New department aims to form ‘lifelong disciples’

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

When the Office of Catholic Schools and the Office of Religious Education merged last summer into the newly established Department of Catholic Education and Faith Formation, the vision was clear: The core mission of both Catholic schools and parishes is to “form lifelong disciples.”

“You cannot separate faith formation from Catholic education,” said Dr. RaeNell Houston, executive director and superintendent of the new department and the former superintendent of Catholic schools.

The mission of the new department is “to provide service, support and guidance” to both parishes and schools “in the shared ministry” of creating those lifelong disciples through excellence in evangelization, catechesis and education.

Sharing diverse skill sets
The mission clearly envisions no wall of separation between parish and school communities but rather a robust sharing of skills to enhance education and faith formation.

“I really think this is the work of the Holy Spirit,” said Deacon Michael Whitehouse, a former administrator in the Office of Religious Education who is now deputy director of faith formation. “The point is we were two ships aiming in the same direction but perhaps on slightly different paths. This is the opportunity for us to join in a single purpose, which is the formation of disciples. It is the bringing together of diverse and complementary gifts.

“It’s a joyous union between those two offices and something that we’ve talked about for a long time. We’re hopeful that it will be a model for other dioceses in the country. We just believe that these two entities should never, in any way, have been separated. We don’t even like to think of Catholic education and faith formation as two separate things because we’re all involved in faith formation.”

COVID response was shared
Even though the joint effort is still in its early stages, Houston said there have been several positive outcomes during the challenging time of COVID-19 restrictions.

Because the Catholic Schools office had been dealing since last March with the state’s social-distancing guidelines and had helped individual schools develop protocols and procedures for on-campus, distance and hybrid learning, it was well positioned to help parish schools of religion refine how they offer instruction.

“We were able to share all that information and apply it to our parish schools of religion to develop protocols and policies for themselves in how to be safe and maintain a healthy and safe environment,” Houston said. 

Kasey Webb, associate superintendent of academic excellence, also was available to guide parish catechetical leaders in getting up to speed on computer-driven, instructional technologies.

“We were able to use the expertise of our staff to provide professional training and development for parish catechetical leaders and for catechists on how to use Google Classroom and Zoom and provide guidelines for them to enforce a safe environment,” Houston said. “So, from the very beginning, this has been a beautiful collaboration in that we are sharing knowledge, experience and expertise to help inform the practices that take place both in schools and in parishes.”

Teamwork pays off
Martha Mundine, who now serves as deputy superintendent of Catholic schools, said when the two offices were separate, there was always a line of demarcation: Anyone calling with questions about religious education in schools or parishes was immediately directed to the Office of Religious Education.

“We (the Office of Catholic Schools) would not really get involved,” Mundine said. “Now, those questions are ours. Michael is our partner. We’re all a team and it’s moving the same way. We’re joining efforts and sharing resources. It’s win-win. It’s wonderful. In the past, we were so confined to early childhood to 12th grade. Now, we look at this ‘womb to the tomb.’”

Deacon Whitehouse said enhancing the skills of parish catechists goes beyond deepening their spiritual formation. It also includes getting them up to date on the latest in technological and classroom skills, a service the former schools office can provide.

“It’s instructional methodology, and they need to be aware of new advances in technology,” Deacon Whitehouse said. “These are some of the things that the former Catholic Schools office has with their personnel. When we were moving our catechists toward using Zoom and other online technologies, Kasey Webb did a webinar – not for our religious ed people but for our people.”

The department developed a “case for change” that explains its four guiding principles for the “transformation”:

► Focusing parish and school life on a singular purpose: to form lifelong disciples.

► Reclaiming our missionary zeal to evangelize, catechize and educate.

► Adopting technology that innovates and scales our services (blending onsite and online delivery methods).

► Removing constraints that limit our growth.

The plan also calls for intercessory prayer and the intercession of the Blessed Mother.

“We desire to be very intentional about this in all that we do, including our own ongoing formation as disciples of Jesus Christ,” Houston and Deacon Whitehouse said in a letter to catechists.

“It’s a clarity of mission and clarity of purpose, and I could not be more excited because it better reflects what faith formation is,” Deacon Whitehouse said. “Any time faith formation is relegated to a religion classroom or simply to a Sunday morning, it does great injustice to what faith formation is because faith formation reaches into every aspect of our lives. It reaches into every classroom in the Catholic school. This allows us to be who we have been called to be.”

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Meet the Staff

►Helen Branley, senior financial analyst

► Michael Buras, associate superintendent of operational vitality

► Shanitra Corley, administrative assistant

► Tamika Duroncelay, instructional coach

► Carole Elliot, associate superintendent of elementary schools

► Ingrid Fields, associate superintendent of network schools

► Keith Hanson, financial analyst

► Dr. RaeNell Houston, executive director and superintendent

► Nicole Jefferson, executive administrative assistant

► Barbara McAtee, associate director for Parish Schools of Religion

► Martha Mundine, deputy superintendent of Catholic schools

► Katherine Shea, associate superintendent of academic formation and accessibility

► Kasey Webb, associate superintendent of academic excellence

► Deacon Michael Whitehouse, Ph.D, deputy director of faith formation 

► Dr. Mark Williams, associate superintendent of secondary schools

► Susan Wolf, administrative assistant

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