‘Helping us help parishes throughout the archdiocese’
(This is the second in a series of four articles looking at how “United Catholic Appeal: Christ Our Hope” funds are distributed, and how the funds benefit all in the archdiocese. See the first article.)
By Natalie Hoefer
A catechist wasn’t sure of a specific Church teaching, so she answered the child’s question with a guess.
A college student had questions about the faith, but having no peer group to turn to, he walked away from the Church.
A special needs child was found to be disruptive during religious education classes, so she did not receive instruction for receiving the sacraments.
These unfortunate scenarios could all be true, were it not for funds raised in the “United Catholic Appeal: Christ Our Hope” (UCA) that go toward helping archdiocesan ministries proclaim the word of God throughout central and southern Indiana.
The appeal helps the archdiocese in three specific ways—proclaiming the word of God, celebrating the sacraments and exercising the ministry of charity.
This week, we highlight the works of three archdiocesan ministries that proclaim the word of God—the Office of Young Adult and College Campus Ministry, Catechesis for Persons with Disabilities, and the Office of Catholic Education.
‘Investing in the future and the present’
The archdiocesan Office of Young Adult and College Campus Ministry “is making an investment in the future,” says Matt Faley, director of the ministry.
“But it’s also an investment in the present. We see on a daily basis the grace that comes from young adults who want to serve and give their heart to the Church.”
Faley sees this age group “struggling with a lot of the same questions we all struggle with—the idea of freedom and what it means to be a Christian in a world where it’s difficult to be a Christian.
“They’re doing that in a world where it’s harder and harder to say, ‘I’m going to take an intentional step to seek this out and find the people around me to help me get there.’ It’s a lot harder.”
Funded in part by the United Catholic Appeal, the Office of Young Adult and College Campus Ministry reaches out to that age group “to form them into leaders and active members of parishes,” says Faley. “We’re helping show young adults that path to priesthood, religious life and sacramental marriage.”
The ministry does so through numerous educational, spiritual, service and social events on a regular basis.
And starting in February, they will offer a series of Catholic sports intramural programs “with the hope to cast the nets wide, and to bring people together in community and call them deeper from there.”
Faley says those who are not young adults also benefit from the ministry.
“If you’re not in college, you might have a kid that’s in college, or a grandkid or niece or nephew. But this also has direct correlations on the future of the culture and the future of the world.”
He sees the impact of the ministry every day in the lives of young adults who might otherwise stray from the faith.
“One guy was searching, involved in the Church from a distance but living the life of a college student. He had some burning questions in his heart, and he didn’t know what to do with them.
“He came to a Theology on Tap event and was moved so much that he started coming to every [Theology on Tap event] throughout the summer. He started being actively involved in the young adult ministry. He decided to go on a retreat that we sponsored, and there he felt the Lord calling him to lay ministry.
“He is now serving the Church as a coordinator for youth ministry at a parish in the archdiocese.”
‘We want them to fall in love with the faith’
Kara Favata, the archdiocese’s first-ever assistant director for special religious education, is thrilled with her new ministry, Catechesis for Persons with Disabilities, which is made possible in part by UCA funding.
“Awareness is huge,” she says, “[for] welcoming people with disabilities back into their churches. They need to know that their church is their community, their home, that they are welcome.”
Awareness is one segment of a three-pronged approach being implemented by the ministry for persons with disabilities, along with inclusion and specialized approaches.
To raise awareness, Favata meets with parish directors of religious education and pastoral associates to help them understand that those with disabilities often fall away from the Church for various reasons. She talks with them about those reasons, teaches hands-on approaches to welcome them back, encourages awareness fairs and submits informational advertisements to parish bulletins.
Once awareness is raised, says Favata, including persons with disabilities into parish life is essential.
“We have plans to help develop inclusion teams in each parish,” says Favata. “But right now, we help priests and directors of religious education know what resources are out there that help persons with disabilities receive sacraments.
“We also encourage parishes to invite these persons to be involved—to lector or take up the gifts if they are comfortable with that.”
The third aspect of catechesis for persons with disabilities is to develop special approaches to teaching the faith and encouraging an active faith life.
“We need to provide a variety of opportunities in order for that to happen,” says Favata. “We want to help educate parents that it’s OK to sometimes do a program where children with needs feel relaxed, where they get less of that sensory pressure in Mass or in a religious education class.
“It doesn’t mean just sticking them in a religious education class because that’s their only chance to be ‘normal.’ It means providing support for the teacher, for the aides, for the materials you’re going to pass out, to help that child learn in their style, with their needs, so they can be part of the group.
“We want them to feel like this is their home. We want them to fall in love with their faith. The United Catholic Appeal will help make this possible.”
‘Helps us help parishes’
“It’s not about how [the Office of Catholic Education] is helped, but about how people through the archdiocese are helped,” says Ken Ogorek, archdiocesan director of catechesis, when considering the UCA funds distributed to the Office of Catholic Education (OCE).
For starters, says Ogorek, “The UCA helps provide part of our budget for me to help pastors and search committees hire people to run catechetical programs.
“Who runs these programs is very, very important. It’s the people we put in place to run these programs that in many ways make or break the effort to evangelize and teach the faith, at least the human side of the effort. We couldn’t do it without the appeal.”
Equally important, Ogorek says, is seeing that teachers of the faith receive appropriate formation to do their job. The Office of Catholic Education provides catechetical formation and certification opportunities.
“Over the past two summers, I’ve taken five parish administrators of religious education as first-time attendees to the annual St. John Bosco Conference [for catechists at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio]. We’d like to take more catechesis education leaders to the conference, and the appeal will help with that.”
When it comes to giving to parishes and the United Catholic Appeal, Ogorek sees both as imperative.
“Both St. Francis Xavier and St. Theodora Guérin, patrons of our archdiocese, show us by their lives that the Church is both a local experience and a broader experience. In catechesis, we work hard both to instill a love of parish and a broader vision of Church.”
With 1.8 million non-Catholics in the area of the archdiocese, says Ogorek, “We can’t do that without the appeal.”
(For more information on the United Catholic Appeal, log on to www.archindy.org/uca or call the Office of Stewardship and Development at 317-236-1425 or 800-382-9836, ext. 1425.) †