‘Faith, Joy, Family’

Religious educators need to evangelize while they catechize, says USCCB official at Diocesan Catechetical Conference

CLIFTON  Both inside and outside the classroom, religious educators, along with all baptized Catholics, should be engaged in catechizing — teaching their students and other people the specifics of the faith — while also continuing to evangelize — giving them a reason to believe in Jesus and inviting them into a relationship with him.

More than 300 parish directors of religious education, catechists and other ministers of religious formation took away that message and other insights about religious education from Peter Murphy, D.Min., executive director of the Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), who was the keynote speaker at the 2015 Diocesan Catechetical Conference. The conference, which had as its theme, “Faith, Joy, Family,” was held at the John Paul II Pastoral Center here April 11.

The diocesan Office of Catechetics sponsored the all-day event, which featured two talks by Murphy. His presentations focused on how religious educators and all Catholics need to practice both pre-evangelizing — cultivating relationships with people by extending a warm welcome and engaging them in conversation — and then evangelizing — proclaiming the Gospel and inviting them to get to know Jesus.

“We [catechists] often think that our students have been evangelized before they enter the classroom,” said Murphy, who lamented that many children today do not receive religious instruction at home or attend Mass regularly with their families. “We need to pre-evangelize and evangelize so that people care [about the faith]. If not, the message will get lost, planted on rocky or thorny soil. So while catechists are busy teaching all the required material for class, they also should keep evangelizing,” he said.

Guided by the theme, “How can we use our catechetical programs to build relationships with families and create opportunities for faith?” the conference also featured “break out” sessions after Murphy’s talks. During them, religious educators from the diocese and beyond gave participants suggestions about applying Murphy’s lessons in their own ministries and lives. Between the talks and sessions, an ensemble from Fiat Ventures played contemporary Christian music to place people into a state of prayer and reflection.

“This is a beautiful day made just for us — to pray, learn and share. This day is to thank you catechists for your service and to give you all encouragement and inspiration,” said SOLT Father Derek Anderson, director of the diocesan Office of Catechesis and pastor of St. Mary Parish, Dover, who also thanked Bishop Serratelli; Father Paul Manning, executive director of St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard, Madison, and the diocesan vicar for evangelization; a special steering committee; St. Paul’s staff; and a legion of volunteers for making the conference possible.

Attending the Catechetical Conference were Bishop Serratelli, Father Manning, Father Anderson and Father Hernan Arias. The bishop was the main celebrant and homilist at a closing Mass, concelebrated by the other three priests, and delivered an introductory address. In it, he proclaimed hope for catechists because recent popes have emphasized the importance of catechesis, but also listed the following challenges that society places in the way of religious education:

• A mindset, fostered by technology, that espouses, “In with the new and out with the old.” This makes it difficult for catechists to pass on the lasting values of the Church.

• A mentality, fostered by science, which accepts only empirical evidence. This makes no room for the spiritual, transcendent or eternal.

• A belief in self-sufficiency that rejects the need for God and the idea that life is meaningless without him.

• A creeping relativism that provides no reference for moral behavior.

• A focus on freedom — the tolerance of all behaviors, so long as they do not harm others. This has ushered in the redefinition of marriage and an acceptance of idea that people can change genders at will.

Catholics should evangelize to a society hostile to the faith and traditional values — which includes articulating the difficult truths that Jesus taught — with the strong “fidelity to the Gospel” of the early disciples, Bishop Serratelli said. He also suggested that catechetical programs require students to memorize vocabulary words related to faith, as well as prayers and the Apostles’ Creed.

“Without knowledge, a deeper understanding is not possible,” Bishop Serratelli said. “We need to give our young people the words to articulate the faith. This can lead to a personal relationship with Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life,” he said.

In his talks, Murphy offered a model for pre-evangelization: Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Christ builds a relationship with men on the road, asking them questions and listening to them, instead of chastising them for not recognizing him. It is only when Jesus breaks bread with them that they feel inspired to go to Jerusalem to evangelize, he said.

Today, we have opportunities everywhere to pre-evangelize people — from the supermarket to the sidelines of a child’s soccer game. We need to be able to articulate how has Jesus changed our lives — a compelling witness that can change the lives of other people, said Murphy in his talks that included references to Scripture; “Evangelii Gaudim,” the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis; and USCCB documents.

“If we do not proclaim the life, death and Resurrection of Christ, the catechism has no meaning. The Gospel resonates with our experience, pain and concerns. Only Jesus can offer hope,” said Murphy, adding that we need to invite people to a personal relationship with Jesus. “Experiencing the Lord’s love and mercy will compel us to share the Gospel with others. We should live out the faith in joy. It’s not just knowing ‘stuff’ [in catechism class], but living as Christ,” he said.

In between Murphy’s two talks, Cindy Costello, a high-school catechist at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Sandyston, presented one of the “break out” sessions. Her talk for fifth- to eighth-grade religious educators reinforced Murphy’s idea that, in order to evangelize, catechists must become re-evangelized themselves. Costello suggested that participants seek to encounter Jesus through heart-to-heart prayer with him; a rich liturgical life, enjoying the beauty of the Mass; a “custody of the heart,” paying attention to everything that is going on with them and trying to do everything with Jesus’ help; and a devotion to Mary, “helping people love Jesus with his mother’s heart,” she said.

One participant, Theresa Kimball, a fifth — and ninth-grade catechist and youth minister, attended the conference with other ministers from her parish, Our Lady of Fatima, Highland Lakes.

“It was a great day. We learned just how important evangelization is. In the workshops, we learned how to engage people, especially those, who have fallen away from the faith, without being preachy,” Kimball said. “Dr. Murphy shared his experience and showed us the importance of reaching out to people, praying and building relationships with people to help us evangelize.”