Methodology class

1. 11:00 KW
Where Today’s
young people “are”

2. A New Warning
• “The catechetical
deficiencies of our
young people”
• “The diminished
appreciation of the
sacramental nature of
the church and the
uniquely real
At the June 2003 US Bishops’ presence of Christ in
meeting in Saint Louis
the Eucharist.”

3. A New Warning
“There is a certain
malaise
sense of malaise
in the catechetical
world.”
At the June 2003 US Bishops’
meeting in Saint Louis

4. What is
Adolescent Catechesis?
Exploring the Possibility
of a New Framework

5. Issue/Question
The GDC (1997) and RTV (1997) situate
adolescent catechesis within compelling,
but different, frameworks.
Is there a new framework that synthesizes
the insights of both and helps set a
direction for adolescent catechesis?

6. Catechesis is a moment in the process of
evangelization (GDC 48, 63)
6. Inspire
Missionary 1. Love and Charity
Spirit
5. Continuing Education
2. Witness
In the Faith
3. Proclamation of
4. Initiation
the Gospel

7. Catechesis is most closely associated with stages 4 and 5, but it is also
concerned with stages 1-3 (52) and has a role in stage 6 (86).
STAGE 4 STAGE 5
Continuing
Initiation Education
into in
the Faith the Faith
Homilies
Incorporation and The
Sacraments
into other The Practice
Catechesis of
the forms Sacraments of
Initiation
Community of Charity
Catechesis

8. Catechesis is one of the eight components of youth ministry. Each one
enhances and supports the others. A comprehensive approach
provides balance among all eight (RTV, p. 26).
Advocacy
Prayer/
Catechesis
Worship
Pastoral Youth Community
Care Ministry Life
Leadership Evangeli-
Development zation
Justice/
Service

9. Discussion
What might a new framework that synthesizes the
insights of the GDC and RTV look like?
How would a new framework contribute to the re-
thinking of adolescent catechesis?

10. Some things to think about:
-- What are the key insights about
adolescent catechesis presented in the
GDC and RTV? How do the
understandings of catechesis articulated
in each compare?
-- What is the relationship between the
components of youth ministry and stages
of evangelization, the frameworks within
which the RTV and the GDC situate
catechesis?

11. Some things to think about:
• RTV points out that there are a variety of schemas used
to identify the Church’s ministries (see RTV, p. 59, n. 8).
• The names and the number of ministries vary. Consider
that the 8 YM components and the 6 tasks of catechesis
may reflect two of the various schema.
• How would the tasks of catechesis be articulated if the
RTV’s eight-part schema were used instead of the
GDC’s six-part schema?
• What would the component framework look like if the
GDC schema were used?
• Is there a more useful schema for envisioning youth
ministry, including adolescent catechesis, that is different
from both the GDC and RTV?

12. Some things to think about:
The GDC (87) draws on Canon 773 to
define two principle means of catechesis:
1) transmission of the Gospel message
and 2) experience of the Christian life
(apprenticeship). How do the two means
relate to catechesis and the other 7
components as envisioned in the RTV?

13. For Reference
Six Tasks of Catechesis (GDC 85-86):
-- promote knowledge of the faith
-- liturgical education
-- moral formation
-- teaching to pray
-- education for community life
-- prepare people to participate actively in the life
and mission of the Church

14. Catholic Identity
Last time you taught,
what was the
topic….???

15. Faith Identity
August 29, 2005:
Which best describes you.
Web Survey
Spiritual, but NOT religious 32% 24%
Religious, but NOT spiritual 3.3% 9%
Religious and Spiritual 51% 55%
NOT spiritual and NOT religious 11% 8%
Don't know 2.2% 4 %

16. Hardwired to Connect:
The New Scientific Case
for Authoritative Communities
Children are biologically
‘hardwired’ for close
attachments to other
people and for moral and
spiritual meaning.

