St Ignatius Church Sunday school annual retreat

Jul 10, 2015

By Sulochini Anne Nair
Signs and symbols, which the Catholic Church is so rich in must be understood clearly, and interpreted correctly, to be passed on to the young. Otherwise, catechists risk sending a garbled message, and the young risk getting it wrong and losing their faith. This was the thrust of the talks and sharing by Fr Gregory Chan at the June 12-14 Annual Outstation Retreat attended by 40 St Ignatius Church Sunday school Catechists and Administrative staff. The retreat at the Barre I J Centre was themed Catechesis: Indispensable Ministry of the Church.

“As catechists, do we punish, or pretend we don’t see, when something is not right, or do we try and understand Catholic signs and symbols so as to impart them correctly? Otherwise, you risk causing misunderstanding,” Fr Chan cautioned. For example, he said, priests come across all manner of posturing when members of the congregation come up to receive the Eucharist, when the correct way is to say ‘Amen’ before receiving the host. He told the catechists that their lives too must be consistent with the teachings of the Church. “Your lives must be a sign and symbol of the authentic Catholic life. Don’t become a counter-sign.”

Fr Chan reminded us that catechesis means proclamation, or reverberation, of the faith to all, and is not restricted to Sunday School, RCIA or RCIY — just as Jesus exhorted his disciples to go out into the world and proclaim the Good News. And catechesis is not new, he said, tracing its existence to the time of the Gospel writers. “We have to proclaim to the world, and to do that, we have to use the correct language of inter-faith dialogue.”

This dialogue comprises four important elements:

1) LIFE – as in dialogue with one another;
2) ACTION – caring for one another, for instance, in a disaster;
3) THEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE – talking about the similarities rather than the differences of faiths; and
4) DISCUSSION & FAITH SHARING – we need to understand that all religions have a reflection of the truth of God, but the Catholic faith has the fullness of the truth because of the Incarnation, when God chose to enter humanity.

Due to the problems of Islamisation and proselytising, especially of our youths, Fr Chan went on to enlighten the participants with an introduction to the Quran. Nowhere in the Quran are Christians described as non-believers. On the other hand, they are accepted as People of The Book.

He also touched on demonology and shared his experiences in the Deliverance Ministry as a priest in Seremban. He urged catechists to be alert against games invoking demons that our children are being exposed to especially via the Internet. He said that those who invite the spirits consciously are willingly asking the devil to take control of them. “The presence of evil is very real. Demons work for the systematic destruction of the Church.”

Earlier, he explained the timeline of Salvation History, right up to the Gospels. Participants also had the opportunity to watch two documentaries: Miracles of the Eucharist and Nine Days That Changed the World on Pope St John Paul II’s historic pilgrimage to Poland in June 1979, when he moved the Polish people to reclaim their courage and free themselves from communism.