Books

Crisis In Religious Education, by Eamonn Keane

Reviewed by Damien Tudehope

Contents - Oct 2003 - Buy a copy now Editorial: The role of the Catholic in public life - Peter Westmore After 25 years: the impact of John Paul II's pontificate - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Ethics: Bishop Fisher and Dr Philip Nitschke in Sydney euthanasia debate - Frank Mobbs Saints: The Beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta Youth: Thomas More Winter School in Sale Diocese has Eucharistic focus - Michael Casanova Melbourne Archdiocese responds to John Paul II's Year of the Rosary - AD2000 Report How fatherhood is crucial to children's faith - Fr Robbie Low Why Catholic teaching on marriage is 'good news' for all humanity - Eamonn Keane AD2000 readers' generous response to Queensland Lourdes appeal - Jenny Davies and Nicole King Orthodox US Catholic colleges and universities continue to flourish - Julia Duin Letters: Original Sin (letter) - Niall Browne Letters: Individual confession (letter) - John Cassar Letters: Clerical celibacy (letter) - Gerard Wilson Letters: New bishops (letter) - Anne Lastman Letters: Thomas Groome (letter) - Dr Susan Moore Letters: Education crisis (letter) - Alex Sharah Letters: New RE program (letter) - Paul Chigwidden Letters: Inspiring hymn (letter) - Kevin O'Hagan Letters: Footy Show (letter) - Alan A. Hoysted Books: I The Lord Am With You Always: Prayers and Meditations for Eucharistic Adoration - Msgr Peter J. Elliott (reviewer) Liturgical Time Bombs In Vatican II, by Michael Davies - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Crisis In Religious Education, by Eamonn Keane - Damien Tudehope (reviewer) Books: Great books at the best prices! Reflection: Why the tabernacle should be centrally located in our churches - Fr Sebastian Camilleri OFM

CRISIS IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
by Eamonn Keane
(Association for Renewal of Religious Education, Sydney, 2003, 80pp, $8.00 plus postage. Available from the publisher, PO Box 56, Pennant Hills, NSW 2125, E-mail: gocathain@hotmail.com)

This booklet is a synthesised version of Eamonn Keane's larger work titled A Generation Betrayed. The summary on the back cover states the book's purpose: "Throughout the English-speaking world, Catholic religious education has been heavily influenced by the ideas of Thomas Groome. His method of religious education, which he calls Shared Christian Praxis, is a blueprint for the destruction of Catholic Faith. Nevertheless, his ideas underpin the religious education curricula of several Australian Catholic dioceses. Do you know the type of religious education your children are being exposed to? If not, it is in their eternal interests that you find out. This book by Eamonn Keane will assist you do this."

With persuasive logic, Keane shows that not only is Groome a leading public dissenter from Catholic teaching, but also that his method of RE is internally structured so as to foster an attitude of scepticism in regard to the teaching of the Magisterium. That Catholic religious education authorities could remain enthralled for so long by Groome's anti- doctrinal and neo-Marxist inspired method of religious education is an important factor, I suspect, explaining the state of chaos that has overtaken RE in Catholic schools in recent decades.

As well as lucidly transposing the anti-Catholic elements embedded in Groome's methodology, Keane also illustrates the destructive influence its adoption has had on the development of Parramatta's diocesan RE curriculum Sharing Our Story. This curriculum is used in other Australian dioceses, including Canberra- Goulburn, Wilcannia-Forbes and most recently, Wagga Wagga.

Catechism

While the Draft Support Units used to implement Sharing Our Story contain many quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as Keane points out through numerous citations, these Units also recommend books for teacher reference and student use that actually contradict the teaching of the Catechism. Also, at times statements from the Catechism are combined "with erroneous or confusing commentary."

In his Preface to Keane's earlier work A Generation Betrayed, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska, said: "Eamonn Keane has given us in his critique of Thomas Groome's Shared Christian Praxis ... not only a work of superb content and high intellectual order, but also an inspiration to confront courageously the malign and pervasive germs and viruses, which have in recent decades infiltrated and, in some instances, infected the various aspects of Catholic ecclesial life, particularly catechetics and Catholic education".

Bishop Bruskewitz's words could just as easily be applied to Crisis in Religious Education. It is a clear, concise and readable exposé of what can rightly be considered one of the most stealth-like forms of subversion Catholic education in Australia has ever had to confront. For anyone interested in the poor state of RE in many Australian dioceses today, this booklet is a must.

Damien Tudehope is a Sydney Catholic writer.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 16 No 9 (October 2003), p. 17