News

Outcome of Why Catholic?: Evangelization, conversion and discipleship

Published: February 17, 2007   

By Malea Hargett
Editor

Malea Hargett

Audrey McDonald (left) of St. John Church in Hot Springs talks with Jim Carfagno and Jan Cummings, both of Assumption Church in Atkins, during a small community leader training at St. John Center in Little Rock Jan. 13.

Malea Hargett

Audrey McDonald (left) of St. John Church in Hot Springs talks with Jim Carfagno and Jan Cummings, both of Assumption Church in Atkins, during a small community leader training at St. John Center in Little Rock Jan. 13.

When thousands of Catholics in Arkansas gather next week for their first session of http://www.dolr.org/offices/religiouseducation/religiouseducationwhycath.php" target="null">Why Catholic?, they will be embarking on a new experience.

The adult faith formation program is being introduced into the Diocese of Little Rock for the first time. It was created by Renew International to address the need for more religious education and evangelization opportunities for adult Catholics.

At least 1,000 small community leaders were trained around the state to guide the sessions in English and Spanish. The sessions will be held for six weeks during Lent.

So what can someone expect when they agree to join a Why Catholic group? Most likely parishioners will be assigned to meet in the home of the small community leader. Some groups will meet at churches as needed.

The first book in the series, "The Profession of Faith: What We Believe," focuses on the creed, which is also the first chapter in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Why Catholic? books were reviewed and approved by the U.S. Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism.

Sister Maureen Colleary, FSP, a presenter for Why Catholic? based in Plainfield, N.J., said groups will consist of 8 to 12 adults who will meet for 90 minutes each week. The trained leader is not a theologian or teacher, she said. His/her main role is to keep the group on track and ensure everyone who wants to talk has an opportunity, Sister Maureen said.

Each session will include time for prayer, reading the Scriptures and the catechism and faith sharing.

"They will share what is God saying to them, that personal reflection," Sister Maureen said. "How is God moving me to share my faith, my experience?"

Beginning with the first session, participants will be challenged to examine their lives and take an action in their public or private lives.

"What can I do now this week that is going to impact my life?" Sister Maureen said. "When I come back the next week, I will share how that did go. Maybe I made the decision to visit a nursing home. How did that go? What did it do for me and what did it do for the people I visited? How did I feel? How much more aware was I of my call to evangelize by doing that action?"

As the group gets to know each other better, there might be a "communal action," such as addressing homelessness or the lack of low-income housing.

"What can I do about that on a local level? There is something we can do," Sister Maureen said.

She said many participants have said they are now able to connect their Catholic faith to their "lived experience."

"For people of my generation and older when they learned the (Baltimore) catechism there wasn't an understanding of the why and there wasn't an understanding of how this impacts every decision that I make," she said.

"Now the way we are approaching the catechism is why the Church teaches what it teaches. Does your lived experience validate that? Do you now understand because you have lived it? ... If we play that out, down the line our children are impacted. What we hope is we have a Church in the future that is much stronger and more committed and really involved in evangelization, conversion and discipleship."

Each participant will be asked to buy a $10 book that will be used for Lent and in the fall. Additional resources that could be helpful to the participants are the Bible, Catechism of the Catholic Church and the new U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults, said Sister Mary Glynn, SJC, diocesan director for http://www.dolr.org/offices/religiouseducation/religiouseducation.php" target="null"> religious education and Christian initiation.

After the six sessions are over in late March, Why Catholic? doesn't have to be done.

All Catholics in the diocese, not just the participants, are invited to attend one of several adult faith enrichment workshops after Easter called "Scripture and Tradition: The Braid of Revelation."

In the fall, groups will reassemble again to continue their discussion of the creed. At the beginning of Advent, everyone will again be invited to come together for regional daylong retreats called "Discovering God in the Ordinary." The workshops and retreats will be available in Spanish and English and will be led by national Why Catholic? presenters.

Topics for 2008 to 2010 are the sacraments, morality and prayer.

Sister Mary said Why Catholic? is a four-year journey, but participants are asked to only make a commitment for that series of sessions they are currently attending. The goal is to keep the groups going over the next four years, which will help build up the church communities.

At the same time, members will leave the group and others should be welcomed into existing groups, Sister Maureen said.

"The groups always must remain open to new membership," she said. "What we don't want to do is to get into cliques or exclusive situations.

"Small Christian communities are about growth and about change. Sometimes that is tough. The challenge is, can we invite someone new? Or have we gotten too big and must birth a new group. If the disciples didn't birth new groups, we wouldn't be here today."