What Does Every Catholic Need To Know?

[takebacktonight]

The Eucharist and its significance...until recently I had no idea how central it is, i.e. I had no idea why we receive it every week when other denominations might have communion.

I have learned more from wikipedia, and lurking on here than I ever did in catechism.

Sounds stupid, I know, but it's true and if it's aimed at young people or converts/reverts start at the *very* beginning.

[puellapaschalis]

[quote name='takebacktonight' post='1874215' date='May 24 2009, 08:28 AM']I have learned more from wikipedia, and lurking on here than I ever did in catechism.[/quote]

Yup, me too, although I started learning before the internet really kicked off, and long before I found Phatmass. I bought a copy of the Catechism and kept it by my bed for years and read a bit of it each night. When it came to starting Confirmation prep it almost felt as though I knew more than the catechists, and when I asked them about this or that citation in the Catechism they'd look at me like I'd grown an extra head.

Thank God for the catechists like Brother Adam and priests like Fr. Theo who really DO seem to take their teaching tasks seriously!

[Theologian in Training]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' post='1874221' date='May 24 2009, 03:54 AM']Yup, me too, although I started learning before the internet really kicked off, and long before I found Phatmass. I bought a copy of the Catechism and kept it by my bed for years and read a bit of it each night. When it came to starting Confirmation prep it almost felt as though I knew more than the catechists, and when I asked them about this or that citation in the Catechism they'd look at me like I'd grown an extra head.

Thank God for the catechists like Brother Adam and priests like Fr. Theo who really DO seem to take their teaching tasks seriously![/quote]

I teach an apologetics class to the adults, a scaled down version to the youth, RCIA, Confirmation and, for a time, I was also teaching CCD (Religious Ed). I love to teach and, as you can tell, I do it often.

I usually put together a keynote presentation (the Mac equivalent of a Power Point) chock full of videos, music and the like, covering such topics as Mary, the Sacraments, Sin (before a Penance Service) and the Bible for the youth. For the adults we spoke about atheism, creation, the Fathers, etc.

Believe it or not, people are hungry for it, it seems though no one has really tried to take the time to educate and instruct them though. I am not alone, of course, there are other priests in the diocese that are doing the same. In fact, the bishop required all parishes to have a program of evangelization, some did Why Catholic? others did their own thing. The result though is a better educated and catechized group of Church goers who know a little more about their faith and why they do what they do and why, indeed, it makes a difference.

[BG45]

To add a personal experience to "not knowing why they're Catholic". Cover the Nicene Creed? A former suitemate's girlfriend once said, "What the does Apostolic mean anyhow? We say it every Sunday?"

At the time I was Baptist, and I was the only one in a room full of Catholics that knew what it meant.

[Winchester]

How to control speed without using brakes.

[Brother Adam]

Thus the need for this free book. Again, all, please let me know if you would like to help write it. It would be a horrible amount of work for just me. The more people who can help the faster we can produce it and distribute it.

[Innocent]

Another thing that Catholics need to be made aware of is how easy it is to get access to a large volume of official Church documents, patristic writings, books by saints, &c through the internet.

To that end, you could put in a short note about how powerful a learning tool the internet has become, and include a list of a few sites that you trust, as a starting point.

You also could put in a list of online Catholic forums that you know to be orthodox. That would help them learn the faith more through interaction with other Catholics from over the world. It's quite possible that many adults whom you teach have day jobs where they're allowed internet access. So maybe some of them will take up this suggestion and find it very useful for their understanding to participate in forums like here, CAF, and also maybe even your own forum, too. (could probably help the adult converts in teaching the Faith to their children.)

Being a member of a good Catholic community gives them a wide exposure to various topics which is difficult to obtain otherwise.

Edited May 24, 2009 by Innocent

[journeyman]

[quote name='Brother Adam' post='1873618' date='May 22 2009, 11:01 PM']Here is the idea I am working on to give you a better idea of the direction I want to take this project.

[url="http://www.stmarywilliamston.com/documents/WECSK.pdf"]What Every Catholic Should Know[/url]

Here is another project on apologetics I posted here a while ago:

[url="http://www.stmarywilliamston.com/documents/catholicapologetics.pdf"]Catholic Apologetics Volume 1[/url]

The idea is to create free distributable Catholic resources.[/quote]


here's a potential resource on apologetics
[url="http://www.catholicapologetics.org/"]http://www.catholicapologetics.org/[/url]