Catechesis and Culture:

An Analysis of Catechetical Approaches for Elementary-AgeStudents in the United States, Pre-Colonial to Present

A thesis submitted to the faculty of the

Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

Master of Arts in Theology

By

Jennifer DiMartino Lanter

Cincinnati, Ohio

September 2014

Abstract

Catholic schools in the United States are the largest

independent school system in the history of the world. Their

success is unparalleled and the fact that they are still

here is a testament to the sacrifices of the earliest

missionaries, pastors, religious sisters, parents, and the

dedication of U.S. Catholics. Pedagogical methodologies have

undergone dramatic changes in the history of U.S. Catholic

education. There have been eras of history that were more

successful than others in handing on the faith.

This thesis highlights four specific eras and their

methodologies used in elementary school catechesis.

Generations of Catholics learned their faith through the

systematic-memorization of the Baltimore Catechism. After

Vatican II there was the departure from content rich

catechesis to experimental and chaotic which ultimately lead

to a failure to transmit basic truths of the faith.

Continuing changing methodologies lead to systematic –

experiential methods and Incarnational catechetics in an

effort to return to solid catechetical teaching but also

making the faith relevant to the student.

Ultimately catechesis always attempts to achieve one

single goal: the education and formation of young Catholics

in the faith. Parishes, schools and parents must work

collaboratively to achieve this goal. From the pre-colonial

missionary period to present time the handing on of the

faith has been dependent upon the ability of the catechist

to make the faith relevant to the lives of his or her

students. In addition to the relevance of the faith, the

availability of content rich, doctrinally sound methodology

is essential. Historically, when the content was weakened

in favor of more experimental methods real catechetical

learning did not occur.

This thesis by Jennifer DiMartino Lanter fulfills the thesisrequirement for the master’s degree in Theology and is approved by Rev. David Endres, Ph.D., as Thesis Advisor, andby Rev. Earl K. Fernandes, S.T.D. and Sr. Betty Jane Lillie,SC, Ph.D. as Readers.

iii

To my children

Alexes, Dominic, Nicholas, Anthony, Joseph, Justin andMatthew

I pray that you grow in wisdom and grace

and follow the path God has planned for you in this life.

iv

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...............................................VIINTRODUCTION....................................................1CATHOLIC EDUCATION – CONSTANTLY EVOLVING, EVER CHANGING

CHAPTER 1:......................................................4PRE-COLONIAL EDUCATION IN NEW SPAIN, NEW FRANCE, AND NEW ENGLAND (1500-1800)

CHAPTER 2:.....................................................12THE SYSTEMATIC-MEMORIZATION PERIOD AND THE BALTIMORE CATECHISM (1885-1960)

CHAPTER 3:.....................................................22ECLECTIC-CHAOTIC PERIOD: THE CHANGING FACE OF CATECHESIS (1960-1980)

CHAPTER 4:.....................................................31SYSTEMATIC–EXPERIENTIAL PERIOD AND THE FAITH AND LIFE SERIES (1980-PRESENT)

CHAPTER 5:.................................................40INCARNATIONAL-EXPERIENTIAL CATECHESIS: THE CATECHESIS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

CONCLUSION.....................................................50BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................54

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge all those who offered me

their love, support, guidance and encouragement throughout

this process, but especially my husband, Bob, who patiently

supported me, and tirelessly works and sacrifices so that

our children are able to receive a Catholic education.

I would like to thank my mother, Nancy, for her witness

to the faith and for always seeking out and enrolling my

siblings and me into the best Catholic schools she could

find, ensuring we would all have a firm foundation in our

faith.

I wish to recognize the assistance of: my advisor, Rev.

David Endres, Ph.d., for his support, editing, and guidance;

the library staff of the Maly Library at the Athenaeum of

Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, for their research

assistance and technical support; and Rev. Robert J. Hater,

Ph.d., whose courses, books and guidance helped form the

basis of this work.

vi

I thank all the rest of my family and friends for their

prayers and support. I thank God for the gift of you in my

life.

vii

Introduction

Catholic Education – Constantly Evolving, Ever Changing

Catholic education in America is a constantly evolving

enterprise. Catechetical approaches that have sought to

transmit the faith to elementary school students have

undergone numerous changes in the history of the Catholic

educational endeavor in the United States. While the truths

of the Catholic faith, the Good News that is Jesus Christ,

are timeless, it is also a living, breathing, organic faith

that must grow and develop in a world that is constantly

changing. The methods of transmitting this timeless faith

throughout history have had to be a process of continual,

balanced renewal of methodologies that have evolved to meet

the demands of an ever-changing culture. At times the

Church has been able to gracefully adapt and develop

catechetical methods that successfully achieve the goal of

catechesis: the transmission of the faith. At other times

the transmission of the faith has become stagnant due to a

failure to change and still other times have become

1

fragmented and confusing due to excessive improvisation and

experimentation.

This thesis offers an historical investigation of how

different eras of history have employed various

methodologies in an attempt to best educate and form U.S.

elementary-age children in their knowledge of the Catholic

faith. It offers a critical analysis of varying teaching

methods used for elementary school aged children, from the

pre-colonial mission period to the present. This is not an

exhaustive investigation but rather a snapshot of varying

methods and cultural milieu. Each chapter will critically

examine a particular religious education program, textbook

series, or methodology from a specific historical era, will

attempt to illustrate the positive and negative aspects of

the approach and couple that with a discussion of each era’s

cultural situation in which the catechetical method was

employed. In the analysis of each method, it should become

clear that the success or failure of a particular method may

not have been solely dependent on the method itself but on

the cultural surroundings in which it was developed,

2

introduced, and implemented. The catechetical approaches

discussed in this thesis were chosen to show diversity in

the religious education process, how these methods fit into

their era in history, and show how well they each were

consistent with the goal of catechesis: the transmission of

the faith.

Chapter 1 (1500-1800) situates catechetics in the pre-

colonial era when missionaries came to the New World in

order to convert the native peoples to Christianity. Chapter

2 (1885–1960) traces the development of the Baltimore Catechism

which was the primary method used to pass on the faith in

Catholic education during the years in which the Catholic

educational system in the U.S. was being formed and came to

maturity. Chapter 3 (1960–1980) reviews the experimental

methods used in Catholic pedagogy in the years during and

after the Second Vatican Council, attempting to understand

the ways the changing, chaotic culture of the U.S. affected

catechesis. Chapters 4 and 5 detail two recent catechetical

methods. Chapter 4 reviews a return to content-rich

catechesis and explores the Faith and Life series of elementary

3

textbooks, an effort to move beyond the chaos of the 1960s–

1980s. Chapter 5 provides an analysis of a new model: the

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a contemporary method

utilizing the educational theory known as Montessori.

While these methods were implemented in different eras

of history and may differ in content and approach, each has

attempted to further a single goal: the education and

formation of young Catholics in the faith. But catechetical

programs, catechists, and even Catholic schools could not –

and cannot – accomplish this goal alone. The importance of

the family and the role of parents as the first educators of

their children in the faith is a current that quietly runs

through this entire thesis.

This thesis will provide the reader with unique insight

to the success or failure of methodologies tying them to the

family and culture in the transmission of the faith. Where

there is no connection to the culture and/or a break down in

the family, transmission of the faith is hindered.

Conversely when the religious methods used strive to connect

4

to the culture and include or receive the support of the

family, catechesis thrives. This challenge has been true

for missionaries and catechists of every age.

Finally this thesis will employ the work of Rev. Robert

J. Hater, Ph.D., in his recent book, Common Sense Catechesis:

Lessons from the Past, Road Map for the Future, which offers a

navigational tool to distinguish between distinct

catechetical eras. These distinct periods supply the

backbone to this thesis as the individual methods analyzed

attempt to fit into his categories.1

Chapter 1:

1 Categories taken from Robert J. Hater’s Common Sense Catechesis: Lessons from the Past, Road Map for the Future (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor,Inc., 2014).

5

Pre-Colonial Education in

New Spain, New France, and New England (1500-1800)

Catholic education in the United States pre-dates the

founding of the country. When the first explorers looking

for the Northwest passage from Europe to Asia left the

Catholic countries of Spain and France, they were

commissioned to bring with them clergy to teach any native

peoples they might encounter the “truth of our Holy Catholic

faith.”2 For 250 years, from the middle of the sixteenth

century till the end of the eighteenth century, Spanish,

French, and English priests who arrived in the Americas

worked diligently and suffered serious hardships,

deprivations, and even martyrdom in an effort to bring the

gospel to the Native Americans and the early colonists.3

Throughout the history of the pre-colonial

missionaries, evangelization was successful when the

2 James Mooney, “Catholic Indian Missions of the United States,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911),accessed June 20, 2014 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10384a.htm.

3

Timothy Walch, Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education (Washington, DC: National Catholic Educational Association, 2003), 1.

6

missionary priests were able to connect the Good News with

the pagan cultures they encountered. Where there was no

connection to the native peoples’ culture, and where the

immediate physical needs of the people were not met, they

were unsuccessful in transmitting the faith. While this is a

simplistic statement, as often other factors played a role

in ministering to native peoples: abuses of government

power, warring tribes, exposure to new diseases, among

others, the engagement with culture often accounts for the

success or failure of catechesis.

The Spanish missionaries, who included Franciscans,

Jesuits, and Dominicans, mostly settled in the American

South and Southwest. The first missionaries arrived in

Florida in 1565, in New Mexico at the end of the sixteenth

century, in Texas and Arizona in the seventeenth century,

and in California in the eighteenth century.4 The Spanish

developed the “mission system,” a collaborative partnership

between the Spanish government and the Catholic Church, in

which the government provided financial support and security4 Walch, Parish School, 7.

7

for small settlements throughout the American Southwest and

the Church developed and managed the missions. An important

purpose of each mission was to provide religious education

to the Native Americans. The missions included a chapel

which was often also used as a school. The missionaries

would began their efforts by teaching and baptizing the

native children before moving on to the adult leaders of the

tribe, hoping the rest of the population would then embrace

the faith. The children were taught during the day and many

different teaching techniques were used including

memorization and religious pageantry.5 Up until the age of

nine, children were taught reading, writing, religion,

Spanish, vocal and instrumental music, the last of which was

very popular with the children. After age nine, education

became more vocational in nature; lessons included cattle

ranching, cooking, sewing, carpentry, brickmaking, and

agriculture.6

5 Walch, Parish School, 8-9.

6 J. A. Burns and Bernard Kohlbrenner, A History of Catholic Education in theUnited States: A Textbook for Normal Schools and Teachers’ Colleges (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1937), 23.

