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The Question That Must Not
Be Asked
Here's a question guaranteed to stop a
conversation with a priest or lay ecclesial minister dead in his or
her tracks. Innocently ask if a particular program (or anything done
in a parish, for that matter) is effective in helping parishioners
become intentional disciples of Jesus.
The Challenge of
Adult Faith Formation
The U.S. Bishops call parishes to
focus on adults, rather than children, when considering catechesis.
They also suggest using the Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) as a
model for adult catechesis. What challenge does that pose for us as
individuals and as a Christian community?
Meet
the Institute's Development Director
George Martelon joins the Institute staff in a
role that's key to our future.
Catholic News
Service
Serving since 1920 as a news
agency specializing in reporting religion, CNS is the primary source
of national and world news that appears in the U.S. Catholic press.
It is also a leading source of news for Catholic print and broadcast
media throughout the world.
StarQuest Podcasting Network
If you are not familiar with
podcasting, here's a great place to start. Podcasts are like short,
commercial-free radio broadcasts you can download and listen to at
your leisure. Fr. Roderick Vonhögen, a Dutch Catholic priest, offers
insights into the Catholic faith, finds hidden religious meaning in
surprising places, and serves up entertaining commentary on life.
Vatican
Radio
The Pope's voice, as it is often
called, was started in 1929 by Pius XI with the help of Guglielmo
Marconi, the Italian who had just invented radio telegraphy. It
still continues to broadcast the Good News in 47 languages. Listen
here!
Characteristics of the New Evangelization
A short
explanation of the New Evangelization's focus on Christ by Dave
Nodar, Director of CHRISTLIFE Catholic Evangelization Services, an
apostolate of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland.
Called
and Gifted for the Third Millennium
Reflections of the U.S. Catholic
Bishops on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Decree on the Apostolate
of the Laity and the Fifteenth Anniversary of Called and Gifted.
This version includes reflection questions suitable for individuals
or groups.
March 3-4, 2006
East Grand Forks,
MN
(Diocese of Crookston)
Sacred Heart Catholic
Church
CONTACT: Fr. Larry Delaney, Pastor, or the Parish office
at
(218) 773-0877
East Melbourne , VIC
(Archdiocese of
Melbourne, Australia)
Friday March 3: 6:30
- 9pm
& Saturday March 4: 9am - 4pm
278 Victoria Parade
East Melbourne
CONTACT: Clara Geoghegan:
phone 03 9412
3343
or e-mail Clara
March 24-25, 2006
Incline Village, NV
(Diocese of Reno)
St Francis of Assisi Catholic
Church
CONTACT: Debbie Larson, or the Parish office at (775)
831-0490
April 21-22,
2006
Rapid City, SD
(Diocese of Rapid City)
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Cathedral
CONTACT: Fr. George Winzenburg, SJ - Director of the
Ministry Formation Program of the Diocese of Rapid City, at (605)
985-5906.
Sponsored by the diocese; attendance by invitation
only.
April 28-29,
2006
Ulysses, KS
(Diocese of Dodge
City)
Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church ENGLISH-language Called
& Gifted Workshop
CONTACT: Rev. Jim Dieker/Pastor at (620)
356-1532; or Becky Hessman, Vocations Director, Diocese of Dodge
City at (620) 227-1500.
April 29-30, 2006
Ulysses, KS
(Diocese of Dodge
City)
Mary Queen of Peace
Catholic Church SPANISH-language Called & Gifted
Workshop
CONTACT: Rev. Jim Dieker/Pastor at (620) 356-1532; or
Becky Hessman, Vocations Director, Diocese of Dodge City at (620)
227-1500.
June 2-3,
2006
Seattle,
WA
(Archdiocese of Seattle)
Blessed Sacrament
Parish
CONTACT: Marilyn Thornton, Director of Religious
Education, or the Parish office at (206) 547-3020
Chatsworth, CA
(Archdiocese of Los
Angeles)
St. John Eudes Catholic Church
CONTACT: Katie Dawson,
Director of Evangelization, or the Parish office at (818) 341-3680
March 31-April 2,
2006
Spokane, WA
(Diocese of
Spokane)
A training workshop to prepare people to present the
Called & Gifted workshop for the Institute.
