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The Love That Never Ends: A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

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"I am the way, the truth and the life," Jesus says in John 14:6. That is what I expect to find in any Catholic catechism: the way - the how of being Catholic, the truth - the set of beliefs that the catechumen or candidate will ascribe to, the life - the promises that will belong to the baptized person as a result of belief and practice. And I am not disappointed in finding it in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. What the surprise is in the Catechism is that Jesus shows us the love of God. How reassuring to read the focus of the Catechism as "love that never ends."

However, though the Catechism begins with that statement in #25, it is easy to overlook it in the press of understanding the doctrines and the rules and the rituals. An interested non-Christian, concerned with the infrastructure of the church where he or she is considering membership, might easily miss the centrality to everything Catholic of the love that God has for His creatures. Most non-Christian religions do not have this emphasis or focus of love. Even the table of contents and titles of the sections of the Catechism itself move quickly to the creed, cult, and codes of Catholicism.

A catechist, instructing other Christians in the differences and similarities between Catholicism and various Protestant creeds and practices, might easily state this fundamental truth of God's love and then move quickly into the teaching of the faith, the handing down of specifically Catholic theology, practice, information, etc. A focus or emphasis on the personal love that God has for each of us is important and needs to be maintained in the presentation of all doctrine, all aspects of the Catholic practice. And that is what this little book reminds its reader.

It is pleasant, reassuring and uplifting to read on the dust cover of this book "The key to the Catechism is the mystery of the triune God - `the love that never ends.'" As a focused and well-prepared instructor, even as a prayer warrior concerned about my students, interested in providing the right environment and content for conversion, I find it tempting to divert from catechesis on God's love in each of the pillars of the Catechism. Will the baptism or profession of faith of the new Catholic-to-be be properly supported by understanding of doctrine and rituals; will there be enough practice in prayer, sufficient support by intercessor and sponsor and godparent? However, it is not this re-presentation of the catechetical truths and codes that will save, nor even the support the faith of, the potential Catholic.

This book reminded me of the great need to echo the voice of Christ as He has spoken to His Church. The inner comparison, taking place within the inquirer, between Christ's voice and grace within himself or herself and the catechesis of Christ's voice within the setting of the Church, is the process of conversion. Recognizing the Shepherd's voice as the voice of love as well as way-truth-life will empower the inquirer toward conversion and prepare the soul for the joy of communion.

What indeed can a catechism offer for Catholics if not the universality of love of God? Surely, other creeds are easier to live, there are less codes to follow, less difficulties in being what that church might call "holy." The very love of God in calling us to live His very life is distinct and different from every other faith. It is, after all, union with Christ in His Church, in a common union with all the holy human saints of history, that is being offered in a Catholic conversion. Not a lifestyle, not a set of beliefs, not a set of practices. Nothing less than union in love with Love itself. That changes the focus of presenting Catholicism to an inquirer to "courting the catechumen" - we are proposing a marriage to the inquirer, through the truth, the way and the life outlined in the Catechism. That reminder throughout the book is what moved me as I read it.

It is tremendous when you find a paragraph or two that summarizes a complex problem you have been trying to outline. This book by the now- Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, et al, provides exactly that elegant summary. For the competing realities of Catholic attitudes and actions on the huge question of religious liberty are terrificly difficult to truly get a hold of. For this there is a good reason. Look, whatever you might say about the Catholic Church, what you cannot say is that they are naive. The Catholic Church practically invented diplomatic couching of hard realities, often through elaborate mental reservations, in order to make headway in a foreign culture. This should be obvious by history, since no other organization had so much experience for centuries in making inroads in diverse cultures that were ill- disposed to their blandishments. So, credit where credit's due: they know how to do it. It is in that light that we should view the famous document of Vatican II, Dignitatis Humanae, which described the Catholic Church's view on religious liberty. But, in fact is is important to highlight that many, many did not see this document in light of the Church's long diplomatic history. They saw it as a momentous change. They saw it as the Catholic Church waking up to the real pluralism of the modern world, and beginning to take its place as a coherent citizen of that world, acting in good faith. Well, recent history has shown otherwise, sadly. Over the past several decades an even more strident form of revanchism has overtaken this ancient diplomatic behemoth of an organization, and this book couldn't be a better proof of it. For agreeing that you honor the religious liberty of your fellow citizens in the world has consequences. There are of course political consequences with it, which the Church has, what can only be called charitably, a very vexed history. But scarcely less important are the conceptual consequences too. These in fact are even more important in a country like the US where our political liberties are guaranteed. Fortunately, we can summarize the crucial facets simply as a logical matter. If you grant that others have real liberty in religious terms, it means that you grant some basic potential authenticity to principled scope of religious experience of the other person. In other words, if you grant them liberty, and then say that the possibility of an authentic experience is reduced to zero in your view, there is a prima facie disjunct in the coherence of your conceptual approach. This means in fact, then, that you do not grant religious liberty. And it leaves open the door for the suspicion by others that you do not operate in good faith, and in fact might work against even the political liberties contiguous to the conceptual ones. Well that is precisely what one finds this book, The Love that Never Ends, A Key to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In the very Introduction of the book the Augustine Di Noia, et al, provide a very useful proof of a truly nasty tendency in their way of thinking. And since Di Noia is now a bigwig in Doctrine and Liturgy at the Varican, we can only take this as a proof of the simple, bald intentions of the Vatican itself.

Augustine Di Noia, et al, assert simply a very radical and damning thing against other religions. They aver that true authentic religious experience of the Divine is precluded unless you are infused with the notions in the Catholic Catechism. In fact they say that enjoyment of authentic experiences of the Divine without the notions of the Catholic Catechism is mutually exclusive. "The lack of requisite knowledge precludes this enjoyment." In fact they make the utterly radical statement that it is "impossible" and "unimaginable". (p. 16) Where they show their deep continuity with the diplomatic niceties of the Church is in the choice of words. They speak repeatedly "enjoyment" which sounds communitarian and convivial, but in fact is de-limiting and exclusive. What we have here is an painfully exquisite summary of both the nettlesome continuation of complete intoleration by the Roman Catholic Church, and its desire to use diplomatic nicety to obfuscate that simple fact. If one may be indulged a cheeky historical aside, I doubt that when the Jews were forced into conversion in Spain that they thought of it as an invitation to "enjoyment". Still, of course none of this obviates the need for our society to tolerate the essentially intolerant view of the Roman Catholic Church in terms of political liberty. They are free to conceive of their beliefs in any way they wish. But they should not be free to escape conceptual criticism for the same. On this level, the only reasonable verdict is that this production by Augustine Di Noia , et al, , like so many others now in the Catholic realm, is just a tissue of lies, at least as to intent. It pretends to be simply an enunciation of Catholic beliefs for Catholics per se. In fact it smuggles in a very societally ugly and dangerous evacuation of meaning from the faith-lives of fellow citizens. In this sense, this is a very shameless product. But when one sees the presence of Bernard Cardinal Law writing the preface for the thing, one instantly knows what moral level the thing operates on. With that in mind we are justified in calling it simply, a grostequerie.