The National Collaboration Project: Catholic Adolescent Catechesis steering group held their inaugural planning session May 11-13, 2004 in Washington, D.C. This group consisted of representatives of the National Catholic Educational Association, the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership, and the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry along with a consultant from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Education.
The NFCYM was represented at this meeting by Brian Johnson of Galveston-Houston and Terri Telepak, soon-to-be of the Cleveland Diocese. Joyce Gillooly served as an NCCL representative from Pittsburgh.
During the early 1980s interest in strengthening the church’s catechetical ministry with adolescents resulted in several national organizations collaborating in the development of a statement on adolescent faith formation. In 1986 The Challenge of Adolescent Catechesis: Maturing in Faith was the result of a collaborative effort among NFCYM, NCEA, the desk of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the USCC Department of Education, and the National Conference of Diocesan Directors of Religious Education (NCDD).
The work of these collaborating partners in the past two decades has been focused on implementing that 1986 statement. Since then, new foundational documents have helped to change the catechetical environment, notably the development of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the General Directory for Catechesis (GDC).
As these partners are awaiting the release of the national response to the GDC, the National Directory for Catechesis (NDC), they are once again collaborating on a plan of action for its implementation to help strengthen adolescent catechesis. Adolescent catechesis is served by various people from differing groups (youth ministers, religious educators, teachers in Catholic schools, etc.) all seeking the common goal of bringing young people to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, there are a variety of methodologies and approaches to catechesis with adolescents among these groups.
This diversity of ministerial responses requires a renewed collaborative effort to provide a common language for adolescent catechesis. Therefore, this project—an initiative of the NCEA, NCCL, and NFYCM—seeks to address these issues. The goal is to develop a collaborative strategy to implement the NDC for adolescents that leads to greater evangelization of young people and a strengthened catechetical ministry to, for, and with adolescents.
The steering group has begun to identify strategies and operational procedures for gathering research data on factors influencing the current state of adolescent catechesis and for identifying key elements that constitute effective catechesis for adolescents. These efforts are aimed at developing and initiating a national plan of action for implementing the NDC’s concepts for adolescent catechesis.
The challenge of discipleship—of following Jesus—is at the heart of the Church's mission. All ministry with adolescents must be directed toward presenting young people with the Good News of Jesus Christ and inviting and challenging them to become his disciples. For this reason, catechesis is an essential component of youth ministry and one that needs renewed emphasis.
Renewing the Vision
United States Catholic Conference, 1997
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