The document is in three parts. The first part examining significant elements in contemporary culture, the second part theological responses to that culture and the third part a commentary on the resources and responses the Catholic community can bring to handing on the faith through education, catechesis and formation.

As a first step theological reviews have been undertaken by the following theologians: Tina Beattie, Cecily Boulding, Michael Campbell, Clifford Longley and Timothy Radcliffe. From 3^rd October 2005, both the essay and these reflections are available on the Catholic Education Service website. Neither is an end product but is shared to stimulate further discussion and greater self-awareness both within and outside the Catholic community.

This is the first stage of a major three-year project. As Archbishop Vincent Nichols writes in the foreword to On The Way To Life the essay "highlights the ways in which, in this country, we stand at a crossroads. We need to reflect deeply on its contents."

It is anticipated on 12^th October 2005 further introductory material and a DVD summarizing the main themes of the report will be available from CCN/CES.

Review by Fr. Michael Campbell, OSA

On The Way to Life is a wide-ranging study, both philosophical and theological in nature. It aims to describe the cultural landscape within which the Church in England and Wales at the present time has to operate. Considerable reflection is devoted to those currents of thought and modes of discourse operative and characteristic of our modern/post-modern world. This concentrated section requires careful reading.

The writers see the Second Vatican Council, in particular the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, as being of fundamental significance for understanding where the Church finds herself at this precise time in history. Vatican II, it is stressed, is a vision of a theological way of being and understanding which is always in process, and not one that has achieved closure. The open and positive approach to the world and society found in that Constitution has had profound implications for the Church’s self-understanding and her call to proclaim the gospel to the people of our time. Not everyone would subscribe to this point of view, however, and the debate continues.

The study expresses well the concerns about transmitting the Catholic faith in its integrity due to a weakening of Catholic ‘memory’ and the traditional home-school-parish structure, once such a feature of Catholic life. This development poses real concerns about Catholic identity in a multi-religious and pluralistic society. The Catholic position has come to be seen as representing one voice among many in the religious market place that is today’s world.

The important and pressing point is underlined that inherited theological language no longer speaks to the present generation, and so making imperative the creation of a new and relevant discourse for expressing the Catholic faith. Cases in point would be the terms ‘salvation’ and ‘sin’: how do we preach such fundamental doctrines today in a manner that is both relevant and convincing? This situation is one that will need to be addressed in catechesis, religious education and adult formation.

Another feature of a greatly transformed cultural landscape which again poses a major challenge for the Catholic community will be to discover ways in which the ecclesial sources of authority, especially the Magisterium, can be retrieved in a culture where the sources of authority have shifted. The reaction to the papal encyclical Humane Vitae on the regulation of birth, according to the study, marked a watershed and signaled a ‘classic clash of cultures’, whose fall-out is still with us. The question of authority and obedience in the Church remains with us.

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