Category Archives: Evangelization

God’s peace vs the world’s peace

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In the Gospel from today’s Mass, Our Lord promises His disciples, “Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you.” (John 14:27). This is one of these verses that people get wrong because we don’t understand what Our Lord means by peace.

When the world talks about “peace”, it really means “an absence of strife”. We say countries are at peace because they’re not currently exchanging bullets or dropping bombs on each other. We say people are at peace because they’re not currently attacking each other and name calling. The world even promotes material and emotional peace that is basically another word for high self-esteem.

Our Lord’s peace, however is different. To demonstrate the peace Our Lord gives, let’s compare a couple preachers: the Osteens and St. Paul.

Just one example of the many books the Osteens have published.

If you’re not familiar with Joel Osteen and his wife Victoria, they’re preachers at the Lakewood Church in Houston, TX. According to Wikipedia, the church was originally founded by Joel Osteen’s father, but Joel has really expanded it. The current building is actually a former sports arena that seats nearly 17,000 people, and is usually packed for each service.

Sounds impressive, right? Some might wish we in the Catholic Church could do the same. The problem with Joel and Victoria is that their message is not the fullness of Christianity. Oh, they claim to be Christian preachers, but what they proclaim is more or less a self-help spirituality with Christian ideas sprinkled in.

In case you have the stomach for it, here are the most recent videos from both Joel and Victoria:

Some might say, “Well, that don’t sound too bad. After all, it starts from the Scriptures.” True, but they use the Scriptures to promote typical self-help nonsense. “Thinking with the mind of Christ” does not mean “Champion mentality” and “Enjoying the life God gave you” (from Victoria’s video). Interestingly, the video from Joel even talks about “peace stealers”, not understanding that he’s talking about the world’s peace and not God’s peace. Their message is all about “being happy”.

In contrast, let’s look at St. Paul in the first reading today. He was stoned (literally, as in having rocks thrown at him, not merely smoking marijuana) and dragged out of the city. Was he “enjoying the life God gave him” at that moment? Probably not, but he got up and went right back to his work of evangelization. Because of his faithfulness to Christ, St. Paul brought thousands of people to baptism and was one of the main driving forces behind the early Church’s rapid growth.

St. Paul realized that suffering was a part of following Jesus, but he also realized and experienced the true peace Our Lord wishes to give us. This peace is not merely a “warm fuzzy”; it’s far deeper than anything the world can give. It’s a spiritual recognition of the love of God, and the consolation that leads us deeper into our relationship with Christ. It gives us the strength to stand up the stones – whether literally or figuratively – that the world wants to throw at us. We may even be able to rejoice over the mistreatment we receive at the hands of the world as the Apostles did. (Acts 5:41) It is the grace of God working in our lives, leading us to salvation and giving us the desire to bring as many people as we can with us.

This is the peace we should desire. Not the Osteens’ worldly feel-good peace, but the true peace from Our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the peace that can truly make us “bounce back” (to use Victoria Osteen’s words) from the stones of the world, and desire His salvation all the more.

Not merely saying no

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It’s sad to say, but many people think the Church just says no. No, you shouldn’t shack up with your boyfriend. No, you shouldn’t use contraceptives. No, you shouldn’t get drunk or use drugs. And so on. Because they think the Church just says no, little wonder why we’re having a hard time getting our children to stay in the Church. We just sound like a bunch of prudes who don’t want anyone to have fun.

That’s not the message they should be hearing. In today’s Gospel at Mass, Our Lord tells His Apostles, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” He also tells them, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” He gives them a message of hope and joy; a message that needs to be heard today.

We need to be telling people, “We have a better way.” We need to bring Christ to them, and allow them to develop a real relationship with Him. Then, when they understand the need to follow Him and desire to be His disciple, we present the moral teachings out of love and a desire to help them as they grow deeper in His love. If people don’t know who Jesus is and why it’s so important and life giving to follow Him, why would they care about following His teachings, especially in the area of morality?