17. National Study on
Youth and Religion

18. Purpose of Study:
This study focused on 13-17 year olds to:
• Research the shape and influence of religion and
spirituality in the lives of U.S. adolescents.
2. Identify effective practices in the religious, moral,
and social formation of young people
3. Describe the extent to which young people
participate in and benefit from the programs and
opportunities that religious denominations are
offering to their youth.

19. Finding #1:
Religion has a
significant
presence in the
lives of many U.S.
teens today.

20. Finding #2:
Contrary to many
popular assumptions
and stereotypes, the
character of teenage
religiosity in the U.S.
is extraordinarily
conventional.

21. Finding #3:
Religious education
is failing –
if by that we mean
helping people
understand what
they believe.

22. “Many teenagers know abundant details
about the lives of favorite musicians
and television stars or about what it
takes to get into a good college, but
most are not very clear on who Moses
and Jesus were.”
-Dr. Christian Smith

23. 17 year old, white Catholic boy from Wisconsin:
“My religious beliefs, what’s good and bad,
like you know, if you kill or rape someone, I
think you’re screwed, give up on life ‘cause
it’s over.”
Then he added, “I’ll never stop being
Catholic, even if I stop believing in God,
I’ll still be Catholic.”

24. 15 year old conservative Protestant Hispanic boy
from Texas:
“I’m sure God exists and like, helps
people and answers their prayers,
that’s pretty much it.”
[Do you believe in Jesus?] “Ah,
yes…I think (little laugh). I don’t
know, I don’t know.”

25. Finding #4:
Most U.S. teens have a
difficult to impossible
time explaining what
they believe, what it
means, and what the
implications of their
beliefs are for their
lives.

26. 17 year old mainline Lutheran boy from Colorado:
“Uh, well, I don’t know, um, well, I don’t
really know. Being a Lutheran,
confirmation was a big thing but I didn’t
really know what it was and I still don’t.
I really don’t know what being
a Lutheran means.”

27. “Indeed, it was our distinct sense that for many
of the teens we interviewed, our interview
was the first time that any adult had ever
asked them what they believed and how it
mattered in their life.”
-Dr. Christian Smith

28. Finding #5:
Regardless of the
denomination,
most U.S. teens
are “Moralistic
Therapeutic
Deists”

29. 15 year old Hispanic conservative Protestant girl from
Florida:
“God is like someone who is always
there for you, I don’t know, it’s like God
is God. He’s just like somebody that’ll
always help you go through whatever
you’re going through. When I became
a Christian I was just praying and it
always made me feel better.”

30. 14 year old Jewish girl from Washington:
“I guess for me Judaism is more
about how you live your life. Part
of the guidelines are like how to
live and I guess be happy with
who you are, ‘cause if you’re out
there helping someone, you’re
gonna feel good about yourself,
you know?”

31. 14 year old white Catholic boy from Pennsylvania:
“ ‘Cause God made us and if you ask
him for something, I believe he gives it
to you. Yeah, he hasn’t let me down
yet. God is a spirit that grants you
anything you want, but not anything
bad.”

32. 16 year old white mainline Protestant boy from Texas:
“Well, God is almighty, I guess [yawns].
But I think he’s on vacation right now
because of all the crap that’s happening
in the world, ‘cause it wasn’t like this
back when he was famous.”

33. The Creed of
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
- A God exists who created and orders the world.
- God wants us to be good and fair.
- Central goal of life is to be happy
and feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be
particularly involved in one’s life,
except when needed to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.

