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Teaching the teachers

By Michelle Martin
Staff Writer

The more than 2,000 Catholic school teachers and catechists who assembled Sept. 22 and 23 formed “a praiseworthy army of lay apostles,” said Father John E. Pollard, director of the archdiocese’s Department of Evangelization and Catechesis.

The teachers attended the annual Chicago Catechetical Conference at the Rosemont Convention Center for a chance to reconnect, revitalize and be catechized themselves.

Cardinal George led off the conference speakers, losing no time in reminding them that their job is not only to teach, but to explain the church and its teachings to believers and non-believers alike.

“What you teach and what I teach has some impact on where people will spend eternity,” said Cardinal George. “The truth that makes us free from personal sin also frees us from errors.”

In an address entitled “A New Apologetics for a New Evangelization,” the cardinal spoke of the two groups most likely to question Catholic faith and teaching—fundamentalists and secularists. The Catholic obligation, he said, is “to love Scripture more than the fundamentalists and to love the world more than the secularists.”

The new apologetics must focus on dialogue rather than defensiveness, Cardinal George said, because the world has truly become global—a fact perhaps embraced more by the young people the catechists teach than by the teachers themselves.

“There is a new human self-consciousness,” he said. “This is a new moment in the human race.”

The cardinal’s address helped set the tone for participants, who crowded into doorways and sat on the floor in the aisles to listen.

“I thought it was fabulous,” said Elizabeth Mikula, a catechist at Sacred Heart Parish in Palos Hills. “It was a powerful, powerful talk, because we don’t have to apologize for what we believe, but we have to talk about it. Sometimes that’s something we as Catholics don’t do as much as we should.”

Mikula attended with fellow Sacred Heart catechists Bill Thometz and Vita Latore, all of whom wanted to get more ideas for ways to teach their religious education classes, and look at the materials on display in the lecture hall.

“I teach eighth-graders, and I’m always looking for something new,” Latore said.

Presenters covered topics from using the Internet to teach religion to using stories and music in all classes, especially religion. For many Catholic school teachers, Friday was an institute day, while many attended on their own on Saturday. For catechists, the conference provided an opportunity to learn about the art of teaching religion and to get credit towards archdiocesan certification.

Father Robert Barron, a theology professor at Mundelein Seminary, keynoted the second day of the conference with his address on “Going Beyond a Beige Catholicism.”

In addition to the workshops, participants could browse exhibits from publishers and vendors to see books and other products, and watch demonstrations of liturgical music and dance.

Lauren Martin, a teacher at St. Ambrose School on the South Side, said she enjoyed what was available, but she would have liked to see more workshops geared to preschool teachers and more African-American presenters.

“Those are the children I’m teaching,” she said.

Martin said she was particularly looking forward to workshops on racism and on African and African-American saints.

Maria Norman and Catalina Juvado-Cobo, both from the Hispanic ministry at St. Cecilia Parish in Mount Prospect, especially liked the way the conference worked to welcome Hispanic participants, holding some workshops in Spanish and welcoming the contributions of people of all cultures.

“The church is opening the doors,” Norman said.

Father Andrew Greeley, a novelist and sociologist, said in his workshop that the Catholic Church in the United States needs to open its doors to beauty—especially the beauty of Catholic tradition.

“The beauty of the Catholic heritage, flawed as it is, attracts, enchants and will not let people go, no matter how hard they try to escape it,” said Greeley, adding that people who believe they have left the church only think they have “lapsed.”

Teachers and catechists should expose their students to the beauty in the church and in the world because beauty illumines God’s grace and beauty transforms people, providing real moments of conversion.

That doesn’t mean that Catholics should not know their doctrine and be able to explain it, Greeley said.

“Of course Catholics should know their doctrines and be able to respond to questions about them,” Greeley said. “But they should also experience the beauty of those doctrines.”

Cathye Murray, principal of Queen of Apostles School in Riverdale, said the annual conference helps Catholic educators see the beauty of what they do.

“It’s always good,” she said. “It helps you recharge your batteries.”

 

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