This isn’t to say that we should get rid of the moral teachings of the Church. On the contrary, we need to be striving daily to live in conformity with Her teachings, as they have been given to Her by Christ Himself, and should always seek to grow in our observances of His commandments. This also doesn’t mean we need to stop fighting the moral decay of our world, but it does mean we need to find a track that leads people to Christ and not be pushed away by the “no.”

Our job as Christians is to go out and evangelize the world. We won’t be effective if the world just hears “no” from us. It needs to hear that there’s something better than how they’re living now, and allow Our Lord to guide them to following His teachings.

No, the sky isn’t falling

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It seems like every time Pope Francis so much as sneezes, Internet commentators start sounding like Chicken Little: “The Church is falling! The Church is falling!” Now, I haven’t read any of Amoris Laetitia, and I don’t know when I’ll get around to reading it, so I don’t know if it’s good, bad, or just plain ugly.

What I do know, however, comes from the words of Rabbi Gamaliel in yesterday’s Gospel:

For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.

The fact is, the Church survived Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin, the Roman Empire, Germanic Invasions, and many other empires and rulers that thought they could take Her down. She survived heresy, division, the (sad) schism with the Orthodox, the Protestant Reformation, Secular Humanist movements in Europe, Soviet-style Communism, and many more movements and philosophies. There have been bad popes, worse bishops, terrible priests (some may think I could among this number), and apathetic laity; and the Church still survives today. Some of Her strongholds have gotten weak (Europe, North America), and some of the lands washed by martyrs’ blood have become Her strongest bastions. The Church has survived, and will survive until Christ Himself returns.

To those who fear that Pope Francis will destroy the Church, I say, “Have hope! The Church will survive him.” There may be confusion right now. Certain movements within the Church may be celebrating and promoting their misunderstanding of what Pope Francis has taught and said, but it won’t last. Even during the most corrupt and decedent popes, great saints have arisen to call the Faithful back to Christ’s teaching and to evangelize the world.

The call for us as Catholic Christians is not to seek cover, crying “The Church is falling! The Church is falling!” It’s not for us to criticize every little word and action of Pope Francis. Our call is to be the great saints in our time by first living lives of virtue and hope, then proclaiming the Good News of Christ. Yes, the great saints in the past would occasionally “call out” popes, bishops, priests, and so on, but they recognized that their primary mission was to live according to the teachings of Jesus and proclaim those teachings to the world. That is our mission as well. If we wish to reform the Church, we must reform our lives first of all.

What Does An Evangelizing Parish Look Like?

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The title of this post is one I’ve been struggling with for some time: What does an evangelizing parish look like? In my opinion, this is a vital question that every person in the Catholic Church, whether clergy, religious or lay, needs to be asking. This question is not asked over concern for the future of the Catholic Church, but for the future salvation of those in our communities and neighborhoods.

Much has been made over the past 20-30 years about parishes establishing “mission statements”, but very few that I’ve seen explicitly mention evangelization. Yet, that is a primary mission which Our Lord gave to the Apostles: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) It’s my contention that we do not evangelize as Catholics because have not made evangelization a primary mission of our parishes.

This post is the first in what should be a lengthy series of intermittent posts discussing various things a “model” evangelizing parish does. My hope is to get a vision that I and other pastors can use to reform our priestly ministry and guide our parishes in becoming evangelizing forces within our communities.

Don’t be afraid to evangelize!

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As I posted yesterday, I recently received my ordered copy of The New Evangelization and You: Be Not Afraid by Greg Willits. Over the last two evenings, I was able to do a quick read-through and develop some initial impressions.

The New Evangelization should be the priority of every Catholic. Each and every one of us should be seeking to evangelize our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and even those you might bump into once in a blue moon. In short, it should be our goal for everyone to enter the Catholic Church and come to know Christ.

If this sounds overwhelming, that’s because it is. In fact, I would venture that one of the major reasons why more Catholics don’t seek to share their faith is because they don’t know where to start. Of course, the #1 reason is likely due to fear: fear of rejection by family and friends, fear of mocking and insults, fear of being seen as a Holy Roller and Jesus Freak. Second to that, only barely, is the feeling that Catholics don’t know the faith well enough to share.