34. Finding #6:
Highly religious
teens appear to be
doing much better
in life than less
religious teens.

35. “At the very least, what appears to be
clearly not true is the idea that the
religious teenagers are essentially no
different from non-religious teenagers.”
-Dr. Christian Smith

36. “Catholic teenagers, who represent nearly
one-quarter of all U.S. teens, stand out
among the U.S. Christian teenagers as
consistently scoring lower on most
measures of religiosity.”
-Dr. Christian Smith

37. U.S. CP MP BP RC J LDS NR
Made a personal commitment 55 79 60 74 41 21 69 13
to live for God.
Shared own religious faith with 43 56 51 41 37 58 72 --
someone not of faith
Youth Group participation rate 52 64 64 44 32 41 75 --
(involved in YG/YG available) *
Only one religion is true 29 46 26 31 19 9 67 5
Okay to practice religions 51 36 59 40 58 78 36 70
besides own
Evangelization: “people should 43 27 39 42 55 75 15 66
leave everyone else alone”
Okay to pick and choose beliefs 46 36 53 34 54 71 31 62
without accepting whole faith
Believers need to be involved in 32 35 27 45 32 20 60 14
a religious congregation
* This question was only asked of teens who attend Mass more than twice a year.

38. Baylor Religion Survey
America’s
Four Gods
• Authoritarian
• Benevolent
• Critical
• Distant

39. high
Believe that God is Engaged
Type B: Type A:
Benevolent God Authoritarian God
Type D: Type C:
Distant God Critical God
low high
Believe that God is Angry

40. Baylor Religion Survey
America’s
Four Gods
•
• Authoritarian 31.4 %
Authoritarian
•
• Benevolent 23.0 %
Benevolent
•
• Critical 16.0 %
Critical
• Distant 24.4 %
• Distant

41. Baylor Religion Survey
American Black Protestants’
Four Gods
• Authoritarian 68.0 %
• Benevolent 12.0 %
• Critical 20.0 %
• Distant 0 %

42. Baylor Religion Survey
American Catholics’
Four Gods
• Authoritarian 22.6 %
• Benevolent 28.2 %
• Critical 18.6 %
• Distant 29.2 %

43. The Catholic Church in America
Catholic Identity
defined by:
• Attendance at
Mass
• How Important is
the Church to You
Personally
• Locus of Moral
Authority

45. Can you be a GOOD
CATHOLIC without this?
Percentage saying yes 1987 1993 1999 2005
Without believing that Jesus 23 23
physically rose from the dead
Without believing that in the
Mass, the bread and wine 38 36
actually become the body and
blood of Jesus
Without donating time and money
44 52 56 44
to help the poor
Without obeying the church
hierarchy’s teaching regarding 44 56 53 44
abortion

46. Can you be a GOOD
CATHOLIC without this?
Percentage saying yes 1987 1993 1999 2005
Without donating time and money 57 60 58
to help the parish
Without obeying the church
hierarchy’s teaching on divorce 57 62 65 66
and remarriage
Without their marriage being
51 61 68 67
approved by the Catholic church
Without obeying the church
hierarchy’s teaching on birth 66 73 72 75
control
W/out weekly church attendance 70 73 77 76

49. Because we live in
a world that almost
always appears to be
of our making, in which, so to speak,
God no longer appears directly but seems
to have become superfluous,
even out of place.

50. A true education must
awaken the courage to
make definitive decisions,
which today are considered a mortifying
bind to our freedom. In reality, they are
indispensable for growth and in order to
achieve something great in life, in
particular, to cause love to mature in all its
beauty: therefore, to give consistency and
meaning to freedom itself.

51. Head
know

52. Heart
feel

53. Hands
do

54. am/
home
Feet

55. • We can not allow
the language of
faith to be a foreign
language.
• Evangelization and
catechesis are what
all the RTV
components are
about….

56. Benedict on Message
When you have so little time you can't say
everything you want to say about "no." Firstly
you have to know what we really want, right?
Christianity, Catholicism, isn't a collection of
prohibitions: it's a positive option. It's very
important that we look at it again because this
idea has almost completely disappeared today.
We've heard so much about what is not allowed
that now it's time to say: we have a positive idea
that now it's time to say: we have a positive
to offer.
idea to offer.

57. A true education must
awaken the courage to
make definitive decisions,
which today are considered a mortifying
bind to our freedom. In reality, they are
indispensable for growth and in order to
achieve something great in life, in
particular, to cause love to mature in all its
beauty: therefore, to give consistency and
meaning to freedom itself.