APPENDIX E: GUIDELINES FOR CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE HOME
I. GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR HOME CATECHESIS
A time-honored tradition within the Catholic Church is the handing on of the faith in the home by the example and instruction of parents to their children. Catholic schools and parish religious education programs came into existence to assist families in their responsibility for the education of their children. Catholic schools and parish religious education programs offer a variety of formats that most parents find suitable for the faith growth and development of their children.
Families are not always able, and sometimes, choose not to avail themselves of either Catholic schools or parish religious education programs, and thus need to provide religious instruction and sacramental preparation at home. Such instruction and preparation differ from secular subjects in that catechesis involves building up the Kingdom of God on earth and participation in the Trinity through communion with Christ and neighbor. Catholic home religious educators have a serious obligation to guide their children in the light of the magisterial teachings of the Church.
Catechesis is an esteemed term in Christian tradition. Its purpose is to make a person’s “faith become living, conscious and active through the light of instruction.” While aiming to enrich the faith life of individuals at their particular stages of development, every form of catechesis is oriented in some way to the catechesis of adults, who are capable of a full response to God’s word. Catechesis is a lifelong process for the individual and a constant and concerted pastoral activity of the Christian community. (Sharing the Light of Faith, 32)
The family as a locus of catechesis has a unique privilege: transmitting the Gospel by rooting it in the context of profound human values. On this human base, Christian initiation is more profound: the awakening of the sense of God; the first steps in prayer; education of the moral conscience; formation in the Christian sense of human love, understood as a reflection of the love of God the Father, the Creator. It is, indeed, a Christian education more witnessed to than taught, more occasional than systematic, more ongoing and daily than structured into periods. (GDC, 255)
“All parents have an obligation to involve their children in the life and mission of the Church. Since their children are being initiated into the life of the Church, which is fundamentally realized in the local parish, parents who provide catechesis for their children in their homes should participate fully in the life of the local parish” (NDC, p. 260).
By virtue of his office, and in accord with the norms established by the diocesan (arch) bishop, the pastor is bound to provide for the catechetical formation of adults, young people, children and those handicapped in body and mind in so far as their condition permits. In promoting and fostering the role of parents in the catechesis of their children, the pastor is also to provide for proper and suitable sacramental preparation to be given over an appropriate period of time. (CIC, c. 777)
The Church as Magisterium
Catechesis is the work of the whole Church. The teaching Church is the guarantor of the soundness of Christian doctrine. There is no authentically Catholic way to teach except in union with the pope and the local archbishop through his pastors and designated assistants.
The Church commissions bishops and pastors to take seriously their obligations to ensure that the authenticity of the Gospel message is taught, and private interpretation of doctrine can never superceded the legitimate teaching authority of the Church.
The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit in every age, must interpret the word of God. The Church performs this function authoritatively through her living, teaching office, the Magisterium. The Magisterium ensures the Church’s fidelity to the teaching of the apostles in matters of faith and morals. “The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.” (NDC, pp. 53–54)
