Join LMU's Michael Horan and a Panel of Youth Ministry Directors for a Discussion on the Church’s Ability to Teach the Faith to the Youth of Today
Thursday, June 11, 2009
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
The findings of the National Study on Youth and Religion (NSYR) found that Catholic teens , unlike their peers of other faiths, have difficulty with two fundamental practices of faith: being able to express what they believe and being able to identify adults around them with whom they would pursue important faith questions. This situation has led some to call for a return to the days of the “Baltimore Catechism,” to a former era in which “instruction in the faith” meant a clear articulation of answers to questions. But such a move would be counter-productive, according to LMU Theological Studies Prof. Michael Horan. Drawing on catechetical practices already in place in the church, Prof. Horan points out that part of the answer to the dilemma of Catholic adolescent catechesis described in the NSYR necessarily involves the faith of adults, and ultimately, that of the entire faith community. Prof. Horan asks if we are now at the point in which the church is in need of true reform: a time to build a bold new model of catechesis—and to prepare the ministers who will carry it out.
ABOUT PROFESSOR HORAN
Michael Horan, Ph.D. is Professor of Religious Education and Pastoral Theology at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. Dr. Horan, who holds a Ph.D. in Religious Education from the Catholic University of America, ministered to youth and young adults in high schools and college campuses in New York and Washington, D.C. He holds a special interest in the preparation of lay ministers for leadership in the Catholic church. For the past ten years Michael has taught Catholic lay ministers and Catholic school teachers in graduate programs at LMU and in various universities throughout the nation each summer. Michael is an author of two works on the General Directory for Catechesis and is a contributing author of Blest Are We, the parish and school religious education series published by Silver Burdett Ginn. Dr. Horan chairs the Advisory Board for the Office of Pastoral Associates for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and he is a member of the Board of Directors of St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, California.