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Rural Catechesis NCCL, April 22, 2007 Jane Pierron, Archdiocese of Cincinnati

Typically, one does not think of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as rural. We have a major Interstate highway (I 75) that runs north and south almost through the center of the Archdiocese and another major U.S. Interstate (I 70) that runs almost through the center from East to West. The Archdiocese is approximately 120 miles long from north to south with Cincinnati on the river in the south. We have two heavily populated regions with the cities of Cincinnati and Dayton surrounding I 75. Interestingly, the rest of the Archdiocese is heavily rural. The northwest edge of the diocese has the two leading agriculture counties in Ohio with around 90% of the land designated farm land. There are many small communities: some with significant population and others with a church, bar/tavern and a few houses. The southeast edge of the Archdiocese is also heavily rural with hills and land that is not very productive except for tobacco. There are significant differences between the two areas.

The northwest edge’s Catholic population is as high as 55% of the population to the far north corner and tapers down to 4% in the south corner running along the West border. The Catholic population of the southeast edge of the Archdiocese ranges from 1% in the south to 14% in the more heavily populated northern part of the Eastern edge. The economic level in the southeast is much lower with some of the state’s highest rates of poverty while the northwest enjoys the fruits of good farm land and highly productive dairy, hog and poultry operations. Travel in the northwest is much easier than in the southeast with its flat and straight (for the most part) state highway system. It is my understanding that, though the distance is not as far for the southeast, travel time to downtown Cincinnati can be over 2 hours – as it is from the northwest corner.

There are 20 parishes in the far northwest county for about 23,000 Catholics. There are 2 parishes in the far southeast county with fewer than 400 Catholics. The southeast is larger geographically. The 20 parishes in the northwest county have been divided into 9 pastoral regions with one pastor assigned to each region.

There is a small Catholic college that offers an associate degree accessible to the southeast. The closest Catholic university for the northwest is located in Dayton – about a 2 hour drive from the farthest north corner.

In the southeast rural area, there are college educated leaders in parishes. The best thing about catechesis in this area comes from the collaborative work of the catechetical leaders. Even though they have to travel some distance to work together, they make the sacrifice. They now have a deanery-wide junior-senior high school retreat and they have an annual Day of Reflection for all their catechists. All the parishes contribute seed money for these events and to subsidize paying good instructors to come out and teach certification and adult education courses for the deanery.

In the northern rural areas, most of the parish catechetical leaders have a high school education, a few have college degrees in other areas, and a few have been through the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program, certificate option, offered by the Athenaeum of Ohio. Most are poorly paid and not recognized as part of the staff. There is high turnover in leadership. This is a battle that most pastors are not willing to take on. And many don’t recognize this as a concern.

I work in the northern area of the Archdiocese and will speak specifically to that area. Our greatest challenge is working with an ever changing catechetical leadership. In most places, they are responsible only for the religious education program of children – which is the traditional classroom model. We have an extremely high percentage of our children engaged in religious education which extends into our high school. Of those who are involved in religious education in the elementary and junior high years, 78% of those complete their senior year. About 19% of our parish catechists have some certification (expired or active) and many more are actively pursuing certification – the highest percentage rate in the Archdiocese. We have about 100 Catholic school teachers who must pursue certification in order for their school to retain its accreditation. Certification for all of them is available through live presentations, video courses, and the VLCFF (Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation, University of Dayton.). We have offered a Religious Education Congress for the past 32 years that gives them an opportunity to attend workshops that enhance their teaching skills and hear a nationally known keynote presentation. We are working to expand that event to include other ministries as well.

We do offer opportunities for the formation for the leadership. The Athenaeum of Ohio offers the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program certificate option every four years. It is ordinarily a two year process with a two year break before the next cycle begins. Our office offers some training opportunities. We have a task force in the Archdiocese working to develop some criteria for Lay Ecclesial Ministry as put forth in the Bishops’ document, Co-Workers in the Vineyard. There is another sub committee in place to look at the educational needs and how those needs might be met.

Many of our parishes are participating in Why Catholic?, (a 4 year program developed by RENEW International). Bible study, soup and bread evenings and weeklong missions seem to be the most popular means of AFF. Some parishes have someone designated as the AFF coordinator.

As an office, we are promoting quality AFF at the time of sacramental preparation. Again, most parish leaders do not have the theology and the know how to do this well. So sacrament preparation evenings with parents become a time to talk about the logistics of the celebration. Over the 20 years I have been on the diocesan staff, I have seen some improvement in this area.

RCIA is another area that is seeing some growth. The movement to pastoral regions has moved some RCIA coordinators to at least talk about ways they can collaborate. Others have formed whole pastoral region RCIA processes. This is slowly happening – but it means working out a common approach to the catechesis and the celebration of the Rites. We have provided some training in this area.

I have been around long enough to know that a new resource is not going to “fix” the change of attitude needed in order for lay leadership to blossom and take hold. We need pastors, pastoral councils, business managers, finance commissions and the people in the pew to see the need for quality lay leadership. That means providing and supporting lay leaders with education, just wages and an office at the parish rather than their home. It means making them a vital part of the parish staff and part of the overall planning of the catechetical needs of the parish. It means working with area universities to provide affordable and accessible opportunities for our leaders.

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