Franciscan at Home

According to St. John Paul II, the Christocentricity of catechesis primarily refers to how catechesis focuses on the actions and teachings of “the Person of Jesus” and how catechesis leads to Christian discipleship in the form of “the sequela Christi.”[2] Insofar as we find the living Person of Jesus at the heart of catechesis, we must focus not only on the teachings of Jesus but also on the actions of Jesus as a Person, both of which serve as the basis of authentic Christian discipleship. The way in which the Person of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, and the actions of Jesus blend together in the context of the following of Jesus corresponds to “the mystery of Christ” and how it is the “primary and essential object of catechesis.” In turn, catechesis directs the believer “to study this Mystery in all its dimensions” [3] as a mystery that we profess, celebrate, and live, which gives us, for example, diverse parts of our one Catechism. St. John Paul II further clarifies that “Christocentricity in catechesis also means the intention to transmit not one’s own teaching or that of some other master, but the teaching of Jesus Christ” to the extent that each of us “is Christ’s spokesman, enabling Christ to teach with his lips.”[4] In a certain respect, therefore, we can measure our own work on the basis of whether what people hear from us corresponds to what Jesus himself would say in an encounter with them. Fortunately, we have many examples from the Gospels that recount what Jesus did say to those that he encountered; so, we do have a clear standard by which to measure our own words. At the same time, the numerous teachings of Jesus can scatter our thoughts in many directions as we focus on the finer points of what he says in each particular situation. For this reason, I suggest that we should primarily think of our own efforts at Christocentric catechesis in terms of Jesus’s original proclamation of the Gospel as he opens his public ministry: the Kingdom of God is at hand, repent, believe, and come follow me. These four reference points are the so-called four pillars of Gospel-living and encapsulate the essence of the one message that Jesus repeats in various ways to all those he encounters. Combining these two fundamental meanings of Christocentric catechesis (the centrality of Jesus and the importance of his words), the success of our work can be in large part measured by how it brings us and those we teach into a personal encounter with Jesus and also directs us to the four pillars of Gospel-living that provide the proper context of discipleship found in Jesus’s original call to follow him. Let’s consider the first two of the four pillars.

As catechists, we often shy away from teaching the Trinity. Perhaps we imagine that our audience will not be able to understand; or, perhaps we doubt whether we are capable of teaching adequately on this great mystery. And so, the Trinity can appear in the curriculum as a burdensome lesson plan that needs to be addressed and, thank goodness, when the lesson plan is over, we can move on to catechizing on “easier” aspects of the faith. The goal of this article is to offer a challenge and a consolation in regard to catechesis, curriculum, and the Trinity. The challenge is that the Trinity is not merely a particular “topic” that needs to be covered every so often. Rather, the Blessed Trinity is the topic—the foundational reality and source of unity—which must be addressed in every catechesis. The consolation is that the Catechism of the Catholic Church has been written in such a way so as to draw our attention, clearly and consistently, to the trinitarian unity of the faith. In other words, the Trinity is the source of unity for the whole curriculum and for the whole of our precious faith. The Catechism gently reminds us of this fact at every turn. Trinity as Source of Unity One of the great challenges of catechesis is to present the faith as a whole—as a coherent unity. Unfortunately, it is far too common for the articles of faith to be perceived not as a whole, but rather as mere isolated bits of information, or disparate facts to be remembered. For example, there are seven sacraments, ten commandments, and a partridge in a pear tree, etc.; and somehow, we imagine that if we could simply keep all these lists straight, we would thereby understand the faith. In truth, we only understand the faith when we perceive how all of these aspects of Divine Revelation form a unity. What, then, is the source of this unity? The Blessed Trinity! Listen to the Catechism on this very point. The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of the faith.”[1] The phrase “hierarchy of truths” is taken from the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism, and it is further explained in the General Directory for Catechesis, which notes that “some truths are based upon others as a matter of priority and are illumined by them.”[2] In other words, the Blessed Trinity is the basis of every truth, and the light that illuminates and unites every aspect of our faith. This makes eminent sense. After all, we come from the Trinity; in God’s great mercy, we may hope to spend eternity in the life and love of the Trinity; therefore, every aspect of this present life really only matters—only makes sense—in light of the Blessed Trinity. Our job as catechists is to craft every catechesis with this key truth in mind. Whatever topic or doctrine we are discussing, we want to draw attention to the manner in which the Trinity illuminates it.

