News and Views

  
 
Planning the Catechetical year 2008-2009
 
 

Hello everyone,

What a wonderful meeting we had this morning at St. Therese Chinese Catholic Church! Participants were Fr. Michael Davitti, SX (pastor of St. Therese), Mrs. Carol Patterson (Director of Religious Education at St. Therese), Mr. Joe A. Delfin (Director of Youth Ministry at St. Therese), Ms. Nelly Lorenzo (Coordinator of Leadership and Catechist Formation for the Archdiocese of Chicago), and Ms. Cathy Walz (Vicariate Catechetical Ministry Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Chicago).

Among the many topics that were discussed:

  • The new Religion curriculum for the Archdiocese of Chicago was finally completed and approved at the end of May 2008. Copies of the curriculum were distributed to Carol and Fr. Michael. Fr. Michael informed Cathy and Nelly that Carol had worked on a specific curriculum for St. Therese School.
     
  • Nelly announced that the Fostering Faith Catechist Certification program has been modified to a new curriculum divided into 5 courses of 10 hours each. She gave us the new schedule of courses and an explanation of the changes in the program.
     
  • The St. Therese school faculty had completed the first course (I- Revelation through Scripture and Tradition) in a pilot program class taught by Frank Koob and Chuck Thompson at the school in August 2007.  Due to some confusion, the school did not receive any certificates after the course. Certificates for that first course will be remade by Nelly’s department and sent to Carol at the school.
     
  • The school will try to complete two certification courses in Autumn 2008 and another certification course in Spring 2009. The fifth and final course may be completed in August 2009.

  • Each course has an instructor fee of $850.00.

  • It has been agreed that some day prior to each certification course, the instructor will meet with Fr. Michael and Carol to customize the material to the needs of St. Therese.
     
  • One course (IV- The Liturgy of the Church: Sacraments and Prayer) will be taught on Wednesday, August 20 and Thursday, August 21.&nbs p; Fr. Michael will share in the presentation with the instructor (who will be enlisted by both Nelly and Cathy).
     
  • Another course (II- Profession of Faith – Creed) will be taught on Friday, October 17 and Friday, October 24. The instructor has been selected by personnel at USML upon the request of Carol.
     
  • Yet another course (V- Life in Christ – Catholic Morality) will hopefully be taught on February 27 and April 24, 2009. 

  • Nelly had emphasized that the faculty should also be undergoing retreats toward the certification requirements of Catholic schools as coordinated by Esther Hicks. Carol explained that she had been told that the Fostering Faith program was a prerequisite for that program and needed to be completed first.

  • Cathy reminded us that the Archdiocese will be auditing parishes in Autumn 2009 to make sure they are moving toward compliance of the Protecting Children mandates.  We told her the parish is vigorously moving toward this priority at both the church and school. Cathy suggested that employees should make it a habit to check their VIRTUS training bulletins every time they receive their paycheck to insure that they remain in compliance.

  • Fr. Michael introduced the idea of offering internships at St. Therese to help out the parish on many levels, especially the youth. He also explained that this is just one of many unique possibilities that St. Therese could offer to the Archdiocese, and that St. Therese and the Archdiocese could mutually benefit and help each other through such collaborative programs.
     
  • Cathy reminded Joe to get in touch with Cooky Perez-Araci (Youth Ministry Coordinator for Vicariate V), especially in regards to inter-parish joint youth programs. Joe said that he regularly meets with Cooky during the Vicariate youth minister meetings and has been slowly building relationships with neighboring parishes such as St. Barbara.

  • Nelly asked Carol to call her so that she could verify her registration at the office. She also informed Joe about additional classes in the certification of Youth Ministers. Joe will need to retrieve and forward transcripts from Loyola University to Nelly, so she could help place Joe in the proper track. Nelly verified that Joe only needs two more courses in the Fostering Faith program to complete his Catechist Certification, which could be accomplished this year.

Thank you, Nelly and Cathy, for coming down to Chinatown to meet with us. It was an enjoyable and very productive morning!

Kind regards,
Joe