ON BEING A PASTOR -- #4

One primary task that each pastor has is the religious education of his people. Most pastors handle this by hiring a religious education director or two. Religious education classes are set up, books are purchased, kids are dutifully dropped off, and trained or untrained volunteers "teach" classes. It is well known in church circles that many religious ed directors burn out due to endless organizational details. They get exhausted because pastoral and parental expectations vary and catechetical instruction is sometimes severed from the tap root of sacramental liturgy.

Many parents want to do the right thing for their kids, even though Catholic meaning may have eroded in the practice of daily living. Some occasionally react to pastoral outreach with indolence or indifference, with complaint or anger. There are even jokes about graduation from the church after confirmation.

It would be easy to find scapegoats to blame. That accomplishes nothing. Pastors and religious education ministers scratch their heads and wonder whither we all ought to go!

The problem may not be with people, neither the laity nor the church professionals. People who find something meaningful and valuable will sacrifice, even go to great lengths. How many parents drive kids in sports and squire children to sports events, after-school programs and organizations, jobs, dance and piano lessons, volunteer service at hospitals, youth hockey, cheerleading, football and soccer practice. Almost every grandparent and parent knows the car pool routine and the car arrangement hassle. Whew!

The problem may be cultural. Many Catholic Americans are white, educated, middle class, and hard working. We got our sacraments. We learned our catechism answers. We figured we learned what we needed to know back then.

But the religious language we received may no longer be understandable. The rationale, once intelligible to many, may be obsolete and effete. An earlier vibrant American Catholic intellectual heritage is asleep. Public educators and authors complain that Americans have amnesia. We seem to know less and less about American history and geography, about our culture and the mythical stories of democracy. Public figures speak about past events and tell us to emulate heroic Americans (usually Washington and Lincoln, infrequently Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Cesar Chavez).

The problem may also be institutional. The Catholic community has undergone rapid and dizzying change in the last thirty-five years. Catholics now between 30 and 50 experienced a CCD style necessarily giving more emphasis to experience than memorization, more time to biblical stories than abstract information.

A gap now exists. Grandparents remember the answers from the Baltimore catechism. But the social constraints and religious bonds of their era no longer influence their children's practice. Their children remember religious experiences. But a convincing intellectual foundation and an enthusiasm for liturgy is absent

Whither ought we go?

First, religious learning must be life long. We need to know what grandparents, parents, and young people need or want to learn.

Second, we must tailor learning methods to suit and energize each group.

Third, we must bring adults and youth together in communal learning. This includes learning through personal and public prayer.

Fourth, we must appreciate the reasons why people do not connect. Then we must encourage people to partnership in order to connect with parish life through invitation, hospitality, and Sunday liturgy.