STIRLING A movement in religious education started to take root last year in several parishes of the Diocese with the new Family Faith Formation Program, developed by a local parish religious education director, that helps entire families center their lives around their faith and the summit of our faith: the Mass. Endorsed by Bishop Serratelli, the initiative encourages parents and children to attend Mass together; learn more about their faith, both together and in age-appropriate settings; and share their faith with each other.
Still in its infancy, Family Faith Formation, developed by Deidre Nemeth, religious education director of St. Vincent de Paul Parish here, suggests that parish religious education programs adopt six “spiritual pillars” that re-orient religious formation from only classroom teaching to instruction of the faith centered around the Mass that includes teaching entire families, both children and their parents. Already, the program — part of a larger national Family Faith Formation movement — has started to bare spiritual fruit in the six local parishes, which piloted it in the Diocese, said Nemeth. Last year, she wrote a 42-page booklet that outlines the initiative, “I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life: a Family Formation Program for the New Evangelization,” available now to parishes.
These participating parishes have reported increases in both parents and children growing in “learning and sacramentally living” their faith by attending religious education classes that give them a greater understanding of the Mass, especially the Eucharist; attending Mass more regularly; practicing their faith more at home; and forging a stronger relationship with their parish, including a greater willingness to volunteer, Nemeth writes in the booklet, which features a forward by Bishop Serratelli.
“The program connects families to the Mass by leading them to attend Mass every week. We want to make a big statement: that the Mass, especially the Eucharist — the source and summit of our faith — is important. We have found that there is a greater openness of families to come to Mass — and participating in Adoration, rosary and confession — than we first realized,” said Nemeth, who began developing Family Faith Formation at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish (OLMC), Boonton, where she started serving as director of religious education in 2011 under Father Richard Carton, then pastor. In 2015, she continued to hone and expand the program, when she became religious education director at St. Vincent’s, again under Father Carton’s leadership as pastor. “This program gives great hope for the future of the Catholic faith,” she said.
Over the 2018-19 academic year, the following four parishes of the Diocese joined OLMC and St. Vincent’s in implementing Family Faith Formation: the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson; St. Michael’s, Netcong; St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Sparta; and St. Catherine of Siena, Mountain Lakes. In the booklet, published by the Diocese, Nemeth suggests that parishes reduce the length of their religion classes to about 30 to 40 minutes and schedule them on Sundays before or after Masses. While the parents wait for their children, parishes should offer religious formation to the adults in the form of a class, a speaker, a DVD series or an opportunity for fellowship. Twice each year, parishes can schedule Family Faith Sessions — two-hour sessions that offer instruction and activities that engage participants of all ages — often together — on a variety of topics, usually during Advent and Lent, writes Nemeth, who is also president of the diocesan Catechetical Leaders Association.
In the booklet, Nemeth suggests that parishes introduce the following six “spiritual pillars” to their religious instruction:
• Mass — attended as a family each Sunday.
• Rosary — prayed in its entirety by families as a parish once a year and prayed a decade at a time before Masses.
• Eucharistic Adoration — involving families, who gather to adore Christ in the Eucharist once each year.
• Confession — with families scheduled to come once per year, during Lent.
• Stations of the Cross — attended by families, during Lent.
• Divine Mercy Sunday — gathering families in Divine Mercy parish prayers on the Sunday after Easter.
In the booklet, Nemeth writes, “Participation in the spiritual pillars is bringing parents directly in touch with our living God. Even souls, not previously interested, must perceive this at some level and are opening up to the effects of this grace.” She also emphasizes that parishes can adopt any number of the “spiritual pillars.” Last year, Nemeth promoted Family Faith Formation around the Diocese, encouraged by an enthusiastic Bishop Serratelli.
In the booklet’s forward, Bishop Serratelli writes, “In a time when there are many challenges to the Church’s mission of catechesis … Deirdre Nemeth’s approach … is one of the most successful new approaches of our times.”
“Her approach of family faith formation not only recognizes this reality, but also helps the parents both grow in their own faith and in their responsibility of bringing up the children in the Catholic faith. Anyone who adopts this method of catechesis cannot help but see positive results,” Bishop Serratelli writes.
At St. Vincent’s, implementing the program has resulted in Mass attendance in the high 90 percentile, more effective teaching, better behavior exhibited by the students and greater desire to volunteer among parents and children. Because the class sessions have been cut from 90 minutes down to 30 or 40 minutes each, some parishes schedule a greater number of sessions in an academic year, said Nemeth, also inspired to develop the initiative locally after attending a 2011 conference of the Center for Ministry Development in Florida.
For the Family Faith Sessions, curriculum should be based on themes from the Catechism and the Catholic Church, such as the profession of faith, liturgy and the sacraments, morality and Christian prayer. These sessions should include an all-ages learning experience, an in-depth learning experience and ways to apply these lessons at home. At St. Vincent’s, many parents at first questioned whether the sessions would be worth their time in their busy lives but after, told Nemeth that they “enjoyed discussing the faith with their children.”
In the booklet, Father Carton writes, “In this program, parents, who often feel inadequate in teaching the faith, and parish directors of faith formation programs are drawn together to create something beautiful. Children and parents, side by side, learning and growing in faith is a beautiful gift for all involved.” He also acknowledged, “With change, programs sometimes meet resistance. However, we are aware that the former classroom model that has been used is not effective and it is a Spirit-driven move to try that, which is new.”
At St. John’s, Ivannia Vega-McTighe, diocesan assistant director of evangelization; Sylvia Ortiz, the cathedral’s coordinator of catechesis; and its catechetical team implemented Family Faith Formation last September with support from Msgr. Geno Sylva, St. John’s rector and diocesan vicar for special projects. Now, more families attend Mass together and are eager to volunteer in the parish. After Masses, families walk to the cathedral center, where children receive the classroom portion of faith formation, while adults also receive a teaching from priests. Families also participate in monthly at-home projects — one asked them what they were thankful for — and joined together at the center last December for a Christmas celebration, she said.
“This program has made a huge impact at St. John’s. Families are more enthusiastic about coming to Mass together and sharing their faith at home. They also are building relationships with our priests and each other,” Vega-McTighe said. “We want to give families time to fall in love with the Eucharist — the key to every Catholic’s life. Our catechists see our parents as partners — as the most important part of their children’s faith formation,” she said.
[For a copy of the booklet, “I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life: a Family Formation Program for the New Evangelization,” email Deidre Nemeth at [email protected]]