CATECHISTS AND CATECHISMS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is “Catechists and Catechisms.”

Today is the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine, the Patron Saint of Catechists and Catechisms.”

What are your thoughts on Catechisms - Catechists - Religious Education Programs - Learning our Faith as Christians and Catholics?

We’re adults mainly at this 12:10 Mass - so this morning I asked myself what are my thoughts about Catechisms and Catechists - as adults.

Translation: how did I learn the teachings of my faith and what did I learn?

FIRST APPROACH: USE  GOOGLE

A great adult approach - if you use the internet - is to use Google for a Catechism Review.

Use Google or any search engine on a computer program. They usually have that nice clean empty box - in which you can type in a word - and come up with 100 hits - more or less - and they do that in seconds.

You can type in words like “catechist” or “catechism”. That will give you lots of leads for other words to type into Google - and you’ll be learning - by dabbling. Browse.

I typed in “St. Robert Bellarmine”.  Instantly I had a life of Robert Bellarmine. It gave me his dates [1542 - 1621]. I saw where he was born:  Montepulciano, Italy, where he lived and worked and where he died: Rome, Italy. I got background. I got facts.  It brought me to questions about faith and science. It gave me his struggles with Galileo as well as Giordano Bruno. Both were put on trial. Galileo wasn’t; Bruno was burnt to  death.

Check it out on your computer.

So Point # 1 would be to dabble on your computer about this and that - when it comes to our Catholic Faith and about catechisms and catechists.

Then you can make a folder and download articles about catechism and catechists or any topic you wish.

NUMBER #2: A REVIEW OF YOUR CATECHISMS AND YOUR FAITH

Next make a review of your catechism history

I’m 78 and received my catechism lessons from the Baltimore Catechism and Catholic school - way back when.

Some of you would be converts and might have received Catechism from Protestant churches etc.

Some of you went to Catholic Religious Education. We called it CCD.

What were catechisms like in 1950;  what were catechisms like in 1990.

The Baltimore Catechism was a paper back with Questions and Answers. The next generation had drawings and pictures and images - topics and chapters.

NUMBER #3” - MY PERSONAL HISTORY OF LEARNING TO BE A CATECHIST.

I learned my Catholic faith in Catholic schools.

In the seminary we had a 1 year course on catechetic. It was in our 1^st year of theology - the year after we finished college. During that year we went to local parishes near Kingston, New York and taught catechism.

The idea was to put into practice what we were learning from a text book in the seminary.

I have not one idea from that text book - but I have memories of my first experience teaching little kids on Wednesday afternoons in Presentation Church, Port Ewen, New York - right overlooking the Hudson River.

My class - maybe 3^rd graders was in the choir loft of the church.  Jack Sherlock’s class was right below us in the body of the church.  That’s not a good idea for sound and sight.

My only memory from that year in the choir loft in Presentation church was standing there teaching little kids and I begin to notice they are all laughing and looking to their left - my right facing them. A kid has a broom in his hand and he is reaching out with the broom and pushing a hanging church light or chandelier back and forth and kids in the choir loft and the kids down below are watching him and the lamp swinging. It could have crashed into the choir loft or hit another lamp.

I quickly ran over and stopped him. That’s all I remember from my first attempt at being a catechist.

After we finished the seminary, we had 4 months in Annapolis. It was a transition time before our assignments.  A Father Joe D’Acetis brought in speakers on different topics.

We had a Sister Janann - who gave us a week of talks on teaching kids.

I remember she brought in leaves and sticks, plants and toys, and went from the known to the unknown. We were to feel water and see green leaves and autumn leaves.

She was excellent. We learned the use of everyday stuff as props.

Through the years I’ve heard priests and specialists complain about how horrible religious ed was for a good 30 years of time. They said there was a need for a new catechism.

For adults we got the big catechism from John Paul II’s time.

In the meanwhile Sadlier and other religious ed books and publications started to come up with  more content  driven material.

In the early 1970’s I went for a Master’s Degree in theology - I have 3 of them. This one was at Princeton Theological Seminary.

I took a course in religious ed and it was one of the most difficult courses I ever took. Every Monday morning we had to have a book report on one book. I was working big time in a retreat house so that   was very difficult, but I finished that course  - with a C. the only C I got - all the rest     were A’s. I learned the most at that C course.

Each week about 15 of us would discuss a different approach to catechetic: sociology, theology, education theory, anthropology, biblical, etc. etc. etc.

Then there were a couple of thousand classrooms I visited on parish missions, parish work, etc. etc. etc.

I learned by time and practice.

CONCLUSION

That’s enough. I just ask you to consider your sources of learning your faith.

The readings at Mass, Homilies, Parish Missions, Catholic Magazines and on and on certainly helped you.

More.