Religious Education Supplement

Six tasks of catechesis can guide adult faith formation programs

Benedictine Father Julian Peters, at the time administrator pro-tem of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish in Indianapolis, baptizes Scott Warpool during Cathedral Parish’s Easter Vigil. Then-transitional Deacon Aaron Jenkins, holding the parish’s Easter candle, stands at left. The Easter Vigil culminates the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, which is a primary means of adult faith formation in many parishes. (File photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

Bible studies. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Faith-sharing groups. Sessions in which to learn about the new Mass translation.

These are examples of adult faith formation programs that are offered at parishes across central and southern Indiana, and the list could go on.

To make these programs as effective as possible in helping adults learn and live out their faith, Peg McEvoy recommends that parish adult faith formation leaders look to the six tasks of catechesis as laid out in the General Directory for Catechesis, issued by the Vatican in 1997, and the National Directory for Catechesis, approved by the U.S. bishops in 2003.

(Related: Read the General Directory for Catechesis online)

McEvoy, associate director for evangelization and family catechesis of the archdiocese’s Office of Catholic Education, is joined in this recommendation by the members of the archdiocesan Adult Faith Formation Team, many of whom lead catechetical efforts in parishes across the archdiocese.

The tasks, as explained in #85-#86 of the General Directory and in #20 of the National Directory, are:

• Promoting knowledge of the faith
• Liturgical education
• Moral formation
• Teaching to pray
• Education for community life
• Missionary initiation

The first four tasks correspond to the four pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explain the Church’s creed, sacraments, moral teachings and prayer traditions.

The last two tasks help those being formed in the faith to live it out well among other believers, and to draw new members into the Church.

McEvoy described the tasks as the “full spectrum of the experience of our faith” that would be good for parishes and individuals to follow when considering ways to study the faith.

“In many cases, I think people, when they are pursuing things on their own, … are naturally drawn to some of these areas,” McEvoy said. “However, we really need to be looking at all of these areas. So, we might, for example, be drawn to learning more about spirituality, but we also need to be looking at areas of morality.”

Conventual Franciscan Brother Bob Baxter helps oversee adult faith formation offerings at Mount St. Francis Center for Spirituality in the New Albany Deanery, and is a member of the archdiocesan Adult Faith Formation team.

He said that he uses the six tasks to be sure the programs the center offers will be best suited to help those who participate in them to grow in the fullness of the faith.

“I see those as a way to ensure that we have a holistic program that configures the whole person, mind and heart, into Christ,” Brother Bob said. “That’s the real goal, isn’t it? It’s communion with the Lord.”

Aaron Haag, pastoral associate at St. Matthew the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis, oversees adult faith formation programs at the Indianapolis North Deanery faith community.

He said there is a lot of emphasis in his parish and other archdiocesan parishes this year on catechesis regarding the liturgy since a new translation of the Mass will be implemented at the start of Advent.

But Haag said there are ways of weaving liturgical catechesis into other kinds of adult faith formation programs, such as Bible studies, thus linking together some of the six tasks.

“It’s really important to emphasize how scriptural the liturgy is,” Haag said. “When you’ve got people in Scripture studies or when you’ve got people engaged in these other activities, draw them back to the fact that this is also present in the liturgy.”

Jillian Vandermarks, director of religious education at St. Paul Catholic Center in Bloomington, has seen that many college students at Indiana University find significance in connecting liturgy and prayer to their moral formation, and reaching out to help those in need.

“[The ministry of charity] is not just action, but it’s actually a reaction, a movement from my relationship with God into the public sphere,” Vandermarks said. “Our prayer life, in good catechesis, is not just formation or information. But it is information that leads to formation that leads to action.”

She saw these connections in a special way in the large group of volunteers from St. Paul who helped when it was used at a homeless shelter on occasion during the last two winters.

“That response, I believe, came directly from their relationship in the sacraments and in their understanding to be Christ in the world,” Vandermarks said. “We really do see that the reverence and the love that comes through the sacraments moves them into action.”

McEvoy said the six tasks actually make planning adult faith formation programs in parishes easier.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. We’ve got these tasks,” McEvoy said. “And then we have wonderful options these days in each of these areas that you can then choose from that are solid and are really good Catholic resources.” †

 

(Related: Excerpts from the Vatican’s 1997 General Directory for Catechesis)