Whole Community Catechesis

The Church of St. Patrick is embracing Whole Community Catechesis, a process for life-long catechesis, life-long faith learning.  Our programs are evolving to integrate all age, to nurture all sizes of households in faith, to reflect our joy in growing in a relationship with the Lord.

Questions About Whole Community Catechesis
WHAT EXACTLY IS WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS?
HOW ARE 90 MINUTE FAMILY SESSIONS DIFFERENT FROM LAST YEAR'S 60 MINUTE SESSIONS?
WHY SOMETHING NEW?
WHAT NEW APPROACH TO RELIGIOUS EDUCATION DOES WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS OFFER?
WHAT IS A “SPIRAL SCOPE AND SEQUENCE”?
WHY ARE WE CHANGING THE LANGUAGE?
WHERE DID THE NAME “WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS” COME FROM?
WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR “WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS” COME FROM?
WHAT IS THE GENERAL DIRECTORY FOR CATECHESIS?
IS WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS FOR ME?
IN WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS, DO WE STILL REFER TO THE PERSONS INVOLVED AS “STUDENTS”?
IN OUR NEW WHOLE COMMUNITY APPROACH TO CATECHESIS, WHY IS THERE SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON CONVERSION?
BUT…WHAT’S BEEN MISSING?
BEYOND THE SPIRAL SCOPE AND SEQUENCE, WHAT ELSE DOES WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS RECOMMEND?
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A FRESH APPROACH TO A LIFE-CHANGING CATECHESIS THAT INVOLVES ALL THE MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY?

WHAT EXACTLY IS WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS?
Whole community catechesis is an approach to parish or school religious education through which youth and adults as well as children are invited to participate in faith formation programs throughout the year.  The entire community thus becomes the focus of all we do in catechesis.

In whole community catechesis, what happens in the Sunday assembly for Mass is closely connected to what happens in the religious education classroom.  The liturgy of the Word from Sunday is the starting point.  Catechesis or faith formation must flow from that Word and each learner is invited to “break open the Word,” to share their faith about what they believe.

Also in whole community catechesis, parents play a vital role alongside all the other members of the community.  Catechesis is not just for children!  It’s for everyone.  Every Catholic is invited to know and love the Church, to walk with Christ in his or her daily life, and to gather faithfully together on Sunday for the parish Mass.

Added to that, whole community catechesis places great emphasis on developing households of faith.  It’s certainly true for a child, but also true for everyone, that no matter how effective our experience of faith might be at the parish level, what really counts is how we live that faith in our everyday lives at home! 

If our homes are not places where the faith is shared and lived, then the work of catechesis is like sowing seed on rocky ground.

HOW ARE 90 MINUTE FAMILY SESSIONS DIFFERENT FROM LAST YEAR'S 60 MINUTE SESSIONS?
Previously Family Catechesis through the Church of St. Patrick's was structured with one one-hour session at church each month. During that hour each age grouping (i.e. kindergartners, first graders, etc.) were taught one lesson by a facilitator and reviewed past lessons while the parents met to learn more about a topic chosen for them. Families were then expected to complete additional lessons at home before the next month's session at church.

In Whole Community Catechesis we continue to expect parents to teach their faith at home, but we understand not every family is equipped to teach a foundation of fundamental Catholicism. Many of us adults are still building our foundation for our life-long faith journey. To nurture your household of faith, the Church of St. Patrick's Whole Community Catechesis offers Family Sessions to build a knowledge foundation as well as grow the faith. The new structure involves the families meeting with their children twice a month learning the fundamentals and some or all the family meeting a third time each month for more.

The ninety minute sessions will consistently follow the schedule of about fifteen minutes with the whole community of learners (parents, children and volunteers), sixty minutes in small groups (by grades for the first two times each month) and then the final fifteen minutes all back together. The theme/topic for each session will be largely consistent for all the small groups; families will be able to continue discussing and practicing what was learned outside the church.

The twice a month sessions on the fundamentals will strive to be learning through sharing, experiencing, and challenging. This is not meant to be the stereotypical classroom setting. Children are encourage to become life-long learners rather than merely students memorizing facts. The same fundamental themes will be repeated each year with deepening understanding (see What is a "Spiral Scope and Sequence"?).

The once a month more will bring the faith alive and into everyday practice. Small groups will be mixed up to give everyone the benefit of each other's experience. Parents and/or older kids can learn from the fresh minds of youth while young kids can learn from the experience of age. While the fundamentals are the seed, the more is the nurturing of that seed.

EVERY session will be tied to the Word of God. EVERY session will look at the Sunday Liturgy, the source and summit of our faith. EVERY session will strive to make faith fun, to express our joy in growing in a relationship with the Lord.

