Catechists and faith formators key to the future of the Church

Apr 15, 2015

PENANG (Herald Malaysia): The Penang Diocese Catechetical Commission organized a formation on SOCIAL COMMUNICATION March 21-22 at Domus St Anne, Bukit Mertajam. There were 40 participants from the Diocese of Penang and one from Kuala Lumpur. Participants came from the ministries of Catechetics, Children’s Liturgy of the Word (CLOW), Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) and Baptism Instructors.

The seminar was facilitated by President Emeritus of Signis (the Word Catholic Association for Communication), Sir Augustine Loorthusamy, a Malaysian who specializes in the field of Social Communication and Catechetics. Andrew Scott who accompanied him, provided the technical support.

Augy, as he preferred to be addressed, first congratulated the participants for their presence and their dedication to the most important job in the Church — communicating the good news of Jesus Christ to a new generation.

Augy emphasized that Faith formation for the young must be the number one priority of the Church. He said that if we neglect the young, then there will be no church for tomorrow. Our churches will become a church of senior citizens.

In the past, we had three major institutions involved in Catechetics and Faith formation namely the Home, the School and the Parish.

Today, in the home, stressed out parents are more concerned about economic survival, children’s education than in sharing their Faith. In the schools, Catechism is practically non existent. It then falls on the parish to provide this critical function. The question was raised — how well are we, as Formators, prepared for this challenge. The situation is not good. All round change is necessary.

The parents must change and realize that faith formation must first begin at home. The clergy and religious must change their priorities and get involved. The facilities must be conducive for teaching and learning. The present curriculum needs to be changed as it is too structured. Children are bored and don’t like the term Sunday School as it smacks of regular school and exams. Children are already stressed at home and in school.

There are not enough trained Catechists. Insufficient allocation of human and material resources are the cause. More time and resources should be spent on training the laity and proper remuneration provided when needed. Attention should be shifted from buildings to people.

We, as teachers, need to change. That change has to begin with ourselves. What are we teaching and how are we teaching? How do we inspire the young so that they are enthusiastic to come for Catechism classes? How do we witness? How prepared are we?Do we really know our present day children and youth? That should be our first priority — knowing our audience — the children and the environment they come from. We cannot teach in the same old way. We have a new generation of young people called Generation Y and Generation Z. They are the Digital generation. They are influenced by the Media and New Information technologies. Today’s TV and Internet children see and learn in a different way. They access both left and right brains — digital convergence.

They live in an image oriented consumer culture and have short attention spans. They easily get bored and learn best when they enjoy and when they participate. We need to change our style of teaching.

Augy then gave an insightful sharing on communication. His experiential sharing was enlightening and humorous. Video clips, power point presentations and mock-ups made his sessions interesting and invaluable. Participants said they were always alert.

A number of communication-related topics were part of the seminar presentation which included:

Fundamentals in Human Communication, Church and Social Media, Media, New Technologies and Social Change, Story Telling, Use of multimedia, New Teaching and Learning methodologies, Use of film clips, songs, music and television in teaching Gospel values to children

The participants learnt that in Faith sharing, a parabolic multi-media approach is needed. A sensorial creative approach in engaging the youngsters makes faith sharing an exciting experience. When students participate in creative activities they learn better.

Participants also learnt the distinct functions of the right and left brain and were made to realize the constant and powerful interaction between the two. Multi-tasking is the norm of today’s youngsters.

The topics ‘Principles of Learning’ and the ‘Types of Intelligence’ gave the participants a meaningful insight into identifying the character and strength of the young in our ministry.

For communication to be effective, Augy sees the need for a paradigm shift in our approach to faith formation. A new learning environment calls for a move from a textbook based approach to a multi-media style where learning must become a social activity. The shift should be from teacher as deliverer of knowledge to “learner as information seeker”, i.e. a learner centred approach.

In his concluding remarks Fr. Mark Michael, the director of Catechetics, thanked the participants who had reaffirmed the Bishop’s and the Diocese’s commitment to Catechetical Formation as a priority. He said that this is an ongoing programme and more such formations are planned in the coming months.