Greg answers all these objections and more within this short book (149 pages, 5 of which are footnotes). His writing is very simple and easy to read, yet challenging and instructive. If you’ve heard Greg on Sirius radio or the podcasts he’s done with his wife, Jennifer, you know the sense of humor that comes naturally to him. That humor comes out in the book (even right at the beginning in the Introduction which includes a debate between him and his wife over reading the Introduction of books).

A major aspect of this book is to challenge and encourage Catholics to seriously think about their faith and discover ways to both learn about, live and share that faith. Those familiar with NewEvangelizers.com, a non-profit run by Greg and Jennifer dedicated to the New Evangelization, will recognize immediately the major theme in the book: Catholics need to “know the faith, live the faith, and share the faith.” Greg challenges Catholics to not think of evangelization as a three-step process: first I’m going to learn all I can about the faith, then I will use that knowledge to live the faith, finally, once those two are in the bag, I will share the faith. Instead, Greg states that all three need to be done at once. You can’t know the faith without living it. You can’t live the faith without sharing it. You can’t share the faith without knowing it. All three work together.

Obviously, reading the book over two evenings means that I gave it a very light reading, and Greg’s writing style works with that style of reading. This does not mean that the book does not go much deeper than that. In fact, it’s worth reading twice: once for the quick overview, then going slower and entering into a much deeper study and reflection on the material, especially on the series of questions given at the end of each chapter. There are also prayers at the end of each chapter which focus on various aspects of the New Evangelization, and ask God for the grace to grow in that aspect.

This isn’t just a theoretical work, but chalk full of practical suggestions and examples. Every chapter features a short article on a figure or group involved in the day-to-day work of the New Evangelzation. Those featured include Lisa Hendey, Jason Elizondo and Austin Catholic New Media, Sarah Reinhard and more — including a number I was not familiar with, but will make the effort to discover their work.

The most practical chapter would have to be Chapter 10, which is called “A Year of New Evangelizing”. This chapter contains a list of 52 ways we can know the faith, 52 ways we can live the faith and 52 ways we can share the faith. Some of them are simple: listen to Catholic radio, invite your priest over for dinner (which I whole-heartedly endorse), get a holy card of your favorite saint and pin or tape it up in your office or cubicle. Some are more difficult: study Theology of the Body, help out at a local homeless shelter, make a video about why you love being Catholic and share online. Each item on these lists are practical, concrete ways that every Catholic can “know the faith, live the faith, and share the faith.”

Greg reminds us that we are all called to evangelization. This is not just for the “professional Catholics” (priests, bishops, religious, and lay people who work for the Church), but each and every one of us received this commission to evangelize when we received the Sacrament of Baptism. As members of the Body of Christ, we are called and sent to show Christ to the world and lead others to Him.

If you’re looking for a simple instruction manual on how to “do” the New Evangelization, Greg has written it. Parishes and individuals should pick up this resource to read, study, and implement it in their communities and families. I know I plan on giving it a far deeper study and reflection.

Judging a book by its cover

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Anyone who likes to read should be familiar with the old saying “Never judge a book by its cover”. Well, contrary to that old maxim, I’m going to do just that. I’ve recently received the newly-published book The New Evangelization and You: Be Not Afraid by Greg Willits. I haven’t even cracked the cover, yet know it’s going to be worth reading due to the qualifications of its author.

If I were to make a list of people in the Catholic world of those would be best qualified to write a book on the New Evangelization, Greg Willits would be high on that list. Greg and his wife Jennifer have spent many years involved in various aspects of evangelization, especially using the new forms of media available over the Internet. From the Rosary Army to podcasting to That Catholic Show to broadcasting on Sirius Radio’s Catholic Channel and now running the New Evangelizers website, Greg and Jennifer have lots of experience in many aspects of the New Evangelization. In fact, Greg and Jennifer just mentioned in their most recent The Catholics Next Door podcast that they have been running the Rosary Army for 10 years. It’s obvious that the New Evangelization is a passion for them.

So, with that background, it’s clear that this is a book worth reading. Time to stop looking at the cover, and start learning about the New Evangelization from one of the masters.

