WASHINGTON, D.C. — When is the last time you cracked open the Catechism of the Catholic Church? Odds are, it’s sitting on your bookshelf collecting dust.
A new global project, Real + True, seeks to “unlock” the catechism and modernize the way Church teaching is presented to a digital age.
The catechism “is not just a technical book,” said Real + True co-founder Edmund Mitchell, “but it’s written to really change our relationship with Christ.”
Launched Sept. 7, the initiative includes videos, social media content and a podcast organized along the four pillars of the catechism. Each month a new unit will be released, with 12 units for each pillar, totaling 48 units.
Aimed at millennial and Generation Z audiences, the content is meant to supplement evangelization and catechesis efforts that already exist as well as be a resource to those seeking answers to questions online, said co-founder Edmundo Reyes.
The material is free and available on realtrue.org in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
Reyes said the inspiration for Real + True came six years ago in Portland, Oregon, when he encountered BibleProject, a nonprofit organization with a library of resources to help people read and understand the Bible.
While the organization isn’t Catholic, he was impressed by their work, which he’d “never seen done in a Church setting.” After learning about BibleProject’s creative process, he came back “with the hope of one day doing something similar with the Church.”
The Church is moving in the direction of an “evangelizing catechesis,” said Reyes, citing the example of Pope Francis instituting the ministry of the catechist in May and the Vatican updating the “Directory for Catechesis” June 2020. He sees Real + True as participating in that evangelizing catechesis.
Reyes quoted the catechism, which states: “Periods of renewal in the Church are also intense moments of catechesis.” And with the 30th anniversary of the catechism next year, the time seemed ripe to launch the initiative.
Reyes described Real + True as a “passion project,” apart from his work as the director of the communications in the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Co-founder Emily Mentock explained that the project’s goal of “unlocking the catechism for the modern world” means bringing the “content of the text into more digital media channels to better reach the audience that we’re after” -- people that are not against the Church but are curious and open to learning more about their faith.
Mentock, 29, said her own journey back to practicing Catholicism informed her work on Real + True. A pivotal step in her story was seeing a tweet quoting Bishop Robert E. Barron’s sermons podcast.
The tweet piqued her interest, so she started listening to the podcast and eventually “became compelled to go back to Mass and from there became compelled to actually read all the Gospels,” said Mentock, who works as associate director of digital strategy at the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Each Real + True unit contains three videos -- a proclamation video, an explanation video and a connection video -- as well as a podcast that is geared toward formal and informal catechists.
Funded by a grant from Our Sunday Visitor, the Real + True initiative is also seeking donations to translate content into more languages and produce videos at a faster pace.
“The work of evangelization online is significant and important, especially in a world so connected, which is what we saw in the pandemic,” said Reyes.
— Anna Capizzi Galvez, Catholic News Service
August is not only dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but also to the Solemnity of the Assumption and the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That means this month is an opportune time to reflect on music composed to honor Our Lady.
One of the most timeless examples came from the Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521). His “Ave Maria … virgo serena” remains one of the most popular and stunning works in music history. It falls under the genre of sacred motet, a vocal piece that at the time of Josquin’s writing was characterized by all the voices singing the same words to allow for text clarity, an issue of great importance during that time.
Although we often view composers in the past as revered geniuses, they were regular people and, in Josquin’s case, had a playful sense of humor. As David W. Barber recounts in his “Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys,” Josquin was promised a raise that never materialized. To hasten the process in a rather clever manner, he composed the motet “Remember thy word unto thy servant.” The message was received, and after getting his raise, Josquin penned a piece on the text “Lord, thou hast dealt graciously with thy servant.”
The full title of “Ave Maria … virgo serena,” is generally used to distinguish it from other Ave Marias by the same composer. This one is sometimes referred to as the
“Mona Lisa of Renaissance music” and, like its Da Vinci counterpart, is incredibly well-known and instantly recognizable. Although the work cannot be dated with certainty, it is believed to have been composed in the 1480s.
As was typical of the time, the text is in Latin. Josquin opens the work with a quotation of a Gregorian chant on the words first acclaimed by the angel Gabriel: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you (serene Virgin).” The voices present this joyful acclamation imitatively which, while beautiful, makes it difficult to understand the text. But the words are recognizable to any Catholic. After the opening, the imitation changes to enhance textual clarity as each of the subsequent five stanzas sings of the major Marian feasts: Conception, Nativity, Annunciation, Purification (now referred to as the Presentation), and the Assumption.
The work begins and ends in duple meter – which today may seem insignificant, but prior to the Ars Nova (“New Art”), a concept of 14th-century France that allowed for duple meter, triple meter was used almost exclusively because of its symbolism of the Holy Trinity. (In fact, units of three in music notation were called “perfections.”) Thus, when Josquin places one verse into triple, it is of great importance. The text in this stanza translates to “Hail true virginity, immaculate chastity whose purification was our purgation,” which demonstrates the critical role the Blessed Mother plays in our Salvation. Additionally, all four voices are sounding simultaneously to draw emphasis on these essential words. (When you watch the video at the link below, this begins at 2:30 in the clip.)
Josquin precedes the ending section of the work with a measure of rest to grab the attention of the listener (occurring at approximately 4:00 in the online clip). Some interpret these words as a final, personal plea by the composer, and 500 years later, are ones that we still benefit from praying: “O Mater Dei, memento mei” (“O Mother of God, remember me”).
— Christina L. Reitz, Special to the Catholic News Herald. Christina L. REITZ, Ph.D., is a professor of music at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. (Photo courtesy of Western Carolina University.)