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ROCKVILLE CENTRE, February 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic diocese of Rockville Center on Long Island, announced last week that it is overhauling its religious instruction to focus more on orthodoxy in Catholic teaching.
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  Bishop William F. Murphy, writing in the diocesan newspaper on Wednesday, said the reorganization reflected an “assessment of our strengths and weaknesses,” and that it “would not mean a major change in the content of what we offer, which is the teaching of the Church.”
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  The changes will most affect the diocesan Office of Catechesis and the Office of Laity and Family, the offices in charge of teaching Catholic doctrine to children and potential converts and providing marriage preparation courses. The new plan will also establish an adult education programme called the Pastoral Formation Institute.
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  In response to complaints that the diocese is shifting away from the “paradigm of dialogue” that has led catechetics for the last decades in the US and Canada, a diocesan spokesman said the plan was in response to falling Mass attendance. Sean P. Dolan said the diocese had asked some hard questions about the efficacy of its doctrinal teaching. “We have about 20,000 baptisms and about 20,000 marriages every year in this diocese, and the question we have to face is, why only a fraction of those people are going to church.”
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  Since the mid-1960’s the widespread dilution of Catholic teaching has been a major stumbling block for life and family advocates. What has been called the “catechetical revolution” in the Church has emphasized the ephemera of modern psychological theories and leftist political causes over Catholic moral teaching. Pro-life advocates have long held that a return by the Catholic Church to teaching clearly its moral doctrine could generate a cultural shift away from abortion and the sexually permissive society.
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  Dan Bartley, a chairman of the Long Island chapter of the dissident organization, Voice of the Faithful, complained that liberal activists had been left out of the “consultation” process for the diocese’s decision. “What I see here is a bishop who intends to encourage a ‘pay, pray and obey’ type of Catholic faith. This is definitely a step backward,” he said.

The New York Times noted that Bishop Murphy is known to be among the small group of US bishops, along with Olmsted of Phoenix, Arizona and Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska who have enforced orthodoxy in doctrine and refused platforms to pro-abortion politicians in their dioceses.
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“Why doesn’t the current generation have the grounding in the faith that previous generations had?” Dolan asked. “We have to address that.”