Archbishop Gomes of San Antonio has issued his first pastoral letter (pdf file) that emphasizes the need for formation in the faith:

9] I want to speak to you about our formation in the faith as the basis for our life in Christ. I say our formation because, just like you, I also need to grow constantly in knowledge and love of Our Lord. Formation in the faith is about getting to know Jesus better—establishing and deepening a personal relationship with him in order to be his follower and his friend. It seeks to foster a wisdom of the intellect and a wisdom of the heart.

[22] The time has come to update and review our Formation programs and plans. This includes the wide variety of programs in the archdiocese, from the Seminary formation, to the guidelines and directives of the Department of Educational/Formational Services, which includesour Parishes, Catholic Schools, Youth Ministry, etc., to the many evangelization initiatives that enrich the life of the Archdiocese, to the charitable activities that Pope Benedict XVI calls the practice of love.

[23] The time has come to renew our commitment to God and His people, rediscovering the joys and hopes of the true teachings of the Second Vatican Council, with a new enthusiasm based on the certainty of God’s love for us and our generous response to His love, especially shown in our love for others.

[24] We need to bear in mind something Pope Benedict told participants in last summer’s World Youth Day events in Cologne. “The happiness you are seeking, the happiness you have a right to enjoy, has a name and a face: It is Jesus of Nazareth”— Jesus whom we learn to know, to love, and to follow through education and formation in the faith. 9

It is a pastoral letter, and hence lacking in specifics, but the tone is clear. Let’s hope substance follows. (Not that I know a thing about the Archdiocese of San Antonio..)

This follows on the more concrete moves in the Rockville Centre Diocese noted in this Newsday article from a week or so ago –

Rockville Centre Bishop William Murphy announced a major shakeup of religious education yesterday that reconfigures the program that produced a generation of lay Catholic leaders, as well as many members of Voice of the Faithful, an activist group that has demanded the bishop’s resignation.

Murphy said the restructuring would "not mean a major change in the content of what we offer, which is the teaching of the Church," in a column in this week’s diocesan newspaper.

But critics said they feared the changes – coming two weeks after he named a new seminary rector known for strict orthodoxy – signal a retreat from what they describe as the progressive, post-Vatican II model that had flourished under the late Bishop John McGann, to a more top-down setup.

Yesterday’s announcement offered few details on how programs for adults, as well as those for children, may change. But sources said the bishop had been critical of the Pastoral Formation Institute, a two-year adult program that taught Catholic theology with an emphasis on spiritual and personal development. Although the institute produced almost 1,600 graduates, many of whom are present-day parish leaders, it also incubated many of the members of Voice of the Faithful, a group formed in response to the sex abuse scandals which has been highly critical of the bishop.

From the NYTimes article, which is no longer available online for free:

Critics, however, claimed that the reorganization was carried out after little consultation with the current diocesan administrators of doctrinal teaching, and that the changes will most affect two departments — the Office of Catechesis and the Office of Laity and Family — whose staffs are almost entirely female. The diocese’s plan calls for the layoff of all 22 full-time staffers in those offices. All but three of them are women — either lay professionals, members of religious orders or secretaries and office managers, according to Phyllis Zagano, a senior research associate in the religion department at Hofstra University who specializes in the study of women in the Catholic church.

The departments’ mission was the training of the several thousand volunteers who serve in the 134 parishes of the diocese, teaching and counseling children and adults in various situations — a function that, as a result of the shortage of priests in recent decades, has become increasingly important, church observers say.

”What this looks like to me, from the outside, is that Bishop Murphy is not comfortable with women having a role in the teaching of church doctrine,” Ms. Zagano said.

Sean P. Dolan, a spokesman for the diocese, said that while the number of women in the offices was large, it was premature to assume that women would not be fairly represented in the new system, a combined agency into which the departments would be folded, along with an adult education academy known as the Pastoral Formation Institute. The agency will be elevated to a status within the bishop’s inner cabinet, a status none of the predecessor agencies had.

”There is no prejudice involved here whatsoever,” Mr. Dolan said. The workers let go could to apply for jobs in the new office, he added.

In a blunter version of Bishop Murphy’s reference to the diocese’s ”strengths and weaknesses,” Mr. Dolan said in a telephone interview, ”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.”

Timothy Kunz, a lay director of religious formation at St. Peter of Alcantara Church in Port Washington, said he viewed the restructuring as ”a paradigm shift toward the absolute” and away from ”diversity and dialogue among church leaders within the diocese.”

Me, I prefer the blunt approach. That pretty much cuts to the chase.