New way to teach religion offered at coming workshop

The Cleavers of the TV show "Leave It To Beaver" are no more, argues Bill Huebsch, so why are so many parishes still using them as their catechetical model?

Mr. Huebsch, a proponent of "whole community catechesis" and senior advisor to Harcourt Religion Publishers, believes that the "schoolhouse" catechetical framework, favored by the parishes of his youth, is not enough nowadays.

"When I was growing up in the Fifties, I lived in this thing called the 'Catholic home,'" he recalled. "We went to Mass every week. We went to devotions. When we went to catechism class, the gap the parish had to fill in was very small, because our faith was affirmed at home."

New styles

But he holds that the gap between today's families and their catechetical programs is very large indeed.

Fast food on the way to soccer practice has replaced attendance at the nightly dinner table. Praying the Rosary together -- a commonplace event for families of Mr. Huebsch's childhood -- is an alien concept in many single-parent, non-traditional or ecumenical families.

But the home remains the most important place where the Christian message of conversion needs to reside because it is "where the Church actually is," he said.

Everyone involved

Mr. Huebsch believes that today's families need to do more than simply drop off their children at catechism class; they need to shift into "whole community catechesis," a model that incorporates adult formation with children's religious education, with an emphasis on religion in the home.

"We can't go back to the Fifties," he told The Evangelist. "What we can do is to create an environment in the homes where people are affirmed for the lives they are actually living."

In his model, the parish "becomes a resource center for the home, rather than the other way around," he explained.

At dinner

The dinner table is an important symbol for Mr. Huebsch. "Our culture is at the table," whether it's home or at a fast-food restaurant, he said. "Whole-community catechesis locates itself where the people live: at the table rather than only at church."

He believes that "if a parish could organize itself around the table," it would be a "tremendous resource for single people, widows, those who are abandoned and those who are intentionally single; they would have an avenue for joining at table with others."

Parishes that have "whole community catechesis" often structure it around Sunday Mass, incorporating teaching sessions into the liturgy itself or inviting people to a community catechetical session directly afterwards. As a result, "it doesn't feel like school," Huebsch said.

Success

Mr. Huebsch said that the "whole community" program has led to higher collections, higher involvement and higher Mass attendance.

"In places that have been doing whole community catechesis," Huebsch said, "parents say, 'I can't imagine just dropping off my children at class.' They can't imagine that they ever thought [just doing that] was good enough."

(Bill Huebsch will be offering an workshop on "whole community catechesis," March 20, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at the Century House in Latham. Call the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis at 453-6630.)

(3/13/03) [[In-content Ad]]