Why don't we make catechism / faith formation classes free?

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Somebody asked me this and it’s a good question. They said that sometimes, $50 or some price can be steep for a family, especially if they have many kids (keep in mind that some people are also shy about their financial situation, so it isn’t always easy to ask the parish priest). A good way to bring them into the fold and to encourage people to join our faith is by making faith formation / catechism free. Charging an amount only hinders the many who could join.

I responded that the books and other possible materials cost something and $50 for the year (September - June) is quite small (here, catechists are volunteers). But then I consider the fact that if money wasn’t involved, many more people would be willing to put their child through the program and those who can’t afford it would be able to have their child in formation. What if it was a grandparent telling their child to send their grandchildren to catechism? If the grandparent can’t afford it and the parent isn’t very active in encouraging their child to be Catholic, the thought of having to pay money for something they aren’t very interested in having their child involved in means more hesitance. What about the many families having trouble making ends meet and can’t afford $50 for their child, or those who can’t afford it for their 3, 4, 5 children?

Any thoughts on this? Can we improve our new evangelization by making catechism free?
 
The Knights of Columbus offers free materials that may be of interest to you. I’ve posted a link below:

kofc.org/un/en/cis/index.html

You may also find many free materials by looking around Father Hardon’s website. I have posted a link for published, mp3 and video archives below, but his website is extensive and you are likely to find more through exploration.

therealpresence.org/archives/archives.htm
 
I doubt that minimal charges for teaching materials makes any difference in enrollment. I also doubt that most parishes turn anyone away for inability to pay.
 
MyNameIsDan said:
Somebody asked me this and it’s a good question. They said that sometimes, $50 or some price can be steep for a family, especially if they <><><>
Any thoughts on this? Can we improve our new evangelization by making catechism free?
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PaulfromIowa said:
I doubt that minimal charges for teaching materials makes any difference in enrollment. I also doubt that most parishes turn anyone away for inability to pay.
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Our parish charges a nominal fee to cover materials, cost of opening the school (lights and HVAC cost a lot of money!), and the very small stipend that we award our volunteers (and that is very little and is intended to help offset the supplies that our volunteers purchase themselves to teach the class with - I have even heard that a few of our teachers spend their own money every year to buy students Bibles in addition to other classroom materials that they cannot write-off on their taxes - we’re not teachers, thus no tax break!).

We have 200+ families involved (and would have more; if the building would hold them), no one turned away do to any legitimate economic hardship, and in fact, a many of our families adopt other families that cannot afford to pay the fees. $50 to $75 per student is very reasonable and most likely doesn’t cover the cost of operating the building utilities… doesn’t cover our cost, the parish pays for that out of general funds. In my parish program, those families receiving financial help, either from the other families, parish, and/or diocese are asked, not required to volunteer their time and talent to help with classroom assistants, materials preparation (someone needs to run those copies off), crossing guard, hallway monitor, etc… we find that asking for their commitment to the program at school improves the families commitment to the program at home too.
 
Parishes have to make ends meet like everybody else.

Because of low demand, religious materials tend to be high in price. Covering their cost, while a nice gesture, would be one that the parish most often just cannot afford.

ICXC NIKA
 
Dear OP,

Other people have posted very good reasons why “free” religious education, is never really “free”.

Also, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because something is free, people will come. Humans need to have some “skin in the game” in order to see the value of something. And in our culture, money meets the requirement for many people.

Now for my totally cynical comment, based on over 40 years of volunteering in parishes, religious education, and running a Confirmation prep program: While there are legitimate cases of individuals not being able to afford these fees, most people, if they did not have the money as an excuse would find another excuse not to send their child to religious ed classes.

Sorry to ruin your enthusiasm.
 
Before I decided the catholic church wasn’t for me I was going to enrolled my kids in Ccd.
I called the church and found out it was going to be over 200 per kid. Needless to say we didn’t sign them up.
 
This varies so much from parish to parish. Some parishes don’t charge for faith formation / CCD. Those tend to be the parishes that emphasize stewardship and have a higher percentage of giving from their parishioners.

I don’t know of any parish that passes on the full cost to the parents. Also, I have never heard of even one person ever being turned away for inability to pay. It simply does not happen. In my parish, they ask for payment up front when you register. But if you don’t have the payment, they still take the registration. And they might follow up with one letter or one phone call reminding about payment. But that would be it. So I’m sure there are plenty of people getting CCD for free who really could afford it, they just forget / choose not to pay for whatever reason.

Like CoachDennis said, when it comes to payment, the opposite is often true. If people don’t have some sort of financial investment, they won’t value it as much, nor will they pay that close attention to whether or not their kids go every week.

