It’s About Time Catholics Had Sunday School For Everyone Every. Week.
Dave Armstrong brought it up and I thought to myself “Right ON! You GO!” and then Opinionated Catholic linked to it and reminded me all over again what deeply held opinions I have about this issue. When I was on the pastoral council (or parish council or whatever the heck they call it) in my parish a few years back, I repeatedly brought this topic up. Catholics should have Sunday School every. week. and not just for the children. “Oh but we don’t have room in our churches for that” I was often told. Well perhaps it’s about time we start designing our churches to reflect a priority on faith formation for all Catholics?
There is a reason that the stereotype exists out there that Protestants know their faith better than Catholics. It’s frighteningly true more times than not!! I’ve been told by well meaning clergy that I should not engage in faith discussions with Protestants because….well…you know….they just know their faith better. If that’s true (and unfortunately it usually is) then is the solution telling the laity NOT to defend their faith or is it to massively improve catechesis as ALL levels in the Catholic Church? As a former evangelical Protestant I can tell you that the answer to that rhetorical question is running through my mind right now in the form of a Sunday School song that I learned as a child when I attended Sunday School EVERY WEEK….”Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needth not to be ashamed…..” (It sounds great when sung as a round too.)
Frankly Catholics need Sunday School more than Protestants. We have 2,000 years of incredible scholarship to learn about not to mention that book “we” put together and agreed on in 397 at the Council of Carthage. As Catholics we have the fullness of the Christian faith….that means we have MORE to know. It’s time we started acting like it.
And while I am ranting. I used to teach the confirmation classes in my parish back before I started having babies. At the beginning of each year, I would ask my students to tell me why it was that they wanted to be Confirmed. You do not want to know how many students told me that they wanted to be Confirmed so that they didn’t have to learn about their faith any more. Hmmmm….wonder if the fact that these children never saw any adults doing any sort of faith formation had anything to do with that?
