|
September 2007 Issue
A Glimpse at our Past
|
It's
time for school to be in session and for 'C.C.D." classes
to begin again for students who do not attend a Catholic
school. Did you ever wonder what those initials "C.C.D."
mean?
Up until the 1200s, the Apostles' Creed
and the Our Father were at the heart of all religious
instruction. |
 |
Various church councils ordered priests to
explain these prayers to the faithful through their preaching,
along with instruction on the commandments, the sacraments,
the virtues and the vices.
The Council of Trent (1545-63), responding
to the challenges of the Protestant Reformation, put a priority
on the religious instruction of young people. In 1562, some
zealous Catholics in Rome organized the Confraternity of Christian
Doctrine (C.C.D.) for the express purpose of teaching the
catechism to school-age students. In 1905, Pope St. Pius X
(pictured at left) ordered the Confraternity to be established
in every parish. Five years later, he issued his decree Quam
singulari, which insisted that children who had reached the
age of reason or discretion should be instructed for and admitted
to their fi rst confession and first Communion.
Up to that time, children who had been baptized
as infants were usually prepared for the rest of their sacraments
of initiation when they were about 12 or 13. In our own diocese,
as in many places, it was often the practice to have the children
receive their fi rst Communion at an early morning Mass. (Remember,
in those days they had to fast from all food and drink from
midnight before receiving Communion.) Then the bishop would
confi rm them the same day, in the afternoon. But by the time
they were 12 or 13, St. Pius X reasoned, many of them had
been exposed to so much of the world that they were no longer
interested in the faith. He considered the age of discretion
to be about seven years. When the child could tell the difference
between right and wrong and could distinguish the Eucharist
from ordinary bread, St. Pius X fi gured it was important
to instruct and prepare them. That has been our practice ever
since. Religious instruction of children a century ago was
often carried out by the priest himself, particularly in many
of our small, rural parishes. St. Jerome's in Scottville,
(pictured below) is a good example.
The accompanying page from the annual report
for 1926, fi lled out by Father T. Raymond Dark, indicates
that the catechism class for high school students was taught
right in the rectory. Earlier, his predecessor, Father William
F. Simon, in the report for 1920 gave details of his catechetical
work in Scottville and its many scattered mission churches.
He taught catechism twice a week in Scottville, twice a month
in Custer, once a month in all the other missions, and for
a whole week during the summer. Such summer religion classes
were often conducted by Sisters who went north for their summer
"vacation." Father Simon reported the average attendance at
the regular classes during the year as "Scottville, 18; Custer,
15; Riverton, 30; Victory, 15; Carr, 8; Fern, 4; Irons, 15;
Round Lake, 12." You can see he was a real circuit rider!
Today, most parish religious education programs, even though
they're still often called "C.C.D. classes," have at best
a loose affi liation with the formal organization, which continues
to have a worldwide infl uence on both the content and method
of Catholic religious instruction.
– Fr. Dennis W. Morrow, diocesan
archivist
|