St
Francis Xavier Catholic Church
CONTACT: Mike Dillon at the
Institute Office (719) 219-0056 or e-mail Mike
May 5-6,
2006
Colorado Springs, CO
(Diocese of Colorado
Springs)
CONTACT: Mike Dillon at the Institute Office (719) 219-0056
or e-mail Mike
June 9-10,
2006
Greenville,
SC
(Diocese of Charleston, SC)
St. Mary Catholic
Church
CONTACT: Kate Tierney or David Tiede Hottinger, Assistant
to the Pastor for Discipleship and Evangelization, at St Mary
Catholic Church (864) 271-8422 ext 11
or Mike Dillon at the Institute
Office (719) 219-0056 or e-mail Mike
March 12-16, 2006
Paw Paw, MI
(Diocese of
Kalamazoo)
St Mary Catholic Church
Lenten
Mission with Fr. M. Fones, OP
March 19-23,
2006
Papillion, NE
(Archdiocese of
Omaha)
St. Columbkille Parish
Lenten Mission with Fr. M. Fones,
OP
CONTACT: Parish Office / Pam Yenko, Director of Liturgy and
Stewardship, at (402) 339-3285
April 2-6,
2006
Valley City, ND
(Diocese of
Fargo)
St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish
Lenten Mission with Fr.
M. Fones, OPCONTACT: Parish Office / Fr. Michael Schommer at (701)
845-0354
Thus says the LORD:
I will lead
her into the desert
and speak to her heart.
She shall respond
there
as in the days of her youth,
when she came up
from
the land of Egypt.
I will espouse you to me forever:
I will
espouse you
in right and in justice,
in love and in
mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the
LORD.
Hosea 16b, 17b, 21-22
Have a blessed and Holy Lent!
The Institute would like to
acknowledge the help of Mark Cesnik of Tucson, AZ, who edited an
audio recording of Sherry Weddell's vocation story. You will soon be
able to purchase a CD from the Siena marketplace on our
website.
Fr. Mike gratefully acknowledges the
hospitality shown to him by Fr. Paul Wicker, of Holy Apostles
Church. Fr. Paul opens his home to Fr. Mike when Institute business
calls him to Colorado Springs. Thanks, too, to Col. Liz Anderson of
Colorado Springs, who provides Fr. Mike with a vehicle for
transportation during his visits.
Thanks also to Anna Elias-Cesnik and
Patricia Mees Armstrong for their help in editing this edition of
the e-Scribe. |
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The Question That Must Not Be Asked
by Sherry Weddell, co-Director, Catherine of Siena
Institute
In my early days as a Catholic, I was always asking the wrong
question, and reducing cradle Catholics to incredulous
silence. Many of my problem questions were related to a single
over-riding concern: wasn’t the Catholic faith supposed to change
people’s lives? Over time, I began to recognize the startled look
that would cross a priest’s face when I would say things like, “I
must be receiving the Eucharist improperly” or, “I must not be
confessing properly. It’s supposed to change me, isn’t
it? I don’t seem to be changing. I must be doing it
wrong.”
When I started graduate school, the issues became more
global. When I did a paper on RCIA, I made
an appointment with the local diocesan director of RCIA. I
wondered aloud: Did parishes keep in touch with those received
at Easter and monitor their Christian growth? Did they
follow-up when a new Catholic stopped coming? The director
gave me “the look” and responded that it would be invasive of the
spiritual privacy of the newly baptized to keep in touch.
