Handing on Our Faith: A Report on Revitalizing a Parish Catechetical Formation Program

The Catholic parish holds a unique and essential role in God’s plan of salvation: to fulfill various and distinct functions serving the Church’s efforts to safeguard the depostium fidei and to communicate the truths entrusted by Christ for the salvation of the world. With this profound vocation in mind, every parish must examine their successes and failures in meeting the expectations set forth by the longstanding tradition of catechesis and evangelization in the faith. The rise of dangerous ideologies that threaten communal and individual adherence to truth give all the more reason to re-examine the parish approach to faith formation and the call to discipleship.

The Pastoral Problem and Coinciding Research

The pastoral problem that this ministry project addressed was the general lack of parish faith formation efforts in a parish, and more specifically, the lack of involvement of parents in the catechesis of their children. This is becoming a widespread issue in the Archdiocese of Denver invoking a response by Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila in his pastoral letter, Family: Become What You Are. Christ the King parish in Denver lacked a formal, regularly attended catechetical program for children, youth, and adults for almost 25 years. The reasoning from the parish community and former leadership was a lack of interest and involvement. While the parish has a school, the children in the school receive little more than the basic religious education curriculum set forth by the Archdiocese, and families outside of the school have had to go to neighboring parishes for formation and sacramental preparation.

In preparing to address these pastoral problems, theological and historical research revealed a number of disturbing trends that have impacted the faithful both psychologically and sociologically. To begin, the late Bishop William B. Friend of Shreveport amassed research pointing to the decline of parental involvement in the life of the Church and in the formation of their children. “Generation X,” also known as “Generation 13” (as the 13th Generation in U.S. history) includes individuals born between the years 1961 and 1980. This encompasses the age range majority of parents at Christ the King during the time of this project. Bishop Friend cites a 1996 study on the “values” of Generation X which stated that these individuals tend to “reject tradition and conformity more than the previous three generations.”¹ These parents have become increasingly self-reliant and skeptical of tradition and adherence to Catholic doctrine.

Berard Marthaler’s exploration of socialization was essential to this project. He defines socialization from two perspectives which are exceedingly relevant to Christ the King’s congregation. First, he states that from an anthropological perspective, socialization relates directly to culture. He defines culture as “a comprehensive symbol system that gives meaning and value to every aspect of social living.”² In his study he uses socialization from the anthropological perspective as synonymous with the term “enculturation.” From a sociological perspective, Marthaler defines socialization as, “the process whereby individuals are assimilated into and brought to conform to the ways of a social group to which they belong.”³ To this end, the goal of a parish as a social entity should be to establish a Catholic “culture” lived out in the context of a faithful “social group” in which individuals can easily be assimilated and more closely conform to the truths of the Gospel of Christ.

In the heart of the highly secularized city of Denver, Christ the King parish must have a strong catechetical effort with the goal of introducing and appropriating the personal identity of the human person as a daughter or son of the living God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly elaborates on this socialization process by stating:

It is necessary to appeal to the spiritual and moral capacities of the human person and to the permanent need for his inner conversion, so as to obtain social changes that will really serve him. The acknowledged priority of the conversion of heart in no way eliminates but on the contrary imposes the obligation of bringing the appropriate remedies to...