This document offers guidance to catechetical publishers in the development of instructional material. It provides guidance in creating doctrinal content of catechetical text and materials, curriculum development, and catechetical instruction that completely define and present the teaching of the Church for young people of high school age. It’s a helpful resource for Catholic high schools, […]
From Catholic.org By: Deacon Keith A. Fournier – click here for a PDF version Introduction From January 28 through February 3, 2006, we observed Catholic Schools Week in the Catholic Dioceses of the United States of America. The theme for the week was, “Good News in Education”. Materials were sent to every Catholic School in […]
Like the marks of the Church proclaimed in the Creed – one, holy, catholic, and apostolic – so, too, does the Holy See identify the principal features of a school as Catholic: a Catholic school should be inspired by a supernatural vision, founded on Christian anthropology, animated by communion and community, imbued with a Catholic […]
It is undeniable that the catechetical crisis of the past several decades continues to exist. One look at the statistics of religious ignorance evident in millions of Catholic youth, as well as the continued criticism by Catholic parents of religious education texts and programs, make it obvious that we are not yet in the clear. […]
Thank you, Bishop Gregory. Brother Bishops, during the course of our first year of work, the new standing Committee on Catechesis has undertaken several projects which we think will be of interest to you for the benefit of the Church in the United States. The first project we have begun is the development of national doctrinal […]
From CatholicCulture.org Parents, do you know what catechism your children are reading? That question has concerned many people since the end of the Second Vatican Council. It is a common and accurate complaint that after the Council, catechetical texts were drastically revised to reflect “the spirit of Vatican II”—which often downplayed or even contradicted the […]
As a theology teacher at a Catholic high school, I’m deluged by the theories of “learning specialists,” educational psychologists, and catechetical gurus about the way teenagers learn about religion. By and large these theories treat the teenage mind and personality as an enigma, an elusive mystery that the enlightened among us may grasp if we […]
From New Oxford Review By Charles James Charles James is an Associate Professor of Philosophy, Academic Dean, and Provost at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California. Little did we know that when we placed our children in Catholic schools the most momentous spiritual war in our family would commence. We were naïve and inexperienced. […]
Several years ago I wrote an article entitled “Why Johnny Doesn’t Believe” (Homiletic & Pastoral Review, January 1984). In my article I showed how defective textbooks and teaching methods based on the experiential approach to learning resulted in widespread religious illiteracy among Catholic youth. Young Catholics were rejecting the Church’s teachings because they lacked even […]
From the Catholic Servant, October 1999 Questions to ask the administrators or to find out however you can. Are there any dissenters from the Faith among the faculty? What is the curriculum of the religion department? Does it correspond to the new Catechism of the Catholic Church? Does the student receive a fundamental overview of […]