Archdiocese of N.O. explores shift toward family-centered catechesis

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

When she became the director of religious education at her church parish in Illinois, Patrice Spirou instantly noticed the “stark contrast” between her previous experience as a theology teacher at an all-girls’ Catholic high school and her new role as a parish-based teacher of the faith.

Parents would drop off their children to Spirou’s weekly Parish School of Religion (PSR) classes and would, for the most part, hand off their children’s religious education to her and her staff. Class time felt rushed and rote, with Spirou feeling lucky if she and her fellow teachers could squeeze in prayer and a few vocabulary words before parents arrived to pick up their kids an hour later.

“I was so surprised that these children – who were good kids, who had been going through religious education for many years – really didn’t know their faith,” Spirou recalled. 

Noticing that the that 10 percent of her PSR students who were engaged in classes typically were the children of parents who were invested in parish life, Spirou began to intentionally invite parents to take a more active role in their children’s religious education, and ultimately developed, with the consent of her pastor,  a family-centric, church-supported program that no one else was doing in her diocese.

Now an unpublished curriculum called “Families Forming Disciples,” Spirou’s “hybrid” approach to K-12 parish faith formation has parents and their children learning about their faith as a family – primarily at home, but also once a month at the parish.

“It caught on fire!” said Spirou, explaining that for most of a month, families would schedule regular time together at home for prayer, Scripture study, lively faith conversations, table activities and journal-writing, guided by parish-provided content tied to the given time of the liturgical calendar. Then, once a month, all the families would gather at the parish for additional faith-based learning activities on the theme, both as a family unit and with the larger group.

In just a few months, Spirou grew her PSR program from 46 families to more than 400.

“We had between 500 to 600 adults coming with their children,” she reports, noting that the ripple effect went even further. Parents who were not confirmed suddenly were joining RCIA and many began serving as liturgical ministers, forming their own prayer groups and were becoming more vocal about their prayer intentions at the monthly group classes.

Shift in emphasis urged

Discerning ways the Archdiocese of New Orleans might move toward similar family-centered approaches to religious education was the focus of an all-day workshop Aug. 20 at Notre Dame Seminary. Attended by about 150 religious education professionals, including nearly 50 members of the local clergy, the Saturday workshop examined the crucial role of families in their children’s faith formation.

“So often, people tend to think in parishes that the primary focus needs to be the children, and yet the church tells us that the catechetical priority is adults, because they have the greatest capability for receiving (catechesis) and the greatest responsibility (for modeling it),” said Deacon Michael Whitehouse, the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ deputy director of faith formation.

“Whether we’re talking about parish schools of religion or Catholic schools, we say the same thing: parents are the first educators in the ways of faith,” Deacon Whitehouse added. “So, we, as a church, have a responsibility to see parents as partners and collaborators in education and faith formation. (Parish- and school based catechists) do not take their place – we cannot take their place – but the church says that their role is irreplaceable.”

Parents’ power is real

Data shows that children will faithfully mirror the faith practices of their parents – both good and bad, said Spirou, now the associate director of evangelization and catechesis for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

“When we have parents just dropping off their kids and leaving, what are we teaching the kids of the next generation?” she said. Because many Catholic parents are unformed in the faith themselves, they are leaving and taking their kids with them, Spirou said.

“The kids don’t come back (after Confirmation),” she said. “That’s why adult faith formation is what we need. It has to be front and center.”

As far back as 2005, only one-third of Catholics reported praying at home with their children and an even lower percentage said they attended a family-oriented program at their place of worship.

“We need a dramatic paradigm shift because we are not meeting the needs of our people,” Spirou said. “Let’s not go back to what we were doing before, because it doesn’t work. (The church) is hemorrhaging Catholics,” in part because the church is not fulfilling its call to foster family life beginning with the adults.

“Once you influence those parents, then that is the greatest hope you can give those children,” Spirou said.

The fruits of more parental interaction would be significant, Spirou said. One study showed that when parents took the initiative to foster their children’s spiritual life, 80 percent were protected against substance abuse and dependence; 60 percent were protected against a major depressive disorder; and 70 percent of girls were protected against sexual risk-taking.

“Parents have power, people!” Spirou told the gathered clergy and catechists. “We have to help parents to see how to do this for their children and their grandchildren.”

At-home practices inspire caring conversations at home

Spirou said if they are simply asked to learn alongside their children, even the busiest parents would be willing to  step up, “because “parents will do anything for their kids” – something many of them demonstrated during the COVID-19 lockdown, when they were compelled to to undertake religious instruction at home. However, parents desperately need the church’s guidance. 

“We have to help them have and create a domestic church one little incremental baby step at a time," Spirou said.