Passing on the Catholic Faith – what we’re doing isn’t working

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If you have any interest in Religious Education and passing on the Catholic Faith to the next generation, you need to read this post. Fr. Simon nails the problem with current RE programs and Catholic schools: they’re not working. The Catholic Faith is not being passed on to the children and grandchildren of our parishioners. Sure, they’re being taught the teachings of the Church, and they’re receiving the Sacraments, at least First Confession, First Communion, and Confirmation.

The problem is: they’re not receiving the Faith. We’re not evangelizing them. How many have made it a habit to regularly (by regularly, I mean at least once a month) receive the Sacraments of Eucharist and Confession after their First Holy Communion and Confirmation? How many develop a great love for the Mass and the Eucharist, and wouldn’t miss Sunday Mass for anything (even High School sports)? How many truly desire a relationship with Christ, and seek opportunities for prayer and reflection on the Scriptures? How many joyfully desire to follow the Church’s teachings, both easy and difficult, out of love for Christ and His Church? Finally, how many are boldly proclaiming their love for Christ and desire for the salvation He promises to their family and friends?

In most communities I’ve seen, the answer to all those questions is essentially none. There might be a handful of kids in any parish that truly develop any excitement for the Catholic Faith and seek to follow Christ with their lives, but that group is an extremely small percentage of kids who go through religious education programs. Worse, it seems that percentage is growing smaller. In this parish, the majority of kids who attend Wednesday Religious Education classes do not attend Sunday Mass. The kids receive their one hour of “church class”, and that’s all they get.

This is not good. This is not healthy. This is not passing the Catholic faith on to the next generation. We are not evangelizing the children in our parishes and communities, because we are not showing them what it means to be Catholic, and the importance of Christ in our lives.

So, what’s the answer? I don’t know, but I think Fr. Simon is on the right track. Instead of worrying about cramming the teachings of the Church into kids’ heads, we need to be showing them by our lives how those teachings are important to us and how they help us to draw closer to Christ. Example: instead of being satisfied by telling kids about the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, we need to restore a reverence for the Blessed Sacrament in our actions — especially in front of the Tabernacle — and share how important receiving Our Lord is in our daily lives. In other words, we need to walk the walk before they’ll listen when we talk the talk.

To make one thing clear: this will fail if we try to water down the teachings of the Church to make them more palatable. The teachings of the Church are exciting, powerful, challenging, and life-giving, but become dull, powerless, simplistic, and lifeless if we minimize them or try to explain them away. The Catholic faith is attractive if it is first lived in its fullness, then taught in its fullness without excuses or compromises. We trust in God’s mercy, but we don’t demand it by flaunting what He revealed through His Son.

So, what do you say? How do we truly pass on the Catholic faith, and make disciples of the children in our parishes?

Are we being good stewards with the Catholic Faith?

