Parish turns religious ed into a family affair

Whole families come out to volunteer for parish dinners. In the past five years, the church has never lacked for Eucharistic ministers, and new catechists been known to walk right through the door and sign up with no cajoling.

Mass attendance has held steady at the highest numbers the church has seen in some time.

What's the secret?

Seven years ago, St. Vincent's experienced problems typical to many parishes: inconsistent attendance at Mass, a growing lethargy in the catechism program, and a difficulty in procuring volunteers. A visit to a national conference on religious education changed that, however.

There, the parish's director of religious education was presented with a new faith formation model that worked wonders in some parishes in the Midwest. The model was based not on the education of children, but on the education of adults with children involved, a family-style approach to faith formation that, as Father Berardi says, "provides the parents with everything they need to be the teachers of their own children. I announced from the pulpit that we would no longer have 'drive-by religion.' It wasn't going to be an extra program or an option."

Guiding principles

* a firm belief that parents are the first and best catechists of their children,

* parental acceptance of their responsibility within the context of the baptismal rite,

* the recognition that no amount of time spent in classrooms will more successfully present a model of Catholic Christian life and beliefs than the life lived in a Catholic Christian home, and

* the responsibility of the parish to provide parents with the tools they need to ensure that their children are well-grounded in their faith.

Catholic culture

"This is not just one more program in the parish," he said. "It's much more cohesive. It's part of the tapestry of the parish, the multi-colored threads that run through the fabric and support every corner of the parish. It's become the hub of how the parish functions. And it's working. People are responding."

The program runs both in the fall and in the spring. Once a month after Mass, parents send their children to classrooms, where they are divided by age level. The grownups then go to the parish hall, where they participate in their own faith formation program.

Together, the joint classes "tie the home, the kids and the family to the liturgical life of the parish, and through the liturgical life of the parish, to the community life of the parish," Sister James said.

Adults and kids

During the week, parents are asked to talk with their children about the Scripture readings so that there is a "unifying theme within the family."

In addition, the adults tell Father Berardi and Sister James what they want to learn, and Sister James creates programs based on those needs. In the past years, parents have learned how to pray with children, increased their Catholic parenting skills and discovered how to teach tolerance of other faiths, an outgrowth of questions raised in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.

This year, the adults will tackle Church history. They are doing that in response to questions raised around the hierarchy of the Church, the sexual abuse scandal and the concept of jihad in Islam.

Role models

"When kids are in the classroom, where are Mom and Dad [in other parishes]? The kids know that mom and dad are eating pancakes while they're sitting in the classroom. It totally levels the experience for everyone" to have them taking classes simultaneously, said Sister James.

A side-effect of the adult-centered approach has been the gradual involvement of young singles and older retirees, who do not have children. They've requested, and Sister James has provided, programs like "Catholicism 101" to answer questions about dogma, doctrine and teachings.

Shift of emphasis

"Adult-based faith formation requires a mind-shift," she said. "You have to shift from that model where children are the primary emphasis to where the adults are the primary emphasis."

"Look at Scripture. Show me one place where Jesus taught children other than example." Father Berardi added. "The parent is the primary teacher by example. If the parent isn't interested enough in the Church, then they're already teaching their child that Church is not important."

Sister James calls the parish community of St. Vincent de Paul "more Catholic-literate" than other parishes she has worked at because of this program, adding: "They get the information, they have the conversation, and they ask the questions. They own this program."

(09-12-02) [[In-content Ad]]