8

Many of the early Spanish mission endeavors, especially

in Florida, New Mexico, and Texas, did not flourish, due to

inconsistent leadership, political threats, poor logistics,

and native revolts, making Christian education in these

areas virtually ineffective until the eighteenth century.7

However, a few efforts were very successful; the Arizona

missions started in 1687 led by the Jesuit Eusebio Kino and

the California missions founded by the Franciscan Junipero

Serra. The missionary success of Kino is attributed

directly to his ability to work with the tribes and gently

suggest improvements to their life, rather than force

Catholicism on them. Kino worked with the natives and their

culture, gaining the respect and support of the Native

Americans. Because Kino’s success was tied to his ability

to engage the people and their culture, he was able to

incorporate the Christian faith into the lives of the native

population without requiring them to abandon their cultural

7 Walch, Parish School, 8-9.

9

traditions. Once Kino died, the missions he founded began

to fail.8

Franciscan priest Junipero Serra created the model for

the Spanish mission system in California. Serra founded

nine missions in the fifteen years spanning 1769-1784.9 The

missions Serra started flourished under his leadership and

were aided by a good climate for growing crops, a more

agreeable native population, and the assistance of a large

number of missionary priests. For Serra, education in his

missions took on a monastic nature. Education primarily was

for the formation of Christian character, which was achieved

through religious instruction and practice, strict

discipline, and industrial occupation. Books were scarce so

instilling habits of hard work and reforming lives was

primary.10

8 Burns and Kohlbrenner, A History of Catholic Education in the United States, 25-26.

9 Walch, Parish School, 9-10.

10 Burns and Kohlbrenner, A History of Catholic Education in the United States, 25-26.

10

French missionaries, mostly Jesuit priests who the

natives called “black robes,” arrived in Canada and the

Great Lakes region, in the early- to mid- seventeenth

century. The French territory in what became the United

States included present-day Maine, upstate New York,

Louisiana, the Great Lakes region, and the Illinois country.

It was an area very expansive and hostile to Europeans

making educating the Native Americans very difficult.

Additionally, the different Indian tribes were nomadic and

the French settlers who traded with them traveled around as

well, making a stable mission school practically

impossible.11 Like the Spanish, the French missionary

priests also focused their educational ministry on the

children before proceeding to convert the adults. The

northern missionaries spent much of their time working with

the Native American tribes, specifically the Hurons.

Language was an important part of education for the Jesuit

missionaries. The priests learned the languages and customs

11 Harold A. Buetow, History of United States Catholic Schooling (Washington, DC: National Catholic Education Association, 1985), 10.

11

of the native people and in turn taught language, religion,

and literacy. The Jesuits tried to focus on the written

word more than the oral tradition when it came to education.

Because they learned the language they would often have

public debates with tribal elders to convince the native

population to attend their schools.12 Although the Jesuits

made a great deal of progress with the native population in

the area of language and have the most expansive written

history of this era, the Jesuits were less successful than

the Spanish missionaries in converting and teaching the

faith, largely because the native population in the French

territory was sparser, spread out, and more hostile.

Additionally the area controlled by the French was much more

unstable, less established, and constantly in turmoil

politically making religious education very difficult.13

These problems along with the suppression of the Jesuit

order by Pope Clement XIV in 1763 hampered the missionaries’12 Leon Pouliot, “Le Jeune, Paul,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography,

Vol. 1, University of Toronto/Universite Laval, 2003 (Toronto: University of Toronto/Universite Laval, 1966), accessed July 10, 2014, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/le_jeune_paul_1E.html.

13 Buetow, History of United States Catholic Schooling, 11.

12

work. By 1770 the French missionary presence in the

Northern region of New France came to an end.14

The missionary priests who traveled through the

Mississippi basin and New Orleans struggled similarly as did

their counterparts in the Northern French territory. A

sparse population in a vast area made education difficult.

In the city of New Orleans the population was made largely

of the criminal and outcast classes of French and a large

number of black slaves. Requests by the city’s leadership

for more missionaries and funds to educate the youth in the

“knowledge of religion, which is the basis of morality,”15

went mostly unanswered. Finally, at the request of the

French government, ten Ursuline sisters arrived in 1727 as

possibly the first professional elementary school teachers

in the land that became the United States.16 The sisters

opened the first successful, permanent school, in all of New

France, in New Orleans. The school, Ursuline Academy

14 Walch, Parish School, 12.

15 Burns and Kohlbrenner, The Catholic School System in the United States, 29.

16 Ibid., 68-69.

13

remains open and serves girls, age two through senior high

school. Opened as a school for girls, the wealthy and the

poor French colonists sent their daughters during the day

and the Indian and black slave women and their children came

in the evenings and on Sundays to be instructed in the

catechism. The courses included reading, writing,

arithmetic, catechism, and industrial training. The most

important subject and the reason for the school was the

teaching of the faith and the fostering of religious

practice. The students had daily prayers, a daily

examination of conscience, preparation for the sacraments,

and daily studying of the catechism. The students were

taught that the reason for their existence was “to learn to

know, love, and serve God, in order by this means to become

one day blessed.”17

Catholic education in the English colonies took a

different form compared to the French and Spanish missionary

efforts. For most of the original thirteen colonies, anti-

Catholicism was the law of the land and deeply rooted in the

17 Ibid., 76.

14

lives of Protestant colonists arriving from England.

Catholics were prohibited from holding religious services,

preaching Catholic doctrine, or organizing congregations.

Only in Pennsylvania did Catholics have some religious

freedom, and Maryland, which was at one time tolerant of

Catholics, quickly became anti-Catholic which made

practicing the faith difficult. Protestant ministers

preached of the evils of Jesuit “armies,” newspapers

included editorials about Catholic plots against English

liberties and colonial school children learned of the evils

of Catholicism in their textbooks. Because of the anti-

Catholic climate, the few missionary priests in the colonies

kept a very low profile and not many schools were opened.

Most Catholics homeschooled their children, parents passed

on the faith through family prayer, catechism lessons were

recited at home, and the celebration of the liturgy, if a

priest was available, was done in secret. Perhaps if a

missionary came through their town, they may have received

some “formal” religious instruction.18 Because of the

18 Walch, Parish School, 13-14.

15

social and political status of Catholics in colonial America

hardly anything is known about classroom procedure or

methods of teaching the faith. Any Catholic developments in

religious pedagogy were restricted primarily to Pennsylvania

and Maryland.

Documentation evidences what is thought to be the first

Catholic school in the colonies. Opened by Ralph Crouch, a

former Jesuit novice and a schoolmaster, in 1640 in St.

Mary’s County, Maryland, the school probably taught the

truths of religion and how to write and read. Religious

education was most likely oral response and direct

instruction by the teacher. These schools were financially

supported by the sacrifices of the parents who were willing

to give up much in order to educate their children in the

faith. There is no record of religion textbooks.19 Not

until the time of the American Revolution (1776-1783) did

restrictions lift as Catholics and Protestants united to

fight a common enemy: the English crown.

19 Ibid., 14.

16

The original attempts of a religious education system

in the colonies was significantly less successful in terms

of educational development than the French and Spanish

missions, yet the English colonies set the stage for

educational developments in the nineteenth century. After

the Revolution, the surviving missions in the American South

and Southwest declined; the only surviving school was the

Ursuline school for girls in New Orleans. Just when

Catholic education looked like it might not survive, wave

after wave of Catholic immigrants arrived seeking economic

opportunities and religious freedom. Between 1776 and 1850

the Catholic population increased from 25,000 to 6,000,000

due to large-scale immigration from Ireland, Germany, and

France.

In the early nineteenth century the government

developed “common schools,” the precursor to the public

school system, in an attempt to assimilate and educate the

large number of immigrants. Because these schools were

very anti-Catholic in nature, the Catholic Church officially

developed the parish school system. In 1792, Bishop John

17

Carroll, the first bishop of “all the states in the United

Republic,” wrote his first pastoral letter to the American

church in which he “emphasized the importance of Christian

education as a means of instilling principles that would

preserve religious faith.”20 The creation of parish-based

schools was one answer to the need to hand on the faith to

the next generation.

20 Walch, Parish School, 16.

18

Chapter 2:

The Systematic-Memorization Period

and the Baltimore Catechism (1885-1960)

The systematic-memorization period refers to the

normative method used during this era for teaching the faith

in parish schools.21 “Systematic” in that it follows a

specific format laid out in a text, and “memorization” as

the primary mode for learning the faith was committing

questions and their answers to memory. The Baltimore Catechism,

because it contains universal Catholic beliefs and

encourages memorization of its content using a question and

answer format, is symbolic of the “systematic-memorization”

era of U.S. catechesis.22

Father Robert Hater suggests that part of the reason

for the success of the Baltimore Catechism is due to the

“Catholic climate” of the time in which it was published:

21 Hater, Common Sense Catechesis, 37-61.

22 Father Hater in Common Sense Catechesis labels specific trends in catechesis throughout history, terming the time of the Baltimore Catechism (1885-1960) as the “systematic-memorization” period.

19

“The Catholic climate is the fundamental orientation of

Catholics in a certain place and at a given historical

time.”23 In the early twentieth century, pre-Vatican II

years, the Church was a stable, well organized, relatively

closed system. Catholics lived in the world but their faith

oriented their life and attitudes. The Church’s teachings

were not questioned in regards to authority on faith or

morals. Catholics learned, with the help of the Baltimore

Catechism, what was right and what was wrong. They knew what

constituted a mortal sin and were careful not to commit

them. Religious education worked because Catholics trusted

and believed in the Church. Catholic families also played a

large role in handing on the faith. While parents may not

have been well educated, they celebrated the Catholic

rituals and devotions faithfully, setting the example for

the children of what it meant to be a Catholic.24

Additionally, in the parish schools, publishers supplied

“catholic editions” of textbooks for subjects including

23 Hater, Common Sense Catechesis, location 252, Kindle.24 Hater, Common Sense Catechesis, 37-61.

20

history, English and penmanship which used examples relating

to the faith, allowing Church teachings to permeate all

subjects.

