Resources

Christian Smith research:
"Ask your father and he will tell you."  A Report on Catholic Religious Parenting.
(Smith and Bartkus)
This 2017 report begins, "The vast majority of children of the millennial generation fall well short of what the Church would consider the most basic requirements for active membership. Dour observations about the rise of the “nones” among millennials— those individuals who identify with no religious tradition at all—have become commonplace. In such conditions, do Catholic parents who wish to pass on their faith have to steel themselves against a high probability of failure? Is theirs but a blind hope, a “Hail Mary,” as it were?" Read the report to discover what matters most in the transmission of the faith. What things impact faith development?

Books, articles and a video related to that research:

• Smith’s book (with Amy Adamczyk): Handing Down the Faith: How Parents Pass Their Religion on to the Next Generation

• Timothy O'Malley's article on the Smith and Bartkus presentation at the McGrath Institute: Empowering Parents-Symposium Day 1

• Leonardo deLorenzo's "Breaking the Habit of Outsourcing the Ongoing Catechesis of Our Children"

• Justin Bartkus' "The Home: A Catholic Subculture that Makes a Difference"

Pew research

• Only 1/3 of Catholic Parents Say It's Very Important Children Share Parents' Religious Beliefs (Editorial from Catholic Review)

• Less Than a Third of Catholics Say Marriage and Kids Are 'Very Important' to a Fulfilling Life (America Magazine)

• Vast Majority of U.S. Catholics Who Left the Church Can't Imagine Returning (Washington Post)

Barna research

• Who Is Responsible for Children's Faith Formation?​

• Choosing a Church with Their Kids in Mind

On June 22 we looked at what this looks like in parishes across the country. Here we look at some of the ways people have reimagined faith formation, and/or their input in taking the research and envisioning what this might mean for the future of faith formation. 

Catholic Family Summit Reports (NCCL Parents & Families at the Center of Faith Formation) 

Family Faith Formation with Three Generations (Lifelong Faith Associates)

Families at the Center of Faith Formation (Lifelong Faith Associates)

Family Faith Practice (Lifelong Faith Associates)

Partnering with Parents (Strong Catholic Family Faith)

Families Forming Disciples: A Family Focused Approach to Faith Formation (Archdiocese of Atlanta)

Partnering with Parents to Nurture Family Faith (John Roberto /USCCB)

Pathways - one approach to FFF (Faith and Family Life Catholic Ministries)

Family Centered Religious Education (Daria Sockey for Catechist Magazine)

Familying the Faith (Vibrant Faith)
Helping Families Engage and Evangelize the Nones in Their Homes (USCCB/Bob McCarty)
Messy Family Podcast​ (Mike and Alicia Hernon)

Directory for Catechesis (2020)
DFC #227
"The family is a proclamation of faith in that it is the natural place in which faith can be lived in a simple and spontaneous manner. It “has an unique privilege: transmitting the Gospel by rooting it in the context of profound human values. On this human base, Christian initiation is more profound: the awakening of the sense of God; the first steps in prayer; education of the moral conscience; formation in the Christian sense of human love, understood as a reflection of the love of God the Father, the Creator. It is, indeed, a Christian education more witnessed to than taught, more occasional than systematic, more ongoing and daily than structured into periods.” 

DFC #300
“The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be ‘the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters.’ This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed group made up of a chosen few.” 

Evangelii Gaudium
EG #169
The Church will have to initiate everyone – priests, religious and laity – into this “art of accompaniment” which teaches us to remove our sandals before the sacred ground of the other (cf. Ex 3:5). The pace of this accompaniment must be steady and reassuring, reflecting our closeness and our compassionate gaze which also heals, liberates and encourages growth in the Christian life.

Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us
OHWB #5
"Adult faith formation, by which people consciously grow in the life of Christ through experience, reflection, prayer, and study, must be "the central task in [this] catechetical enterprise,' becoming "the axis around which revolves the catechesis of childhood and adolescence as well as that of old age.' This can be done specifically through developing in adults a better understanding of and participation in the full sacramental life of the Church."

OHWB #117
"The parish, then, provides the place, persons, and means to summon and sustain adults in lifelong conversion of heart, mind, and life. It is, 'without doubt, the most important locus in which the Christian community is formed and expressed.' "