Fasten your seatbelts. Things may get bumpy.

On the contrary, the call for baptismal-style catechesis is one of the major strengths of the document. Here’s why: Learning about faith is different than learning about religion.

However, the two are not completely exclusive; religious education involves faith building, and those who are seeking to grow in faith will need to learn some facts about what the church teaches. But the emphasis and the style with which religion and faith are communicated are very different.

Some people are fond of saying faith is caught, not taught. What they mean by this is that faith is “taught” in the same way we are taught to play. We are first “evangelized” to play. We see someone playing, and we like what we see. Then we are “converted.” We become convinced that we too want to be players. Once we are converted, we mimic the things we see. Those who are better at playing than we are give us feedback. “Good shot.” “Nice swing.” “Yes! That’s it!” We “learn” from our mistakes and from the praising we get when we do well. We ask for help. “How do you get it to spin like that?” Pretty soon we’ve mastered enough basic techniques that we can “teach” someone else how to play.

We join a team, we get a coach, we practice. These are the ways we learn to play. Much later, after we have become pretty good players, we might take a class on the fundamentals of the game or about the history of the sport. But most of us never do that. Most of us learned to play from those we saw playing, and we continue to learn by playing with those who are better than we are. We also learn by teaching other newcomers to play.

Faith happens the same way. That is what is so important about the insight of the GDC. The document recognizes that newcomers are not going to go to school to learn about faith. They are not going to come to a class; they are not going to read a book; they are not going to come to an after-Mass “Know Your Faith” session. The only way people come to faith is when they see other people living their faith. Okay, maybe one or two people come to faith when the airplane starts going down, but mostly it happens because of the way you and I buy groceries, greet people on the street, raise our kids, or vote. People come to faith because faithful people live faithfully. People come to faith because of our example.

The way to teach people about the faith is to be better examples. Exemplary faith, according to the RCIA, is evidenced in four different ways: through word, through worship, through community, and through service. According to the catechumenal model, newcomers to the faith are apprenticed into these four elements of our tradition through the following process.

Catechesis is accommodated to their level of understanding. That means no canned programs. It means lots and lots of active listening. It means not expecting the candidates to answer our questions before we have answered theirs.

Catechesis flows from and to the liturgy. Our faith is most fully expressed in the celebration of the paschal mystery in the liturgy. Good liturgy is the most effective form of catechesis we have.

Catechesis happens in small groups. Good catechesis is not going to happen in groups of 100 or even 50. Groups need to be small enough that no one feels anonymous or unaccounted for. Faith gets built when everyone feels like they are on the team.

Catechesis happens in stages. These stages cannot be predetermined or scheduled. The candidate moves to a new stage when the Spirit directs, not when we do.

So what does all this mean for your catechetical effort?

It means first of all that the primary catechetical effort of the parish is directed toward adults who have not heard the Gospel. (“Please make sure your tray tables and seat backs are in their full, upright and locked position.”)

It means that the bulk of your secondary effort will be directed toward the faithful adults of the parish, most of whom are parents and grandparents. It means very little of your time will be spent teaching religion to children.

It will never happen, you’re thinking. Great idea, but just not possible. We’re stretched to the bone right now. How are we possibly going to reach out to adults, and unchurched ones at that?

Parishes have been saying the same thing ever since the predecessor to the GDC — the General Catechetical Directory — came out almost 30 years ago. Now the new GDC reiterates, in even stronger language, the call for our catechetical efforts to focus on adults. Either the people who write these things are completely out of touch, or there is some other way we are supposed to be doing things. For the sake of argument, let’s assume church leaders are not out of touch. (“If you are assisting a child, place the mask over your own face first, then over the child’s.”)

If we assume our leaders know what they are talking about, does that mean you have to immediately dismantle your current structure — the one you spent so many years building up, begging volunteers to help with, and battling for adequate funding? No it doesn’t. You have, no doubt, created many good things. Your challenge is to take all the good things and build on them. If your current program has a solid foundation, it should be relatively painless to help it evolve into a process based on the GDC.

Here is a not-quite-monumental step to try. Next time you are getting ready to prepare children for first communion, select a sample group of parents with whom to try something new. The “sample” can be as large or small as your stress level can manage. Consider them a pilot group.

With this pilot group, your goal is to incorporate as many of the principles of the baptismal catechumenate as possible. Your goal with this group is to focus on the parents as the primary catechists of their children. You are not so much interested in catechizing the children as you are their parents. You want to catechize the parents in such a way that they are able to prepare their own children for first communion. So instead of having 12 sessions with the children and maybe two parent meetings, you would have 12 (or however many it takes) sessions with the parents and two children’s meetings.

And what would you do at these parent meetings? You want to give the parents the tools they need to be able to catechize their children. What is it that parents have to teach their children about first communion? Here’s where the idea of a catechesis modeled on baptismal catechesis comes into play. Paragraph 75 of the RCIA says that in order to be fully catechized, the catechumens must have an appropriate understanding of the church’s understanding of word, worship, community, and service. What you will prepare the parents to do is help their children understand these key elements of our tradition in a way that is appropriate for a child who is just beginning to understand his or her faith.

How do you know if the children have learned enough? Many parishes could ask that question of their traditional, text-based preparation programs and still not come up with a satisfactory answer. In a text-based program, children are sometimes considered “catechized” if they have come to a minimum number of classes and perhaps passed a written or oral exam. 

In a process modeled on baptismal catechesis, it is likely that each candidate, along with his or her parents, would be interviewed by a member of the preparation team as part of a discernment process. The candidate, parents, and pastoral team would work together to determine if the candidate is ready to celebrate first communion. The discernment would center on the four key elements of the tradition. If the candidate is weak in one or more of these areas, he or she stays in the preparation process until his orher faith is strengthened accordingly. 

This is a very broad stroke, just to give a hint about how you might begin to shift from a child-centered, classroom model of catechesis to an adult-centered, baptismal model of catechesis. The GDC lays out an extraordinary vision, and most of us will never fully accomplish the goals it sets forth. However, if we can take some steps toward the vision, our children will be able to build on what we’ve started. (“Ladies and gentleman, the captain has turned off the fasten seatbelt sign. The aircraft is once again under control. We will be landing shortly.”)

-- Nick Wagner