Guidelines: Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis

Two documents have recently been published by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. These were developed by the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Both documents are available for download on the Web site of the USCCB:

The first document is Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework for the Development of Catechetical Materials for Young People of High School Age.

As a framework, this document offers guidance to catechetical publishers in the creation of instructional material… In addition to aiding those creating catechetical texts and materials, this framework will also serve to aid those responsible for overseeing catechetical instruction within dioceses as well as those responsible for curriculum development or the development of assessment instruments designed to complement texts, programs, or curriculums.

The framework is composed of six semester-length subject themes with room for a diocese or school to choose two elective subject themes.

Core Curriculum:

I. The Revelation of Jesus Christ in Scripture
II. Who Is Jesus Christ?
III. The Mission of Jesus Christ (The Paschal Mystery)
IV. Jesus Christ’s Mission Continues in the Church
V. Sacraments as Privileged Encounters with Jesus Christ
VI. Life in Jesus Christ

Electives:

Option A. Sacred Scripture
Option B. History of the Catholic Church
Option C. Living as a Disciple of Jesus Christ in Society
Option D. Responding to the Call of Jesus Christ
Option E. Ecumenical and Interreligious Issues

The Second document is called Catechetical Formation in Chaste Living: Guidelines for Curriculum Design and Publication.

This guideline

is designed to guide publishers in the development of new religion texts for students in preschool through twelfth grade and to assist in curriculum development by diocesan and parish catechetical leaders. These guidelines may also be helpful to assist parents/guardians, catechists, and Catholic school teachers in their respective roles in this crucial and delicate task.

The guideline is comprised of two main parts:

Part I: The Teaching of the Church

A. The Received Teaching of the Church Regarding Chaste Living
B. Church Teaching on Special Issues of Concern

Part II: Passing On the Teaching of the Church

This section describes the roles of Pastors, parents or guardians, teachers, catechists, and publishers. It also
provides a bibliography of resources.

For more resources on catechesis:

Catechetics - Resources for Catholic Educators
http://www.silk.net/RelEd/catechetics.htm

Catechesis for Persons with Developmental Disabilities
http://www.silk.net/RelEd/disabilities.htm

Resources for Catholic Educators Store - Catechesis
http://astore.amazon.com/resouforcatho0b-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=2

Coloring Pages and Puzzles

Religiocando.it is the Web site of Professor Nunzio Rubino who the Catholic Faith in a Primary school in Italy. This is not the most visually attractive nor technically elaborate Web production, but it contains a large amount of useful resources for catechists:

· There is a large section full of downloadable attractively presented sheets of crosswords and wordsearch puzzles as well as games on the Holy Bible. (A note of caution: the puzzles have been translated from the Italian and there is the occasional spelling error in the instructions on the page. You can easily correct these, however, since the documents are in editable Excel format.) These resources are available in English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Dutch.

· Bible coloring pages : an extensive (several hundreds!) selection of coloring pages on the Old and New Testaments and on religious symbols, saints, liturgical objects…

For additional Bible coloring pages: http://www.silk.net/RelEd/lessonplans4.htm
and crossword puzzles: http://www.silk.net/RelEd/crossword.htm

Back to School Prayer Services

Pflaum has prayer services for students, teachers, and catechists - including leaders' guides and student handouts. These are freely available on their Web site.

For additional resources on prayer: http://www.silk.net/RelEd/prayer.htm

New Testament Posters

The Collection of Bible posters at 4CatholicEducators.com has ten new posters with scripture verses from Matthew, Luke, John and 1 Peter. These posters can be found at: NT Various [1] - NT Various [2]

HOPE Movie

This UK Web site offers a short film in 8 parts on hope. Its aim is “to reconnect people with God and to offer them hope for the future.” The Chat section of the site suggests several excellent reflection questions for each of the parts of the film. This film and series of questions could be a good resource for RCIA teams during the Inquiry period and even during the Catechumenate period.

Radiant Light website

The Radiant Light Web site presents twenty exhibitions of paintings by Elizabeth Wang. Each painting has a title and commentary written by the artist, and some also have a quotation from the Bible. Some of these can be downloaded and used freely "for use all around the world for non-commercial use such as evangelisation and catechesis". Presently, there are 30 images available for free download, but a re-launch of the Web site is planned soon and approximately 600 images will then be made available for free download. Others can be purchased in large poster format.

Image top left: Illustration by Elizabeth Wang, ‘The uniquely powerful prayer of Jesus in the Mass reaches through the roof and unites us with the worship of Heaven’, copyright © Radiant Light 2008, www.radiantlight.org.uk

Mgr. Keith Barltrop, Director, Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE), UK wrote the following about Elizabeth Wang and Radiant Light, the movement she founded,

It has often been said that the difficulty modern people have with faith is not so much about the arguments for or against it, but with the difficulty of imagining God's presence in our highly secularised world. The work of Radiant Light is a perfect answer to that problem. Elizabeth Wang's art helps us make "the longest journey", from head to heart, by picturing what this presence might be like in a variety of situations. Radiant Light thus continues the great tradition of the Church from earliest days in using contemporary art to instruct us about God's truth and attract us to his beauty, leading us on to heartfelt adoration and to awareness of his being with us and all people from moment to moment.

In addition to the picture galleries, the Web site contains a selection of writings and meditations by Elizabeth Wang. There is also a section for teachers and catechists who wish to use Radiant Light artwork in their classroom with a lesson plan and suggestions of activities.