Catechist Formation

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puzzleannie

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thread to discuss this topic in general and specific programs (Echoes of Faith, Loyola, Catechist Magazine’s U of Dayton distance learning etc.).

what does your parish or diocese use, recommend, require?

I will post a link to national standards when I find it. NCCL and NCYM have come up with them for catechist certification, catechetical leaders and youth ministry, but it is by no means a document endorsed by all the bishops.

Echoes of Faith is the current program in the Diocese of Brownsville, however we are expecting a new Director of the Office of Catechetics to be hired soon, so that may change. We also have a (relatively) new lay ministry institute, San Juan Diego, which has been concentrating on training primarily those involved in service to the liturgy. they are offering the Basic Faith Formation (pre-req for all other courses) to catechists this week, and so far it has been excellent, based on the Compendium. I have 4 catechists attending, would be thrilled to have more.

the next course catechists have been advised to take is that on the Eucharist and sacraments, since realistically most catechists are involved in sacramental prep of some kind.

they also have TOB workship, which IMO should be required of anyone catechising youth and/or adults. altho it is intended primarily for sponsor couples and anyone involved in marriage prep

for those who have this responsibility, or those who have received good (or lacking) formation, what would you most like to see?
 
Our diocese has a basic catechist certification program that includes 10 or 12 hours in the following areas. OT, NT, Christology, Liturgy and Sacraments, Morality and Church. These are standard courses that follow the same syllabus. The Advanced certificate also requires advanced courses in the same areas but there is a greater choice of classes that usually are determined by the instructors with approval of the Diocesan Faith Formation Office. We have a 2 year pastoral formation program which catechists can attend in lieu of the certification courses.

When I took my catechist certification about 26 years ago we also had courses on teaching skills and on child development. But these are not part of the catechist certification. The catechists in the parish take classes within the parish that I think touch on these areas, but I am not involved in them since I am not the DRE so I am not too sure what they involve.
 
wow sounds like your diocese is right on the money, may I ask where? who teaches the courses, how often are they offered, and are locations around the diocese?
 
In our diocese, you have to be a warm body with a pulse and not be on the sex offender registry.🤷 If you meet the above mentioned qualifications, you’re in.
 
puzzleannie said:
wow sounds like your diocese is right on the money, may I ask where? who teaches the courses, how often are they offered, and are locations around the diocese?
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I am in NY. The courses are taught by people who have a least an MA in theology. Most of them already work in parishes, in the diocese, or teach theology in our Catholic schools, colleges or the seminary. The courses are offered very often. Mostly it is the parishes that offer them. I will be offering three basic and two advanced courses in my parish next year. I will be teaching 2, our DRE will be teaching 1, one will be taught by a parishioner with a PhD in Scripture, and one we are getting someone from the outside to come in to teach. The diocese is offering 12 of these courses this summer in one week sessions for each course to accomodate Catholic school teachers, who also must be certified. These will be offered in various locations. That is a 10 hour course in one week…pretty intense. If you are crazy you can get your certification in one summer.

The syllabus for each of the basic courses comes from the diocese and all teachers must present their credentials to our Office of Faith Formation and if they are teaching an advanced course which is instructor designed, they need to present the syllabus and a bibliography to the diocese for approval.

The price for the courses vary. I charge $20 per course which goes into our Faith Formation budget. If I have to hire an instructor then we pay them. Some parishes charge more and some don’t charge at all. It all depends if the parish can pay for the instructors. I like to charge because then the catechists seem to take it more seriously since they are paying for it. Also the fee helps subsidise other workshops, materials and the audio/visual equipment we are saving up for (digital projectors cost a lot).

The courses I am offering in my parish next year are. OT, NT, & morality (basic courses) and the Journeys of St Paul and A Closer Look at the Sacraments (advanced courses). I’ll be teaching the OT and the Sacraments coures.
 
My diocese has two options catechist certification. They have two levels of certification: Basic and Advanced. Each level has two options:
  • Diocesan created curriculum-- combo of attending diocesan workshops &/or doing home study with books, church documents, videos, etc and submitting discussion questions, essays, tests.
  • Marian Catechist home-study curriculum
Here’s the Advanced Certification requirements/choices.

For some reason the Basic Certification document is missing… don’t know what happened, it used to be on the website. Anyway, it’s similar-- a series of diocesan curriculum or the basic Marian Catechist curriculum.

The diocesan program is very good. However, I don’t think that in practice very many people actually do the program. I’ve been teaching 3 years now, since I moved into our diocese, and no one has ever said anything to me about getting certified.

