New Ignatius Press series focuses on unevangelized and uncatechized students

Mark Brumley has worked at Ignatius Press since 1995, and has been President of the San Francisco-based publishing house since the early 2000s. He describes himself as a “double convert”, as he was largely unchurched as a child growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, later became an Evangelical Christian with extreme anti-Catholic views, and then converted to Catholicism after years of reading the Church Fathers, Frank Sheed, G.K. Chesterton, Louis Bouyer, and many others.

After working for Catholic Answers from 1989 to 1991, Mark went to the Diocese of San Diego where he served as Director of the Office of Social Ministries (which was the office for respect life and social justice activities) and as Director of the Office of Communications. His time at Ignatius Press began as managing editor of two magazines (Catholic Dossier and The Catholic Faith).

His tenure at Ignatius Press has seen the publisher undertake a number of new ventures, including joint publishing opportunities with the Augustine Institute. The latest, and perhaps most monumental, is the development and publishing of a new religious education curriculum, called Word of Life.

Brumley spoke recently with Catholic World Report about the importance of catechesis, the challenges faced by catechetical leaders today, and the ways Word of Life meets these challenges.

Catholic World Report: Tell us a little about your personal experience in catechesis.

Mark Brumley: I’m a theology teacher, among other things. And a former Catholic elementary school teacher, trained as a catechist, too. I taught religion for 5-8^th graders in Catholic school for many years. Plus, I’ve worked with Catholic schools and parishes to assess and to develop faith-formation curricula, taught catechists in formation, and, with my wife (a former school-teacher), raised five children in the Catholic faith.

Also, I continue to do a lot of adult faith formation, which is catechesis for adults. That, and a fair amount of evangelization and apologetics work over the last forty or so years.

CWR: Why is solid catechesis important? What difference does it make?

Brumley: Because Jesus Christ is important. Solid catechesis helps us know, love, follow, and share Jesus Christ. Christ makes sense of life and fulfills God’s purpose for us. Christ enables us to help others to make sense of life, too, and to fulfill God’s purpose for their lives. Being catechized is at the heart of what it means to be a Catholic, a follower of Jesus Christ and part of his Church. In turn, catechizing others is part of being a “missionary disciple”.

We come to know Christ and then, in turn, we help make him known to others. Catechesis is a way by which we get to know Jesus more deeply. When you fall in love with someone, you want to learn all you can about the person. When we “fall in love” with Jesus, we should want to know all we can about him and what he cares about. Catechesis is the process by which we come to know all we can about Jesus, with whom we’ve fallen in love, as it were. Every aspect of Catholic doctrine and practice is bound up with knowing Christ and walking with him.

CWR: What are some of the issues with catechesis–particularly in the United States–that publishers can help address?

Brumley: The three biggest issues I think all those involved with catechetical ministry, publishers included, need to address are (1) the problem of nominal Christianity; (2) rise of “the nones”, and (3) how to form disciples for life and mission in the world.

“Nominal Christianity” refers to people identifying with Christianity in name only or largely in name—in some ways without a real or significant personal reception of faith, and without embracing what being a believer in Jesus entails for one’s life. That is, without what’s sometimes called a “personal relationship” with Christ.

The problem of nominal Christianity is related to the phenomenon of sacraments-as-social-markers-and-rites-of-passage. Sacraments are social markers, of course. They are identity markers in the larger society. They are rites of passage, too—from outside to inside, from inside to deeper inside. But that’s a generic, sociological way of thinking about it. It’s true as far as it goes; it just doesn’t go far enough. Sacraments should be understood and experienced as genuine encounters with Jesus and a deeper entering into communion with him and with one another in the Church.

The second point has to do the increasing phenomenon of the non-affiliated and disaffiliated—people who, when asked about their religious commitments, identify as “none of the above” or “formerly known as”, so to speak. We need to form young people who can share their faith with the “nones” and to help them avoid disaffiliation. But that presumes those young people know Christ and have some formation to help make him known to the “nones” and to seek the Lord’s help to persevere.

The third point is how to form disciples for life and mission. Our Word of Life series focuses on students’ personal conversion and their growth in following Jesus as disciples, not simply fans or crowd followers. We help young people to see themselves as part of God’s story of salvation, as having a calling from the Lord to find fulfillment in him, and to help others to do so too.

If catechesis is not about those three things, it isn’t “evangelizing catechesis”. In fact, it is not catechesis, whatever else it might be. If we as publishers aren’t serious about helping people to come to communion with God through Jesus in the Spirit, and to bring others into communion with God in the Church, we’re wasting time and resources.

