A Defining Moment In History

Rosie Bartel, Religious Education Director at the Diocese of Green Bay, comments on publication of Bishop David Ricken's first Pastoral Letter:

Some may ask why this is a defining moment in the history of catechesis in our country and in the Diocese of Green Bay. Bishop David Ricken’s pastoral letter on the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults and its use in the Diocese of Green Bay follows a long history of strong catechetical movements for our diocese. I am old enough to remember the use of the Baltimore Catechism in our parishes and schools. Even though some people like to joke about those days, it gave many of us a solid foundation to start our faith formation. I was here for the start of Vatican II and all the changes that brought to our parishes and how we catechized the faithful.

In the Diocese of Green Bay many of us were involved in the development and use of the Green Bay Plan. I remember being a part of the diocese as it rolled and how everyone across the country was looking to Green Bay and wanting to know about the Green Bay Plan.

As time went on we need more to guide the catechesis of our youth and again Green Bay led the way with the development of a curriculum and a strong religion certification program. During this same time they also were the first diocese to have an accredited commission ministry program.

Three years ago when the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults was published the Diocese of Green Bay immediately looked at ways to share this with our people in the parishes and schools. It became the guiding text for the development of our standard-based religion curriculum for our religious education programs and schools. This curriculum is now on-line and will be interactive. Parishes and schools will be able to share lesson plans and how the implement the curriculum.
The next area that began being reviewed was how we handled religion certification in our diocese. The Wisconsin Catholic Conference had set forth a newly revised set of minimum standards for certification. We looked closely at these new standards and decided to revise our certification process using the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. Today our catechists and teachers are all expected to receive basic, intermediate and advanced certification. The new syllabi for these levels use the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults as the primary text. This leads to a systematic plan for the training for the catechists and teachers. This certification process will help our catechists and teachers past on the faith and also integrate the faith into all subjects.

I sometimes think we have come full circle. We started with a basic catechism in the Baltimore Catechism and now we have the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. The things that make this new catechism different is the way the catechism is set up and how it uses the communion of saints and holy people to help better understand the teaching. It also applies the teachings to the issues that confronts many United States citizens. The more I work with the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults the more I appreciate the wealth of information it contains and how it will help all Catholics better understand the teaching of the Catholic Church. This is the best gift we can give to our faithful during this moment in history when many are questioning their faith or are being questioned about their faith by others.

If you have not pick up a copy of the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, I encourage you to do that soon. I would also suggest you take one of the overview classes for the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults or enroll in the new certification process to help you better understand the catechism.