In previous articles for this series, I have confined myself to authors who have written from a Catholic perspective. While it may be true that some contemporary educational practices are seriously at odds with the teaching of the Church, one should avoid the temptation to be dismissive of all contemporary educational theories. The General Directory for Catechesis makes it clear that the Church “assumes those methods not contrary to the Gospel and places them at its service… Catechetical methodology has the simple objective of education in the faith. It avails of the pedagogical sciences and of communication, as applied to catechesis…”[1] Indeed, there are some excellent contemporary practices that are entirely compatible with a Catholic vision of education. In this article, I will attempt to provide a brief introduction to the work of Professor John Hattie, currently the most “cited” educational theorist in the world. Hattie does not claim any Christian credentials; his claim is that he relies entirely on data and evidence. For this reason, John Hattie is widely unpopular in his own profession due to his refusal to support educational practices that are obviously failures. Among his key works are Visible Learning (2010), Visible Learning for Teachers (2011) and Visible Learning Feedback (2018). In these texts, Hattie examines many different educational practices and assigns them a score for their effectiveness. Many of the educational “fads” of the past fifty years, despite their popularity in schools, have received very low scores from him. It will not be possible in an article of this length to offer anything more than touch on Hattie’s findings, so I encourage readers to do their own research and investigate some of his many articles available online. They have interesting and valuable contributions to make to the science of pedagogy.

What I will offer in the remainder of this article is a very brief description of eight highly effective teaching practices identified by Hattie in Visible Learning, together with effect size scores. These are calculated using standard statistical measures which need not concern us here. An “effect size” of 0.4 is what should be expected from any sound teaching practice. It means that a student has improved at an average rate over a one year period. If the rating were to be 0.8, it means that the student has made double the amount of progress, equivalent to completing two years of learning in one year. Hattie works not only by conducting his own research, but also by cross checking his findings with multiple pieces of other research: a technique known as “meta-study.”

On May 29, 2012, it was announced that Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota was returning to his home diocese of Denver to become its fifth archbishop. Many archdiocesan leaders had an immediate hunch: Restored Order Confirmation was coming to the archdiocese. Bishop Aquila had already restored the order of the sacraments of initiation in Fargo, and even received public praise for it from Pope Benedict XVI during an ad limina visit to Rome. These expectations proved true when in the fall of 2013 the archdiocese began internal preparations to move toward Restored Order Confirmation, becoming the first archdiocese in the United States to do so. By 2020 the process of transition will be complete, though a majority of parishes in the archdiocese have already begun celebrating the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Communion together in the third grade. To assist this move toward restoring the sacraments to the traditional order of Baptism, Confirmation, and First Communion, the Office of Evangelization and Family Life Ministries (EFLM) conducted workshops and created a number of resources. This article will reflect on the process used by the Archdiocese of Denver in this reordering and the impact it has had upon catechesis within its parishes.

Sofia Cavalletti was arguably the most effective catechetical theorist and practitioner of her era. Born in 1917, she belonged to a noble Roman family, who had served in the papal government. Marchese Francesco Cavalletti had been the last senator for Rome in the papal government, prior to its takeover in 1870 by the Italian state. Sofia herself bore the hereditary title of Marchesa, and lived in her family's ancestral home in the Via Degli Orsini. In 1946, the young Sofia Cavalletti began her studies as a Scripture scholar at La Sapienza University with specializations in the Hebrew and Syriac languages. Her instructor was Eugenio Zolli, who had been the chief rabbi of Rome, prior to and during World War II and who had become a Catholic after the war. Following her graduation, Cavalletti remained a professional academic for the whole of her professional career.