In my old diocese (Galveston-Houston) we were supposed to be certified too. I taught over 5 years and no one ever said anything beyond “suggesting” we get certified.

I think DREs are just glad they can get volunteers. It’s a shame, b/c certificaiton is really important.
 
I am very impressed your diocese approves Marian catechist formation, that is indeed good news

but you make a valid point, just because the diocese has a good program does not mean all parishes or all catechists take part, or are required to. yet the reasons many catechists burn out or give up is poor formation because they have not availed themselves of these opportunties, or DRE failed to make them available.
 
puzzleannie said:
I am very impressed your diocese approves Marian catechist formation, that is indeed good news

but you make a valid point, just because the diocese has a good program does not mean all parishes or all catechists take part, or are required to. yet the reasons many catechists burn out or give up is poor formation because they have not availed themselves of these opportunties, or DRE failed to make them available.
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Yes, this is true. Sometimes it is a lack of motivation or failure on the part of staff. But…

In our diocese it is very spread out and mostly rural. It’s 1.5 hours to drive to the diocesan center from where I live, so it’s not realistic for catecists in po-dunk to drive there for classes. And, in typical diocesan fashion they offer training on weekdays… hello, we all have JOBS.

That’s probably why they put together the home-study option. And, our former bishop-- now Archbishop (Burke)-- was involved with the Marian Catechists so that’s the connection there.

In our case, our parish is very small and we do not have any ANY paid staff. So, even the RE coordinator/director is a volunteer.
 
puzzleannie said:
for those who have this responsibility, or those who have received good (or lacking) formation, what would you most like to see?
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Seminary level courses available as a lecture series on CD, so that it is standardized, high quality, and available to those who work or can’t travel one hour to the classes. I am not interested in a simple overview class on the Catechism, so if they are going to offer me a class, I would like it to be meaty.

Also, to accompany the series, the person can email a professor to get detailed questions answered. Furthermore, I would like some type of self-testing tool, and not just three flimsy “study questions” at the end of a chapter to reflect upon. A deeply worded study question is profitable, though, especially if after having time to reflect, one is provided with a sample answer.

For my level of catechesis (RCIA), I would like information covering the procedures for common situations. I’m not saying that I need to be the one to discuss those situations with the catechumen. I just would like detailed communication so that everyone is on the same page, and full background info (not on the catechumens!) about how the diocese handles situation X. I would like to be provided consistent answers, and have everyone have those same answers readily available. For a simple example, let everyone understand how it is handled if a baptismal certificate cannot be obtained from your previous church.

To enter even further into fantasy, I’d like a way to tell them my background and have them tailor which CD set is going to address what I most need. Thus, they would have quite a variety of courses on CD, so that each catechist could move forward in the direction they most need, instead of everyone having to trudge through a series of info they already know well. Also, please don’t make us keep getting refresher courses over the same stuff we already know. Allow us to, though, if we would like!
 
puzzleannie, I’m wondering if you can provide some information about the San Juan Diego lay ministry institute?

I have a comment on joannm’s comment:
The price for the courses vary. I charge $20 per course which goes into our Faith Formation budget. If I have to hire an instructor then we pay them. Some parishes charge more and some don’t charge at all. It all depends if the parish can pay for the instructors. I like to charge because then the catechists seem to take it more seriously since they are paying for it. Also the fee helps subsidise other workshops, materials and the audio/visual equipment we are saving up for (digital projectors cost a lot).
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Why should we lay catechists, who are volunteers, be expected to sacrifice even more by paying to attend these classes? It seems very non-supportive to me. I spend enough money on the students I teach. I have also invested significantly by buying books to catechize myself (I’ve learned very little from the diocesan classes I’ve attended).
 
quiet52 said:
puzzleannie, I’m wondering if you can provide some information about the San Juan Diego lay ministry institute?

I have a comment on joannm’s comment:

Why should we lay catechists, who are volunteers, be expected to sacrifice even more by paying to attend these classes? It seems very non-supportive to me. I spend enough money on the students I teach. I have also invested significantly by buying books to catechize myself (I’ve learned very little from the diocesan classes I’ve attended).
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In the parish I work for the people can afford it. They pay more than that in a few days at Starbucks. If there was someone who could not afford it I would wave the fee. But, at least around here, I have found that if they did not pay for it they would be a bit more casual about showing up. They are used to paying big bucks for everything around here, it is a very wealthy area. But even in less affluent areas they pay from $10-$45 for a course.