The Baltimore Catechism was the standard religion text

used to educate elementary school children in the United

States for much of the twentieth century.25  Titled, A

Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third

Plenary Council of Baltimore, it was first published in 1885.26

The Baltimore Catechism was the first major/minor catechism

written in the United States. Major in that it was the

primary catechism used in the United States for over sixty

years and minor in that it is specific for one country, not

the entire Church. History has diversely judged the

Baltimore Catechism, eliciting both praise and harsh

criticism,27 but overall it is remembered positively. Often

one will hear older Catholics, in lamenting over the lack of25 Hater, Common Sense Catechesis, location 367 Kindle.

26 Gerard S. Sloyan, “The Relation of the Catechism to the Work of Religious Formation,” in Modern Catechetics (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1960), 85.

27 Mary Charles Bryce, “The Baltimore Catechism – Origin and Reception” in Sourcebook for Modern Catechetics, ed Michael Warren (Winona, MN: St. Mary’s Press, 1983), 1:140-145.

21

orthodox catechesis in the current generation, long for the

days of the Baltimore Catechism. The catechism went through

many revisions and has had various editions published over

the years. Today the Baltimore Catechism is available in four

volumes.28

The inception of the Baltimore Catechism came out of the

need to have a universal text that could be used to educate

a growing and diverse population in the United States. As

more Catholic immigrants arrived in America and as anti-

Catholicism continued to grow, Catholics encountered

suspicion and a considerable amount of bigotry against the

faith in the public schools.29 From the beginning, Church

leadership recognized the need for uniform Christian

instruction in several early councils, but the three Plenary

Councils of Baltimore were the major catalyst in the

28 Earl Fernandes, “Are the Baltimore Catechism and the Catechism of the Catholic Church the Same?” Catholic Telegraph, August 2013 accessed June 20, 2014, h ttp://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/tag/father-earl- fernandes.

29 Timothy J. Meagher, “Never Take Shame in Your Mother Tongue… and Your Fatherland in America: Catholic Schools and Immigrants,” in OneHundred Years of Catholic Education: Historical Essays (Washington, DC: NCEA, 2003), 115.

22

production of a uniform American catechism. The first

council, in 1852, decreed obligations of pastors and parents

in regard to educating Catholic youth. It urged the

building of parish schools, and insisted on catechism

lessons for any children not enrolled in parish schools.

The second council, opened in 1886, reemphasized the

importance of Christian education, mandated parish schools

and demanded that the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine

(CCD), a religious education program, be put in place in

areas where there was no parish school or where the children

did not attend.  The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore

(1884) surpassed the former two councils on the need for

Catholic schools and educating all Catholics.  One such

notable legislation was a decree that a commission be

appointed to develop a uniform catechism for the entire

country.30

Archbishop James Gibbons of Baltimore in 1884 appointed

a committee of seven bishops who were to report on the need

30 Joseph B. Collins, “Religious Education and CCD in the United States: Early Years (1902-1935),” in Sourcebook for Modern Catechetics, ed Michael Warren (Winona, MN: St. Mary’s Press, 1983), 1:158-159.

23

for a uniform catechism for the United States. They were to

report on how long such a project would take, what name to

give it, and whether or not there should be a translation

for Germans, Slavonians, Italians, Spaniards, and French.

The committee reported back immediately, their number

enlarged with more bishops and priests, and a draft of a

universal catechism was submitted to the assembled bishops

by December 6, 1884. Suggestions for changes were to be

forwarded to John L. Spalding, the bishop of Peoria.

Spalding would then report to the next meeting of

archbishops, get approval for the text, and then publish the

catechism.31

Sources suggest the bulk of the catechism was developed

by Msgr. Januarius De Concilio, rector of St. Michael’s

Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, and former Seton Hall

theology professor, and Bishop Spalding. 32 The layout was

very similar to other catechisms that had previously been

published. Some recognized that the book had its roots in

31 Sloyan, Modern Catechetics, 87.

32 Ibid., 88.

24

St. Robert Bellarmine's catechism from the 1500s while

similarities to the catechism of Bishop James Butler of

Cashel (1775) approved by the Synod of Maynooth, Ireland,

and Bishop Augustin Verot’s General Catechism of the Christian

Doctrine: On the Basis Adopted by the Plenary Council of Baltimore for the Use of

Catholics of the Diocese of Savannah and Vicariate Apostolic of Florida

(1864).33 Nevertheless, the Baltimore Catechism was presented

and approved by Archbishop Gibbons in 1885 and eventually

translated into various languages. 34 

While several bishops criticized the text, there were

also written, published criticisms, specifically one from an

anonymous author. The Pastoral Blatt, a St. Louis-based monthly

printed in German, claimed the catechism was pedagogically

unsuitable for children, used incomprehensible language, and

had too many yes-no questions. It also claimed the

catechism treated all subjects equally and did not give

33 Sloyan, Modern Catechetics, 87-90.

34 Ibid., 88.

25

significant attention to the resurrection or the Holy

Spirit.35

Several bishops spoke out in defense of the catechism,

giving their approval for the catechism’s use in their

dioceses: Cincinnati in 1886, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in

1892, Chicago in 1897, and Davenport, Iowa, in 1904.36

Archbishop Sebastian Messmer of Milwaukee, gave his approval

in a backhanded way when he insisted that the greatest

immediate importance was that there be uniformity in

teaching Christian doctrine. Messmer stated that while the

weaknesses could be fixed over time, “the memorized

statements in a monochromatic pattern across the United

States superseded doctrinal accuracy or pedagogical know-

how.”37

The original Baltimore Catechism, presented by Concilio,

was 72 pages in length, containing 421 questions and answers35 Bryce, “The Baltimore Catechism – Origin and Reception,” 1:141.

See also Mary Charles Bryce, Pride of Place: The Role of the Bishops in the Developmentof Catechesis in the United States (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1984)

36 Bryce, Sourcebook for Modern Catechetics, 140.

37 Ibid., 142.

26

in 37 chapters. Its order was: creed, sacraments, prayer,

commandments, and Last Things. Cardinal John McCloskey of

New York gave his imprimatur and the text was approved by

Gibbons as apostolic delegate. Within months of

publication, Bishop Spalding published a shorter, abridged

version, sometimes referred to as Baltimore Catechism No. 1.

The abridged version was half the size of the original, had

208 questions in 33 chapters and received the same imprimatur

of Cardinal John McCloskey of New York. The catechism was

designed to teach the basics of the faith along with the

difficult tenants with simplicity and clarity for all people

through its brief questions and succinct answers. Basic

questions like “Why did God make you”/ A. “God made me to

know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and

to be happy with Him forever in the next”38, written simply

and answered in complete sentences were to be memorized by

the student and allowed for conformity throughout the entire

38 Francis J. Connell, Baltimore Catechism No. 1 (New York: Benziger Bros., 1949).

27

country in understanding the teachings of the Catholic

faith.

In 1933 the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, (CCD)

which was developed following the Reformation in Europe in

the 16th century for the purpose of giving religious

instruction, was finally established in Washington D.C. as

an independent apostolate. In an effort to assist religious

education programs, the CCD office published revised

editions of the Baltimore Catechism. The revisions that came

out of the 1940’s, under the theological advisory of Father

Francis J. Connell, C.Ss.R., professor of Moral Theology at

the Catholic University of America, sought to make the

catechism more appropriate for different educational levels.

The catechism was re-released in four volumes and like the

original editions continued to be the primary tool used to

teach the faith until Vatican II prompted new approaches to

religious education.

The first two volumes retained all the same question

and answers in the original editions but added common

28

prayers, prayers for the Mass, and hymns. The books were

produced as a graded body of work appropriately including

text for grade levels first through fifth grade and sixth

through ninth respectively. The third volume was designed

for those who had already been confirmed and for high school

students. This volume answered the criticism that the

original Baltimore Catechism had no scriptural references and

included extensive scriptural quotations and more detailed

doctrinal explanations into every lesson. Additions to

every lesson also include summarizations of the most

important truths of the lesson and study helps, problems,

and exercises. In the problems and exercises section, real

life situations were presented with questions for the

student to ponder and answer. 39 For example, in lesson

ten, “The Virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost,”

scripture references to the virtues were contained

throughout. After the question, “What are the three

theological virtues? / A. The three theological virtues are

39 Francis J. Connell, C.Ss.R., foreward to The New Confraternity Edition Revised Baltimore Catechism and Mass No. 3 (Front Royal, VA: Seton Press, 2001).

29

faith, hope, and charity,” the scripture reference was

listed immediately following the answer: “So there abide

faith, hope and charity, these three; but the greatest of

these is charity (1 Corinthians 13:13).” At the end of the

lesson, there is a section entitled “Important Truths About

the Virtues and Gifts of the Holy Ghost,” in which several

paragraphs are given to lengthy explanation, and finally the

“Study Helps” and “Problems and Exercises” round out the

chapter.40

Baltimore Catechism No. 4, An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism

of Christian Doctrine, is an annotated edition.41 It can be used

as a teacher’s manual, a reference work or even as an

advanced textbook. It deals with more advanced, difficult

questions pertaining to the faith. This volume, while still

in question and answer format, is full of explanations using

examples from Holy Scripture, from the parables and stories

of Jesus, and are made applicable to daily life through

40 Francis J. Connell, C.Ss.R., Baltimore Catechism No. 3 (New York: Benziger Bros.,1949), 68-77.

41 Francis J. Connell, C.Ss.R., Baltimore Catechism No. 4 (New York: Benziger Bros., 1949).

30

reflections and exhortations. The common prayers found in

the beginning of the book are broken down and explained in

detail in the same manner as the catechism questions.

