Adult Faith Formation

[Chris-WA]

Br. Rich SFO:

I wonder when or if parishes will get beyond the generic adult education and generic “Bible” study programs and get to providing real Adult Catechesis for the faithful.

Amen Brother! For a long time I have wondered why Rome hasn’t published a world-wide adult catechism class syllabus for every parish on Earth. It should be written in Rome, translated into every language, and mass-distributed as mandatory for adult education. The same should apply to children’s RE.

Right now, what kind of catechism one receives is totally dependent on what particular parish you live in, and particularly on the agenda of the local members of that parish staff. Catechesis is much too widely varied from parish to parish. There is too much room for serious error. We shouldn’t have to go to a third party to get a catechism program–it should come straight from the magisterium. That way we know we are getting the real deal–and there would be no excuse for bad catechesis.

We need a real push for adult catechesis in every parish. The numbers bear out just how badly educated we our in the Catholic faith–and the fruits of that mess have been terrible.

 

[irish1]

Br. Rich SFO:

I wonder when or if parishes will get beyond the generic adult education and generic “Bible” study programs and get to providing real Adult Catechesis for the faithful.

At the end of each series of classes/lectures we are asked to fill out an evaluation form; part of the form is a request for suggestions regarding futures classes. Do you have any ideas as to what I might suggest? We have been having trouble getting more people to attend these. I thought that people were too busy with their work/family lives, but maybe that’s not the true reason.

 

[Chris-WA]

irish1:

At the end of each series of classes/lectures we are asked to fill out an evaluation form; part of the form is a request for suggestions regarding futures classes. Do you have any ideas as to what I might suggest?

If you’re not doing this already suggest to your parish that the adult RE program be held on Sundays before or after mass at the same time the kids go to their classes. That greatly reduces scheduling conflicts, and allows many parents to attend while their kids have built-in babysitting.

We have been having trouble getting more people to attend these. I thought that people were too busy with their work/family lives, but maybe that’s not the true reason.

Let’s put it this way–most faithful Protestants attend at least an hour of Sunday school in addition to their Sunday religious service every week. Most Catholics are barely willing to give up an hour each week for mass, and then they’re racing for the parking lot after communion. It’s laziness and indifference pure and simple, coupled with low expectations from the pastor.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

irish1:

At the end of each series of classes/lectures we are asked to fill out an evaluation form; part of the form is a request for suggestions regarding futures classes. Do you have any ideas as to what I might suggest? We have been having trouble getting more people to attend these. I thought that people were too busy with their work/family lives, but maybe that’s not the true reason.

The adult Faith Formation team needs to be willing to host classes that approach the topics of Catechesis from different ways. In other words the Primacy and Office of Peter can be approached by the Catechism, the writings of the Fathers, from the Scriptures and from Church magisterial documents. It’s the same topic but approached from different directions. You also need to be willing to put all the effort into these using many different methods, audio, video, lecture, small group discussion, large group lecture, Powerpoint, Objects that they can see and feel and combinations of these. And you must be willing to do it for 25 or 5, 10 or 100!

 

[palmas85]

Br. Rich SFO:

I wonder when or if parishes will get beyond the generic adult education and generic “Bible” study programs and get to providing real Adult Catechesis for the faithful.

Brother Rich, I kind of doubt that they ever will, and at least not anytime soon. The current thinking in many parishes Faith Formation programs is virtually sola scriptura theology and not much else. I ve heard Deacons, who often run these things, say that tradition in the church is of relative unimportance, and that all you need is the scriptures. Mix that in with a good dose of social ethics and political correctness classes and you have it, Adult Faith Formation.

Down here in south San Diego thay also mix in a good bit of Liberation theology and conversational Spanish as well.

 

[Elzee]

Br. Rich SFO:

I wonder when or if parishes will get beyond the generic adult education and generic “Bible” study programs and get to providing real Adult Catechesis for the faithful.

I sure hope so Brother Rich. At least this is the direction I’d like to suggest when I meet with my priest. Bible studies are great - we need more of those - but they need to be approached from a Catholic perpsective. Why can’t we use the CCC or writings from the Early Fathers when we study the bible instead of “A Purpose Driven Life”? Why can’t the Catholic teaching of birth control be approached from a biblical perspective? I fear it’s because the people leading the study do not know these connections themselves and don’t know where to find them. Sadly, priests and nuns are often not knowledgeable themselves.

I had one priest tell me when he was asked to give a talk on the first few chapters of the Book of Acts to a bible study that ‘We don’t learn this stuff in seminary. I know less than some of the people there’. This man had been a priest for about 6 years…even if he didn’t learn extensive Scripture in the seminary (which needs to change) - can’t he learn on his own? How do the people on this forum manage to increase their Scripture knowledge outside of a seminary? It takes work and unfortunately a lot of self-initiative and research if you’re a Catholic, but it can be done. It’s so frustrating from many different angles. We are losing so much of our Catholic faith in our adults and shifting more and more to a Protestant theology.

 

[Elzee]

Chris-WA:

… coupled with low expectations from the pastor.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head in most cases. When pastors don’t PREACH the need for catechesis and follow it up by making it a priority of their job as pastor by **being engaged in teaching people the faith and challenging their parishoners, **chances are the people in the parish are not going to make it a priority either.