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Enhancing Participation in Parish Adult Faith Formation

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Enhancing Participation in Parish Adult Faith Formation THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Why Don’t They Come? Enhancing Participation in Parish Adult Faith Formation A TREATISE Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Ministry © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Rose A. Marden Washington, D.C. 2014 Why Don’t They Come? Enhancing Participation in Parish Adult Faith Formation Rose A. Marden, D. Min. Director: Rev. Raymond Studzinski, OSB, Ph.D. Despite Church teachings indicating that adult faith formation should be at the center of a parish’s catechetical ministry, this is not the practice in the Archdiocese of San Antonio. In parishes where an effort is made to offer adult faith formation programs, relatively few adults participate. The researcher wanted to know why this was the case. The researcher gathered three focus groups, one at each of three similar parishes, and asked the participants why they thought people did not come to adult faith formation offerings in their parish. The researcher recorded the conversations, had them transcribed, and then analyzed them for themes that might answer the question of why so few people attend adult faith formation events. She discovered that a fear of not being welcomed and the busyness of contemporary life were the main reasons the participants offered. Other significant findings included the need for better marketing and use of technology, a need to carefully consider content and the use of adult methodology, cultural influences, supportive pastoral leadership, and issues of motivation and conversion. The project demonstrated the need for good pastoral planning that looks at the real spiritual hungers of the people in the parish, and the need to evangelize with highly intentional welcoming events. The researcher discovered the importance of having pastoral leadership that shares and communicates a vision of parish life in which the idea of the Church’s central identity as evangelizer is recognized, articulated, and lived out. This treatise by Rose A. Marden fulfills the treatise requirement for the doctoral degree in Ministry approved by Rev. Raymond Studzinski, O.S.B., Ph.D., and by Sr. Margaret Schreiber, O.P., D.Min., STD., Reader. ________________________________________________ Rev. Raymond Studzinski, O.S.B., Ph.D., Director ________________________________________________ Sr. Margaret Schreiber, O.P., D. Min., S.T.D., Reader ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER ONE: PASTORAL ANALYSIS ...............................................................................1 The Problem ............................................................................................................................1 Purpose....................................................................................................................................6 Research Questions .................................................................................................................6 Research Approach ..................................................................................................................7 Anticipated Outcomes .............................................................................................................7 Researcher Assumptions ..........................................................................................................8 Researcher Perspectives ...........................................................................................................8 Definitions ............................................................................................................................. 10 Evangelization ................................................................................................................... 10 Catechesis .......................................................................................................................... 10 The Question ......................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER TWO: BIBLICAL WITNESS AND HISTORICAL PRACTICE ............................ 12 Biblical Witness .................................................................................................................... 12 Early Church Practice ............................................................................................................ 14 Decline of the Catechumenate ............................................................................................... 16 Seventh to Sixteenth Centuries .............................................................................................. 17 Catechisms ............................................................................................................................ 18 Children and Content ......................................................................................................... 22 Catechesis in America ........................................................................................................... 23 European Immigration ....................................................................................................... 24 Higher Education in the Americas ...................................................................................... 25 Parochial Schools ............................................................................................................... 26 Renewal ................................................................................................................................ 29 Vatican II and the Return to a Focus on Adult Faith Formation .............................................. 31 CHAPTER THREE: THE CONTEXT FOR ADULT FAITH FORMATION ............................ 37 iii Faith ...................................................................................................................................... 38 Faith Formation ..................................................................................................................... 40 Terminology ...................................................................................................................... 40 Evangelization ................................................................................................................... 43 Formation as Holistic and Transformative .......................................................................... 44 Content and Relationship ................................................................................................... 48 Adult Learning ...................................................................................................................... 49 Human and Spiritual Development ..................................................................................... 50 Andragogy ......................................................................................................................... 54 Learning as Transformation ............................................................................................... 55 Motivation ......................................................................................................................... 57 Cultural Context .................................................................................................................... 64 A Shift in Thinking ............................................................................................................ 65 Emerging Adults ................................................................................................................ 68 Branding ............................................................................................................................ 71 Art and Music .................................................................................................................... 72 An Adult Church ................................................................................................................... 73 Summary ............................................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER FOUR: IMPLEMENTING THE PROJECT ............................................................ 77 Focus Groups ........................................................................................................................ 77 Week One .......................................................................................................................... 79 Week Two ......................................................................................................................... 83 Week Three ....................................................................................................................... 86 Commonalities Among the Groups .................................................................................... 91 Seven Themes .................................................................................................................... 94 Evaluations .......................................................................................................................
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