(Bishop’s Name)
Address 
August 26, 2002

Dear (Arch) Bishop _________,

Catholicism in America is on a rapid decline. Many American Catholics do not even know what being Catholic means, and what they should believe. This can be directly attributed to a general lack of catechesis. This new generation of non-educated Catholics now have children; whom are not getting the religious education needed at home, requiring formal religious education at the parish level to pick up the slack.

This simply is not happening, and in fact CCD appears to be getting worse across the United States. This issue desperately needs to be addressed if the Church in America indeed wants to regain it’s strength. It is a sad fact that the majority of Catholics don’t even understand what it is they say at church every week in the creed.

People ponder the question as to why there is a dramatic decrease in vocations. They come up with many excuses, but the simple answer is: how can there be an increase in vocations, when most young men and women do not even understand there faith? If CCD did it’s job, and taught young people exactly what it is they need to believe a dramatic increase in vocations would surely result.

It is a sad, yet true fact, that many Catholic youth are leaving the church to join Protestant churches. The vast majority of these young people, if having had a better religious education program, would surely still be in the church, Christ’s church. These young people do not know what they are doing, and weren’t taught the importance of the sacraments they are now depriving themselves of. 

It is up to you as the shepherds, to be sure that your flock is not led astray. A national standard for religious education must be set up. Without this the problem will only get worse, and vocations to the priesthood and religious life will continue to decline. This is a major issue troubling the church and cannot be ignored. A set of national guidelines need to be instituted, outlining what should and needs to be taught, and at what age. A system of checks and balances needs to be set up to be sure that these things are in fact being taught and that parishes are not ignoring this set of guidelines. 

Again, this is up to you as the Bishops of the church. I am writing to inform you of this problem, and you must continue, and work to solve it. If it is not solved the Catholic church will simply be just that, churches, when it should be the group of millions of people that call themselves Catholic.