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The word “stewardship” seems to have become the new buzzword in the Catholic Church. You almost can’t do anything in the Church without hearing about the need to be good stewards, and what Catholic hasn’t had the “Three T’s” drilled into their head (in case you’ve never heard of the Three T’s, they’re Time, Talent, and Treasure).
I don’t want to denigrate the stewardship work being done in the Church. it is necessary for us to be good stewards of he Church, to use our time and talent to build up the Church physically and spiritually, and to use our treasure to fund the temporal needs of the Church. In the discussion of stewardship, I think one aspect is missing: being stewards of the Catholic Faith that has been passed on to us.
Today’s Gospel reading is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, the parable of the wicked tenants. Focusing on the Gospel, the reflection in the Magnificat Lenten Companion says that “we must be the kind of disciples who are careful stewards of creation and careful stewards of our lives.” As part of being stewards of our lives, are we doing everything we can to be careful stewards of the Catholic Faith? The chief priests and elders were not good stewards of the Jewish Faith, and thus were being criticized by Our Lord.
As Christians, we can fall into the same trap, and I would argue that we have over the past 50 years or so. I’m not going to point fingers and put blame on this person or that idea, but I will say that we haven’t been good stewards of the Catholic Faith. Look at the state of the Church today: a great many Catholics don’t know the basic elements of the Faith, and many don’t even bother to go to Church once a week. At least two generations of Catholics have basically no understanding of what it means to be Catholic. A large number of priests, religious, and laity have erroneous and contrary beliefs to the Truths revealed by Christ, and a number of prominent Catholic laity and religious cause public scandal by repeatedly opposing the bishops and the teachings of the Church. We must seek to do better.
If we wish to be good stewards of the Catholic Faith, we must not focus on how things went wrong and start assigning blame. Understanding what happened in the past is good for the purposes of avoiding the same errors in the future, but it’s all too easy to fall into the “blame game” while trying to justify our actions (or lack thereof). Instead, we need to dedicate ourselves to the task of stewardship. We need to make every effort to learn the Catholic Faith, and to allow the teachings of Christ to influence all areas of our lives. We also need to make every effort to spread the teachings to the next generations of Catholics who don’t know the Faith, to those who are weak in their practice of the Faith, and to those who have not heard the Gospel.
Being a good steward of the Catholic Faith is not an easy task. There will be pushback and arguments. Friendships may be broken, and families divided. We live in a culture that has all but abandoned its Christian roots. If we’re to recover our Faith and bring the world to Christ, we have to be willing to go through that suffering, offering it up in union with the suffering of Our Lord on the Cross. After all, Our Lord didn’t say being a steward would be easy, just that those who are faithful would be rewarded.

Following the Example of the Apostles and Evangelists

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A few weeks ago, I posted an open question on the failure of catechesis to attract and hold our children and young adults. It received some wonderful comments, and I thank those who commented here on the blog, on Facebook, Google+, and other social networks.

As I have reflected more on this question and on the responses received, I think we missed the mark. The major focus of the comments was “get the parents involved.” Yes, if the parents are involved, the kids are involved, but I think the problem goes far deeper. As I look at our culture here in the United States (I can’t speak for other countries as I’ve never spent any significant time there), we’ve obviously moved into a post-Christian society. The United States was founded on Christian principles and had a strong Christian identity, but much of that is sloughing off. The Christian virtues are no longer being held up as ideals, except where they agree with the relativist and individualist “virtues” being promoted today.

This leads to a major problem for catechesis: we’re making assumptions that aren’t there. We’re assuming the parents are Catholic just because they were baptized Catholic, raised Catholic, possibly even married in the Catholic Church. We’re assuming that the kids are being brought up in a Catholic home where the faith is at least present in a rudimentary form. We’re assuming that the culture we live in is steeped in Christian virtue, even if it seems to have gone astray, and will provide some form of Christian foundation for the children. In short, we’re assuming that the children and their parents have been evangelized.

(Sidebar: I’m not going to get into the canonical status of Catholics, whether or not they’re members of the Church. This is more about if Christ is a part of their lives. For many Catholics who received the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, the answer is a resounding “no”.)

As I’ve been reflecting on the religious education issue, I keep coming back to this conclusion. The children are not learning the Catholic faith and the parents aren’t involved because they do not view the faith as something relevant to them. They do not understand the importance of the salvific work of Christ, and do not realize that the teachings of the Church are literally a matter of life and death eternally. They may have heard the saving Good News preached by Christ and passed down through 2000 years of Church teaching, but it’s no more important to them than hearing about the plot line of Harry Potter novels.

The problem, as I see it, is that we are teaching what the Church teaches, but we are not showing them those teachings alive in our lives. We are not expressing through words and actions the beauty of Our Lord’s message of love. We are not using catechesis to draw the children into a relationship with Jesus, but rather talking about Him. We’re missing the mark and talking over their heads instead of reaching into their hearts.

Now, I want to be clear: this is not an either/or situation. We need to be evangelizing and teaching, both at the same time. We need to teach about Jesus as we’re developing a relationship with Him. I’ve seen RCIA programs that get this wrong as well. They focus solely on the spiritual aspect – prayer, devotions, communal gatherings, etc. – without developing the intellectual appreciation for the Gospel. We need to reach both the head and the heart. The problem with catechesis, as I’ve seen it in many places, is that it stays in the head without also moving the heart.

