Catechetics And Christian Education People!

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Phatmass is blessed with numerous catechetic teachers and I desire to take a drip of that knowledge. How do you set up your organzational chart for the education program? Is there a standard catholic model or what works for you? Is there an official vision statement for catechetics or christian education overall? What are the goals that are spoken and directed towards in catechetics?

any/all information would be appreciated. I find myself interested in how the catholic program works after having the training in the protestant programs.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Well, programs work differently according to audience. A youth group will be more or less informal while a classroom will be more structured and didactic. The Church officially says that there is no one method, but there are some basic principles which have proven effective. At Franciscan University, they have us learn the Ecclesial Model, which goes: Preparation, Proclamation, Explanation, Application, and Celebration. That is for individual lessons, though.

For a whole curriculum, my personal preference is to organize each lesson according to the above model and to organize them in such a way that I could start with the first point and the student would ask the logical question arising from it, then I would have the second point ready in response to it. So when I plan a lesson, I generally find the basic core message (what is called the "kerygma") and I imagine myself stating it to my audience. I then try to anticipate their first reaction, to which I will explain the kerygma in that regard...then they will have another question arising from my explanation. This generally goes on until the message is relatively exhausted or until any further points wouldn't be of particular relevance to the audience in question (second graders can know that there is serious sin, but they don't need to have lust explained to them). Each truth of the faith is related in what is called a hierarchy of truths...this does not mean that some are more true than others, but that some are more central than others. The very central truths must always be taught, but some of those a little further out get more particular and perhaps not necessary in a given discussion. That's how we determine what to say. If you have a year to explain the Catholic faith, you can do so well enough for a person to make an informed decision. If you have a week, you have to move a little closer to the center of the hierarchy so that you can get the whole faith in, but it will be more encapsulated. If you have a day, you will need to move further to the center. If you have a minute, recite the Creed. If you have one phrase, say, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." It's like that...and it all centers on Jesus.

Anyway, once I have determined a single lesson, I would move on to developing the whole semester (or whatever other unit) according to that same sequence...last week we talked about the Trinity, so this week we could talk about the Creation, the Fall, the Incarnation, the Redemption, or Heaven...which of those I pick will largely depend on where I want this class to end up...if the course is a study of the Sacraments, then it assumes that they already know about the Creation and the Fall, so while I may remind them of those, my class should probably have more to do with the Incarnation (Christ as Sacrament), the Redemption (The Sacraments in Subjective Redemption), and Heaven (The Final End of the Sacraments).

Now, with the individual lesson, as I have said, there are the preparation, the proclamation, the explanation, the application, and the celebration. The preparation should be something to disengage them from whatever is going on outside and get them into the spirit of the lesson...relevant music, a scriptural narrative, prayer, etc. The proclamation should be a short and sweet, highly emphatic proclamation of the central core message ("if there's anything I want you to remember from this class, its..."). The explanation is where you explain the doctrine in light of it's most essential aspects, moving from one point to another in a logical structure. The application is where you get them to apply it to their lives, experiences, understanding, why we do things the way we do, etc. The celebration is some way of putting the doctrine into practice...it can be a prayer involving the doctrine, a game, etc. There can be some overlap between some of these and others.

The goal is simple: to put people into intimate contact with Jesus Christ. Anything which flows from that relationship is also a necessary goal.

For vision statements and such for the universal Church, see the documents: Catechesi Tradendae (JPII), General Directory for Catechesis (Congregation for the Clergy), National Directory for Catechesis (USCCB), Teaching the Catholic Faith Today (by Msgr. Eugene Kevane).

Anyway, that's a very brief overview of some of the central things I've learned about the method of catechesis.

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Raphel,

What is the organizational chart? Do you need to answer to a liturgy expert? Or a priest, or does the diocese have someone? How does that work?

What about other educational programs besides catechetics. like sunday school, and first communion. Anyone have a big ol catholic flowchart?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Revprodeji' post='1217373' date='Mar 22 2007, 01:52 PM']Raphel,

What is the organizational chart? Do you need to answer to a liturgy expert? Or a priest, or does the diocese have someone? How does that work?

What about other educational programs besides catechetics. like sunday school, and first communion. Anyone have a big ol catholic flowchart?[/quote]

LOL, I think I misunderstood what you meant by the organization of catechetics.

Anyway, it often goes diocese by diocese. I would say that there are three general parts to any flow chart:

Diocese, Parish, School

The diocese has, of course, the bishop, who is the chief catechist (the bishop's primary job is preaching and catechesis). Underneath him, there is the Vicar General or Chancellor or some other assistant. Under that, there are lots of secretaries who are directors of different diocesan functions. In many dioceses, the catechetical aspect is split like this: Diocesan Director of Religious Education, Diocesan Director of Youth Ministry (sometimes this just falls under the previous position), and Superintendent of Catholic Schools (who is part catechetical, part generally-educational). All of these may have assistants, depending on the size and needs of the diocese. Some dioceses may also have RCIA coordinators.

The parish has the pastor, whose ministry is attached to the bishop. Priests are not individual little heads of the Church. They are connected to the bishop and share in his ministry. Thus, a priest who does not have the permissions (termed "faculties") to celebrate Mass or hear Confessions in his diocese, does not have them because his bishop has not granted them. Anyway, the priest is the chief catechist of his parish and works in this ministry in relation to the bishop. Under the pastor and whatever assistant pastors there may be, there is usually the Director of Religious Education and the Director of Youth Ministry, although, again, the latter may simply fall under the former. Some parishes may also have RCIA coordinators. The reason there is sometimes a distinction and sometimes not is because youth ministry has a strong presence at some parishes and dioceses, but doesn't at others, and often times the ministry is split to take the load off of the DRE. If there are no others except for the DRE, then the DRE generally handles all the ministries, but would be wise to recruit volunteers to help out. Those volunteers would handle individual sessions of RCIA, Youth Ministry, Sunday School, Bible Studies, Men's Groups, Women's Groups, etc. If there are other professional leaders in the parish, then they take the leadership over whatever groups they may have.

The last group is of school-side catechists. These are theology/religion teachers and campus ministers. They report to the principal of the school, unless it is at a college, in which case the campus minister reports to either the president (if it's a Catholic college, though not in all Catholic colleges) or the head of whatever college ministry there may be (a FOCUS missionary catechist would report to his or her campus coordinator, who would report to the pastor of the local Catholic student center).

So, there are some similarities, but it really varies based on needs and dynamics.