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New medium, timeless teachings
St. Patrick caters catechesis to busy parishioners
By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
December 6, 2007
SCOTTSDALE — The busy lives of many Valley Catholics have made traditional catechesis taught in a classroom setting difficult.
But one local parish is finding new creative ways to get the Good News out.
“We were looking for an innovative way of approaching adult formation,” said Maggie Seliga, director of faith formation and stewardship at St. Patrick Parish. “Adults in this parish are extremely busy and not always able to come to classes at night.”
So Seliga and Fr. Eric Tellez, pastor of the parish, devised a way to bring the instruction and information into the parishioners’ homes.
The result is a magazine called Cry the Gospel. The first one was published last spring and focused on Scripture. In September, the parish published one on hospitality with an emphasis on immigration. In a few weeks, parishioners will be able to pick up the third issue covering sin, mercy and forgiveness.
Fr. Tellez decides on the themes of each issue and then leaves it to Seliga and her team of volunteers to put it all together.
“I put the themes for the magazine out to the writers,” Seliga said. “I usually tell them, ‘This is the theme. Is there an article you can write?’”
So far, finding material has been easy, Seliga said, thanks in large part to Alex and Rosemary Cudzewicz. The husband and wife team have written multiple articles for Cry the Gospel.
“I like to write, so it’s fairly easy,” Alex said. “I do the research and also draw upon books I’ve read or articles. That’s how it comes together.”
Rosemary has provided book reviews for the magazine and also shared photos and a story about Middle Eastern hospitality from a trip she took to Jordan.
The group strives for a variety of styles in their articles and always includes a saint to tie the theme together — “Augustine’s going to be our saint for sin,” Seliga laughed.
“We’re looking for variety and balance,” she said. “On the first issue, the thing we were complimented on most was that the articles were short, they were containable and they were things that they could actually work on with their children.”
That’s important to Seliga because St. Patrick’s tries to foster whole-family catechesis. Balance of thought is also important due to some of the magazine’s controversial themes, like immigration.
“Each topic that I receive I just think we’re not going to be able to do that,” Seliga said. “When I got the immigration one, I thought they were just going to have a fit in the pews, but we tried to make it as balanced as we could and tried to honor everybody’s background.”
It also helps that Fr. Tellez works the themes of upcoming issues into his homilies to prepare the parishioners. By the time the hospitality issue came out, the parish had been discussing its content for a while, so everyone was prepared for thoughtful and thought-
provoking discourse.
Which is the goal of the magazine and other materials the parish uses.
In addition to Cry the Gospel, they’ve also put out a CD called “This and That” which features common questions about the faith and answers from parish leaders. Seliga said she gets ideas for the questions by talking to the parishioners and seeing what’s on their minds.
Then, when the CD is produced, they can just pop it into their car stereo and have catechesis-on-the-go.
“It just gives you another outlet to teach people,” Rosemary said.
Seliga agreed.
“It’s an exciting ministry and something new,” she said. “It’s a different way of approaching the folks just to let them know what their Church teaches.”
And judging by the fact that the first two issues both went through multiple printings, it’s something that St. Patrick parishioners are hungry for.
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