Again, in the 1960s, a new “modernized” edition of the

Baltimore Catechism was published: The New Saint Joseph Baltimore

Catechism in three volumes. These, like the other editions

contained the same basic questions and answers but were

enhanced with color photos and tried to help make the

material more user friendly for children.42

As the social climate changed in America the

methodology of catechesis needed to change as the systematic

memorization method, although strong in theological content,

threatened to lead to a stagnant transmission of faith and

no longer seemed to engage the youth. After the Second

Vatican Council changes in catechesis rapidly began to

appear in parish schools and CCD programs. Secular society

was drastically changing thanks in part to the Vietnam war,

the civil rights movement, feminism and the sexual

42 For an example, see Bennet Kelley, The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism, rev. ed. (Tolowa, NJ: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 2012).

31

revolution, and those changes made their way into the

Church. Another very significant influence was reaction to

Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, often referred

to as the birth control encyclical, which left many feeling

disenfranchised by the Church and led to erosion of Church

authority. Increasingly, people questioned Church teaching

and no longer took for granted the Church’s authority to

teach on faith and morals. Many parish school programs

threw out the “outdated” catechisms and the memorization

method in favor of more experiential methods that were being

developed at this time.

The Baltimore Catechism was created at a time when

Catholic instruction had no clear format and a uniform

catechesis in the United States was desperately needed at a

time of the phenomenal growth of a diverse immigrant

population. It formed millions of Catholics with its sound

doctrinal content and its impact is still felt most

prominently in today’s older generation of Catholics who

seem to be more faithful to the Church than younger adults.

Over time, after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965),

32

along with major societal changed affecting family and

parish life and advances in pedagogy, changes in catechesis

became popular and the catechism was mostly removed from the

parish school.

Now, since the creation of the universal Catechism of the

Catholic Church in 1992, the use of a catechism as a teaching

tool and guide has made its way back into the curriculum

used in parish schools. Although not a catechism-alone

approach, current curriculum must be in conformity to the

Catechism of the Catholic Church, per the U.S. Conference of

Catholic Bishops, assisting catechists in providing a

holistic form of catechesis. In the end, by its fruits of

well-educated older Catholics and the full circle changes in

methodology, the Baltimore Catechism achieves redemption from

its critics as a sound teaching method.

33

Chapter 3:

Eclectic-Chaotic Period:

The Changing Face of Catechesis (1960-1980)

Father Robert Hater has termed this period in religious

education history the “eclectic-chaotic” era. He proposes

the term “eclectic” because of the “experimental and

pragmatic aspect of secular culture, religious education,

and liturgy” and “chaotic” because of the confusion that

seemed to permeate religious education and catechesis.43

This chapter will cover a couple of key people and

publishing companies who dominated religious education

methods and textbooks in the United States during this time.

In order to have a clear understanding of the methods

used in Catholic religious education from the 1960s to the

1980s, one must examine the era’s culture and new trends for

catechesis coming out of Europe. Leading up to this time,

European theologians struggled to develop new theological

methods, attempting to break away from the “neo-

43 Hater, Common Sense Catechesis, location 686, Kindle.

34

scholasticsm” which had been used in the previous era and

had usually led to a doctrinal approach in religious

education. Throughout the twentieth century theological

developments and new approaches in teaching emerged. In the

field of education there were advances in developmental

psychology, in child-centered teaching, in discovery

learning, and educational technology, and all of these

influenced to some extent methodologies in religious

education.44 More importantly were the major theological

developments of the twentieth century, which dramatically

changed the methodology of religious education in parish

schools and CCD programs. Changes in thinking about the

nature and communication of faith, the nature and process of

revelation, and the nature of the Church and the Christian

life45 were major catalysts in the development of

theological methods including the kerygmatic approach, life-

centered, experiential, and liberational approaches. These44 G. M. Rossiter, “Religious Education in Catholic Schools”

(Australian Catholic Education Offices, 1985), accessed July 16, 2014, http://203.10.46.30/mre/cdrom/re_in_catholic_schools.htm.See also Gerard Clifford, “A Change of Emphasis in Catechesis,” The Furrow 20, no. 10. Supplement: Catechetics no. 9 (Autumn 1969): 5-9.

45 Rossiter, “Religious Education in Catholic Schools.”

35

approaches each have a specific emphasis and orientation in

the way religious education is presented, though they are

not necessarily mutually exclusive of one another as often

several approaches can be used simultaneously. The

difference in the approaches can be seen in their starting

point. The kerygmatic approach begins with a biblical event

or passage from Scripture; a life-centered approach uses

what is happening in a person’s own life or in the world

today; the experiential approach is a direct personal or

religious experience; and the liberational approach focuses

on a situation of oppression or injustice in the world or in

the heart of man.46

In the 1920s the Munich Method – in which the all the

senses were to be involved in learning – began to become

popular with American Catholic theologians and educators.

For example educators would take a question and answer from

the catechism and incorporate visualization and concrete

application of the concept to better enhance the

memorization. In the 1930s, Father Josef A. Jungmann, S.J.,46 Ibid.

36

developed the “kerygmatic” approach, emphasizing the

proclamation of the Good News as a joyful experience that

needed to be lived as well as learned, effectively combining

Scripture, liturgy, and doctrine in a holistic approach.47

While these developments in education and theology were

rapidly shaping the educational landscape, culturally the

world was changing just as quickly, shaped by the Vietnam

War and the social unrest that surrounded it, the civil

rights movement, the sexual revolution, and the emergence of

feminism. More mothers worked outside the home, pressures

on the family increased, athletics for children began to

intensify and the “domestic church” began to weaken as

outside responsibilities increased and the religiosity in

the home decreased.

Throughout this time of experimentation and social

chaos, theologians, educators, catechists and publishing

companies attempted to add the new theological approaches as

supplements to the Baltimore Catechism method of religious47 Michael P. Horan, “Catholic Educators: Josef A. Jungmann,”

Talbot School of Theology, accessed July 14, 2014, http://www.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/catholic/josef_jungmann/

37

education, but they were awkward and professional educators

knew there was need for a completely new approach. One such

religious educator was Sister Maria De La Cruz Aymes, S.H.

Sister Aymes first served as a catechist in her country of

Mexico during a time of great religious persecution (1926-

1932). In 1938 she came to the United States to enter

religious life with the Society of Helpers because of the

closure of formation programs for religious in Mexico; she

professed final vows in 1947.48 In 1954 she began working

in San Francisco as supervisor of catechetics in the

Archdiocesan Department of Education. She developed the On

Our Way series, published by the William H. Sadlier Co.

between 1958 and 1962.

The original On Our Way catechetical series for grades

one through eight allowed for comprehensive faith formation

through engaging Scripture, liturgy, and daily life

experience along with the doctrine as the primary sources.49

48 Timothy M. Matovina, Latino Catholicism: Transformation in America’s Largest Church (Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2013), 234.

49 Matovina, Latino Catholicism, 234.

38

Sister Maria authored the books under the guidance of

prominent theologians including Fathers Hofinger and

Jungmann, helping to pioneer the On Our Way series as the

first complete set of texts utilizing the kerygmatic

approach. The books, written for first through eighth

grade, were titled, respectively: With Christ to the Father, Christ’s

Life in Us, Christ Our Saviour, Christ Leads the Way, One in Christ,

Fulfilment in Christ, Witnessing Christ, and Christ in His Church.

The series was produced in two colors and used

illustrations, pictures, and activities that were integrated

into the lessons. Each book contained twenty-six lessons

which were easily taught one per week. The lessons were

divided accordingly: first a statement of the theme with

pictures and relevant Scripture passages, then the

development of the doctrine given in a narrative form, next

the material to be learned using Scripture passages,

prayers, hymns, and catechism answers to summarize the

lesson, and finally work pages where the student reproduced

the lesson with drawings, coloring, fill in the blanks, or

answering questions. The teacher manuals written with the

39

untrained catechist in mind laid out each lesson in detail.

The principles of modern catechetics were applied in

concrete ways to assist the teacher.50 Additionally, the

entire series insisted that parents should be the primary

teachers of the faith to their children.51 Some texts

included a letter to parents in the front of the book to

encourage parental participation in teaching the faith.

The On Our Way series was a best seller in the United

States and was translated into more than twelve languages.

After the Second Vatican Council, Sister Maria knew the

series would need to be thoroughly revised to reflect the

teachings of the council. She partnered with Father Francis

J. Buckley, S.J., to assist with the revision and created

On Our Way, Vatican II (1966-1970).52 The pair continued their

collaboration and co-authored the Lord of Life series from

1976-1981, a life-centered approach to catechesis consisting50 Peter McConville, “Modern Catechetics: the ‘On Our Way’

Series.” The Furrow 16, no. 11 (November 1965): 691-692, accessed July 12, 2014, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27659032.

51 Ibid., 694.

52 Francis J. Buckley, S.J., “Catholic Educators: Sr. Maria de la Cruz Aymes,” Talbot School of Theology, accessed July 12, 2014, www.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/catholic/mariaaymes/#excerpts.

40

of three movements: life experience, faith development, and

faith sharing. They also authored several other successful

textbook series with the Sadlier Company.

Simultaneously, another team of religious educators

worked to shape the direction of catechesis in the United

States, Carl J. Pfeifer and Janaan Manternach in conjunction

with the Silver Burdett Publishing Compnay. In 1968 the

pair created the Life, Love, Joy series53 as an answer the U.S.

bishops’ request for a new series to replace the Baltimore

Catechism, which would incorporate the new approaches in

educating the whole child for the Confraternity of Christian

Doctrine movement. The series represented a dramatic change

in the way elementary school children learned their faith

over the next thirty years. The series was used in parish

schools throughout all fifty states and in many schools

directly replaced the Baltimore Catechism. The Life, Love, Joy

series included a pupil’s book, teacher’s manual, and parent

notes. It incorporated music and photography (Pfeifer was

53

C.J. Pfeifer and Janaan Manternach, Life, Love, Joy: Grades 1-6 (Morristown, NJ: Silver Burdett Company, 1968).

