This Issue

• Fall: Renewing Social Ministry
• For Principals and School Boards
• For Educators
• For Parents
• Forming Adult Faith
• Compendium Corner

Renewing Social Ministry

Educators look forward to Fall as a time of awakening and renewal, a time to return to work and activities that were set aside during the summer. Parish life also begins to pick up as summer vacations conclude, vacationers return home, and Church school begins again.

The Church's social ministry never pauses, but like people, it tends to ebb and flow with the seasons. Fall is always a good time to renew social ministries and teach about issues of concern to your particular community. In October, we protect and defend human life by being active participants in Respect Life Sunday, the first Sunday in October. We anticipate Thanksgiving as a time to share with the hungry and the poor in spirit, and we look forward to Advent and Christmas as times when God leads us to become givers. This Fall is a good time to follow Pope Benedict XVI's lead and find ways we can show the Christian difference by practicing true charity and engaging social ministries with energy and enthusiasm.

This issue of To Teach offers suggestions for exploring and practicing social ministries, and provides ideas for empowering administrators, educators, and families to live Christian charity in truth this Fall.

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For Principals and School Boards

• Incorporate ideas found in Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities into the schools’ October calendar. Implement suggested activities at the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty Web site.
• Encourage your staff, PTO/PTA, and school board to evaluate how well the school supports the church’s teachings on civic involvement. Use the Faithful Citizenship statement and Sharing Catholic Social Teaching as criteria for that evaluation.
• Have your school "Be One in a Million," by joining the USCCB and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and confront global poverty.
• Distribute copies of Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate) to faculty, staff, and students as a source for putting Catholic Social Teaching into action throughout the year.
• Invite an expert on Catholic Social Teaching from your diocese or a local Catholic college or university to speak to present Catholic Social Teaching and related ministries to you school community.
• Use the Two Feet of Social Action as a tool to encourage staff, teachers, and students to actively engage in social ministry.
• At your next PTA/PTO or school board meeting, show the Poverty USA Tour video. Lead a discussion identifying activities for parents and board members this Fall to build awareness of the Catholic Church’s teachings on human life and dignity.
• Stay up-to-date on issues of human life and dignity by subscribing to action alerts from the USCCB Domestic and International policy departments, Pro-Life, Migration and Refugee Services, the Justice for Immigrants Campaign, and Education. 

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For Educators

• Build a lesson plan on the many dimensions of respecting life with these new articles from experts in the field.
• Host a discussion session on Catholic social teaching using the Themes from Sharing Catholic Social Teaching cards, and the video and the discussion guide on seven themes of Catholic social teaching, In the Footsteps of Jesus.
• Devote a session to teaching about the life and dignity of a human person with this lesson plan.
• Ask students to search through Scripture and find the ways Jesus himself taught the values of respecting life for all, the unborn, the handicapped, the terminally ill, the oppressed, and the elderly. Turn the Scripture search into a Bible challenge game by dividing the students into teams and giving them points for the examples they find.
• Introduce students to the seven themes of Catholic social teaching with the Themes from Catholic Social Teaching cards and poster, the In the Footsteps of Jesus video, and the activities found in the accompanying resource manual.
• Adopt Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate) as a textbook. Divide your class into two or more small groups and use these free study guides to engage the Pope's teaching. Come together as a full class and have one representative from each group report their conclusions on behalf of their group.
• Distribute this guide for putting Caritas in Veritate into action to students and encourage them to bring their home for discussion with their families.
• Talk with the leaders of a charity in your area or parish that helps preserve the dignity of those who are elderly, disabled, poor, or oppressed to find out what kind of support your students might offer those that they serve. Whether it is collecting food, writing cards, or saying prayers, engage your students in a regular contribution to the charity beginning in October.
• Assign selections from Living the Catholic Social Tradition to groups of students. Have each group present a case study, explain a related model for the local community, and suggest questions for class discussion.

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Parents

• Place prayer at the center of family life. Use Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers as your source for daily prayer and prayers for special occasions and needs.
• Schedule one day a month to volunteer as a family at the parish or in the neighborhood. Talk with the parish staff person who coordinates service or social ministry about available opportunities.
• Learn more about Catholic teachings on the economy with the recommended readings, podcasts, and videos on this special USCCB Web page.
• With older children, reflect and act on The Call to Family, Community and Participation by using the Catholic Campaign for Human Development booklet of that name. Focus on the chapters “Call to Community” and “Call to Participation.”
• As a family, visit with those in a nursing home in your area who have no family or no one in the local area to spend time with them. Read stories or the newspaper, make and deliver cards, or talk with them.
• Download the individual reflection guide to Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Charity in Truth (Caritas in Veritate) and share your reflections with each other at the table after a meal.
• Lend your support to the Campaign to End Poverty in America by finding a local chapter of Catholic Charities USA in your area and volunteering.

Forming Adult Faith

"Forming Adult Faith" includes suggestions from the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults (USCCA) on how to promote ongoing faith formation among the adults in your school community.

The following chapters touch on different aspects of social ministry:

• Chapter 29. The Fifth Commandment: Promote the Culture of Life
• Chapter 31: The Seventh Commandment: Do Not Steal—Act Justly

Ideas and suggestions on how to use these chapters for your individual and group reflection can be found online and in the Reader's Journal for the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults.

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Compendium Corner

"Compendium Corner" usually provides a list of questions and answers in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that are related to this month’s topic. The following questions relate to this month's topic.

• Review the questions and answers in preparation for your class.
• Consider how to use appropriate questions and answers as part of your lesson plan.
• Develop learning activities that help youths and young adults learn this information by heart (memorization).

358. What is the root of human dignity?
372. What is the moral conscience?
401. In what does the social dimension of man consist?
407. What is the common good?
410. How does one participate in bringing about the common good?
411. How does society ensure social justice?
413. How are we to view social inequalities?
464. What are the duties of citizens in regard to civil authorities?
466. Why must human life be respected?

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the foundations of Catholic faith. So, select one question a week (8-12 questions for the whole summer) to learn and memorize. Choose questions on topics that are of great interest, that you struggle with and want to understand better, or that you find arise in your classroom repeatedly.

• Review the questions and answers.
• Consider how to use them in the coming year as part of your lesson plan.
• Develop learning activities that will encourage you and your students to learn the teaching by heart (memorization)

To obtain a copy of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, visit www.usccbpublishing.org or call 800-235-8722.

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