Christmas at Casa Maria

• The Power of Mary's Heart to Change the World
  
• Our Lady of Prayer - Part 3
  
• St. Philomena - Powerful with God
  
• The Mystery of the Holy Fr.'s Kazan Icon Now at Home in Russia
  
• Pope Gives Kazan Icon Back to Russia
  
• Building Catholic Family Traditions: All Saint's Eve
  
• Fatima: Answer to Pope Leo XIII
  
• Our Lady of Lichen
  
• Mary's White League for Children
  
• Christmas at Casa Maria
  
• Editorial - Rebuilding a Catholic Culture in the Home
  
• Fatima Family Forum
  
• Questions & Answers
  
• News Briefs & Comments
  
• FFA Chatterings

Editorial - Rebuilding a Catholic Culture in the Home

The Fatima Family Apostolate is international. Reading the Messenger magazine is but one aspect to a total apostolate reaching out to the family and all individuals. The focus is on sanctification of the family.

While I've been engaged in the Fatima Apostolate for the past 30 years, I've always had a deep concern for sound doctrine in catechetical approaches. I taught religion in the classroom for over 50 years, including a couple years before ordination and each week of the school year from the time I was ordained. This enabled me to recognize early on the funny catechisms and the widespread failures in catechetics that ensued even before the Second Vatican Council was ended.

Children and young people are the future of the Church. It is most important that they be taught the fullness of true faith and be formed in it. Education is not the same as formation. Education without formation is no guarantee that the child will believe and practice the true faith. Our Lady came as a catechist at Fatima and formed the children. It was a message for our time.

The catechetical crisis has been the focus of literally thousands of articles in those segments of the Catholic press which are sound and loyal to the Church. Not a few diocesan papers are still in the hands of the liberal establishment. Our failures in teaching the true faith and giving formation opened the door to proselytizing by the Protestant fundamentalists.

In the late sixties into the seventies when I frequently wrote in the National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, and other sound Catholic publications, I also traveled the country speaking about the growing failures in catechetics. Uninformed people then were sometimes shocked to hear the truth. There are few practicing Catholic parents today who are unaware of these failures. Due to failures in religious education millions have been lost to participation and reception of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist through the Sacrifice of the Mass. It took the bishops of the country until recent years to officially face these facts openly.

The Family Apostolate which this magazine represents offers various tools to help parents in both the education and formation of themselves and their children. Parents however will need to take time to obtain and become acquainted with the tools. Needed further is motivating their children and guiding them in their use, and giving good example.