Can I be a Catechist under these conditions?

[leonie]

I’ve volunteered to co-teach 5th grade CCD after a one year break (which I took following the birth of my baby). In that time, our parish has implemented a Chastity program for grades k and up in my parish in accordance with archdiocese requirements.

Our archdiocese has approved the choice of two programs.

Benziger Family Life (BFL)
cuf.org/FaithFacts/details_view.asp?ffID=131

Or Growing in love
totustuus.com/GrowingInLoveACritique.pdf

I’m convicted that I can’t teach chastity in this form in a classroom. I think I could teach it by talking very generally about the virtual of chastity, but not the particular details and how it is lived out.

That is the parents’ role.

I would approve of a program that taught parents to teach their kids, but these two programs want parents to introduce concepts to very young children that should wait until adolescence.

I know that my dre can’t require me to teach this component. But, I’m concerned that by even teaching in the CCD program, I’m cultivating trust that is betrayed when this material is introduced. Through God’s grace, I have a gift of teaching and a passion for teaching the faith. I know that I do a very good job of authentically teaching in an interesting and fun way.

I know that most of the parents of these kids have had very little and poor catechesis themselves, so they rely on the CCD program to instruct. I imagine that most don’t know that they have the right and responsibility of chastity formation and that the Church can’t usurp this.

Can I teach in a CCD program that endorses these programs? It is upsetting to me that my Archdiocese is forcing this program on its Parishes in direct contradiction to Church teaching.

 

[noemialbarran]

I think that the chastity teaching should be taught to those who are able to understand and
not get traumatized. Which is 5th grade and up thats when they start having the sex ed classes in school. Man i wish i knew about chastity when i was littler. Just follow your conscience. not morals
hope this was help

 

[bnbkaine]

Don’t teach it. You aren’t required to if you feel uncomfortable- at least, not with these programs. If the DRE tells you that you have to, then go to the priest and explain why you feel you can’t. If they don’t want to use you, then that is on them. I have yet to be a a parish that is not hurting for volunteers. Good luck.

 

[Ponyguy]

After skimming those two critiques of those programs, I wonder just how in the heck either of them was recommended, or even passed muster by your archdiocese?
From my admittedly flawed perspective, those linked assessments suggest that those two programs could have been written by Satan, himself…

 

[ChadS]

Have you actually examined either of the courses or are you basing your concerns upon hostile reviews found online?

Several years ago I taugh CCD to 5th graders for a year a we were required to teach something on chastity also. What it ended up being is we had 4 sections or chapters we had to do. We could teach them when we felt it was approriate and the material was very broad based and focused more on trying to understand yourself and your place in God’s plan and how you should respect yourself and others etc.

I’m not sure which program we used but I seem to think it was Growing in Love, but I’m not 100% sure.

It’s possible that the reviews you found don’t accurately represent the course material or they’re based upon old versions not even in use.

ChadS

 

[puzzleannie]

Make sure you first take the class offered to catechists in which the materials themselves are presented and you are given what is need to make the decision at all and then what to present and how to present it. Both these programs have significantly been reworked from earlier versions but are simply not the type of materials to just be tacked on to a CCD curriculum. Try to be part of the decision making that goes along with this implementation and insist the parish does what both programs recommend, mandate that the parents attend an introductory session at least to preview the content, that they take the classes at the same time, or in advance of their children, so they are given the resources the need to extend the lesson at home. The underlying aim of both these programs is after all to help the parents. If the parents are not going to be involved the program should not be used.

I agree wholeheartedly with your perception that you are fostering a trust that will be broken if this vital component is left out.

Our diocese offers this necessary instruction, but as an optional program offered in different areas that mothers and daughters attend, and at other times, fathers and sons. Yes the age group is the right one and sadly this education is very needed. Our teen pregnancy problem begins to show up in 7th grade and actually peaks in 8th grade so obviously the education is necessary. But the crying need is education for parents and support in their role, and that should be addressed before implementing classroom presentations for children.

 

[Joe_5859]

Both these programs have significantly been reworked from earlier versions…

This is key to keep in mind when reading the critiques. Some of the problems (of which there were many!) from the earlier versions have been addressed. At least, this is the case with “Family Life”. I’m not familiar with “Growing in Love”.

Both programs are now on the USCCB Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and Series. That doesn’t mean they’re the best ones out there, though.

I would talk to the DRE and perhaps the pastor about your concerns. Even a weak catechetical text may not be so detrimental if the weaknesses are recognized and addressed by the catechists. So simply using a more questionable text does not necessarily mean the whole parish catechetical program is suspect.

 

[leonie]

True, I’m probably jumping the gun on this. I completely missed the workshop–I wasn’t told about it until after it was over.

But, when I talked to the DRE about it, she said that the workshop wasn’t about the program. It was a video taped on a past seminar in which human sexuality/Catholic morality and children was examined. I emailed her and asked her what the actual program was, and she said it is the Growing in Love program

My DRE said that she hasn’t received the materials yet, but I can look at them when they come in.

I do trust the critique because it is from a reputable Catholic organizations-- Catholics United for the Faith.

I do see a need to instruct parents on teaching a Catholic morality/worldview on sexuality. The world has been teaching our kids on this topic all too much. From the excerpts I find the parent guide the most disturbing. I trully hope that the parents have the sense not to present the material as written.

Maybe I’m just crazy and paranoid.

 

[Joe_5859]

I do trust the critique because it is from a reputable Catholic organizations-- Catholics United for the Faith.

CUF reviewed the 3rd edition (1995) of “Family Life.” It is the 4th edition (2001) that is on the USCCB list. I suppose none of that matters as your parish is looking at “Growing in Love” (which was not reviewed by CUF but rather by Jimmy Seghers). Since his review is dated 2001 and the course on the USCCB list is also dated 2001, it seems likely that he is indeed criticizing the same edition that your parish would be using.

Maybe I’m just crazy and paranoid.

This is definitely one topic on which you cannot be too careful.

I’ve pulled together a whole bunch of links to Church documents on the topic of sexuality on my website:

catechesisofthepopes.wikispaces.com/Theology+of+the+Body#Recommended%20Reading

Of all of the documents, the most beneficial to you would probably be the Pontifical Council for the Family’s The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality: Guidelines for Education within the Family. It really lays out how this topic should be addressed in a catechetical setting.

 

[miamijoe]

Have the parents come to your classes and you can teach them about TOB too!

 

[JOHN_DEVANEY]

Get a copy of the DVD Titled A Family Retreat by Archbishop Fulton J Sheen. Tract 4 is 29 minutes and 15 seconds long.

Split it up do whatever that will let the kids see it.

He does is about as well as it will ever be.

John Devaney