WHY SOMETHING NEW?
If Vatican II made one thing clear to us Catholics, it’s that the reform of the Church, in all its dimensions and ministries, is ongoing.  Blessed Pope John XXIII said it best, when he observed a need to examine ourselves closely and reform ourselves continuously because “all that the Gospel demands of us has not yet been fully revealed.”  God is still speaking, still guiding and inspiring and aiding our ministry.

WHAT NEW APPROACH TO RELIGIOUS EDUCATION DOES WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS OFFER?
Several features taken together compose this new approach.

1.                  Conversion, the turning of our hearts to Christ, must become an essential part of every catechesis process.

2.                  The households must play an integral role in all that we do, and families must become more involved at the everyday level, not as occasional guests of the process.

3.                  The RCIA is our model; breaking open the Word is the approach that helps lead folks to ongoing conversion, love of Scripture, a heart for the materially poor, and deeper commitment to community life.

4.                  Adult education must become the norm, not the sideline. Catechesis is for adults as much as for children; in short, catechesis is the work of the whole community.

5.                  Catechists are called to a genuine vocation, not merely to fill the demand for personnel in our present programs.  We need to discover the gift of teaching in others to allow the Spirit to work.

6.                  We must take care to teach precisely what the Church teaches, as outlined for us in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Catechesis is not a time to teach our opinions about theology or life in the Church; it’s the time to pass on faithfully what the Church hands on to us.

7.                  Finally, those who are in catechesis should see themselves as disciples of Christ on a lifelong journey of faith, not merely as temporary students completing a program that ends with graduation.

Whole community catechesis brings all these features into a single way of thinking, a single philosophy, a single focus for the parish.  It has the power to renew the whole community and to generate great enthusiasm for the gospel.

WHAT IS A “SPIRAL SCOPE AND SEQUENCE”?
First of all, a scope and sequence is the organized framework, the system of lessons and themes we follow to present the teachings of the faith to a learner.  This framework follows a certain sequence of ideas, one after the other.  It stays within a certain scope of topics and themes.  By providing this order for the presentation for the faith, a learner has a better chance of getting it all right!  A spiral scope and sequence is one in which the learner returns to each topic every year, in spiral fashion.  Each time, the topics are presented in age-appropriate language and teaching methods.  By using a spiral, all the learners in a single parish can be studying the same theme at the same time making parent involvement and intergenerational groupings much more possible.

DO WE STILL HAVE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTIONS?
Yes, indeed, there is a need for outright religious instruction in order for Christian children to grow up and mature in their faith.  Understanding the sacred Scriptures, the Church’s liturgy, its history, devotions, and doctrines is essential.  This is true for Christians of all age groups. 

St. Patrick’s framework will provide a structure within which this outright religious education happens.  The textbooks will be complete and beautiful.  The students will come away with a very good working knowledge of the Church.

WHY ARE WE CHANGING THE LANGUAGE?
Why can’t we continue calling it
    CCD
    Or religious ed.
    Or Religion Class?

At Vatican II it was important for the bishops of the world, along with the pope, to refer to the Church using new language.  In order for the reform envisioned by Pope John XXIII to become reality, we needed a new way of speaking about the Church.  So, the bishops began to refer to the Church under a new name: the People of God.  They knew that if the Church was called that, soon it would become that, and they were right!

Likewise, the pope and bishops renewed our understanding of ourselves as part of the Body of Christ.  Refer to people as members of Christ’s Body, they reasoned, and they will become Christ’s Body for the world.  The pope and bishops knew that language affects our perception of reality and, in turn, our actions:  if we call something by a new but true name it becomes that thing!

The same is true for whole community catechesis.  How we name what we do is very important.  We will become what we call ourselves.  If we continue calling our programs schools of religion, or religious education programs, or religion class, most people will see them as mainly for children.  However, if we call what we do by a new name, whole community catechesis, people will soon see it as part and parcel of being Catholic.  We don’t want to put new wine into old wine skins, after all.  As Dick Reichert said in the national Conference of Catechetical Leadership: “The real challenge contained in the pursuit of alternative models is to create a radical new paradigm of catechesis.  It cannot simply be a process of going back to the past or making surface modifications of the present models.”  In other word, it isn’t sufficient to merely tinker with our present approach, to shift the furniture in our present method so the classrooms look different.  We can’t merely invite the parents to participate.  As Dick Reichert noted, we need a radical new paradigm in order to achieve the goals of the General Directory for Catechesis.

WHERE DID THE NAME “WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS” COME FROM?
The name, whole community catechesis, comes directly from article #254 of the General Directory for Catechesis, which says: “The Christian community is the origin, locus, and goal of catechesis.  Proclamation of the gospel always begins with the Christian community and invites people to conversion and the following of Christ.  It is the same whole community that welcomes those who wish to know the Lord better and permeate themselves with a new life.  The whole Christian community accompanies catechumens and those being catechized, and with maternal solicitude makes them participate in her own experience of the faith and incorporates them into herself.”

WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR “WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS” COME FROM?
The whole movement toward an approach to catechesis which involves the entire parish community comes from four main sources.  First, catechetical leaders have given careful consideration to the way Jesus taught, as the General Directory for Catechesis suggests we should.   Second, we have all reflected seriously on the teachings of Vatican II for more than forty years.  Third, the direction provided by the General Directory for Catechesis itself has been nothing other than revolutionary.  And fourth, there is an emerging consensus in the catechetical community that the present way we do our ministry, in what’s known as the “schoolhouse” framework, just isn’t working as well as we’d like it.

WHAT IS THE GENERAL DIRECTORY FOR CATECHESIS?
This document was called for in Rome by the bishops at Vatican II, written over a span of more than three decades, the result of worldwide consultation and input, based solidly on papal teaching, Vatican II’s insights, and Scripture itself.  Finally it was signed by Pope John Paul II, translated into all the world’s languages, and sent to every diocese.  This amazing document seeks to read the signs of the times and state of catechesis in the

Church, and bring them together.  The General Directory for Catechesis (GDC) advises us, cajoles us, points us in the right direction, and affirms our own common sense.  It is our guide, indeed, the guide for all we do in catechesis in today’s Church.  For it we can draw certain principles for catechesis in today’s world.  These principles, in turn, will shape the processes we develop at the parish and even at the household level of the Church.

St. Patrick has many of these amazing documents waiting for you to check them out.

IS WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS FOR ME?
Yes.  Catechesis will involve everyone in the parish, whether or not there are children in the household.  Everyone will be invited to participate in catechesis.

IN WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS, DO WE STILL REFER TO THE PERSONS INVOLVED AS “STUDENTS”?
It would help tremendously to stop referring to people in our catechetical process as students.  In our culture the word “student” suggests academic learning, even if the meaning of the word could be broader.  It suggests a school year period of study, ending in graduation.  That ending is a key problem.  Nearly every adult in the Church today believes that he or she has completed their religious education.  They’re no longer students.  They’re adults now.  However, learning to follow the way of Christ never ends, as the bishops tell us in the General Directory of Catechesis.  There is no graduation from catechesis; it’s a lifelong journey of faith, a lifelong process. 

So instead, why not give those engaged in faith formation another name?  Maybe we could call them simply “learners.”  A learner is one who is learning how to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, one who is learning a way of life.  This name suggests a never-ending, non-academic process of growing to live as Jesus taught us to.  Learner is a biblical word; anyone who refers to himself or herself as a learner is making a serious commitment to growth.  A learner is one who comes to encounter Christ not merely to know about him. 

IN OUR NEW WHOLE COMMUNITY APPROACH TO CATECHESIS, WHY IS THERE SO MUCH EMPHASIS ON CONVERSION?
For many Catholics growing up in the 1950”s (and even for those who can’t remember the 1950’s), we thought conversion was for other Christians.  We even called them “converts” when they joined the Catholic Church.  Today we take a wider view, and we see that each Catholic also needs to turn his or her heart to Christ over and over again throughout their lives.  This turning is what we call conversion.  The word comes from Latin, meaning literally, to turn.  The reason we emphasize it so much is that, as the General Directory for Catechesis teaches, conversion, the turning of one’s heart to Christ, precedes catechesis.  Adults, like their kids, might sit through instructional classes, but until they turn their hearts to Christ and share that with others, we haven’t really done our job of announcing the Good News of Christ.

BUT…WHAT’S BEEN MISSING?
Well, first of all, for us Catholics, nothing can happen in the Church that doesn’t have its origin in the Sunday Mass.  For us, the liturgy is the “source and summit” of our faith.  It’s what makes us truly Catholic.  So we must say that a real connection to the Sunday liturgy and Religious instruction is missing.  How do we add that??? 

Whole community catechesis makes several suggestions:

·        Faith sharing based on the Sunday readings;

·        Some for of liturgical catechesis to help us understand the rites;

·        Use of a spiral scope and sequence in our textbooks series.

BEYOND THE SPIRAL SCOPE AND SEQUENCE, WHAT ELSE DOES WHOLE COMMUNITY CATECHESIS RECOMMEND?
In the past forty-five years every single Church document that deals with Christian education and catechesis has insisted that parents and entire households be involved in catechesis, not just the children.  Without the rest of the household, no matter how effective the religious education might be, the child has little chance of developing deep faith roots and living by Catholic customs and morality.  In whole community catechesis, parishes plan for the involvement of the entire community, based on the spiral scope and sequence mentioned earlier.  Not only are parents present when their children are formed in the faith.  Much more radically, households are being formed as Christian homes.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A FRESH APPROACH TO A LIFE-CHANGING CATECHESIS THAT INVOLVES ALL THE MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY?
Be watching and listening as the Church of St. Patrick unfolds Whole Community Catechesis.