41

an avid photographer) throughout the materials and

encouraged families and children to reflect and dialogue on

their faith experiences.54 The authors used a dynamic

storytelling approach, drawing on examples from every day

life. Manternach recalled, “What Carl and I did, which was

seen as a real change, was we introduced life experience to

catechetical education, if we’re going to find God, we’re

going to find God in Life.”55

Pfiefer and Manternach knew that formational training

of the catechist was a vital part of educating children in

their faith. In the teacher’s manual every chapter began

with “reflections for the teacher” which was intended to

help the teacher grow theologically and spiritually. These

sections were not intended for use in the classroom but for

the personal development of the teacher to help them become

better catechists.56 The authors also understood the54 Dean P. Manternach, “Catholic Educators: Janaan Manternach &

Carl J. Pfeifer,” Talbot School of Theology, accessed July 16, 2014, http://www.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/catholic/carl-Janaan_pfeifer/.

55 Matt Schudel, “Carl J. Pfeifer, 78; Helped Update Catechism Education,” The Washington Post, August 4, 2007.

56 Manternach, “Catholic Educators: Janaan Manternach & Carl J. Pfeifer.”

42

importance of parents as their role as the primary educators

of the faith. When the child received a textbook in the

Life, Love, Joy series, the parent was given a book titled Parents’

Notes. This book explained the theme of the lesson to the

parents and encouraged them to reflect on the theme and to

continue the child’s religious education at home applying

the lesson to family life.

The catechetical programs and publishers that evolved

during this eclectic-chaotic period challenged the “old” way

of teaching the faith. They employed dynamic storytelling,

life experiences, reflection, music and art, and dialogue,

to name a few, all in an attempt to help the student

discover Christ in the every day. They brought into the

classroom new, fresh ideas that made religion classes more

exciting and interesting. They tried to help students grow

in a personal relationship with Jesus and the Church and

form a maturing faith through prayer and action.57 Before

these changes were initiated, the faith was understood

57 Ibid.

43

through memorized questions and answers that used language

that was difficult for children to understand. These

programs were exciting and creative and many religious

education offices worked hard to create materials for

training catechists and religion teachers in the new

methods.

Unfortunately, while all these positive advances in

pedagogy, theology, and methodology were rapidly affecting

Catholic religious education, this era became one often

referred to as the “paste and collage” period. Students

during this era received lessons in social justice and

gained a concern for the poor but were lacking in scriptural

and key concepts like the Real Presence in the Eucharist,

the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the meaning of the Mass.

This was made worse by catechists that were not well trained

and often did not take advantage of the training offered by

their dioceses. Instead many catechists were swept up with

the excitement of the times and experimented with all types

of teaching. Other dioceses and parishes spent too much

time teaching methods and not enough on basic Church

44

teaching. The use of media in religious education,

particularly films, was helpful in sacramental preparation

but often the media was used alone without any attempt to

include solid catechetical instruction. Some religion

classes looked more like group therapy sessions than

catechism class as students discussed their ideas and

feelings but were never brought back to the doctrinal basics

of the faith.58

The result of the confusion listed above has been

several generations of theologically illiterate Catholics.

These Catholics generally grew up ignorant of what the

Church believes, and what it means to be a Catholic. Often

their view of Catholicism is strongly aligned with Church

teaching on social justice but severely lacking in basic

core teachings of the faith. A full fifty percent of

Catholics do not know the Church’s doctrine on the real

presence in the Eucharist, a basic teaching that all second

graders learn before making their first communion.59

58 Hater, Common Sense Catechesis, location 815, Kindle.

59 Scott Alessi, “Knowing is Believing – and Sometimes Not Knowingis Believing, Too,” U.S. Catholic, May 2013, accessed July 18, 2014,

45

Regular church attendance has drastically fallen by self-

proclaimed Catholics.60

Major societal upheaval and a quickly changing culture

merged with the early attempts of bishops, pastors, and

educators to make sense of the teachings of Vatican II,

creating a perfect storm of chaos and confusion in Catholic

teaching. Parents whose children attended parish schools

during this time and experienced solid doctrinal catechesis

growing up were blindsided by the education their children

received and confused by what happened in the classroom.

Although parents are the primary teachers of the faith in

the home, they expected the doctrinal basics were taught at

school and many children did not receive solid doctrinal

teaching.

http://www.uscatholic.org/blog/201305/knowing-believing-and-sometimes-not-knowing-believing-too-27323.

60 See Fig 8.9: “Attendance at Religious Services, by Year and Denomination – Catholic Church Attendance 1957-2000,” accessed July 18, 2014, https://www.russellsage.org/sites/all/files/Fischer_Hout_Tables%20Figures.pdf. See also Raphael Franck, “The Decrease in Religiosity inthe Twentieth Century,” accessed July 18, 2014, https://www.academia.edu/710188/The_decrease_in_religiosity_in_the_twentieth_century.

46

This era represents a failure in religious education,

but to say it was caused by replacing the Baltimore Catechism

with catechetical changes in methods and textbooks would not

be entirely accurate.  The 1960s through 1980s was a

cataclysmic storm of chaos, change, social unrest, political

upheaval, and confusion and questioning that all worked

against the Church in handing on the faith.  As with every

era in history, it is important to note that this was also a

grace filled-time filled with talented, educated,

thoughtful, prayerful, and faithful Catholic theologians and

catechists whose life work was dedicated to the task of

handing on the faith, laboring and sacrificing,

painstakingly working and experimenting to find the best

possible method to bring children closer to Christ. Yet the

methods of religious education developed during this period

were lacking in solid faith formation and have been

superseded in more recent years by programs with more

intentional doctrinal content.

47

Chapter 4:

Systematic–Experiential Period and

the Faith and Life Series (1980-Present)

This chapter details one specific methodology that

emerged after the chaos and confusion of the previous era.

The Faith and Life series was developed as a direct response to

counter what was happening in the culture. This series

employs the ecclesial method of catechesis, which will be

explored in further detail below, and is equivalent to

Father Hater’s terminology of the “systematic-experiential

period.” It is systematic in its method of following a well

laid out content rich text and strives to help relate the

faith to the life experiences of the students. It is also

important to note that all of the programs that were

developed in this era that are still in use today have since

been updated to be in conformity with the directives from

the U.S. bishops and the universal Catechism of the Catholic

Church.

48

With all the social and religious chaos, change in

methods and experimentation of the previous period, there

were also factions within the Church and the laity who were

not excited about the changes in approach for Catholic

education. Many parents were horrified to learn of the

content-free catechesis that was taking place along with the

spirit of rebellion and a growing secular immorality in the

culture. Parents who expressed these opinions were often

criticized or made to feel that they were out of touch with

the new theology and their concerns were mostly ignored.

Movements in the Church began to spring up to fight this

growing secularism that was creeping into the Church and the

parish schools. One such movement became an international

lay apostolate, Catholics United for the Faith (CUF).

Catholics United for the Faith was founded in 1968 by

H. Lyman Stebbins, a parent unhappy about the way the faith

was being transmitted to his children in his parish school.

The mission of CUF became “to support, defend, and advance

the efforts of the Teaching Church,” as stated in the Decree

on the Apostolate of the Laity, no. 18 of the Second Vatican

49

Council. Lyman was driven by a response to what he viewed

as a “dimming of the faith”61 which included but was not

limited to defective catechetical texts that began appearing

in U.S Catholic Schools in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Lyman

viewed the texts coming out of this era as lacking sold

doctrinal content. Lyman and his newly founded apostolate,

Catholics United for the Faith, perceived that an entire

generation for Catholics was in danger of being ignorant of

their faith and even losing their faith because of the

changes to the religion text books being used in American

parish run Catholic elementary schools and CCD programs.

The major changes appearing in religion texts during this

time often meant a retreat from the rigorous teaching of

Catholic doctrine, basically anything that remotely looked

like the Baltimore Catechism, and a focus on self esteem,

community, and the very popular fuzzy good feeling of “we

are church.”

61 Catholics United for the Faith, “History of the Faith and Life Series,” accessed April 21, 2014, www.CUF.org/2012/08/history-of-the-faith-and-life-series/.

50

CUF desired to make a contribution in the catechetical

field and worked collaboratively on the American National

Catechetical Directory, a reference resource for catechesis

providing fundamental principals, and guidelines in the area

of catechesis.62 Stebbins was urged by former Dean of

Education of Catholic University of America, Monsignor

Eugene Kevane, to “do something about the state of

catechesis of our children.”63 They were also urged by

Father John A. Hardon, S.J., and Cardinal John Joseph

Wright, Perfect of the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome,

to “do more”. In 1978 CUF hired Patricia I. Puccetti

Donahue, a graduate student at St. John’s University

studying under Father Robert Bradley, S.J., Father Hardon

S.J., Monsignor Kevane, and others. Donahue was to head a

new project for CUF, writing a religion text book series

that became known as the Faith and Life series.

62 See United States Catholic Conference, Sharing the Light of Faith: National Catechetical Directory for Catholics of the United States (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, Dept. of Education, 1979). See also NationalCatechetical Directory Committee, Attitudes of Catholics on Religious Education (Washington, DC: National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1976).

63 Catholics United for the Faith, “History of the Faith and Life Series.”

51

The Faith and Life catechetical series, now in its third

edition, is part of the Ignatius Press Religious Education

program for grades first through eighth. Faith and Life was

first published in 1984 as a joint effort between Catholics

United for the Faith, and Ignatius Press,64 in an effort to

create religion text books that were strong in Catholic

doctrine, morality, sacraments and prayer.

Donahue recalled, “These were the days before any talk

of a new Catechism of the Catholic Church so our main guide was the

General Catechetical Directory published in 1971. From the

GCD we knew the content of our series had to be

Christocentric, We also knew that the instruction had to be

presented in a concentric way; that is beginning ‘with a

rather simple presentation of the entire structure of the

Christian message’ and with each subsequent year a more

detailed and developed presentation of that same whole would

be made. So for each grade the four components of our

faith, the Creed-what we believe; the Commandments-the way

64 Catholics United for the Faith, “Mission Statement,” accessed April 26, 2014, http://cuf.org/about/who-we-are/mission-statement/.

52

we live, the Sacraments-the means to live as Christians; and

Prayer-what we hope for, are presented at the appropriate

level.” 65 In addition to the text layout, every book in

the series was designed with illustrations of masterpieces

of religious art throughout. The artwork used served dual

purposes, first it kept the books from becoming outdated but

secondly and most importantly the artwork assisted in

teaching the children truths of the faith by immersing them

in the traditional art of the Church and showing the beauty

of the faith.