So you can certainly try to pursue this in your parish and see if it has the desired effect. But it is never going to be something that is implemented in all parishes everywhere. Each parish is different when it comes to finances.
 
MyNameIsDan said:
Somebody asked me this and it’s a good question. They said that sometimes, $50 or some price can be steep for a family, especially if they have many kids (keep in mind that some people are also shy about their financial situation, so it isn’t always easy to ask the parish priest). A good way to bring them into the fold and to encourage people to join our faith is by making faith formation / catechism free. Charging an amount only hinders the many who could join.

I responded that the books and other possible materials cost something and $50 for the year (September - June) is quite small (here, catechists are volunteers). But then I consider the fact that if money wasn’t involved, many more people would be willing to put their child through the program and those who can’t afford it would be able to have their child in formation. What if it was a grandparent telling their child to send their grandchildren to catechism? If the grandparent can’t afford it and the parent isn’t very active in encouraging their child to be Catholic, the thought of having to pay money for something they aren’t very interested in having their child involved in means more hesitance. What about the many families having trouble making ends meet and can’t afford $50 for their child, or those who can’t afford it for their 3, 4, 5 children?

Any thoughts on this? Can we improve our new evangelization by making catechism free?
Click to expand...
A local parish in my area had two faith formation programs running weekly for a couple months. One was an apologetics series based on free worksheet handouts and discussion, with no cost to participants. The other was a Jeff Cavins bible study based on watching a video and answering questions about it from a workbook. The cost for that program was $30 per participant. Which do you think had more participation?

The program that costed $30 to be a part of had over 30 regular participants who each paid $30 for the workbook and came to each session. The free program never had more than 10 people attend, and it was usually around 6.

I think people sometimes will only come if they have paid to come. Or maybe the discussion leader at the free program (me) just wasn’t a very good discussion leader.
 
Catechism and a faith formation class should be FREE.

We’ve done something wrong somewhere down the line, I’m afraid:(
 
Most parishes either charge nothing, a small fee to cover printed material costs and/or offer it free to those who can’t afford it.

I know that at my parish most of the people can afford the small fee, but if they can’t someone will donate money for their fee.

I have told the RCIA director in my parish that our KoC Chapter will cover the costs of anyone who can’t afford it.
 
I am a DRE in a very large suburban parish. I have over 1600 kids in religious ed. We also charge what some people here might see as a hefty fee, but it is quite average for our diocese. Despite the fee, my office is usually running in the red. Since I took the job two years ago I have been trying to keep within budget by cutting some things that I thought was wasteful and unnecessary and that will keep us from raising our fees. We also have a large number of families that simply do not pay. I am not talking about those with legitimate hardships for we always allow for that. But there are parents who pay thousands of dollars a year for lacrosse or soccer camps and coaches, dance lessons and drama classes, but bawlk at paying for religious ed and then just don’t pay. Shows where their priorities are as many of these parents also insist that we offer classes at convenient times that fit in with their kids sports schedules. One even insisted that we hire a catechist to teach her children at a more convenient time.
 
Joannm said:
I am a DRE in a very large suburban parish. I have over 1600 kids in religious ed. We also charge what some people here might see as a hefty fee, but it is quite average for our diocese. Despite the fee, my office is usually running in the red. Since I took the job two years ago I have been trying to keep within budget by cutting some things that I thought was wasteful and unnecessary and that will keep us from raising our fees. We also have a large number of families that simply do not pay. I am not talking about those with legitimate hardships for we always allow for that. But there are parents who pay thousands of dollars a year for lacrosse or soccer camps and coaches, dance lessons and drama classes, but bawlk at paying for religious ed and then just don’t pay. Shows where their priorities are as many of these parents also insist that we offer classes at convenient times that fit in with their kids sports schedules. One even insisted that we hire a catechist to teach her children at a more convenient time.
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👍 thanks for keeping us informed
 
Perhaps if all Catholics tithed, churches wouldn’t have to charge for faith formation or Catholic schools.

Books, materials and salaries have to come from somewhere.
 
KCT said:
Perhaps if all Catholics tithed, churches wouldn’t have to charge for faith formation or Catholic schools.

Books, materials and salaries have to come from somewhere.
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👍
However, I think that even then, in some Parishes, there might be a need to supplement the tithe with at least good-will donations.
 
St Martha Adult Faith Formation have archived their classes in mp3 format and available for free here stmarthaaff.com/.

Catholic books have imprimatur, which means approved by the bishop. As for Saints books, aren’t they approved by the pope?
 
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