So, how do we do this? Perhaps on this feast of St. Luke the Evangelist, we would be well served to reflect on how the early Church evangelized at a time when the name Jesus was completely unknown. On an individual basis, they began with prayer and fasting. The Eucharist was the center of their lives. Then, after being fortified by prayer and fasting, they went out and proclaimed the salvation promised by Christ. As an example, look at St. Paul preaching to the Athenians in front of the altar “To an Unknown God” (Acts 17:16-34 – Written by St. Luke, of course!).

In many ways, our culture today is similar to the Greek culture of St. Paul’s time. We have many gods and many altars, though not as obvious as the Greek pantheon of gods. Our gods are TV, money, power, possessions, sports, work, and far more. The God of all creation, our Heavenly Father, and His Son Our Lord Jesus Christ are as unknown as They were to the Athenians. Just as St. Paul and all the Apostles went around proclaiming the Good News of salvation, we are also called to bring others to Christ, even those who may attend Mass and religious education.

To sum this post up: what’s wrong with religious education? We are if we’re not actively evangelizing our children and their parents!

A few thoughts on catechesis in the United States

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There are three things that have bothered me about how catechesis of Catholic children is done in much of the United States. First, we treat it like another class at school. Second, there is little to no effort to show the faith as something practical to their lives. Third, there is little to no parental involvement in the programs.

When I consider these three issues, they seem to be connected in my eyes. Instead of seeing catechesis as molding and forming their lives on earth in preparation for eternal life, it seems to be viewed as another class that has material that needs to be crammed into the kids heads. Just as math class gives the kids the concepts of mathematics, religious education gives them the concepts of Church teaching.

With this focus on the material, there seems to be a lack of making the faith practical and desirable for the kids. Now, I’m not talking about merely having them do “social justice” days, which usually ends up being a community involvement track. That’s a good start, but what about seeing the importance of the Mass and devotional life? Some of the traditional prayers, such as the Our Father and Hail Mary, may be presented to the kids, but there is no concept of developing a prayer life. How about encouraging them to live the Church’s moral theology? The moral theology of the Church is where the theological rubber meets the road, but there seems to be no movement to encourage the kids to explore and live what the Church teaches morally. Same problems with communal involvement, sacramental life, and most other areas of Church teaching and life.

Of course, at this point, I’m sure some are saying, “Father, that’s your job to fix it if you see it’s a problem!” Yes, that’s true, it is my job, but there’s far more going on here than just Father falling down on the job. As the Catechism teaches:

The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. “The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.” The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable. Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill God’s law. Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery – the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the “material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones.” Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them (CCC 2221-2223 – Emphasis mine)

Herein lies one problem I see with many kids at religious education: they’re being dropped off for their once-a-week-Christianity-fix, and never setting foot in the Church otherwise. They, along with their parents, almost never attend weekly Mass, and are there only if the kid is “performing” in the children’s choir. Religious education is being seen as free babysitting for an hour on Wednesday while “checking off” teaching the Catholic faith to their children.

The problem with our current model is that there is no reinforcement from the parents about the importance of the Catholic faith. Catholic parents are falling down on their “first responsibility,” as the Catechism phrases it. After all, it’s not important to the parents, so why should the kid take it seriously? Because the kids don’t take it seriously, and there’s no encouragement from the parents to take it seriously, anything the catechists present just go right over the kids’ heads. Unfortunately, this is what I see here in too many cases. School academics are taken seriously, sports are taken really seriously (to the detriment of everything else), but religious education is blown off.

How do we fix this? I don’t know. Is it possible to reach the parents and convince them to take their faith seriously? Maybe, but most of them have gone through a program very similar to what we have today, with similar results. They probably can’t tell you how many sacraments the Church has, nor more importantly how those sacraments influence their daily lives. Too many Catholics don’t know what it means to be Catholic.

This needs to be changed immediately. We can’t allow another generation to fall away from the Church. I’m open to suggestions on how to reach the kids and help them to know, live, and love the Church’s teachings.