Why Catholic?
SYCAMORE - In an effort designed to benefit any Catholic, regardless of the amount of Catholic education one has received, the parish of St. Mary's Church of Sycamore has joined the Rockford Catholic diocese in the “Why Catholic?” faith series.
“Why Catholic?” is a four-part faith program designed to help adults connect the teachings of the Catholic faith to their everyday life.
While the program is geared toward practicing and nonpracticing Catholics, program co-coordinator Jim Fitzgerald said the series also welcomes those considering adopting Catholicism as their faith.
Fitzgerald said that even though he was born and raised Catholic and attended four years of Catholic grade school and Catholic high school, he doesn't know or understand his faith as much as he would like to. “Why Catholic?” will allow him to do so.
Too bad his statement is not an exception. Getting a Catholic education while attending a Catholic school seems to be what is the exception.
The four-part program will kick off the 2006 Lenten season. According to the pastor of the parish of St. Mary's, Father Frank John Timar, M.S.C., this is the perfect liturgical season to start.
“It's a great time because we are more reflective of our faith during the Lenten season,” Timar said. “It's all about getting back to basics. We'll ask, ‘What does my faith ask of me?' and, almost more importantly, ‘What is it that I believe in?' ”
In addition to a way to strengthen faith, the program is seen by some members as a great way to involve their family in the faith.
“We desire to have a deeper knowledge of our faith and gain more wisdom so that we, along with the Church, can guide our children, family and friends into a better understanding of what it means to be Catholic,” Terry and Andrea McGuire said. [Source]
Sounds like a pretty solid idea especially since it appears they will be using the catechism as the grounding point. I recently saw another great idea in parish evangelism. This church had a rack by the door as you exit that had a variety of free CDs. It included talks by Scott Hahn and others. This is a great idea and much better than the majority of pamphlets you will find sitting in a rack. A good talk especially by people such as Scott Hahn can help people to go deeper into their faith and helped to point the way for them to explore further.
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that's a pretty cool thing.
it's true. I went to a Catholic school for 8 years, with 2 years of CCD following, and I learned most of my faith through independant study. Of course, it doesn't help that my school is full of the "why can't women be priests?" type and then they spread their propaganda on the children.
this program would do wonders for those who are curious about the Catholic faith, it seems
My 16-year-old niece goes to a Catholic all-girls high school. I saw her course book and was appalled to see that the ONLY foreign language courses offered were in Spanish. You would think that a Catholic high school would offer at least a couple of years of Latin, the official language of Holy Mother Church. Heck - I took two years of Latin in the local PUBLIC high school.
BMP
Lets hope that more and more adults will avail themselves of programs that lead them to learn what they didn't growing up.
The Rockford Diocese is pretty fantastic. They are small in comparison to the much larger dioceses of Joliet and Chicago hulking over them from the east, but they have easily twice the seminarians, if not more. They actually enforce parish boundaries, because so many parishes are so Spirit-filled and popular.
My cousin, a CINO, wanted to be married in her childhood parish church, and the priest they met with agreed, IF they began a life in the parish, membership, Sunday attendance, reconciliation. This was presented as an "of course you will" choice, and my cousin got all hinky about it and stomped off and got married in a Baptist church.
I wrote the pastor a thank-you note quietly. Standing up for the faith at every point will drive people away only for a time, but bring them back when they want a REAL life of faith.
God bless Bishop Doran!
I think that "Why Catholic" is a great idea. Red flags do stand up though in regard to who will be leading the discussions. I pray that church officials will lead the discussions from a theological standpoint, and that the talks do no turn into "well, I think..." and "for me...". It is absolutely necessary that the teachings of the church are explained and not challenged. There is so much questioning that leads away from the truth and to heresy. It is easy for all of us to come up with our own explanantions for Bible passages or church doctrine and dogma, however we have to be VERY careful not to do this. Accepting Church teachings explained to us by our popes, priests, etc., whom we know have truly been enlightened by our Lord, is what makes us different from other churches who often read something from the Bible and interpret it for themselves. The Bible warns of the danger of this practice and emphasizes that we are lead by the Magisterium.
So, to sum up my point, "Why Catholic" is wonderful to help people learn about our true teachings. I hope all who participate stay on track and trust the Catechism rather than the opinions of group members. I can't wait to get started!