Authored by staff members of CUF and Ignatius Press

with the help of outside advisors, the Faith and Life series

was first published in the middle and late 1980’s and since

then over 5.5 million copies have been sold. The series was

created with the intent to provide schools, parishes, and

families with catechetical tools and essential elements of

Catholic doctrine pivotal in the formation of young

Catholics.66 In subsequent editions the series editors have

65 Catholics United for the Faith, “Mission Statement.”

66 Faith and Life Series 8, 3rd ed. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press/Catholics United for the Faith, Inc., 2011), 7.

53

added teaching tools through the years to enrich the series.

These include activity books, teachers’ manuals, online

resources, scriptural quotations, a family guide, video

clips and iPad games, and correlations with the Catechism of

the Catholic Church. Recently the series was also updated to

include the changes to the new translation of the Roman

Missal.

The books’ editors claim to take seriously the

directive from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which

appears in the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC) which states:

“It is necessary that religious instruction in schools

appear as a scholastic discipline with the same systematic

demands and the same rigor as other disciplines. It must

present the Christian message and the Christian event with

the same seriousness and the same depth with which other

disciplines present their knowledge.”67 Additionally the GDC

states that religious education should assist parents,

67 Congregation for the Clergy, General Directory for Catechesis, Vatican Website, August 11, 1997, sec.73, accessed April 29, 2014, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_17041998_directory-for-catechesis_en.html.

54

catechists, and teachers in the task of evangelizing young

people and put them in “communion and intimacy with Jesus

Christ.”68

The series of books uses the time tested ecclesial

methodology and spiral development of catechesis. The

ecclesial method is a method of catechesis that is deeply

rooted in Catholic tradition; it is intended to help

students take the authentic doctrine that they learn and

apply it to their lived spiritual lives. It accomplishes

this using a five step method of catechesis: preparation,

proclamation, explanation, application and celebration.

The editors believe that through this method the

participants should come to a better understanding of the

Deposit of Faith, which moves their hearts and leaves them

with a faith working in love. The textbooks’ layout,

teacher’s guides, and supplemental materials aid the

catechist in his or her ability to exercise all these steps

in teaching the students. As the student grows with the

program and advances from year-to-year, the faith is brought68 Congregation for the Clergy, General Directory for Catechesis, sec. 80.

55

to a deeper and more intense understanding thus giving the

program its spiral development of catechesis.

The producers of the Faith and Life series were so intent

to develop a religious education program that was a retreat

from the methods being used previously that it very

carefully incorporated doctrinal teachings formally found in

the Baltimore Catechism. Thus years later, with the production

of the Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church and when

the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ created their

guidelines for religion books, Faith and Life was the only

published series found to be in conformity with the

teachings of the catechism and was not made to revise or

edit any of its content.

The chapters in each textbook for all the grade levels

are very short. They are usually approximately four pages

of text not including illustrations. Separate workbooks

provide additional materials to reinforce the lessons in the

text. The textbooks give emphasis to the scriptural basis of

the faith in accord with sacred tradition. Every chapter

56

opens with a Scripture passage and supplemental verses are

included in the text where relevant. Every chapter closes

with questions and answers based on Church teaching as found

in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in a style reminiscent to

the Baltimore Catechism. Vocabulary words are in bold

throughout the text and in “word to know” sections.

Definitions of the vocabulary words are found in the

glossary. Additionally, common Catholic prayers are taught

in the lessons and are presented at the end of the book.

The first through third grade texts focus on

introducing the children to the life of prayer, the life of

Jesus, preparing for the sacraments of reconciliation and

Holy Communion and showing them that they belong to the

family of God. Grade four-six cover our purpose in life,

the Creed, the moral law and Mass. Upper grades, 7th and 8th

cover the life of grace and our life in the church,

assisting in the preparation of confirmation.69

69 For a more detailed explanation of the chapters content, see Ignatius Press, “Scope & Sequence – Faith and Life: A Catechetical Series for Grades 1-8,” www.ignatius.com/promotions/faithandlife/scope.htm.

57

For the catechist, a teacher’s manual is available

which contains an abundance of supplemental material,

reinforcement suggestions, and ideas for conversations to

engage the children more deeply in the text. The manual

breaks up each chapter into four lessons, leaving the fifth

day for testing. The teacher’s manual lists all of the

references in the text that correlate to the Catechism of the

Catholic Church and Scripture.

For parents and families, each grade level textbook has

a note to parents which outlines briefly what the current

year of catechesis will cover and reminds parents of the

importance of their role as the first educators of the faith

for their children. The note to parents gives suggestions

of how to use the text to assist the parent in providing a

strong Catholic identity for their children. The parents’

page includes an explanation of how to provide a model of

Catholic living at home through participation in the

sacramental life of the Church as a family, through prayer

and attending mass together, discussing current events with

a healthy religious perspective, helping the child to grow

58

up with a better understanding of the world around him and

helping him to become a true Catholic and follower of

Christ. The note to parents ends with a quote from the

General Directory for Catechesis: “family catechesis precedes…

accompanies and enriches all forms of catechesis.”70

Not all religious education directors were impressed by

the Faith and Life series. Educators who were excited with the

methods of the previous era found the Faith and Life series to

be a regression back to the old antiquated Baltimore Catechism

era. The series lacks specific training for parents with

ways to prepare children for the sacraments of

Reconciliation, First Communion and Confirmation.

Additionally, there is a lack of emphasis on social justice

and service to the community.

As advancements in technology continue to progress, the

series has also adapted to meet the challenge of being

relevant in a techno savvy world by partnering with the

organization “My Catholic Faith Delivered,” a web-based

platform developed to enhance students’ ability to acquire

70 General Directory for Catechesis, 226.

59

knowledge and understanding of the faith. The courses are

available on-line anytime, anywhere, allowing students,

parents, and teachers convenient access to faith formation.

The courses on-line can be used to supplement the lessons in

the books or could be used as a stand alone program without

the texts and workbooks. The online curriculum has a full-

text voiceover for audio learners and contains links to

primary sources and music downloads. There are also links

to video excerpts from the “Footprints of God” series, a 10-

video volume that studies key people, places and teachings

of Scripture within the rich tradition of the Catholic

Church, guided and narrated by Steve Ray, a Catholic convert

and apologist. The program has online assessments and games

that are designed to enhance the materials studied.71

The Systematic-experiential period and the Faith and

Life series represent a turn from the chaos and failed

experimental catechesis to a push towards more content rich,

71My Catholic Faith Delivered, “Faith and Life Online – Ignatius Press – Catholic Curriculum,” Faith and Life, last modified 2013, accessed April 21, 2014, http://www.mycatholicfaithdelivered.com/home.aspx?pagename=FaithAndLife.

60

serious study. Most programs being developed during this

time recognized the need to be more content rich. The Faith

and Life series represents a program that was intentionally

developed to be rigorous, and solid in doctrinal and

scriptural study.

61

Chapter 5:

Incarnational-Experiential Catechesis:

The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

Previous chapters have relied on methodologies used in

typical educational settings and tied them to the changes in

the culture. This chapter reviews a program – the

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) – that utilizes the

Montessori method of teaching. For the purpose of this

thesis, this method has been categorized under the title

“Incarnational and experiential catechesis.” Incarnational

catechesis places Christ at the center of everything and

additionally, it will be shown that the entire process of

the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is based on experience.

The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd does not follow

the customary manner of catechesis that utilizes published

programs and a series of books in a classroom setting.

Rather, it is designed to reflect the Montessori approach to

education. Montessori educates in a child-centered

environment, in a room that is meticulously and purposefully

62

designed with materials to foster learning in uninterrupted

blocks of time, guided by a teacher who is attentive to the

child’s needs and progress.72 In 1915 Maria Montessori, a

physician and researcher, expanded her research with

children to include religious education where she observed

that children not only showed a “pleasing sense of joy” in

contact with the religious reality but a “new dignity” as

well.73 The CGS capitalizes on the great spiritual

capacity and hunger that young children naturally display

when first discovering the Good Shepherd.

The CGS was founded in Rome in 1954 by Sophia

Cavalletti, a Hebrew and Scripture scholar, along with Giana

Gobbi, a Montessori educator and a catechist of children. A

friend approached Cavalletti asking her to give religious

instruction to her son. Because it was to be a temporary

72 To learn more about the Montessori Method, see Maria Montessori, The Montessori Method: The Origins of an Educational Innovation Including an Abridged and Annotated Edition of Maria Montessori’s The Montessori Method, ed. Gerald Lee Gutek (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). See also, American Montessori Society, “Introduction to Montessori,” last modified 2013, accessed March 20, 2014, https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/Introduction-to-Montessori.aspx.

73 Sofia Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child Ages 6-12: A Description ofan Experience (Oak Park, IL: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Publications,2002), 178.

63

arrangement, Cavalletti agreed and began with this seven

year old boy and two other children. At her first meeting

with the children, she opened her Bible to the first page of

the Book of Genesis and started reading using the rabbinical

way of reading Scripture: seated with open Bibles, co-

listeners to the Word of God, and pondering each phrase with

fidelity to the text. As she read to these three children,

she first witnessed the learning capacity of young children

and witnessed the joy found in the religious experience that

is unique to the child.

Shortly thereafter, Cavalletti begin to collaborate

with Gobbi who had worked with Montessori. Gobbi joined her

Montessori experience and a deep knowledge of children and

their developmental capacities to Cavalletti’s extensive

theological background. The educational pair held the

lessons in a classroom (termed an “atrium”). Montessori

named the dedicated space of learning for the children an

“atrium” based on the anteroom of ancient Christian

basilicas which was an intermediate space between the

64

classroom and the church.74 The atrium is a specially

prepared room in which every item in the room is designed to

help children come to know God and every item is

appropriately sized to the ages of the children who use

them. In those early days, Gobbi arrived with many

materials for the children to use in their catechism class.

The first materials she arrived with were a small model

altar and articles used at Mass. These first clumsy

attempts with the children became the basis for planning

something more organized and deliberate for the following

year. Cavalletti took the lead from the children and what

most interested them. Cavalletti and Gobbi chose the

materials for the atrium and themes based on how the

children responded, always listening to the children’s

responses. The pair continued their catechesis for years,

studying and observing children from many socio-economic

backgrounds and countries, learning from the children,

watching how they perceived the information given to them,

74 Sofia Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child: Experiencing Scripture and Liturgy with Young Children (Chicago, IL: Liturgy Training Publications, 1992), 56.

