Schools is partnering with the Catechetical Institute of Franciscan University of Steubenville in a program designed to help all teachers and administrators in diocesan schools link their knowledge of Catholic teaching with the everyday practice of the faith.
The program consists of eight, three-hour workshops per year over the course of three years, plus at least one annual workshop in subsequent years. It was adopted for the Diocese of Columbus at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, so this will be its third year in the diocese.
All diocesan teachers and administrators started with the first year of the program in 2020-21. Those hired in subsequent years are in the program’s first or second year, depending on their hiring date. Teachers receive a certificate for each year completed.
The program is led by Dr. Therese Recinella, diocesan associate director for school religious education, who has been employed by the Schools Office for the past three years and was a teacher and administrator for more than 30 years at schools in Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts and Texas. She also taught English for two years with the Peace Corps in Ukraine.
“I began implementing the Catechetical Institute’s program in Columbus on my second day here,” she said. “I had worked with it at the diocese in Texas where I was director of evangelization and catechesis and found it to be a wonderful model of putting Catholic teaching into practice in all aspects of school life. I like to say, ‘We’re Catholic all day’ in our schools. This helps us live up to that standard.”
One significant change between the Catechetical Institute model and other religious education programs for teachers is that the Steubenville-based program is for every school faculty member, not just those teaching religion classes. Another is that the workshops are online and can take place at each school at a convenient time, rather than being live lectures in a central location.
“That’s really important in a diocese as large as Columbus,” Recinella said. “Teachers in places like Dover, Portsmouth and Wellston don’t have to make the two-hour drive to Columbus for these courses, sometimes in winter weather, but can take them close to home.
“People have been very happy with the Catechetical Institute workshops since we began them in 2020-21,” Recinella said. “Besides being convenient, they’ve provided a way for schools to build Christian community because they’re set up to be taken in small groups and in a format designed to encourage discussion and interaction.” The number of groups is determined by the size of the school.
Each three-hour workshop is divided into six to 10 segments that include a 10- to 12-minute video, followed by a task designed to engage participants in the content they received from the video, with both a practical and spiritual focus.
The tasks include some multiple-choice questions but focus on reflective questions encouraging participants to apply the content of the workshop to their everyday lives. Segments can be completed in one session or as many as needed. Each teacher has an independent professional development plan that is part of the program.
The first workshop looks at the mission of Catholic schools and the role of teachers and is designed to be completed by Oct. 31. The next two, for the period between Nov. 1 and Jan. 31, are on “Our Life in Christ: The Basics of Morality” and “The Human Person.”
During the three-year course of the programs, workshop subjects include the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the meaning of objective truth, Scripture, the liturgy and the universal call to holiness. The 19th and 20th of the 24 workshops, respectively, are on the Lectio Divina method of praying with Scripture and St. John Bosco’s method of teaching through reason, religion and kindness.
The last four workshops can be chosen from among various subjects, depending on what grade level an instructor is teaching.
The program provides for mentoring of all new teachers from preschool to 12th grade, with building principals and administrators serving as mentors. All new administrators are mentored through the Office of Catholic Schools. The number of small groups for each workshop depends on the size of the school.
“With its blended learning platforms, the fact that it’s mentored, its flexibility and the variety and richness of what it offers, the Catechetical Institute’s program offers something the diocese’s teachers have never encountered before,” Recinella said. “It allows people to go deeper and to be met where they are at.”
It’s also inexpensive. The program is free for teachers who take part, and the only fee the institute charges is a $300 yearly payment per parish or parish-school combination. Even that is waived in cases where parishes can’t afford it. “It provides high quality at a low price,” Recinella said. “People can’t believe they’re getting all this for free.”
The Catechetical Institute program is an essential component of the evangelization plan for Catholic schools that is part of the diocese’s Real Presence Real Future strategic evangelization initiative. The plan’s vision statement said its goal is “to build and strengthen hearts for Our Lord among all educators. This plan includes large-scale encounter-oriented gatherings every three years supplemented by local prayer groups, formation activities and retreats.”
Dr. Adam Dufault, diocesan superintendent of schools, set up the diocese’s relationship with the Catechetical Institute and began the process of deepening the diocese’s collaborative relationship with Franciscan University, along with the diocese’s previous bishop, Robert Brennan, now bishop of Brooklyn, New York.
“The Catechetical Institute is the best program out there to help us form administrators and teachers to accomplish our goal of growing a school system that is intentionally, authentically and unapologetically Catholic,” Dufault said.
“To do this, we needed to find the resources to best support the outstanding men and women who make Catholic education a reality day in, day out throughout our diocese. We are very happy with how the Catechetical Institute has been implemented and with the feedback we have received.”
The strategic plan of the Office of Catholic Schools, titled “Real Presence Real Future: Our Catholic Schools,” contains three key focus areas that encompass the primary needs of the diocese. It says the schools should be Catholic (unapologetically inspired by faith), excellent (different by design and excellent in every way) and sustainable (ready for the future).
Those goals utilize a framework based on the five marks of a Catholic education as proclaimed by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, currently the archbishop of Vancouver, British Columbia, while he was secretary for the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education.
Archbishop Miller said a Catholic school should have a supernatural vision; be founded on Christian anthropology; be animated by communion and community; be imbued with a Catholic worldview throughout its curriculum; and be sustained by Gospel witness.
“Christian anthropology” is not the traditional social science of anthropology, which deals in the comparative physical and social characteristics of people across history; rather, it is the study of humans as they relate to God – “how each of us are created in the image and likeness of God; how God creates every person out of His love for us; how we all possess a body and a soul and have intellect, reason and free will,” Recinella said.
For more information on the vision for the future of diocesan schools that is part of the Real Presence Real Future initiative, go to https://education.columbuscatholic.org/strategic-plan.