Catholic Dads

Benedict XIV and our duty to learn

August 25th, 2010

Father to Father is a weekly feature, appearing each Wednesday, examining what the Church, through the office of the Pope, is saying to us fathers. You can subscribe to the newsfeed here.

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In less than two weeks, most of us will be sending our children back to school or increasing and expanding the lessons taught from home. Math, geography, history, science, and other subjects will, in all likelihood, be the focus of their days.

It is, in this spirit, that we look to a sometimes (inadvertently) neglected aspect of education: religious catechesis.

In June 1754, Pope Benedict XIV released an encyclical on that subject, Cum Religiosi.

The Holy Father used the brief letter to address a serious issue: the large number of faithful arriving in Rome who were “were ignorant of the mysteries of the faith, even of those matters which must be known by necessity of means”.

These pilgrims were traveling to the Eternal City to receive dispensations concerning impediments to marriage (for more on impediments, see the following from the Catholic Encyclopedia).

Pope Benedict saw the remedy for their ignorance in a “group effort” to pass along the fundamentals of the Christian faith. He exhorted “masters and mistresses”, confessors, priests, and – you guessed it – fathers to do their part:

“that fathers of families and lords of houses should be gravely advised of the duty imposed on them of being themselves instructed and of seeing to the instruction in the commandments of Christian doctrine of their sons and of the members of their household”

The pontiff does not mince words here. He wants fathers to teach. But first WE must learn. Fathers are “gravely advised” and have a “duty” to learn the faith. Pope Benedict is stating what should be obvious: you cannot give what you do not have.

Many of us know our faith and well, but do we know enough to teach our households? Have we committed to memory all of the “lists” that explain and bolster our faith?

I think one of the ways we can better learn the faith is by reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church. If you are interested, the Coming Home Network has created a helpful Bible/Catechism in one year reading plan (PDF).

How do you increase your understanding of the faith so as to better teach your family?

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