I am taking about 5 or 6 two hour classes. It is easy to say, well, “what do I lose if I don’t show up” if you are not paying for it? But it is more difficult to say, “I paid for it, if I drop out I lose the $20.” While if I teach, as a parish employee I don’t have to pay an instructor, if I have to hire someone to teach a 6 week course that is $600. The going rate in our diocese in $100 per two hours of instruction. If I get 10 people for a course that does not come close to covering the cost of offering the course. Add into that cost of copying materials, purchase of DVD’s if needed, coffee and cookies for break time and it adds up. Not to mention maintanence set up and break down, AC or heating costs, etc.

I think $20 is a bargain for a 10-12 hour top rate course taught by an experienced instructor with an MA or doctorate in the field with many many years of experience.
 
Our parish only requires three “levels” of certification, each level being achieved by taking a one-day (3 hour or so) seminar offered every-so-often. I found that I learned very little at these. All I know I have learned by reading the Bible and Catechism cover-to-cover, reading Scott Hahn and Karl Keating, the Beginning Apologetics series of books, and attending some Master’s level theology courses at the local seminary. I would LOVE some real standards for catechists. While I appreciate that my fellow catechists are sacrificing their time each week, not many know much about the faith! One fourth grade teacher, when I told her my students would be ready for learning the 10 Commandments in greater depth because we just finished our discussion of Moses, the Passover, and the Exodus, told me “Well- we don’t really talk about Moses. I don’t know much about the Bible.” :eek:
And while my own kids are in the program, I teach them at home using the Ignatius Press “Faith and Life” series of texts, among other things. We do religion lessons every day at home. I have decided next year to send them to Catholic school. I will still be a catechist, however. So I would love to see an overhaul of the program!

The problem always seems to be getting volunteers at all. It is a big committment. I personally spend about 4 hours preparing for the class, and quite a bit of my own money each week. Some teachers just show up and kill the hour and a half doing whatever. Once you start asking them to get certified, and take child-abuse prevention classes, and attend meetings, they drop like flies. So there you have it. What is the answer? If you guys know, please tell me! One thing to note: the parish is fairly working-class, with many single moms, etc. They are overworked and tired as it is. For many parents, religion is the LAST thing they want to bothered with, much less teach it! In wealthier parishes, I think parents demand more (in terms of credentials, etc.) and are more apt to volunteer (many with advanced college degrees.) Not to criticize ANYONE… we chose our parish because it is down-to-earth… but there is a difference.
 
the most important thing we do with new volunteers (after Protecting God’s Children and an orientation program on rules, regs, procedures, etc) is a lesson planning workshop, where we go in depth with the catechist manual so the get full benefit from it. most are very well constructed and have everything a new catechist needs, if she or he knows how to use it and milk it for the good stuff.

we can teach more about the faith, but we can’t teach faith, I look for people who have a lived faith, and teach them more doctrine.

San Juan Diego Lay ministry Institute was started about 5 years ago, after the former such endeavor lapsed for many years. diocesan website cdob.org has details. to get an idea of how good it is, some rather liberal pastors have boycotted it because it is too orthodox in their view. yay!

I strongly discourage catechists from spending their own money on books and supplies and things for students, unless it is something they want to own for themselves, and would buy even if they were not teaching. frustration at spending too much is a major cause of burnout, and IMO it is up to the parish to supply what is needed in the classroom

we don’t charge for courses offered here, unless someone wants to buy the book, study guide etc. for themselves. courses offered elsewhere in the diocese must be paid for (SJDMI is the most expensive $25 for a 12 week course, can’t beat that, most are much less. Echoes of Faith is now about $3 a module for the booklet). it is true sadly that people are more committed to completed a course if they pay something. can’t tell you how many times I have purchased books for 20 people who sign up, but only 10 come, and I am out that money that could have gone for some other necessity.
 
My Ed Commission is currently discussing this topic. Of 154 catechists only two have completed the 15 hours of training (6 classes) for our diocese’s level 1 certification. We do have high turnover year to year. I can only think of one catechist that has completed lay ministry training.

I cannot quickly find current numbers, but four years ago 21% of the 2400 catechists diocese-wide had been commissioned. I am curious at to what numbers other churches and dioceses have.
 
Here about 75 % of the parishes have most or all of their catechists passing the basic certification (Echoes of Faith). reasons for parishes not in compliance varies. My pastor does not like the program. Some parishes simply cannot afford the books, nor can their catechists, and some do not have paid directors to do the training, or are prevented by distance or expense from attending training elsewhere. some have high turnover and catechists don’t stay active long enough to complete the training.
 
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