At-home religious ed practices that have been enjoyed by Spirou’s families include using the family-friendly Lectio Divina approach to Scripture study; a traveling Mary kit with a rosary and guide (Even if a single prayer is not said, having the Blessed Mother occupying a prominent place in the home for a week is “a win,” Spirou said.); liturgical calendar kits; quizzes that list not only the questions, but the answers; and journaling opportunities, using reflection questions provided by the parish catechist (Younger children can draw pictures). Spirou said her parents use their journals as a springboard for at-home and in-parish conversations about their Catholic faith.

Currently, in her own parish, Spirou is looking ahead to an All Saints’ Day project that will ask families to place photos of a deceased loved one on a home altar. The photos will be shared at the culminating monthly gathering of the larger religious ed group, and all will say a decade of the rosary in remembrance of the deceased.

“(Questions to inspire faith-based conversations) could be as simple as ‘Tell us two things about Suzy’s baptism,’ or ‘Why is it important that Joe make his Confirmation?’” Spirou said.

Redefining traditional roles

Spirou said one challenge of the family-centered approach is that some parents don’t feel “confident” about their ability to pass on the faith. “But we can overcome that; it’s not rocket science,” she said, noting that Pope Francis once noted that the greatest catechetical moment for a child is to simply see his or her parents praying.

“Maybe it's saying Grace before meals. Baby steps!” Spirou said.

A more family-focused approach to faith formation means that the role of the parish catechist will be as important as ever, but will shift from being the instructor scrambling to “get in content”  during a rushed weekly class,  to becoming more of a facilitator, guide and spiritual companion – someone who accompanies parish families and prays with and for them. Parish-based catechists would be available as a resource to families if they needed clarification on a given tenet, Spirou added.

Changes coming, help promised

Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who accompanied the catechetical leaders throughout the daylong workshop, was eager to help cultivate more family-centric approaches to religious education, which recognize and honor the baptized’s common responsibility to “invite others to know Jesus, invite others to know his teaching, and invite others to ponder and love the Scriptures and live a life of discipleship.”

He said the transition would take place gradually and would look slightly different in every parish.

“We’re at a time in the life of the Church where we have to look at new models,” Archbishop Aymond said. “We can’t just keep doing the same thing, the same way.”

Additional family-formation tips shared at the recent workshop included:

• Holding a unit-culminating event open to the whole parish in which the PSR families share the things they have learned with their wider church family.

• Taking advantage of the many online Catholic resources that link faith with family crafts and games.

• A monthly “fridge page” highlighting a saint of the month and a related Scripture verse, prayer and simple family activity.

• A “car conversation” tag listing rotating faith topics for commutes to and from school.

• Tying a piece of sacred art to a Catholic teaching or biblical moment. For example, a painting of “Mary Is the New Eve,” in which the pregnant Blessed Mother consoles a distraught Eve, could prompt families to discuss what “consolation” means to them; why Mary is stepping on the serpent wrapped around Eve’s leg; ways they can say yes to God; the Old Testament vs. New Testament; etc.

• Encouraging parish families to bring in a tangible object that represents what they learned that month. People never outgrow their love for “Show and Tell,” Spirou said.

• Asking the family that signed up to bring the snack to the group class to also lead the opening prayer.

• Organizing service projects that families can do either as a family unit or in conjunction with the larger parish family. Spirou said many of her PSR students who “graduated” from religious ed after confirmation have regularly shown up for service projects in subsequent years.

• Father Jared Rodrigue, pastor of St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Slidell, said a program he developed called FIRE – Family Involved Religious Education – has 60 parish volunteers mounting monthly, Sunday-night gatherings in which families split up for age-appropriate catechesis on the same theme. “Then, family and friends come back together for dinner to share what they’ve learned, guided by a reflection question,” said Father Rodrigue of the intergenerational gatherings, which draw an average of 400 people. St. Luke’s “Fire” theme continues in the parish’s sacramental program (called “Blaze Nights"), which also feature a meal and breakout sessions for the whole family; and the  “Afterglow” program, open to anyone who wishes to deepen their faith formation in a way that best suits their gifts, whether it’s visiting the sick, entering into a mentor-mentee relationship with a fellow parishioner, or sharing their own testimony of faith at parish gatherings.

• Audrey Huck, the director of religious education at St. Angela Merici and St. Benilde parishes in Metairie, said inviting parents to learn alongside their children helps the adults feel “known and connected.” The approach has lessened the alienation some PSR families might feel about their children not being students at a Catholic school, and has also encouraged them to attend Mass more joyfully – because they now know some of the people with whom they are worshiping.

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