When I asked the director of Catholic education in the same
diocese if they attempted to evaluate what children actually
“caught” of the faith when attending Catholic schools, she shook her
head. They had exposed the children to a certain number of
liturgies, classes, and a Catholic “atmosphere.” She make it
clear that to ask what the children understood of the Catholic
faith, much less believed when they graduated, was to make a heavy
handed numbers game of a delicate spiritual “mystery.”
I finally pulled a real whopper. I naively blurted out “Was
“Fr. X effective?” at a parish committee meeting. When the
woman across the table from me erupted in rage at my presumption, I
finally understood. I was violating another one of those
deeply held Catholic norms that wasn’t in the catechism but all
“real” Catholics instinctively know. Never ask if you are
being effective, never ask if you are having the desired spiritual
impact. I sat through the rest of that meeting in stunned
silence, thinking “I will never, never, never ever be
Catholic enough. I will never understand Catholics if I live
to be 100.” The irony is that the priest in question was none
other than Fr. Michael Sweeney with whom I eventually founded the
Institute. It turned out that he was asking similar
questions!
These days, I’m more sensitive to the feelings of cradle
Catholics but I’m still asking the same question. At every Making Disciples, Equipping
Apostles seminar, we ask, “What percentage of your parishioners
would you consider intentional disciples?” Since participants
are pastors, parish staff and leaders from dioceses all over North
America and elsewhere, this always produces vigorous discussion and
fascinating responses. Usually we discover that no one present
has ever thought about this particular question before and it takes
some wrestling to become clear about what is being asked. What
do we mean by the term “intentional disciple”? Is an
intentional disciple the same as a “practicing Catholic”? How
would you recognize someone as an intentional disciple?
And then the educated guesses begin: Five percent?
Ten percent? The highest estimate so far came from members of
a tiny parish with 350 members who estimated 30% of their members
would qualify. The grimmest assessment came from a west
coast-based group of leaders who together came up with a startling
ballpark figure: that probably less than 1-2% of their
parishioners were intentional disciples of Jesus Christ! They
all worked at big, extremely active parishes. And yet, the
fact that most members of their parishes were not yet disciples had
escaped them until that moment.
Over the past 10 years, I have worked with hundreds of parishes
in 70 dioceses and I can only think of a couple that I wouldn’t call
busy. Most appear to be busy seven days a week. Every
inch of available time and space is filled with people and programs
and yet parish leaders seldom ask, "What is the real, personal and
spiritual impact of our busyness? Are we changing the lives of
people?” We energetically move people through institutions and
programs but suddenly freeze when it is time to evaluate what is the
actual spiritual impact of our efforts.
The Vatican announced a few days ago that twelve million new
Catholics were added to the Church in 2004. That’s wonderful,
but as Catechesis
in Our Time puts it so powerfully, many baptized Catholics are
“still without any explicit personal attachment to Jesus
Christ; they only have the capacity to believe placed
within them by Baptism and the presence of the Holy
Spirit.”
You have read it in the Scribe before: Disciples and Apostles
don't “just happen.” Vocations don’t “just happen.” Weeds
happen.
Disciples, apostles, and vocations are the result of an
intentional plan and effort of a Christian
community. A community that knows that if you build
people first, they will create and sustain our
institutions. A community that dares to ask, “Are we doing
what Christ commanded us to do? How can we help every baptized
Catholic experience a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ? Are
we challenging our parishioners to become intentional disciples of
Jesus Christ? Are we helping them to become well-formed
apostles who are effectively discerning and answering God’s
call?"
If you would like to wrestle with these sorts of questions in a
fun, high energy community of like-minded parish and diocesan
leaders, make plans to attend Making Disciples, Equipping
Apostles:Growing Extraordinary Catholics in Our Own
Backyard this summer.
The Challenge of Adult Faith
Formation
by Fr. Michael Fones, O.P.
co-Director, Catherine of Siena Institute
In 1999, the U.S. Catholic Bishops approved a pastoral plan for
adult faith formation titled, "Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us."
In that document, they identified adult faith formation as "the axis
around which revolves the catechesis of childhood and adolescence as
well as that of old age" and "the chief form of catechesis"
requiring "real change in emphasis and priorities" in the
catechetical planning and activity of the typical parish.
