Right of Christian Initiation of Adults - Religious Education

Most of us think we know what the Catholic Church teaches. I'm betting that I could put together a fairly short true/false test and that most of us reading this would flunk. And we would flunk it badly.

At the end of September we started our RCIA sessions preparing candidates for formally entering the church. I always feel that those who go through that process know more about what the Church teaches than those of us who are "cradle Catholics."

I guess that says something good about the RCIA process but what does it say about the rest of us? I'm not sure.

Sometime shortly after the Second Vatican Council, we invented "Religious Education." For all the centuries before that the job of handing on the faith took place pretty much within the context of the family. Catholic schools didn't exist before the 19th century and they never reached more than a fraction of Catholic children.

Religious Education quickly became an industry with publishers printing books and parishes hiring Religious Education Directors and training untold legions of volunteer teachers.

I'm not faulting the books or the directors or the teachers, BUT somewhere in all this transition the overwhelming majority of parents stepped back and abdicated their role and responsibility for their children's faith formation.

As we started a new year of religious education here at St. Catherine, I challenge parents to get more involved in their children's faith formation and for the rest of us to learn more about our faith.