Introducing: The New Catechetical Curriculum
“The Church’s catechesis ... must take into consideration all the human factors of a particular age level in order to present the Gospel message in a vital and compelling way. From infancy through maturity, ‘catechesis is thus a permanent school of the faith and follows the major stages of life’.”
(National Directory for Catechesis, p.187).
The Diocese of Richmond, under the leadership of Bishop Francis DiLorenzo, is committed to sharing the Gospel message with all people in a systematic, faith-filled and age-appropriate way. To realize this goal, the Diocese supports and requires its catechists to participate in formation and training by attending a Pathways session. As of July 2011, the catechists are further assisted in their ministry by the implementation of the Diocese of Richmond Catechetical Curriculum. This curriculum provides catechists and parents the information they need to best share the faith with the young people to whom they minister. It provides information on the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of young people at each grade level. It also gives advice to catechists and parents on the best practices for helping them grow in their faith, and the role the parents, in particular, have on their child’s spiritual development. The Diocese of Richmond Catechetical Curriculum is offered as a means to ensure that the young people in our parish programs and their parents have a consistency in their religious education.
The Catechetical Curriculum is a guideline for leaders to use when choosing teaching resources for their parish formation programs. These guidelines are very similar to those used in our Diocesan Catholic Schools. Parishes may continue to choose any textbook or curriculum resource from the list of approved texts (see link on the side margin). To further assist our catechists and catechetical leaders, we are able to provide correlations of our curriculum with several textbook publishers. More correlations will be added in the future.
All parishes are required to have a copy of the curriculum at their location. Printed copies are available for $10 each and an electronic version on a CD is available for $5. Additional copies may be made from either resource to assist parishes in sharing the information in the curriculum with catechists and parents. To order copies, please contact Sheri Kemp at cf@richmonddiocese.org. You may also contact Sheri with any questions or suggestions you have regarding the curriculum at the Christian Formation email address or 804-622-5113.
Note: The Curriculum is also available in Spanish. Please make note of your desire for it in Spanish when ordering at cf@richmonddiocese.org. Hispanic catechetical leaders interested in an orientation/information session for the Spanish pages should contact Sr. Inma Cuesta, CMS, at icuesta@richmonddiocese.org or 804-622-5128.
Nota: El curriculum está disponible también en español. Si gusta tenerlo en español, puedes ordenarlo a cf@richmonddiocese.org. Los catequistas hispanos interesados pueden obtener información de la sesión en español con la Hna. Inma Cuesta, CMS: icuesta@richmonddiocese.org o llamarla al 804.622.5128.