The
three major goals of adult faith formation are conversion to the
Lord, active membership in the Church, and the preparation of adults
to act as disciples in mission to the world. These goals closely
parallel the process of the catechumenate portion of the Rite of
Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in which the non-baptized are
gradually called to conversion to Christ, catechized in the
Christian faith, introduced to the Christian community, and prepared
for the sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and
Eucharist. The bishops commented that "the baptismal
catechumenate provides for an apprenticeship in Christian living and
believing." Referring to the International Council on Catechesis'
1992 document Adult Catechesis in the Christian Community,
the Bishops said that the catechumenate "seems the most
appropriate model for adult faith formation and, though it cannot be
considered the exclusive model, should be encouraged everywhere.
Whatever model is used, adult faith formation should always actively
challenge participants to get involved with their own faith journey
– passive listening is never enough; the goal is always
conversion." (Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us, 81)
As a campus minister involved in the faith formation of
young adults, I welcomed the Bishops' challenge. I had come to
the sad realization that the Catholic university students I was
least likely to see at Mass or work with as student leaders were
those who had gone through Catholic high school. When I would
question such students as to why they were "on sabbatical" from
their faith, the reply often was something along the lines of, "I've
put in my time for twelve years. I don’t feel the need to do the
'Church thing' anymore." Often, the parents of these students
had spent thousands of dollars on their education, but had not lived
their own faith intentionally, in many cases not even attending Mass
with any regularity!
In a spring 2000 Siena Scribe
article, Community
and the Newly Baptized, Fr. Michael Sweeney, O.P., wrote of a
depressing statistic related by Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, who at
the time was the President of the Pontifical Council for the
Laity. The Cardinal had said that within the first few years
of having been received into the Church, 70 percent of new Catholics
were no longer active in the faith. Both of these situations
underscore the point that Sherry is making in her article above:
that we need to evaluate the effectiveness of our pastoral and
educational efforts. I do not believe the Bishops are recommending a
lousy model for adult faith formation. My own study and
experience of the RCIA process leads me to believe that the
ineffectiveness surrounding it is not a problem with the rite
itself, but rather the license taken in many parishes with regard to
its implementation!
Let me make a few observations about the
rite, particularly as it naturally connects to conversion to Christ,
the first of the three goals established by the bishops for adult
faith formation. In the next two editions of the e-Scribe I
will examine the rite in light of active membership in the Church
and discipleship in the world.
Conversion to
Christ
As they become familiar with the Christian
way of life and are helped by the example and support of sponsors,
godparents, and the entire Christian community, the catechumens
learn to turn more readily to God in prayer, to bear witness to the
faith, in all things to keep their hopes set on Christ, to follow
supernatural inspiration in their deeds, and to practice love of
neighbor, even at the cost of self renunciation. (RCIA Study
Edition, 75§2 , Liturgy Training Publications,
1988.)
This paragraph summarizes an ambitious formation
for catechumens as well as any adult Christian. It presupposes
something that seldom is experienced in most Catholic communities,
however, and that is active support from other members of the
community. We do not share with one another the daily lived
experience of our faith; neither the difficulties we encounter, nor
the moments when, in response to God's grace, we stand in the place
of Christ and become active agents of His Father's will.
Perhaps we do not talk about these experiences for the wrong
reasons. We may suspect that difficulties are a sign of lack
of faith, rather than as events that produce endurance, character,
and hope. (cf. Rom. 5:3a-5) On the other hand, we may think
that the good that we do is the product solely of our will, rather
than our cooperation with grace. A real challenge in the task
of adult faith formation will be the overcoming of a highly
privatized expression of our faith. Our humility needs to be
balanced with a desire to help each other in our relationship with
Jesus. Our pride needs to be balanced with the recognition
that we need the support of one another if we are to remain faithful
to Christ.
