I'm Back!

Of course, you probably didn’t know that I was gone!

I was at the L.A. Religious Education Congress from Friday through Sunday. It was a wonderful experience. One of the things that I like about the L.A. Congress is that it is a very “large tent.” By that I mean that it fully reflects the unity and diversity of the Church at a time when some are seeking to make the tent smaller by emphasizing uniformity.

Anyway, I’ll resume posting on topics of interest to catechists tomorrow. In the meantime, while I was away, over 1000 comments have piled up for moderation (99% are spam) and are clogging up the system. So if you sent a comment recently and it has not been posted, bear with me…I need some cyber-drano!

About Joe Paprocki 2742 Articles
Joe Paprocki, DMin, is National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press, where, in addition to his traveling/speaking responsibilities, he works on the development team for faith formation curriculum resources including Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gifts and God’s Gift: Reconciliation and Eucharist. Joe has more than 35 years of experience in ministry and has presented keynotes, presentations, and workshops in more than 100 dioceses in North America. Joe is a frequent presenter at national conferences including the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the Mid-Atlantic Congress, and the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership. He is the author of numerous books, including the best seller The Catechist’s Toolbox, A Church on the Move, Under the Influence of Jesus, and Called to Be Catholic—a bilingual, foundational supplemental program that helps young people know their faith and grow in their relationship with God. Joe is also the series editor for the Effective Catechetical Leader and blogs about his experiences in faith formation at www.catechistsjourney.com.

2 Comments

  1. Hello, Mr. Paprocki;
    I was privileged to hear you speak at Portland this weekend. I am reading your book, “Catechist’s Toolbox” right now. One thing I was concerned about was the question of what we are trying to teach our children. Where are we trying to lead them? There was a lot of talk of method, not much of content. I was wondering what you thought of this article, since I heard you mention the L.A. Congress and based on your comment above.
    http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7717&CFID=18548427&CFTOKEN=41186535

    By the way, I am perfectly fine with a small tent as long as it is a small, faithful tent. In Jesus, Faith

    • Faith, thanks for your comments,however I am not sure how you conclude that there was “a lot of talk about method and not much about content” when my entire keynote presentation in Portland was about the content of our teaching. I outlined the 6 fundamental areas we need to be teaching: knowledge of the faith, liturgical education, moral formation, prayer, education for community life, and missionary education. Also, while my book The Catechist’s Toolbox is about methodology, my follow-up book A Well-Built Faith is all about content…the 2 go hand in hand. As for your desire for a small tent, our goal is not to have a small community….Jesus sent us to proclaim the good news to ALL people. Concerning the article you attached about the L.A. Congress, the author obviously has an axe to grind. The Congress does not advocate a doctrine-free Church and I know that wherever I speak, as I did in Portland, I am promoting a catechesis that effectively and faithfully transmits the doctrine of our faith and so I am happy to go to the L.A. Congress once again in the coming year to speak, this time, about the spirituality of the catechist as outlined in the Church Document: Guide for Catchists.

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