Help? Rel.Ed Curriculum needed asap

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Byron

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Hello everyone,

I have recently been “volunteered” to the position of Director of Religious Education at our parish. Now, this is not your usual parish, it’s great, very conservative, full of nice people, but rather disorganized. Because it’s mostly retirees, the education of the young people is not given much priority. In fact, there’s really no formal program to speak of. And I’m supposed to come up with something to teach these youngsters.

Now, I know (and I hope YOU know and can direct me), there must be all sorts of ready-made, pre-packaged, year-long programs for different grade levels. Money is not a problem, I just need to find what to buy. Books, workbooks, a teacher’s guide, whatever. I’d like something comprehensive, so I don’t have to “reinvent” the wheel.

Why, you are asking, do I simply not call the Archdiocese and get their recommendations? First, they are arrogant and uncooperative. Second, their attitude and their materials are so liberal, and contain so little actual Catholic doctrine, that I have had parishioners tell me they would not approve of our using it.

I’ve also reached out to a few other parishes. We’re in a remote area, so this is by phone or email. Well, there is some old rivalry between these churches and they won’t help me either. I think they’re in the “un-Catholic” camp that has taken over the archdiocese, lots of liturgical abuses, etc.

Please think of the children! If you’re a CCD teacher or know a good one, please help me. Our parents are telling me they want the kids to learn the sacraments, the history of the church and the Bible, age-appropriate theology, and morality. Is there something maybe like a NEW Baltimore Catechism? Any recommmendations would be appreciated.

Thank you and God bless.
 
I would look at “Faith and Life” from Ignatius Press. It is in it’s third edition, I think and is very sound. They will probably send you samples. If you find a better one, please post and tell why. I will be going through a similar search as a member of a parish education commission.

Chris C.
 
As a DRE it is my duty to tell you to look at the list of approved texts in your diocese. You have done that and determined they are not suitable, so lets move along. Ignatius press has the best series, Image of God for K-6, edited by Mary Jo Smith, director of catechetical formation for the St. John Bosco Summer Conference in Steubenville. There are also supplemental resources and materials available. Second best is Loyola Press, Christ our Life, K-8, with family supplement in Spanish, supplemental materials. Loyola has a Jr High confirmation program as well. For Sacamental preparation, our Sunday Visitor has a new catechist resource called Teach It Eucharist and Teach it Reconciliation. They also have a booklet for parents for each sacrament which can be the basis of your parent meetings, and a booklet for the kids. There is also a booklet on the Mass in Spanish and English. Loyola has a brand new sacramental program called Gathering Together, I have not reviewed it thoroughly, but have not seen any major problems.
For RCIA for older children use the texts for their age group and good sacramental formation. don’t forget to teach confirmation and baptism.
For High School we are using Introduction to Catholicism by Didache Press, distributed by Midwest Theological Forum for basic doctrine, supplemented by the Teen Catechism from OSV.
For RCIA at all levels, in addition to these texts, we use Journey of Faith from Liguori. We use Confirmation for Teens from Liguori as our HS confirmation program for the sponsor-candidate sessions.

all the above listed have catechist guides.

from OSV order What Every Catechist Should Know as an orientation for your catechists on what they must teach, and to reassure them that they know enough to teach. Follow it up with Seven Secrets of a Successful Catechist from OSV.

Tip that will save you time and money: choose your program, buy it, use it, don’t succumb to buyers remorse, don’t inundate yourself in books and guides and programs to review. Be careful of your publisher. Reject everything from mainline trade publishers which now own most of the popular religion series (Harper, MacMillan, etc.)

If you need Spanish Language materials, post another request.
If you are doing this as a volunteer God love you, and God love you if you are getting paid.

Stay within your budget and make a friend on the parish finance committee. Form relationships with those in the parish in charge of liturgy, RCIA and other pastoral programs. Be nice to your custodian and parish secretary.
 
I gladly second the recommendation of the Faith and Life series! We used it in my former parish, and I loved it! Orthodox, sensibly written, good/great teacher resources, etc.!
 
As far as contemporary curriculum goes, I would agree with the Image of God series recommendation. Faith and Life is good as well, however it does not have quite the depth of the IofG series. Both are sound.

Our favorite program is actually a 40s reprint, because it goes into such greater detail and forces the children to consider various circumstances. However since it is pre-Vatican 2, there are some errors, such as fasting from midnight.

I think either of the above 2 programs would be fine.
 
I taught CCE last year with the Christ our Life series. I am familiar with the 1, 2 and 3rd grade texts. While light years better than what came before (Silver Burdett and Ginn), some of our parents had issues. It does not contain doctrinal errors that I have seen but presents a liberal interpretation of liturgy. For example in the 2nd grade text, it states that the children ***should ** * hold hands at the Our Father. Not a huge deal but since hand holding is rather controversial around here, … (you get the idea.) The second grade text was very brief in sacrament preparation. We had to supplement quite a bit. If your parish, especially the parents, tend toward the conservative side, I would stick with Image of God or Faith and Life. Fath and Life has a reusable text, a workbook/activity book and teachers manuals. Image of God has a worktext (consumable) and teachers manual.

You did not mention what grades your program will cover but for High School, the Didache series is getting good reviews. I haven’t seen it first hand but our DRE-to be will be looking at it for our program.

Good luck and God bless.
 
👍 for the Image of God series.

My daughter’s Catholic school uses this text for classroom religion. (I’m assuming they use it for CCD as well). I have been very pleased with it- and she likes it as well.

I don’t have anything to compare it to though, so look to others for comparison reviews 🙂
 
Hey KmKTexas or Familyof8

could you compare and contrast in greater detail Image of God and Faith and Life? And do either have good art?

BTW, Christ our Life is very, very fluffy. Don’t waste your time.

Chris C.
 
If you want beautiful art, go Faith and Life. The art work is wonderful. It has beautiful reproductions throughout the text. Faith and Life also has supplemental workbooks and teacher manuals to go along with the text, however, I have never seen them, so I can’t comment. The basic format of each book is a small teaching lesson followed by some catechism questions/answers.

I will send you a review of the Didache for high school privately as it is rather long. I have never personally seen the series, but have been investigating high school religion curriculum since the series we use only goes through 8th grade. The review is very positive for those who want to know about it generally.
 
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Byron:
Is there something maybe like a NEW Baltimore Catechism?
Click to expand...
I’m too young to know what the original Baltimore Catechism looked like. But I was thinking about this and we use what is called the “New Saint Joseph Balitmore Catechism” to supplement our other religion studies. They are readily available anywhere, so maybe these are really NEW catechims?? Anyone know for sure?

There are books one through 3 for children and book 4 for teachers (though my older children often look for answers in there themselves.)There is also one for First Communion. There may be others as well, these are just the titles that we own.

Hope this helps.
 
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