The encouragement to pray, the teaching of the
practice of discerning God's will, and practical assistance in
sharing our faith can and should be preached from the pulpit, but
they can also be experienced in small faith groups. Most
importantly, they need to be acknowledged and experienced as the
foundation of truly Christian fellowship and friendship, including
the friendship that is part of a sacramental marriage. If we
have become a new creation in baptism, we need to expect a new way
of relating to one another that differs from those who have yet to
encounter the Risen Lord!
The catechumenate is not a
"program" or series of classes through which a diverse group of
people marches in lockstep, although that is often how it is treated
in many parishes. Rather, its duration "[depends] upon the
grace of God and various circumstances…for the conversion and faith
of the catechumens to become strong." (RCIA Study Edition,
76) As a church we need to focus on the formation of
individuals, with their unique questions, experiences, gifts and
insights. Parish leaders will have to resist the temptation to
model adult faith formation on the current approach to formation,
which tends to focus solely on catechesis. This is true in
many RCIA "programs," as well as sacramental preparation, including
Confirmation, which so often is a last-ditch effort to instill faith
in teenagers before they leave the Church. But the
expectations of the laity need to change, too. While the
formation of the mind is crucial, one cannot be satisfied with
knowing about Christ rather than knowing Christ. The
New Evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II "is not a matter
of merely passing on doctrine but rather of a personal and profound
meeting with the Savior." (Commissioning of Families of the
Neo-Catechumenal Way, Jan 3.1991) The formation that is the
"right and duty of all" (Vocation
& Mission of the Lay Faithful, 63) must address both the
intellectual content of the faith as well as the heart's response in
faith to the God whom St. Augustine says, "loves each of us as if
there were only one of us."
Just as the catechumenate has
specific rites that mark the deepening of the catechumens'
conversion and incorporation into the Church, so, too, the parish
might acknowledge particular benchmarks in an individual's faith
journey. The Church's many para-liturgical celebrations, like
the common recitation of the rosary or the Divine Mercy chaplet,
offer opportunities for individuals to share their deepening faith,
and to tell in their own words the things that God, in His love, has
done for them. More importantly, however, will be the informal
conversations we can have with one another about how faith calls us
to live from day to day. We should expect to have these
conversations with the members of our families, with our Catholic
Christian friends, and anyone else who is willing to listen.
That was the response of those who encountered and accepted Christ
during his lifetime. Anyone who has fallen in love cannot help
but talk about the object of their devotion, and they desire with
all their heart to do only that which pleases their beloved.
That is the goal of adult faith formation, in a nutshell: to help
adults hear Christ's unique call to them, and to encourage a
heartfelt, lifelong response that bears fruit for eternal
life. We should be satisfied with nothing less.
Meet
the Institute's Development Officer
by Fr. Michael
Fones, O.P.
After completing a successful
50 year career in organizational communications including printing
and graphic arts, organizational development, and media, Mr. George
Martelon has chosen to continue his personal journey of faith by
joining us at the Institute as our first ever Development Officer!
In every professional and volunteer pursuit throughout his life,
George has found himself drawn to development/fund raising
activities with civic service, neighborhood  and
community development organizations, archdiocesan
funding activities and parish fund raising.
“The Catherine of Siena opportunity is an answer to a
prayer. It allows me to conclude my professional life doing
something I have been preparing for my entire life,” George said
recently when meeting with a group of folks actively involved with
the Called and Gifted program.
Having served on the advisory committee to Archbishop Stafford
for the Denver Archdiocesan Catholic Appeal, George had an
opportunity to work with clergy, decision makers and parishioners
across northern and western Colorado as they became active
participants in the appeal. This experience coupled with
several years of consulting with newly opened parishes about their
debt reduction programs provides him with the knowledge, motivation,
enthusiasm and skills to assist others in determining how they might
best support the exciting vision of the Catherine of Siena
Institute. If you wish, you may contact him here. Welcome, George! We're so
glad to have you on board!
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