65

and meticulously recorded in yearly journals their drawings,

prayers, and responses. In 1979 Cavalletti published her

research as The Religious Potential of the Child, which was

enthusiastically received in the international religious

education community, and atria began to emerge in several

countries, including Mexico, where a bishop gave the

movement its name.

Several important elements distinguish the CGS from

other, traditional methods of religious education. The

first is the theology of the child and the role of the

adult. The theology of the child comes directly from

Montessori’s pedagogy in which the child is viewed as one

who already has a deep relationship with God but requires

the language and space to help the relationship grow. The

child is led by the adult who is not a teacher but rather a

director who gently guides the child on her spiritual

journey. The adult becomes a co-listener and co-learner

with the child before the word of God.75 The receivers of

75Ann Garrido, “The Faith of a Child,” America (September 15, 2008),accessed September 11, 2014, http://americamagazine.org/issue/667/article/faith-child. See also Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child: Experiencing Scripture and Liturgy, 47-50.

66

the kerygma become the child and the adult. The adult

through listening and observing will discover aspects of the

message that he or she had not considered before as

preoccupations are removed and the adult learns from the

child.

Another distinguishing factor is the environment or the

atrium. The atrium is not just a classroom, it is a place

of prayer in which work and study spontaneously become

meditation, contemplation, and prayer. The children

encounter Scripture, the Liturgy of the Church and, as they

mature, sacred history. The classes are weekly gatherings

lasting at least two hours, of which a small part is

dedicated to the catechist’s presentation, and the majority

of the time is reserved for the personal work of the child.

The catechist is not a teacher, but understands in great

humility and poverty that Christ is the only teacher in the

atrium.

Another distinction between the CGS and traditional

catechesis is that instruction begins with three to six year

67

old children. Cavalleti understood the importance of

beginning with the very young. Waiting to begin until the

child is six years old, as is customary in so many programs,

means that the focus will naturally tend towards behavior,

how one is supposed to behave and what one is supposed to

do. The older child begins to perceive God as a judge. For

the younger child, it is easier to come to know God as a

loving entity. Cavalleti and Montesorri discovered that in

the early stages of development, beginning around age three,

the child lives in a “golden age” of his relationship with

God, one that is an intense, all-engaging experience of

enjoyment.76 While often in catechesis begins with speaking

of the Father as Creator and then arriving at Jesus later

following a historical development of revelation, the CGS

strives to initiate the child more directly into the mystery

of the person of Christ and His relationship with humanity,

through parables, especially the parable of the Good

Shepherd (John 10:1ff) and the True Vine (John 15:1ff).

Though the CGS closely follows the liturgical year and

76 Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child Ages 6-12, viii–ix.

68

chronologically speaks about Christ starting with His birth,

the central element of the catechesis is the parable-

allegory of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-16). The Good

Shepherd parable is the cornerstone for the core themes that

are touched on every year: the Incarnation, the Kingdom of

God, the paschal mystery, baptism and Eucharist.77 These

themes are the structure from which all further study

derives, creating a spiral approach in methodology as each

year these themes are explored in a deeper and richer

context.

Lessons for these very young children begin with the

catechist reading the Good Shepherd parable to the children,

allowing them to ruminate on the words and their meaning.

They are then given visual aides to experience the parable,

wooden shepherd, sheep and an enclosed pasture. Here now

the child is allowed to spend as much time as needed

manipulating the aides in an effort to help them come to the

realization of the Good Shepherd’s love for His sheep.

77 Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child: Experiencing Scripture and Liturgy, 65.

69

Through the parable the child finds peace and joy as the

greatest given to the youngest of children.78 They discover

on their own that they are actually the sheep, and the Good

Shepherd, Christ, calls them by name. To become like little

children, to be able to see with eyes of a child the total,

unconditional love the Shepherd has for His sheep leads to

complete trust in the providence of God. That trusting

faith is the essential basis for a rich life of faith.

The catechesis furthers its study in this same manner

as the children explore the Mass and Eucharist. The child

is introduced to the Mass very early as an immediate

extension of the Good Shepherd parable. The children are

brought into the church where their lessons, while

constantly returning to the foundation of the Good Shepherd,

turn to the Mass. The Mass is presented in a sensorial or

experiential approach. The altar, Mass articles, and

vestments, are presented as a renewed proclamation of the

Good Shepherd’s presence in their lives. It is later

presented in much deeper content, through the language of78 Ibid., 63.

70

signs, movements, and gestures. The children have their own

Mass articles in the atrium where they can return and use

those articles along with the wooden shepherd and sheep to

further understand the mysteries of Mass. The early

catechesis emphasizes that the Good Shepherd “remains” in us

and we in Him in a special way. For the very young

children, the Mass is presented as the sacrament of “gift”

rather than the sacrament of “sacrifice.”79 The Mass is an

exchange of gifts between heaven and earth, the result of

all the wonderful gifts the Father lavishes on us and the

many ways we try to respond to those gifts.

The theological education and experience of the

children then cover the topics of Christ the Light and the

sacrament of baptism, the historical events in the life of

Jesus Christ and the life of prayer. It is with prayer that

another difference between CGS and other forms of catechesis

are strikingly found. While children are often taught

prayer in a formula, the Our Father, Hail Mary, and the

Glory Be, the CGS approaches early prayer as the spontaneous79 Ibid., 88.

71

expression of the child’s relationship to God.80 Throughout

the catechesis, through slow and deliberate contemplation of

the Word and signs, the children are brought to prayer.

Silent prayer, expressions of joy, and remarks and drawings

show the great depth and understanding these small children

have for the greatest mysteries. Over and over the

catechist witnesses the great ability in the children to go

beyond what appears in the sign.

The CGS expands to further education of the older

child, ages six to twelve years old. Here the CGS begins to

ponder the Kingdom of God in its historical dimensions,

emphasizing that God is the one who makes history and

reveals to us a unity which opens us to a universal

fellowship. God’s supreme gift to us in Jesus connects us

all to a personal relationship with the Father, pondering

who He is and what He is like as the child focuses on God’s

gifts and is able to respond with wonder, praise, and

thanksgiving.81

80 Ibid., 120.

81 Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child Ages 6-12, 123-129.

72

In the wake of Vatican II and the theologically

incomplete catechesis that permeated Catholic schools during

the chaotic period, the CGS has received positive reviews in

regard to its strong theological content and the way it

carefully attends to the developmental capacities of the

child. But it is not without its own set of challenges and

logistical problems.

The CGS is handed on through a series of formation

classes for adults. The potential catechist must attend

training formation classes on three separate levels, 3-6, 6-

9, and 9-12 year olds. Each level is ninety hours of study

and the tuition for the Level I formation and books is about

the equivalent to one course at a Catholic university. The

formation instruction includes discussion of biblical,

liturgical, and salvation history themes, presentation of

the material as it is given to children, and prayer and

celebration in the style of the atrium. The catechists

attend the Level I training for three to six year olds first

even if they themselves will be teaching the older students,

as each section builds on the first and understanding the

73

beginning Good Shepherd parable, how the children relate to

the message in a very personal way, and the subsequent

liturgical education they receive is key in engaging the

older children in the atrium. Several different

arrangements for completing the training exist, but many

take up to three years to complete all levels. The benefit

to this training is that unlike religion teachers and

catechists in traditional school settings, who have various

levels of training, the CGS catechists are appropriately

trained in the methodology.82

In addition to the training, the school or parish

should also have a dedicated space for the atrium where the

CGS is taught. Space is often an issue in parishes

especially as the CGS classes are arranged in two hour

blocks of time in a dedicated atrium which leaves groups

within parishes competing for space. Once the space is

procured, necessary supplies must be procured. Besides

normal classroom supplies like paper, crayons, glue and

82 Tina Lillig, The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in a Parish Setting (Chicago, IL: Liturgy Training Publications, 1998), 25-29.

74

such, there is no CGS “store” to purchase the atrium

materials such as the shepherd, sheep, miniature alter,

chalice, paten, and other parable and sacramental supplies.

When developing the program in a parish, great care must be

given to the environment. Often parent and parish

volunteers help create the materials and the atrium setting,

thus involving the adults in the catechesis as they take

ownership of the atrium.83

As the CGS gains in popularity another problem has

arisen in dioceses as they try to determine how the

curriculum fits their standards. Classroom instruction

normally includes textbooks, lesson plans, and standards

that should be covered each year of the child’s education.

Dioceses have testing in place like the Assessment of

Catechesis/Religious Education (ACRE) to gauge what the

children have learned by certain established dates.

Conversely, the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd maintains

that the catechist must be humble and not be tied to tests

to gauge the faith growth of the child. The CGS contends83 Ibid.

75

that while these things are done scholastically, they cannot

be done appropriately on a catechetical level. According to

Cavatelli, “When speaking of matters of profound spiritual

significance, all controls become illusory; we cannot

exercise such control even on ourselves. Who among us knows

how conscious he is of God’s presence in his own life? Who

among us knows to what extent he lets himself become

involved in the Eucharistic action?”84

The format of the CGS aligns itself well with the

mission of the Church to evangelize. Rather than an

emphasis of what happened in the past, it is a proclamation

of what God is doing for us now and His great love for us.85

The joy that is experienced in the young child brings that

child to a place of personal relationship with our Lord.

The Shepherd knows His sheep and they know Him. This

personal relationship becomes the starting point of the

child’s education in the faith. Everything flows out of

this relationship. While more assessment is needed of the

84 Cavalletti, The Religious Potential of the Child, 95.

85 Ibid., 5.

76

long-term success of the CGS, current evidence recorded by

CGS catechists throughout the world show that children in

the program are articulate in their faith and active and

engaged members of their faith communities.86

86Garrido, “The Faith of a Child.”

77

Conclusion

This thesis in offering a historical investigation of

Catholic education in the United States has studied the

numerous changes that have occurred in methodology over

time. By presenting the positive and negative aspects of

each method and a discussion of changes in culture and

family life throughout different historical eras, it has

sought to prove that while methodologies change, successful

transmission of the faith is a process that is dependent

upon several variables: the methodology itself, the culture

and how well the faith is tied to it, and family,

particularly parents as the first teachers of the faith.

