By Michele Chan Santos
Roman Catholics have a tendency to view religious education as a child-centered and sacrament-centered endeavor. We remember taking classes to prepare for our first Communion, first penance, and confirmation.
But increasingly and locally, adult Catholics are becoming interested in studying catechism, not to prepare for a certain sacrament or rite, but simply because they are interested in deepening and strengthening their faith.
John Osman, the coordinator of adult faith formation at St. Thomas More Parish in Austin (and the husband of Catholic Spirit editor Helen Osman), with the help of Steve Kliman has founded a training program for adults, to teach them to lead adult catechism classes.
In other words, people are taking this course so that they can lead a Bible study group, book club meeting or take charge of other parish-based activities where participants can nourish their love and understanding of Catholicism. This course is unrelated to the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), which prepares people for conversion into the church.
Adult Catholics learning more about the Bible and the church to enrich themselves, and not because of preparing for a sacrament, is a new idea for Catholics and requires “a cultural change,” Osman acknowledged. But the positive reaction and enthusiasm of the students he’s had so far demonstrate that this change is beginning to happen.
Osman said he was motivated to invent the eight-month class because, although people wanted to help lead others in adult catechism, they often did not feel qualified to do so.
The first course, held between January and September of 2005, trained 25 adults, all from St. Thomas More. The second time it was held, in 2006, 22 participants from parishes including St. Louis and St. Ignatius, Martyr in Austin and St. Elizabeth in Pflugerville finished the program.
The course, called “Facilitating for Growth,” is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2007, Osman said. Generally, the participants meet once a month from 9 a.m. to noon, for eight months.
A key point for adults learning to teach other adults is that the participation and sharing of life experiences of the students is very important, Osman said. He wants his instructors to think of themselves more as “facilitators,” people coordinating the discussion the way a moderator does a debate.
Unlike catechism classes for children, where a teacher tells the children about church law or history, adult catechism classes involve more of the adult students sharing their personal struggles.
For example, the topic for an adult gathering might be “the immense nature of God’s love,” Osman explained. Each person there would talk about when he or she felt God’s love, perhaps through their parents or grandparents, or during a special moment in their family lives.
Shannon Swenson is a parishioner at St. Louis and took the class in 2006.
The course offered “a space where we could put work and family issues aside and talk about leadership and our faith in the church,” Swenson said. The students in the class also became friends while sharing their experiences.
During the discussions, “people shared a part of themselves and we developed a bond, we shared some vulnerabilities,” Swenson said.
Swenson, who owns his own Web design agency, teaches baptism and marriage preparation classes at St. Louis along with his wife, April Swenson. He is also on the board of a Catholic podcasting network called the Starquest Podcast Network, www.sqpn.com.
The class has helped him with skills he utilizes both for the network and for St. Louis and the diocese, he said.
“I’m definitely taking things I’ve learned to get these other projects going,” Swenson said.
The topics covered during the eight sessions are: the role of the facilitator, questioning and loss, expressing yourself sincerely, listening skills, connecting Scripture to life experiences, integrating diversity, helping the group move from one stage to the next, and handling group transitions.
One challenge for adult catechism leaders is learning to integrate opinions in the group that don’t agree with their own personal views.
“I have to leave my ideology behind,” Osman said. “If I’m really conservative, or really liberal, and another person in the group is very different from me, I need to include them in the conversation.”
Studying catechism as an adult is different than studying it as a child, Osman said. In some ways, it resembles the relationship between a child and his or her parent. At first, the child learns from the parent, and then later, when the child is grown and the parent is elderly, the adult child cares for the parent.
That parent, for adult Catholics, is the church, Osman said.
“We have to ask God and ask the church, how do we now take care of you?”
To learn more:
If you are interested in attending the “Facilitating for Growth” class, which trains adults to teach catechism to other adults, contact John Osman at josman@austin.rr.com. A letter of recommendation from your pastor is a necessary part of the application process.
Reprinted by permission from Catholic Spirit, January 2007
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