fidelity than, for instance, secular economic reversals elsewhere experienced by people seeing businesses destroyed by lockdowns, as daunting as such job losses are.
With political correctness being succeeded by the even more oppressive cancel culture, Christians in the Western world may see more of what it’s like to suffer discrimination simply for having a Bible at hand. This wouldn’t be the first time in the English-speaking world for such oppression.
A Catholic educator with an extensive background in the English Catholic Church told a Zoom meeting on October 17 what could result from possessing a Catholic catechism in seventeenth-century England.
Petroc Willey, Ph.D., STL, speaking on “The Origin and Impact of the Catechism,” showed an edition of the catechism from 1635, printed in France and smuggled to England, a tome that followed the mid-sixteenth century Council of Trent that replied to the rise of Protestantism.
At that time Catholic priests could be executed in England, and priests and laity “gave their lives for” this catechism, which was written for priests and was found “hidden away” in an English house, Willey said.
Willey spoke to the Zoom meeting, which lasted nearly two hours, from Steubenville, Ohio, where he is director of the Catechetical Institute and the Office of Catechetics at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, after having worked in English Catholic higher education for more than 25 years.
This meeting was conducted through the Institute of Catholic Theology, an evangelization program based at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Phoenix.
His biographical information says Willey “studied theology at King’s College, London, and philosophy at Liverpool University, where he received his doctorate. He later received his STL from the Pontifical University, Maynooth, and an ecclesiastical doctorate from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.”
In the twentieth century, there were “huge upheavals” between the two world wars, Willey said, and Pope John Paul II knew the Church “needed a point of reference and stability,” which resulted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church issued during his pontificate, in 1992. Still, the European Union as a whole “officially rejected its Christian roots,” Willey said.
In a March 2007 story, the Reuters news service reported that “Pope Benedict strongly criticized the European Union…for excluding a mention of God and Europe’s Christian roots in declarations marking the fiftieth anniversary of its founding. In a toughly worded speech to European bishops, Benedict said Europe was committing a form of ‘apostasy of itself’ and was thus doubting its own identity.”
Willey told the Zoom meeting that “John Paul himself is the big rescuer” after the catechetical renewal had problems following Vatican II, with “a fissure” occurring.
“You could see this happening in parish life,” Willey said, with a split between more traditional concerns like pro-life and the different approach of the social-justice movement.
A woman in the Zoom audience recalled being raised with the Baltimore Catechism and wondered about its relationship to the 1992 Catechism.
The Baltimore Catechism “is a work of enduring value. Nothing in it is wrong,” Willey said.
He said the bishops of North America took the new 1992 Catechism seriously and tried to make sure teaching was in conformity with it.
Vatican II spoke of the need for a new catechism but didn’t call for one, he said.
As to the European Union, it’s a secular organization, Willey said, but Poland and Hungary held out against its stand for aspects like LGBT rights.
He said he doesn’t know if European countries as a whole reject Christianity, but he was glad that Britain left the EU through the Brexit movement — not that Britain itself is so holy, he added.
A woman in the audience said Willey said a priest needs to be evangelizing to the parish or community, but some priests are falling away from the teaching they could be presenting, such as realizing the centrality of the Eucharist.
“It just scares me” that these pastors “aren’t being our shepherd. . . . Christ is our only way,” she said. “. . . It’s not just a duty to come to church. It’s in our heart.”
Willey replied that when people hear a proclamation of truth from the pulpit, be thankful for it.
He told his audience that he thought if his life could be dedicated to one thing aside from his family, it would be to help the Catechism become better known.
Willey was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI a consultor for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization in Rome, and for more than 20 years was editor of a journal for catechetical leaders, The Sower.
In addition, his biographical information says he “worked in English Catholic higher education, in Oxford and in Birmingham, for more than 25 years, in seminary and lay institutions, and in both traditional and distance education. From 1985-1992, he was Lecturer in Christian Ethics at Plater College, Oxford.”
Also, before coming to Steubenville, “from 1992-2013, he worked at the Maryvale Institute, Birmingham, where he first directed the masters program and went on to be deputy director and dean of graduate research.”
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