Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us
A Pastoral Plan for Adult Faith Formation in the United States
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
November 17, 1999
Introduction
"Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?" (Lk 24:32)
A Renewed Commitment to Adult Faith Formation
We are filled with great joy and expectation as the third millennium of Christian history dawns. Before us, in the wonder of God's gracious plan, stretch new opportunities to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to all the world. We are eager to witness and share the word of life about the reign of God faithfully, so that each new generation can hear this word in its own accents and discover Christ as its Savior.
Every disciple of the Lord Jesus shares in this mission. To do their part, adult Catholics must be mature in faith and well equipped to share the Gospel, promoting it in every family circle, in every church gathering, in every place of work, and in every public forum. They must be women and men of prayer whose faith is alive and vital, grounded in a deep commitment to the person and message of Jesus.
The Church's pastoral ministry exists to sustain the work of the Gospel. One way it does this is by nourishing and strengthening lay men and women in their calling and identity as people of faith, as contributors to the life and work of the Church, and as disciples whose mission is to the world. To grow in discipleship throughout life, all believers need and are called to build vibrant parish and diocesan communities of faith and service.
Such communities cannot exist without a strong, complete, and systematic catechesis for all its members. By "complete and systematic" we mean a catechesis that nurtures a profound, lifelong conversion of the whole person and sets forth a comprehensive, contemporary synthesis of the faith,(1) as presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This catechesis will help adults to experience the transforming power of grace and to grasp the integrity and beauty of the truths of faith in their harmonious unity and interconnection-a true symphony of faith.(2)
Adult faith formation,(3) 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,"(4) becoming "the axis around which revolves the catechesis of childhood and adolescence as well as that of old age."(5) This can be done specifically through developing in adults a better understanding of and participation in the full sacramental life of the Church.
To make this vision a reality, we, as the Catholic bishops of the United States, call the Church in our country to a renewed commitment to adult faith formation, positioning it at the heart of our catechetical vision and practice. We pledge to support adult faith formation without weakening our commitment to our other essential educational ministries. This pastoral plan guides the implementation of this pledge and commitment.
Jesus, the Model Teacher
The Gospels show how Jesus communicated the Good News. In the familiar story of Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35) we find the model for this pastoral plan.
To be effective ministers of adult faith formation we will first, like Jesus, join people in their daily concerns and walk side by side with them on the pathway of life. We will ask them questions and listen attentively as they speak of their joys, hopes, griefs, and anxieties.
We will share with them the living word of God, which can touch their hearts and minds and unfold the deep meaning of their experience in the light of all that Jesus said and did. We will trust the capacity of prayer and sacrament to open their eyes to the presence and love of Christ. We will invite them to live and share this Good News in the world.
This is the way for us to acknowledge the life-giving power and evangelizing dynamic of encountering Jesus today-just as the two disciples felt their hearts burn within them and returned in haste to Jerusalem to tell their story of meeting Jesus.
Why were their hearts burning? They were burning because in Jesus the disciples caught a glimpse into the heart of God and found their world made new. They saw for an instant the full scope of the Father's loving plan and its high point in Christ's death and resurrection. In that perspective, the pathway of their lives opened from confusion and despair into conviction and hope, and they began to grasp the height and depth of God's mysterious love. What a profound learning experience that must have been!
The passage offers us a model for our ministry and shows the need we all have for ongoing formation in faith. For in it we see two adult disciples who, encountering the risen Lord, grow stronger in love, knowledge, commitment, and zeal. As then, today, "Those who are already disciples of Jesus Christ . . . [need] to be constantly nourished by the word of God so that they may grow in their Christian life."(6)
Such lifelong formation is always needed and must be a priority in the Church's catechetical ministry; moreover, it must "be considered the chief form of catechesis. All the other forms, which are indeed always necessary, are in some way oriented to it."(7)
We are well aware that placing ongoing adult faith formation at the forefront of our catechetical planning and activity will mean real change in emphasis and priorities. In refocusing our catechetical priorities, we will all need to discover new ways of thinking and acting that will vigorously renew the faith and strengthen the missionary dynamism of the Church. Although the task may seem daunting, we need look back no further than the implementation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults twenty years ago to find a model for success. Today, most parishes participate in the catechumenal process, which has brought the Church in the United States great benefit. We seek similar fruits from adult faith formation.
As bishops, we will walk this journey of discovery with you. We write now to offer encouragement and to guide the reorientation of ministerial priorities and practices that we know this plan entails. At the same time, we rely upon your pastoral creativity and dedication to implement the plan effectively. We must go forward firmly rooted in prayer, open to the mystery of God's love, and in touch with the realities of the world. Our dedication and efforts, then, will bear fruit in God's way and time restoring all things in Christ.
Introducing the Plan
This plan builds upon the work already being done by the Catholic community in adult faith formation. The catechumenate is a blessing for those becoming Catholic and for the entire faith community. Renewal programs touch the lives of millions of adult Catholics. Countless Scripture study groups meet regularly to share the word of God and apply it to their lives. Faith-sharing communities are taking root and flourishing around the country. Lay ministry and catechist formation programs each year form tens of thousands of committed adults for service to the Church's mission to proclaim God's reign. Catholic universities and colleges welcome adults into a variety of programs designed to foster their personal growth and to help them develop ministerial skills. Catholic schools and parish religious education programs have enriched the faith of adults who are parents and catechists. Parents in sacrament preparation programs grow in their appreciation of the sacraments and learn to share their faith with their children. Catholic media outlets and publishing companies provide a consistent stream of resources that promote spiritual growth. We offer heartfelt thanks to all who have contributed so generously to these and similar efforts of evangelization and catechesis.