Finally this thesis has shown that content-rich catechesis

is a key component of satisfactorily handing on the faith.

When the content was weakened in favor of excessive

experimentation and discussion, real catechetical learning

was hampered.

Chapter one examined the pre-colonial era as

missionaries from the “Old World” arrived in the Americas

78

bringing the Good News with them to the native peoples.

When the missionaries of New France and New Spain were able

to connect the faith to the native cultures and customs,

their efforts achieved the best results. Pedagogy was basic,

communicated through simple prayer books and catechisms and

even artwork, as fundamental human needs often took

precedence over education. The culture worked against the

faith in New England as Catholicism was either banned or

greatly discriminated against, but the faith of the parents

and their dedication to preserve that faith in the face of

persecution demonstrated to children the importance of the

faith and encouraged its growth.

Chapter two examines the impact of the Baltimore

Catechism. Set in a rapidly growing Church teaming with

immigrants from various language cultural groups, the

research depicted a Church struggling to find a way to

ensure uniformity in teaching the faith. The Church

declared all parishes should have a school. The Baltimore

Catechism, with its systematic, doctrinally-rich, question

and answer memorization format became the primary teaching

79

method in the United States for several generations,

successfully handing on the faith. The Baltimore Catechism was

assisted by the culture during this time. The culture

supported a consensus on moral norms closely in line with

Christian values. Families were not “at war” with the

culture and the positive peer pressure assisted parents

along with content-rich catechesis in handing on the faith.

Chapter three exposed the chaos and confusion that

occurred both in culture and society in the 1960s and how

religious education suffered. Changes in pedagogy due to

advancements in child psychology and educational theory gave

religion teachers and catechists significantly new teaching

options than in previous eras. The “freedom” to choose

varying methods coupled with poorly trained catechists left

many children creating art projects and engaging in

discussion of their feelings but left them inadequately

trained in doctrine. Parents who were used to the rigorous

content-rich teaching of the past assumed their children

were learning their faith in the classroom and were

80

unprepared for the breakdown in solid church teaching and

morality.

Chapters four and five analyze two contemporary

catechetical methods. First, in chapter four, the Faith and

Life series is discussed. In representing a direct response

to the chaos of the previous era, the series returned to the

rigorous systematic doctrinal content of the Baltimore

Catechism while also consciously employing experiential

elements to tie the faith to everyday life.

Finally, chapter five’s discussion of the Catechesis of

the Good Shepherd departs from traditional methodologies of

classroom catechetics. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd,

as inspired by a Montessori-style learning environment,

promotes the Incarnational aspect of the faith, allowing

young children in a child-centered environment to engage in

contemplation and joyful discovery of Jesus as the Good

Shepherd.

The church may measure it’s success of a specific

methodology in immediate content retention evaluations such

81

as classroom tests and quizzes and standardized testing such

as the ACRE, the Assessment of Catechesis/Religious

Education test administered to students in 5th through 8th

grade. However, a more complete measure of faith formation

and growth involves an assessment of the students’ long-term

participation in the faith, the frequency of Mass

attendance, sacramental reception and the ability or

willingness of parents to pass the faith onto their

children. A recent pew research study showed ‘strong’

Catholic identity is at a four-decade low in the U.S.87

Today with poorly trained parents, a culture working to

undermine the Church and Christian family life, families are

left sorely unprepared to properly hand on the faith to

their children. Based on this thesis what is needed today

is child-centered catechesis as one part of a comprehensive

parish-based curriculum which may include some type of

“whole family catechesis” and adult faith formation using

content-rich curriculum and making the Church and the faith

87 Pew Research Religion & Public Life Project, “’Strong’ CatholicIdentity at a Four-Decade Low in U.S.” Pew Research Center, March 13, 2013, accessed October 19, 2014, http://www.pewforum.org/2013/03/13/strong-catholic-identity-at-a-four-decade-low-in-us/.

82

in Jesus relevant to the lives of her members. Educators

must create a strong and nurturing climate where God’s grace

can take root and mature into authentic faith.

Christ gives the Church and educators their unchanging

mission: “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). The Church has a

divine mission of passing on the Christian life and every

aspect of religious formation – whether academics (and not

just religion class) or extracurricular activities and

sports – must be permeated with this mission in order to be

successful.88

88 Samuel J. Aquila, “Catholic Schools – Handing on our Catholic Faith,” Catholic News Agency, accessed July 28, 2014, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/document.php?n=628.

83

Bibliography

American Montessori Society. “Introduction to Montessori.” American Montessori

Society. Accessed March 20, 2014. https://amshq.org/Montessori-Education/Introduction-to-Montessori.aspx.

Aquila, Samuel. “Catholic Schools – Handing on our Catholic Faith.” Catholic News

Agency. Accessed July 28, 2014. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/document.php?n=628.

Bryce, Mary Charles. “The Baltimore Catechism – Origin and Reception.” In Sourcebook

for Modern Catechetics. Winona, MO: St. Mary’s Press,

84

———. Pride of Place: The Role of the Bishops in the Development of Catechesis inthe

United States. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1984.

Buckley, Francis J. “Catholic Educators: Sr. Maria de la Cruz Aymes.” Talbot School of

Theology. Accessed July 12, 2014. www.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/catholic/maria¬aymes/#excerpts

Buetow, Harold A. History of United States Catholic Schooling. Washington, DC:

National Catholic Education Association, 1985.

Burns, J.A. and Bernard Kohlbrenner. A History of Catholic Educationin the United

States: A Textbook for Normal Schools and Teachers’ Colleges. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1937.

Catholics United for the Faith. “History of the Faith and Life Series.” Catholics United

for the Faith. Accessed April 21, 2014. www.CUF.org/2012/08/history-of-the-faith-and-life-series/.

———. “Mission Statement.” Catholics United for the Faith. Accessed April 26, 2014.

http://cuf.org/about/who-we-are/mission-statement/.

Cavalletti, Sofia. The Religious Potential of the Child: Experiencing Scripture and

Liturgy with Young Children. Chicago, IL: Liturgy Training Publications, 1992.

———. The Religious Potential of the Child, Ages 6-12: A Description of an Experience.

Oak Park, IL: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Publications, 2002.

85

Clifford, Gerard. “A Change of Emphasis in Catechesis.” The Furrow, Vol 20. Autumn,

1969.

Collins, Joseph. “Religious Education and CCD in the United States: Early Years (1902-

1935).” In Sourcebook for Modern Catechetics. Winona, MN: St.Mary’s Press, 1983.

Congregation for the Clergy. General Directory for Catechesis. Vatican Website, August

11, 1997. Accessed April 29, 2014. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_17041998_directory-for-catechesis_en.html.

Connell, Francis. Baltimore Catechism No. 1. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1949.

———. Baltimore Catechism No. 4. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1949.

———. Forward to The New Confraternity Edition Revised Baltimore Catechismand

Mass No. 3. Front Royal, VA: Seton Press, 2001.

Fernandes, Earl. “Are the Baltimore Catechism and the Catechism of the Catholic Church

the Same?” Catholic Telegraph. August 2013. http://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/tag/father-earl-fernandes (accessed June 20, 2014).

Garrido, Ann. “The Faith of a Child.” America, September 15,2008. Accessed

September 11, 2014. http://americamagazine.org/issue/667/article/faith-child.

86

Hater, Robert. Common Sense Catechesis: Lessons from the Past, Road Mapfor the

Future. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2014.

Horan, Michael. “Catholic Educators: Josef A. Jungmann.” Talbot School of Theology.

Accessed July 14, 2014. http://www.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/catholic/josef_jungmann.

Kelly, Bennet. The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism, Revised Edition.

Tolowa, NJ: Catholic Book, 2012.

Lillig, Tina. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in a Parish Setting. Chicago, IL:

Liturgy Training Publications, 1998.

Manternach, Dean. “Catholic Educators: Janaan Manternach & Carl J. Pfeifer.” Talbot

School of Theology. Accessed July 16, 2014. http://www.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/catholic/carl-Janaan_pfeifer/.

Matovina, Timothy. Latino Catholicism: Transformation in America’s Largest Church.

Liguori, MO: Liguori Publications, 2013.

McConville, Peter. “Modern Catechetics: The ‘On Our Way’ Series.” The Furrow, Vol.

16. November 1965. Accessed July 12, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27659032.

Meagher, Timothy. “Never Take Shame in Your Mother Tongue…and Your Fatherland

87

in America: Catholic Schools and Immigrants,” In One Hundred Years of Catholic Education: Historical Essays. Washington, DC: NCEA, 2003.

Montessori, Maria. The Montessori Method: The Origins of an Educational Innovation

Including and Abridged and Annotated Edition of Maria Montessori’s TheMontessori Method. Edited by Gerald Lee Gutek. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.

Mooney, James. “Catholic Indian Missions of the United States.” In The Catholic

Encyclopedia, Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton, 1911. Accessed June 20, 2014. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10384a.htm

My Catholic Faith Delivered. “Faith and Life Online – Ignatius Press – Catholic

Crriculum.” Faith and Life. Accessed April 21, 2014. http://www.mycatholicfaithdelivered.com/home.aspx?pagename=FaithAndLife.

Pfeifer, C.J. and Janaan Manternach. Life, Love, Joy: Grade 1-6. Morristown, NJ: Silver

Burdett, 1968.

Pouliot, Leon. “Le Jeune, Paul.” In Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Toronto:

University of Toronto, 1966. Accessed July 10, 2014. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/le_jeune_paul_1E.html.

Rossiter, G.M. “Religious Education in Catholic Schools.” Paper prepared for Australian

Catholic Education Offices, 1985. Accessed July 16, 2014. http://203.10.46.30/mre/cdrom/re_in_catholic_schools.htm.

88

Sloyan, Gerard S. “The Relation of the Catechism to the Workof Religious Formation.”

In Modern Catechetics. New York: Macmillan, 1960.

Walch, Timothy. Parish School: American Catholic Parochial Education. Washington,

DC: National Catholic Education Association, 2003.

89