Year 2 is About to Begin

We are ready to begin Year Two - The Profession of Faith, October 2011 

The Profession of Faith: What We Believe looks at the truths that we, as Catholics, believe. It gives us the opportunity to explore the basic tenets of our faith and offers insight on what it means to be Catholic following what the Catechism describes as "the oldest Roman catechism, the Apostles' Creed."  It also includes a special emphasis on the central mystery of our Christian faith – the Blessed Trinity. 

 
If you are interested in facilitating a small group in your home or in another home once a week to study our Profession of Faith, please call or email : Bernadette Moore at 407-474-2245, rmoore52@cfl.rr.com (English), or Juan and Carmen Robles at 407-330-7165, juan@juanrobles.com.  (Facilitator training will be held at All Souls on Sunday, August 14th at 2:00 pm, one session will be in  English, one will be in Spanish.)  Participating in Year One is not a requirement.  You will be equipped with all materials needed to lead a successful group.
 

What Is Why Catholic?

Renew International began to develop Why Catholic? shortly after the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) increased its focus on evangelization and catechesis and had issued two documents: Go and Make Disciples and Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us.

“Both were seen as far reaching and important calls for faith formation and evangelization and it sent a strong message that the best of parish resources should be directed to adults,” said Deirdre Trabert Malacrea, communications director, Renew International.

Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us states: “Small communities are powerful vehicles for adult faith formation, providing opportunities for learning, prayer, mutual support, and the shared experience of Christian living and service to Church and society.”

Renew had already developed a successful model for the creation of small Christian communities and resources to help people understand the catechism, Catholic doctrine and theology.

“This was good timing, actually providence, for us to look at doing something more catechetical. We took the four pillars of the catechism -- the creed, sacraments, Christian life (morality) and prayer and built a program around it,” said Trabert Malacrea.

Why Catholic? incorporates 4 books and each one takes 12 sessions to complete. The books refer to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Scripture. The books have undergone theological review and were approved by the USCCB Ad-Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism.

The name Why Catholic? encompasses questions such as: Why am I Catholic? Why do Catholics believe what they believe? Why do I want my family to be Catholic?

The evangelization part of the process is both overt and subtle. The overt part is recognizing that all Catholics are called to be evangelizers as a parish and as an individual. Renew offers workshops on how to develop a parish plan for evangelization.

“The subtle part has to do with being more confident to answer questions about our faith. After going through the process, you have a little more grounding so you don’t clam up on the topic of faith,” said Trabert Malacrea.