September Message...
This month, our Catholic schools reopened with some 12,200 K-12th grade students enrolled in the 43 diocesan schools and four private Catholic schools throughout our Diocese. Furthermore, students in two of our high schools and six of our grammar schools are enjoying the pleasure of moving into new additions or dramatically renovated facilities.
This continued increased support for Catholic school education, after a period of closures, mergers and consolidations, is most encouraging. It reflects a renewed appreciation for the value and importance of our Catholic schools, characterized as they are by high academic standards, firm discipline, parental involvement, and the promotion of moral and spiritual values.
This renewed confidence in Catholic school education is a great tribute to the pastors and to the dedicated principals and teachers in our Catholic schools who at great financial sacrifice and with limited resources do such a superb job in forming students academically, socially and spiritually for their life's journey.
Religious ed
The fact remains, however, that for reasons of finance, geographical location or special needs, the vast majority of Catholic grammar and high school students within our Diocese receive their basic education in public schools or private, non-Catholic schools.
That is why I am so pleased that The Evangelist has devoted much of this week's issue (pages 11-18) to the catechetical mission and ministry of the Church, conducted through the marvelous faith formation and youth ministry programs offered by the parishes of our Diocese.
Unlike the teachers in Catholic schools, who have the opportunity to offer religious instruction daily for ten months of the year, these religious educators and catechists have the challenging task of imparting the basic teachings, traditions and practices of our Catholic Christian tradition in a weekly 45-minute to one-hour time frame, often in less than desirable facilities and at a time of the day not particularly conducive to learning.
Invaluable contribution
As I conducted my recent parish visitation program, I always made it a point to meet with the pastoral associates for faith formation and youth ministry, and with as many of the catechists as were available. I did so because I wanted to affirm the invaluable and indispensable contribution these dedicated men and women make to the life of our Church.
Nearly two out of three of the parish religious education directors or coordinators throughout our Diocese serve on a part-time basis. For many, this critical ministry is a second job. Many of them receive a minimal stipend or are volunteers. Often, "part-time" means part-time hours at the parish but many more, long hours working out of their homes.
Pastoral associates for faith formation and youth ministry administer catechetical sessions for children and youth through interaction with parents and families, curriculum development, program scheduling, planning of special events, family sacramental preparation, and recruitment and training of the many volunteers needed to make faith formation work.
These pastoral associates for faith formation and youth ministry oversee and administer the largest volunteer ministry in our Diocese. They guide the approximately 5,200 catechists who provide faith formation for more than 37,000 children and youth each week. Others log countless hours of ministry to adults in Baptism preparation, Pre-Cana, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and adult enrichment programs.
Amazing effort
It is truly amazing to observe the zeal and enthusiasm of these faith formation directors, youth ministers and catechists who, motivated by a deep love for the Lord and the Church, proclaim the Good News to the young and adults who are so hungry for spiritual nourishment in this age of secularization, religious indifference and moral relativism in which we find ourselves.
The goal behind the combined efforts of these volunteers and professionals is to make our faith "living, conscious, and active, through the light of instruction" ("Sharing the Light of Faith: National Catechetical Directory for Catholics in the United States," quoting "Christus Dominus").
By utilizing updated textbooks and materials in accord with the new "Catechism of the Catholic Church" and drawing upon audio-visual aids and their own ingenuity and creativity, these ministers of catechesis seek to make the Christian message relevant and meaningful for 20th-century hearers and to ensure that their students are well-grounded in the fundamentals of our Catholic Christian heritage as we prepare to embrace both the challenges and the opportunities that the new millennium will hold for people of faith.
Home is central
It should be understood, however, that the endeavors of our catechists and Catholic school teachers can only be as effective as the modeling of Christian living our children and young adults experience in the life of the home. As the baptismal ritual makes abundantly clear, parents are and must always be the primary teachers of their children in the ways of faith.
If, therefore, the lessons imparted in the classroom and religious education and youth ministry programs are not being reinforced in the home by parents and other adult family members through prayer, regular Mass attendance, family rituals, Scripture reading and a concrete witness to the Christian virtues of love, compassion, forgiveness and other-centeredness, then our faith formation efforts both at the parish and school levels are likely to fall on hardened hearts, closed minds and deaf ears, and become as the proverbial "sounding brass and tinkling cymbals."
For adults, too
That is why it cannot be stressed strongly enough that comprehensive faith formation must be understood as a life-long journey. Unfortunately, for too long, our religious education programs have been perceived as designed primarily, if not exclusively, for the young.
Yet, just as our relationship with the Lord must be ever-growing, ever-evolving and ever-maturing, so, too, our interaction with the religious education and faith formation that nurture this relationship must be dynamic and open to new information, creative approaches and fresh insights.
Consequently, each member of the Church has a responsibility to seize opportunities to learn and understand more about the teaching of Christ and of His Church, and its implications for the life situations in which we find ourselves.
Otherwise, our faith understanding will remain fixed largely at the catechism level of our childhood. Such a level, while sufficient for a younger age or a different time, is hardly adequate to cope maturely with the complex faith and moral problems of the present.
Need to fulfill
As a matter of fact, it may be precisely because so many adults have not kept pace with the changing ways, forms and symbols for expressing our faith in the light of contemporary realities, or because we have not developed a comfort with discussing or sharing our faith experience with others that so many of our young today have not found in the Church meaningful answers to their probing questions or have not observed in its members spirit-filled role models who speak and witness in ways that challenge, inspire and invite emulation.
So I welcome the opportunity this week's special section of The Evangelist affords me to reaffirm the importance of the faith formation apostolate, and to thank all of the faith formation directors, youth ministers, Catholic school teachers and parish catechists who do such a splendid job of keeping abreast in their own faith development and of imparting the Christian kerygma to the children and adolescents entrusted to their care.
I thank as well the campus ministers of our Diocese who are so outstanding in meeting the faith formation needs of the young adults and adults matriculating at the 16 colleges and universities in our Diocese.
And, of course, my ongoing gratitude to the pastors, priests and deacons who through their homilies and direct participation in the RCIA process, marriage and baptismal preparation programs, and other sacramental celebrations do such magnificent work in bringing the Gospel to life and in supporting the overall catechetical mission of our Church.
May our Sesquicentennial observance enable all in our Diocese to understand and appreciate the awesome responsibility we have to "honor the past and discover tomorrow" through our participation in and support of the ministry of faith formation.