CWR: So, the publishers can play a part in improving catechesis. But what role do the catechists play?

Brumley: Catechists play the role of evangelists, teachers, mentor-disciples, and of course, most importantly, of personal witnesses. To be an evangelist—someone who gives or shares God’s word, one must first be evangelized—to be someone who knows the Lord and who receives God’s word in faith. To be a teacher, one must first have been instructed. To be a mentor-disciple, one must first be a disciple of the Lord—some who loves him, loves his Word, shares life with him in the Sacraments, and obeys him.

And, of course, a catechist must be a personal witness to others. The catechist must love God’s word and be passionate about sharing it faithfully and effectively with others.

CWR: Talk a little about the role of parents in catechesis.

Brumley: Parents are the primary catechists and evangelists in their children’s lives. When parents share their responsibilities with others—catechists and religion teachers—they do not transfer all responsibility to them. They should continue to teach, pray with, and guide their children to become disciples of the Lord. Parents should also support the ministry of catechists and evangelizers. Parents should go to Mass with their children.

In short, parents are responsible for the domestic church. Parents shouldn’t have the attitude, “We send our kids to church or Catholic school to be taught religion. We shouldn’t be expected to be involved. That’s what we pay others to do.” If they have such an attitude, then they indicate that they too need evangelization.

Fortunately, the Word of Life program has resources for teachers, catechists, and pastors to help evangelize parents, too. It is a full-bodied program of evangelizing catechesis—for students, catechists, and parents, since everyone involved needs to come to know Christ and more deeply participate in the life and mission of his Church.

CWR: Does Ignatius Press offer catechetical resources that emphasize the role of parents?

Brumley: Word of Life is a catechetical resource that includes parents. Our catechetical resources have elements aimed at helping parents grow in their faith and their ability to share it with their children.

CWR: Ignatius Press has been publishing catechetical series for decades now. Many people are familiar with the Faith and Life series, as well as Image of God. So, why the new series? And why now?

Brumley: Faith and Life and Image of God are great series, but we saw the need to create a new series for parishes and schools struggling with unevangelized and seriously uncatechized students. In other words, we wanted to add a program that would reflect the New Evangelization, the idea of forming “intentional disciples”, and catechizing in an evangelical way. Part of the New Evangelization is to use new methods. Word of Life includes superbly written and illustrated texts, but also rich online assets and a learning management system to reach young people from various angles.

CWR: What exactly does Word of Life have to offer that sets it apart from Ignatius Press’s existing series, and anything else that’s out there?

Brumley: Word of Life is conceived, designed, and created to stress the idea of evangelizing catechesis. That’s not a new idea, of course. But it has received a new emphasis in recent years. After Vatican II, and despite the intentions of the Council, there sometimes was an overemphasis on experience and the “affective domain” in catechesis, at the expense of teaching Catholic content. Catechists rightly wanted to help young people understand their desire for God and to be open to experiences of the sacred. But often this became subjective, Christian “navel-gazing”, bereft of serious doctrinal content or an encounter with the Word of God to help young people make sense of their experience.

Pope Saint John Paul II sought to balance things with his apostolic exhortation Catechesi Tradendae, so that there would be both personal experience and encounter with the Word of God in catechesis. But sometimes, to make up for the lack of content in catechesis, the idea emerged in some catechetical circles that all that was needed was sound, systematic, clear presentation of doctrine. As if we could simply educate young people into a deep faith.

Evangelizing catechesis stresses that people who are going to learn about Jesus ought to know him. This is the affective and experiential dimension. And that knowing Jesus must include knowing more and more about him—who he is, what he teaches, what he has done for us, how he has revealed the Triune God, and why he established the community of his disciples. This is the doctrinal dimension.

In the process of teaching about Jesus, catechists and their resources can become coworkers of the truth, to use the phrase Pope Benedict used. They can facilitate initial and ongoing conversion of young people to Christ. What’s more, catechists can help young people relate the longings of their hearts and the questions of their minds to Jesus and to what the Gospel has to say to them. This is evangelizing catechesis, linking young people to the basic Christian message (kerygma) as a way to come to know Jesus Christ, and once they know him to come to know him better, especially in the community of the Church and in mission to the world.

CWR: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Brumley: We all need to pray for and support programs such as Word of Life. Donations are, by the way, welcome. Both Ignatius Press and the Augustine Institute are not-for-profit apostolates, not for-profit businesses, as are some of our publishing competitors. People can donate here.

One key reality: programs are not replacement for people, people who witness and help form disciples. But programs such as Word of Life can be powerful tools to help people to share Christ with young people and help them become intentional and missionary disciples of the Lord. We should all desire that.