Contact: Mike Alex, 913-302-6970
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Dec. 14, 2015 /
Christian Newswire/ -- The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago serves more than 2.3 million Catholics in Cook and Lake counties in Northeastern Illinois. One of the nation's largest Archdioceses, they also administrate the largest school district. Recognized as an innovator in the area of Catholic education, the Archdiocese of Chicago has partnered with My Catholic Faith Delivered (MCFD) to provide online teaching of the faith for today's learner.
MCFD Executive Director, Mike Alex, says, "we are energized by Father Peter Wojcik's visionary thinking in taking online teaching to 2.3 million people. This is a game-changing approach for the church to educate and share the faith with so many."
Fr. Peter Wojcik, Director, Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry -- Archdiocese of Chicago, explains, "As I took over this office (because of my work as the Chief of Strategy for schools) I knew many problems principals faced regarding certification and ongoing formation. I asked my team to interview catechetical leaders, pastors and catechists in order to help us in drafting the future direction of the office as well as offering new programs. After talking to over 700 individuals we learned our programs were:
· not accessible
· expensive
· not aligned (expectations and outcomes)
· and taught with mixed quality
We decided to address those issues and when looking at the global market we decided if we are going to invest in any training programs and formation models, they would have to be online so we would not have to look for another big change in 3-5 years. As Bishop Barron said to me a few months ago, 'in five years unless something is online, it won't exist.'"
Wojcik continues, "Our new programs are reflective of requests we received, as well as of time demands of younger people we like to include as catechists. Our people are different today - so our programs also have to change! Cutting the initial programs by 50% and building a structure of ongoing formation reflects our attempt to make formation easier, more accessible and exciting for all age groups- including young professionals. We also developed a catechist formation and certification program in Polish, as nearly 15,000 students attend Polish schools and learn faith through them. Now we have almost 300 Polish speaking catechists who are fully certified and teach the faith in the same way as parishes based English and Spanish programs."
About The Archdiocese of Chicago: At the Office for Catechesis and Youth Ministry we are committed to apply the very best of Catholic theology and catechetical theory to the many kinds of catechetical programming and services we provide. Aware of the multicultural and multilingual reality of our Archdiocese, we strive to be sensitive to the spiritualities and cultural values of the people we serve. We prepare our catechists and catechetical leaders to have a collaborative role with us, with each other, and in their parishes. We work to enrich the faith of the people who comprise the Catholic Church of Chicago.
About My Catholic Faith Delivered: Partnering with My Catholic Faith Delivered provides an online system that can reach the widest possible audience. Faith formation programs have focuses with desired outcomes unique to each diocese or apostolate. MCFD created lessons with this in mind, so our system can personalize an online course to match any curriculum. Each lesson is generally aligned to learning outcomes from the National Directory of Catechesis supported by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The finished product is a customized course that you can offer to your users. www.mycatholicfaithdelivered.com
