By Faith Formation Staff

On April 19, pastors, Catholic school leaders, and parish catechetical leaders from around the diocese gathered at Terra Sancta for the revealing of the new diocesan religion curriculum standards. For over a year, the group had been waiting for guidelines for teachers and catechists. During this gathering, the group reviewed the standards along with their accompanying documents and discussed common questions and challenges surrounding implementation.  

The project began about a year-and-a-half ago at the request of Bishop Peter Muhich, who understood the important need for all diocesan catechists and Catholic school teachers to have a set of common standards and objectives, around which they could base their catechesis. At that point, the diocese did not have an updated set of religious education standards. Therefore, a commission was formed, composed of teachers, school administrators, and diocesan catechists from various parts of the diocese; it was led by Sr. Sara Kowal, SCTJM, the diocesan Director of the Office of Faith Formation. This commission met monthly during the school year and even devoted multiple full days during the summer to create this new curriculum.  

The commission did not “start from scratch”; instead, they first evaluated various other sets of diocesan standards from across the country to see which one(s) would be most appropriate to use as a base for our own set of standards. It was decided to use the standards from the Archdioceses of both Denver and Detroit to build upon. After about a year of meetings, the commission finished their work and gave it to Sr. Sara and Bridget Grapentine, events and program coordinator for the Office of Faith Formation, to edit and complete.  Sr. Sara and Bridget worked on editing the standards, writing the introductory documents and appendices, and formatting the entire document into its final product. After these edits, the draft was submitted to both the presbyteral council and a group of diocesan catechists for review. In January, the draft was submitted to Bishop Peter, who gave his enthusiastic approval.  

The curriculum consists of a list of standards for each grade level that outlines the core concepts that should be taught at that grade level. The structure of the various domains and standards is organized around the four pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The organization, which can be viewed by domain or by  grade level, allows teachers to see what children have learned in the past and what they will be learning in the future, to give context to their own grade level’s catechesis. These standards are the primary content of the curriculum. However, the entire document also includes important elements and additions to explain: the spirit, nature and organization of the curriculum; the necessity of integrating both doctrine and spirituality in catechesis; guiding principles that underlie each domain of the curriculum; and various appendices to aid catechists and teachers in their implementation of the curriculum.  

The new curriculum outlines the various standards for grade K-8, and it also includes some basic outcomes for pre-school age children. Bishop Muhich desired to have a K-12 religion curriculum in the end, and it was decided that K-8 would be completed first. This fall, a new commission will be formed to discuss the creation and implementation of religion standards for high school catechesis.  

Overall, this project has been an enormous and labor-intensive task – but one that was well worth the effort. It is hoped that it will provide comprehensive and helpful guidance for all those entrusted with the task of catechesis in our diocese. Click here to see the new curriculum.