Canadians look to Albany for religious ed guidance

After working with the Albany diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis (OEC) for nearly two years, members of the Archdiocese of Montreal are putting the finishing touches on a faith formation program necessitated by a change in Canadian law.

"Until recently, Canada had state-supported religious education within their public school system," explained Jeanne Schrempf, director of the OEC. "The law was recently changed, and we were approached for help in catechist formation and leadership."

As a result, the Canadian Catholics have visited the Albany Diocese on several occasions to learn how to establish their own faith formation program.

Emily Di Fruscia, assistant director of the Montreal Archdiocese's Faith Formation office, said, "Our goal is to continue to build our faith communities at the parish level with ongoing education and catechesis of children and parents alike."

Connection

Sister Joann Compagno, CND, originally from the Archdiocese of New York City, is familiar with the faith formation process in the Albany Diocese. In the early 1990s, she worked as a catechetical leader at Our Lady of Fatima parish in Delanson. She now works in Montreal and helped to linked the two dioceses.

The OEC "has always been a tremendous resource to people," Sister Joann told The Evangelist. "Not only have Bishop Howard J. Hubbard and our Bishop Anthony Mancini been encouraging of this process, but also Mrs. Schrempf and her staff have provided practical resources and given us a sense of the spiritual dimensions needed for the ongoing training of our spiritual leaders.

"Right now, we see the spiritual hunger of those that are called to the ministry of faith formation and wish to take on leadership in that role. To be able to feed that hunger and help them find ways to be effective leaders in catechesis -- well, God is at work here."

Lord's hand

"I think the Lord provided Sister Joann to us," Ms. Di Fruscia noted. "She has been able to connect us with the Albany people, whose programs we have long admired. Here, we have found the closest reality to what we have been looking for with regard to an effective faith formation program for our parishes.

"In the time that we have been building this program in our diocese, we have seen a real growth in faith formation in our parishes," she said.

"Albany has been our light! We are very grateful to the staff of the OEC for helping us to connect with the energy needed to build our program. They have provided us with solid models of formation for our leaders, outlines for the courses we want to offer our families and showing us how important catechesis is, as a force in our parishes."

(The Archdiocese of Montreal includes 280 parishes. Emily Di Fruscia and her staff are responsible for faith formation in 60 parishes. Thirty-five are English-speaking; the remainder are French-speaking.)

(2/19/04) [[In-content Ad]]