Cavalletti's involvement with catechetics came about by chance, in 1952, after she was asked to prepare a child for his first communion. Soon after this experience, Cavalletti began collaborating with Gianna Gobbi, a professor of Montessori education. Together, they developed what came to be known as the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, painstakingly creating materials that would serve the religious needs of children from the ages of three to twelve years. Taking the Montessori sensitive periods as a starting point and guided by the response of real children as the “reality check,” Cavalletti refined her understanding of the religious experiences that children were likely to respond to at each stage of their development. She would create materials and make them available to the children. If the material was not used, she determined that it had not met the mark and she would dispose of it, irrespective of how much effort she had put into it.

Very early in her work, Cavalletti discerned the central role of “wonder” in a child’s religious development and she realized that for young children (and indeed for every human being), wonder is evoked by “an attentive gaze at reality.”[i] Consequently, young children were encouraged to begin their relationship with God by recognizing, one by one, the gifts offered to them in the created world. To meet this need, the Montessori “practical life” works were found to be ideal. Children were given tasks such as flower arranging, slow dusting, leaf washing and the like. The experience of Montessori classrooms for over a hundred years has born witness to the effectiveness of this approach. Engagement with concrete “hands on” activities seem to be the basis not only of religious development but for learning of any kind.

The careful observation of the needs of real children by Montessori had identified the basic stages of learning, (outlined in my previous article). Cavalletti summed this up in a simple axiom: first the body, then the heart, then the mind. As the twentieth century progressed, she evaluated new ideas in education, Biblical scholarship, and theology. Cavalletti did not easily fall prey to a widely reported educational phenomenon, the “band wagon effect.” She was an “action researcher” who allowed herself to be guided by the reactions of the children she was working with. If a learning material failed to engage the children, it was discarded and alternatives sought.

One of the most striking and commonly reported phenomena of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is that children seem to be able to arrive at profound theological understandings for themselves—without being told.

Examinamos las implicaciones concretas de una catequesis inspirada por la pedagogía de Dios.

En la última edición de The Sower notamos la centralidad del concepto de la pedagogía de Dios en el Directorio General para la Catequesis. Vemos que el Pedagogo es el mismo Dios y que los catequistas trabajan dentro de la pedagogía de Dios. "La catequesis, en cuanto comunicación de la Revelación divina, se inspira radicalmente en la pedagogía de Dios tal como se realiza en Cristo y en la Iglesia" (DGC 143). Como Pedagogo, la labor de Dios es la de disciplinar, o 'discipular' a su pueblo. En este artículo haremos un examen de las implicaciones concretas de este discipulado de Dios para nuestra labor catequética.

Una catequesis de gracia

El punto central que establece el Directorio General para la Catequesis es que la iniciativa en la catequesis pertenece, por encima de todo, a Dios mismo. La "transmisión del Evangelio por medio de la Iglesia es, ante todo y siempre, obra del Espíritu Santo" (DGC 138). La labor del catequista siempre es la de colaborar, ayudar, preparar, y trabajar con docilidad en la obra mayor del Señor. En verdad podemos tener la certeza de saber que, en la obra catequética, los frutos quedan en las manos del Señor. La fe es siempre un don divino (cf. Mat 16:17; 1 Cor 12:3).

Una catequesis exitosa, por lo tanto, no trata principalmente de aprender conjuntos mayores y mejores de habilidades. El catequista, por consiguiente, pone énfasis en la "iniciativa divina" (DGC 143), evitando toda confusión entre "la acción salvífica de Dios, que es pura gracia, con la acción pedagógica del hombre" (DGC 144). Luego, el DGC añade con cautela: "pero tampoco las contrapone y separa." El catequista no debe de confundirse con Dios - pero tampoco se le debe hacer a un lado. Él, también, por más insignificante que sea en comparación, ¡aún tiene una función que desempeñar! Las habilidades de enseñanza no son irrelevantes, ya que, aunque no podamos por nuestros propios esfuerzos hacer surgir la fe, sí podemos ayudar a los demás a que se preparen para la recepción y la profundización del don de la fe.

