Evangelization and Catechesis:
Changing the name of religious education office reflects on its mission

By Kathleen Bushman
CATHOLIC HERALD STAFF

MADISON -- Following Bishop Robert C. Morlino's recent assumption of the role of director for the Diocese of Madison Office of Religious Education, the office has just undergone a name change.

The new Office of Evangelization and Catechesis joins many dioceses from across the country who have taken this step in an attempt to better reflect through its name the nature of its mission: to introduce people to the person of Jesus Christ and help them know, love, and serve him more deeply, said Eric Schiedermayer, executive secretary of the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, explaining the name change.

Reflecting the mission

To evangelize is to proclaim Christ and his teaching, especially to people and cultures who have not yet effectively met him, he said. And catechesis, which derives from a word meaning "to echo," signifies how the Catholic Church does not advance her own creations and ideas, but echoes the teaching of Christ.

"It is hoped that changing the name of the office will help address a misunderstanding that is sometimes associated with the term 'religious education,'" Schiedermayer said. "In today's society, this term often connotes a strictly academic process involving only children.

"On the contrary, our work aims to help form people with an integrated faith, not simply an academic one. Catechesis is a life-long process of initial conversion, formation, education, and ongoing conversion."

Jack McBride, an associate director with nearly 20 years service in the diocesan office, said he is pleased with the name change.

McBride, who focuses on adult education efforts, worked with the U.S. Catholic Bishops on their 1999 statement, Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us, which stated that "Adult faith formation . . . must be the central task in the catechetical enterprise," becoming "the axis around which revolves the catechesis of childhood and adolescence as well as that of old age."

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