Building on the efforts that have taken place, we seek with this plan to make ongoing faith formation more available, attractive, and effective for all adult Catholics.
- We seek to form parishes that are vitally alive in faith. These communities will provide a parish climate and an array of activities and resources designed to help adults more fully understand and live their faith.
- We seek to form adults who actively cultivate a lively baptismal and eucharistic spirituality with a powerful sense of mission and apostolate. Nourished by word, sacrament, and communal life, they will witness and share the Gospel in their homes, neighborhoods, places of work, and centers of culture.
This plan for adult faith formation takes its place among other initiatives we have offered in recent years. We addressed today's needs for youth ministry and catechesis in Renewing the Vision and for young adult ministry in Sons and Daughters of the Light. Some other statements clearly related to this present plan include our national plan for evangelization, Go and Make Disciples, our reflections on the social mission of the parish, Communities of Salt and Light, our statement on the laity, Called and Gifted for the Third Millennium, our synthesis of social doctrine in Sharing Catholic Social Teaching, and our letter in Support of Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools. Taken together, these documents offer a body of teaching and a wide-ranging and mutually reinforcing agenda for mission and renewal in the Church in our country. We are convinced that effective adult faith formation will make our efforts in all these initiatives more fruitful.
The plan contains four parts. Fidelity to the Gospel means engagement with the world, and so we begin in Part I with a look at some of the concrete challenges and opportunities that we face. In Part II we describe key elements of mature faith. In Part III we identify three key goals to seek, a number of reliable principles to employ, six content areas to address, and several approaches to follow in providing sound and diversified adult faith formation. In Part IV we focus on the parish as the locus of adult faith formation ministry and identify critical roles of parish leadership and diocesan support.
The Audience for This Plan
We write this plan to all our collaborators who share with us leadership and responsibility for adult faith formation in parishes, dioceses, and other pastoral settings.
We write especially for parish leaders:
- Pastors who bear primary responsibility for catechetical formation in their parishes(8)
- Parish adult faith formation leaders, both professional staff and active parishioners
- Directors of liturgy and music
- Other members of parish staffs-clergy, religious, and laity-who share directly or indirectly in responsibility for formation
- All parish faith formation ministers who serve in any role or setting (e.g., as catechists, education team members, RCIA ministers, Scripture study facilitators, sacramental preparation leaders, ministry trainers, small church community leaders or facilitators)
- Administrators and teachers in Catholic schools who have the opportunity to nurture faith in many different settings-whether in the students, in their parents, in themselves, or in their colleagues.
We write for diocesan leaders:
- Ourselves as bishops, teachers of the faith who bear chief responsibility for "the overall direction of catechesis" in our dioceses(9)
- Our diocesan staffs charged specifically to care for adult faith formation and all their colleagues in diocesan ministry whose work also nurtures adult faith at different stages in the process(10)
- Other diocesan staff members who work with adults in their ministry (e.g., campus ministry, diocesan newspapers, ecumenical and interfaith affairs, evangelization, family life, hospitals or health care ministry, communications, stewardship, youth and young adult ministry, etc.)
- We write for those in other pastoral ministry settings-such as seminaries, houses of religious formation, colleges and universities, social service agencies, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, migrant worker camps, pro-life agencies, retreat houses, monasteries-and for those who work in publishing and communications. If you work with adults, you have the opportunity to help them grow in faith. We offer the vision and principles of this plan to guide and encourage you in this essential ministry.
A Time for Awakening
We intend the vision, initiatives, and timeline of this plan to awaken throughout the Church in our country a passion for renewal in the ministry of adult faith formation. Through fervent prayer and pastoral work-and relying on the grace of the Holy Spirit-our efforts together will help the whole Catholic people advance in authentic discipleship and fulfill their baptismal call and mission to grow to the full maturity of Christ (cf. Eph 4:13).
1. Cf. Congregation for the Clergy, General Directory for Catechesis (GDC), nos.121, 124 (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1998).
3. On the term "adult faith formation," please see the Afterword.
4. International Council for Catechesis, Adult Catechesis in the Christian Community: Some Principles and Guidelines (ACCC), no. 25 (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1992).
5. GDC, no. 275; cf. Congregation for the Clergy, General Catechetical Directory (GCD), no. 20 (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1971).
6. GDC, no. 50; cf. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi: On Evangelization in the Modern World (EN), nos. 42-45, 54, 57 (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1975).
7. GDC, no. 59, citing GCD, no. 20; John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae: On Catechesis in Our Time (CT), no. 43 (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1979), cf. Part 4, Chapter 2.
8. Cf. GDC, nos. 224-225; Code of Canon Law (CIC), nos. 773, 776-777 (Washington, D.C.: Canon Law Society of America, 1983); Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO) (1990), nos. 617, 619, 624; CT, no. 64; United States Catholic Conference, Sharing the Light of Faith: National Catechetical Directory for Catholics of the United States (NCD), no. 217 (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1979); Second Vatican Council, Presbyterorum Ordinis: Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests (PO), no. 6. In Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents: New Revised Edition, ed. Austin Flannery (Northport, N.Y.: Costello Publishing Co., 1992).
9. Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution of the Church (LG), no. 25. In Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents: New Revised Edition, ed. Austin Flannery (Northport, N.Y.: Costello Publishing Co., 1992); CT, no. 63; GDC, nos. 222-223.
