Welcome to the final installment of Catechists in Action, a feature that has enabled us to be a “fly on the wall” of a number of catechists in this past year. In this final installment, we meet Marge Garbacz, Director of Religious Education at St. Symphorosa Parish in Chicago, IL. Among the many hats that Marge wears (including “parish carnival coordinator”!) is the coordinator of the parish RCIA process. Marge has assembled an impressive team of catechists and sponsors to accompany the catechumens and candidates on their journey. In these upcoming segments, we will have an opportunity to see how Marge, as a catechist of adults, implements sound and effective techniques for catechizing adults. In this segment, Marge gives us an overview of what we are about to witness in her RCIA process.
Leading a Parish Program
Do the Elderly Need Catechesis? Yes!
Back when the General Directory for Catechesis came out (1997), many aspects of it captured our imaginations and piqued our curiosity: the primacy of adult faith formation, the concept of apprenticeship, the catechumenate as the model for all catechesis, the importance of sacred art, and so on. One concept that caught my attention but I believe has been vastly overlooked is the attention given to catechesis for the elderly, or the “aged” as the GDC prefers. […]
Leading a Parish Program
Recruiting Responders for Adult Faith Presentations and Parish Missions
If you’ve been following Catechist’s Journey for a while, no doubt you’ve read my lament that one of the mistakes we make in adult faith formation is that we assign participants a passive role: we bring in a speaker to do a presentation, perhaps open it up for some Q & A, and call it a night. One way to ensure that there are more voices being heard than the guest speaker is to recruit several […]
Approaches/Techniques
5th Anniversary Celebration – Guest Blogger #4: Marc Cardaronella
As we continue to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of my blog, The Catechist’s Journey, here is another guest blogger. Marc Cardaronella is the Director of Religious Education for Holy Cross Church in Champaign, IL. In a former life, he was a Naval Aviator but gave that up for a less thrilling and infinitely more satisfying career working for the Church. He has a Master’s Degree in Theology and Christian Ministry with a specialization in Catechetics […]
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