Why our diocese is ‘on the verge of a major renewal of Catholic faith vitality in the schools and PSR programs’

Parents, why you play the pivotal role in this renewal

Over the past few years, the diocesan Office for Catholic Education has started new endeavors (with more on the way) that are making our schools even more Catholic, ensuring teachers, students, and even parents, are better equipped to go into the world and be authentic disciples of Christ. What is happening? Also, what should parents be doing to ensure their child grows in their faith and loves their faith and what are common misperceptions about faith formation in young people?

Andrew Hansen, editor of Catholic Times, interviewed Dr. Mark Newcomb, Director of Catholic Education for the diocese, in Part Two of their education discussion (Part One was the last edition of Catholic Times).

Q.  What can Catholic parents do to meet the crisis of Catholic faith among their children?

A. There’s currently a lot of great research on this topic, and the Catholic Education staff is studying it closely as we think about the next phase of our work. Among the 14 percent of respondents to the General Sociological Survey who were raised Catholic and still identity as such, four factors consistently emerge in their faith formation:

• Participation in Church life beyond Sunday Mass in childhood.

• Having a powerful encounter with the Risen Christ or God as a person — often, but not always, around adoration or confession.

• Having an adult — beyond a parent — in their lives invested in their spiritual development or growth in holiness.

• Having a dad (or significant male role model, but especially a dad) who is visibly and regularly active in the Christian faith life of the family, including worship and prayer.

We are working hard to engage moms and dads in our parishes and in our schools. We want to ensure that they have the tools and information to feel confident in passing on the beautiful heritage of their Catholic faith. We are certain that our work can be effective in supporting those parents who are earnest about wanting their children to hold onto their faith for life.

Q. What do you think are some of the misunderstandings out there about faith formation for young people?

A. The Catholic Education staff interact with a lot of teachers, principals, catechists, and parents.  There can be a mindset among some moms and dads that, if they just drop their children off at a Catholic school or PSR program, they’re all done with faith formation. In reality, Catholic school teachers and catechetical staff are there to support parents in their primary duty to form their children. I always say that our schools and PSRs can nurture anything a parent has planted in a child’s soul, but we cannot really sow anything new. 

There’s also a sense among some parish catechetical leaders that Restored Order sacraments (confirmation and first Communion in third grade) are causing families and students to stop engaging in Catholic devotional life at an earlier age. The reality is that most American Catholic teenagers are leaving the faith by the age of 13, long before typical confirmation ages. Restored Order sacraments therefore provide many of our young people with graces they would not otherwise have. So, the challenge then is keeping students engaged so these graces can be fully efficacious!

All of this means that we really need to reach the parents of our students — both Catholic school parents and those who have children enrolled in our Parish Schools of Religion. We have to help people understand that an initiation into a life of Christian faith is merely a beginning.  Discipleship is a journey where we continue to grow and mature through life’s challenges. This is true in professional life as well: surgeons and mechanics do not stop learning and growing once they receive a diploma or certifications. They are mentored and apprenticed into their careers by more experienced professionals as they continue to learn through performing operations and completing repairs. Yet, we continue to believe that our children are all set to meet all of the challenges they will face in the world once they complete their initiation as believers. If things don’t work that way in the natural world, then this is even more true for supernatural realities.

Q. What do you say to parents who really want to be more engaged with their child’s faith formation?

A. Get active in your Catholic school and parish. Ask what resources are available to help your family to consistently put Jesus Christ at the center of your life together. The bumper sticker that the diocese distributed to promote our Family-School Agreement initiative says, “Catholic Education Begins with Sunday Mass.” That’s absolutely true. Let us know what support you need — we are here to serve! 

Q. What fruit has the Catholic Education staff seen from their efforts? Are students really getting behind what you’re creating?

A. We are starting to see some very important and positive outcomes for our students. 

Through the Ruah Woods Theology of the Body program, our elementary children are learning about the fact that they are created in the image and likeness of God, and that they are a “mystery and gift” to other children of God.  It’s so exciting to see their bright smiles as they share their joy about the stories they are reading and how thankful they are to God for giving them a loving home and family.

Some of our middle schoolers are delivering their final presentations for the Father Spitzer “Speak the Faith” course to groups of students and to parents. These are public speaking assignments where they draw on classical rhetoric to teach and persuade an audience. It is extremely powerful to hear seventh- and eighth-grade students talk about the current science on the Shroud of Turin, St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Five Ways” of knowing that God exists using human reason alone, and the science behind life after death.

In addition, many of our faculty are on fire to collaborate across disciplines, and we are seeing a whole new level of curriculum integration that will transform teaching and learning across the diocese in the coming years.

Q. Anything in the future you are gearing up to roll out?

A. We will soon release a new set of religion standards for the whole diocese — one set of integrated standards to be used for Catholic faith formation for all our young people, both in Catholic schools as well as in Parish Schools of Religion (PSR). The standards have been developed to engage teams of teachers and catechists to collaborate more effectively. We also just acquired a version of Father Spitzer’s courses to deploy in our parishes — with permission to use these same course modules for Adult Faith Formation. 

We are also focused on the fact that this stage of our work has to be deeply relational. We have assigned a Catholic Education staff liaison to each of the five major regions of our diocese. This has enabled us to work much more closely with principals and the teachers who are integrating the new programs. We now have very specific feedback on which lessons in a given program most excite students and engage parents. We are on the verge of a major renewal of Catholic faith vitality in the schools and PSRs of the Springfield Diocese!