En 1977, comencé mi carrera como docente en una escuela católica, y de una manera u otra, he estado activo en esta vocación, durante toda mi vida adulta. En cuanto a mi herencia, tengo predecesores inspiradores quienes se empeñaron por establecer un sistema educativo católico en mi país, Australia. Parece que para la Iglesia Católica a lo largo del siglo XIX, una de las labores principales de la evangelización enfocó el establecimiento de escuelas católicas. La estrategia fue la transmisión de la fe situándola en el contexto de una visión educativa global. Esta prioridad se ve reflejada en el número de congregaciones religiosas fundadas durante esa época, las cuales tenían a la enseñanza como objetivo apostólico principal. En parte esto también fue una respuesta al reto de la secularización que iba en aumento, la cual apuntaba a la exclusión, o por lo menos la marginalización, de la enseñanza de la religión en el proyecto que comenzaba a esbozarse de una educación universal obligatoria en las escuelas que operaba el estado. La Iglesia resistía vigorosamente este ataque contra la educación religiosa. El siguiente ejemplo australiano es representativo de los esfuerzos similares que se han llevado a cabo por todo el mundo, incluso en los Estados Unidos de América.

En su Consejo Provincial de 1862, los obispos australianos insistían sobre la naturaleza integrada de la educación católica y se negaron a aceptar la idea de que la educación religiosa fuera puesta en cuarentena, aislada del resto del plan global de estudios, sin la capacidad de influir en otras áreas temáticas:
"Los católicos no creemos que la educación de un niño sea como un objeto mecánico que pueda armarse pieza por pieza. Ahora un bocado de instrucción religiosa, y luego de instrucción seglar - como paquetes independientes. Sostenemos que la materia que se enseña, el profesor y su fe, las normas y las prácticas de la jornada escolar, todo esto se conjuga para producir el resultado que nosotros como Católicos consideramos como educación."

Es más, el Arzobispo Mons. Roger Vaughan de Sídney, el hombre reconocido por la organización del sistema de escuelas católicas australianas, insistía en que la escuela católica no sería exitosa si fuera simplemente un lugar de instrucción; tenía que ser un lugar de santidad. ¡Ahí está la clave! Siempre he comprendido que esto es el corazón de lo que un profesor de una escuela católica debe de estar haciendo: apuntando hacia una relación siempre más profunda con Cristo por medio de la Iglesia, y transmitiendo los frutos de esta búsqueda a sus estudiantes.

In 1977, I began my work as a teacher in a Catholic school, and I have been involved with this vocation, in one way or another, for the whole of my adult life. For my heritage, I had inspiring predecessors who had worked hard to establish a Catholic educational system in my country of Australia. It seems that a major effort of evangelization for the Catholic Church throughout the nineteenth century was focused on the establishment of Catholic schools. The strategy was to pass on the faith by situating it in the context of an overall educational vision. This priority is reflected in the number of religious orders founded at this time, which had teaching as their main apostolic goal. In part, this was also a response to the rising challenge of secularization, which aimed to exclude, or at least to marginalize, the teaching of religion in the newly developing project of universal compulsory education in schools run by the state. This attack on religious education was vigorously resisted by the Church. The following Australian example is representative of similar efforts throughout the world, including the United States.

At their 1862 Provincial Council, the Australian bishops insisted on the integrated nature of Catholic education and refused to accept the notion that religious education could be quarantined from the overall educational curriculum, with no capacity to influence other subject areas:

"Catholics do not believe that the education of a child is like a thing of mechanism that can be put together bit by bit. Now a morsel of instruction on religion, and then of instruction in secular learning – separate parcels. We hold that the subject taught, the teacher and his faith, the rule and practices of the school day, all combine to produce the result which we Catholics consider to be education."

Moreover, Archbishop Roger Vaughan of Sydney, the man credited with organizing the Australian Catholic school system, insisted that a Catholic school would not be successful if it was simply a place of instruction; it needed to be a place of holiness. Therein was the key! It has always been my understanding that this lies at the very heart of what a teacher in a Catholic school is meant to be doing: striving for an ever deeper relationship with Christ through the Church, and passing on the fruits of this to the students.

In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis speaks of two necessary “arts” for evangelization: the “art of accompaniment” and the “art of listening.” The Holy Father stresses that these intrinsically linked arts should mainly focus on the persons being evangelized, by truly seeking to know them and binding ourselves to walk with them wherever they are at in life: