Re-Imagining Catechesis in the Wake of COVID-19, by Luke Arredondo

Faith is shared most effectively in the domestic church, among family members.

By Luke Arredondo, National Catholic Register, September 24, 2020

Luke Arredondo Luke Arredondo, Ph.D., is the Director of Faith Formation for the St. Philip Institute of Catechesis and Evangelization in Tyler, Texas. …

As has lately been the case for nearly everybody involved in ministry, education and many other fields, the outbreak of COVID-19 has caused my place of employment, the St. Philip Institute of Catechesis and Evangelization, to rethink everything.

This summer, instead of hosting our annual conference for catechists in our diocese, we shifted to an online conference. I’m relatively new to my position, but it’s been a wild ride. I didn’t anticipate starting a new job, moving my family 800 miles, defending a dissertation and having a baby in the span of a few months to be some of the more mundane things to happen in 2020. Who knew!

One thing has become increasingly clear to me as the pandemic wears on: maybe “normal” wasn’t really great. At least when it comes to catechesis, maybe the pandemic didn’t break things… it just showed us more clearly where the cracks already were.  …