BUFFALO, N.Y. — After 30 years as a religious educator, Annette Breen is happy to report that Catholic textbooks are back to teaching about the things that “make us Catholic.”

The director of religious education at St. Francis of Assisi parish in Athol Springs, N.Y., uses Harcourt Religion Publishers’ Call to Faith series, which she likes because “it talks about things that haven't been talked about for years in textbooks — like the precepts and marks of the Church. … It does define being Catholic.”

Call to Faith is on the U.S. bishops’ Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and Series, meaning it has been reviewed and found to be in accord with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Since 1996, the bishops have been evaluating catechetical textbooks for conformity with the Catechism. The list is updated quarterly and posted on the bishops’ website at usccb.org.

Many dioceses now are using the list to guide the textbook choices made by principals and directors of religious education. As part of a series, the Register is examining 20 dioceses with the largest elementary school populations to learn whether they are using textbooks in conformity with the Catechism.

Breen, whose parish is in the Buffalo Diocese, said she selected the Harcourt series mainly because it was new last year, and the publisher offered catechist editions at no cost as an incentive. Previously, she had used Benziger's Share the Joy, which also is on the conformity list.

The Buffalo Diocese, she said, directs catechists to use textbooks in conformity with the Catechism. She is confident that most religion texts available for use today are in accord with the Catechism, and added, “I certainly wouldn't have picked something that wasn't.”

However, not all religious educators in the diocese are aware of the listing, or even the importance of using accepted texts. Some are using outdated books or programs that incorporate materials not reviewed by the bishops.

At Queen of Heaven Parish in West Seneca, N.Y., for example, Brown-ROA's Crossroads series, which is not on the conformity listing, is being used for Grades 7 and 8 in the religious education program. Sister of St. Mary of Namur Lori High, pastoral minister, said she did not choose the books, which were in place before she arrived. She also uses Loyola Press’ Confirmed in the Spirit, which is in conformity with the Catechism, for sacramental preparation.

St. Edmund's Parish in Tonawanda, N.Y., still has the 1995 version of Sadlier's Coming to Faith series in use for the first, third and fourth grades of the religious education program. Only the 1998 and 1999 versions of that series are in conformity.

The bishops’ committee on catechetical texts keeps any recommended changes between themselves and the publishers.

Elaine Volker, director of religious education at St. Edmund's, said the parish is getting new texts for those grades, but has not been able to do so until now because of limited finances. Volker said she was not familiar with the bishops’ conformity listing and depends on the diocesan guidelines for direction in choosing books.

St. James Parish in Jamestown, N.Y., meanwhile, uses Celebrating the Lectionary, a program that supplies lesson plans but no textbook. Julie Rodriguez, St. James’ director of religious education, said she alternates between that program and another lectionary-based one called Living the Good News, supplementing both with articles and activities.

She said she follows a diocesan curriculum, which outlines what should be covered each year, and was only slightly familiar with the bishops’ conformity listing of textbooks.

“I just know that it's something that exists, but I don't really use it, no,” she said. “My guess is the diocese uses it to put their curriculum together and therefore there's a trickle-down effect.”

Parents Don't Know

Likewise, St. Joseph University parish in Buffalo does not use textbooks from the conformity listing for its religious-education program. The parish blends classroom sessions for which the lectionary-based Pflaum Gospel Weeklies, a resource not included on the bishops’ list, serves as the text, with Generations of Faith, a program in which adults and children learn as a community.

Produced by the Center for Ministry Development, which provides planning guides, prayers, “learning experiences” and home activities, Generations of Faith is seen by some as an effective way to involve parents in their children's religious education, but the materials are not on the bishops’ conformity listing.

Diane Lampitt, president of Harcourt Religion Publishers, which publishes the Generations resource materials, said that because the program is not a catechetical series and has no content piece specifically for a child, it is not submitted to the bishops for review. She said the program is published and promoted as a supplement to Harcourt's Call to Faith catechetical series, which is on the conformity listing, and most parishes use it as a supplement.

Arlene Meyerhofer, a mother of three and parish religious education teacher who is part of a team investigating a transition to Generations of Faith at St. Leo the Great Parish in Amherst, N.Y., likes the program because it draws parents into their children's catechesis. She said textbooks are only a small piece of religious education and that without parental involvement and reinforcement, children do not retain what they learn in class.

Carol McLaughlin, who teaches and has children in the religious-education program at St. Francis in Athol Springs, said she has found that many parents of her students have lost sight of what their faith is about.

“A lot of parents don't know what we believe,” she said. “A lot think the Eucharist is a symbol. They don't know it's the actual body and blood of [Christ.]”

Many parents were not properly catechized as children and thus cannot pass on the faith, Breen said, adding, “I think they have a hard time helping their children be Catholic because they don't know how to do it themselves.”

She said her parish adopted Generations of Faith as a supplement to the classroom program to catechize parents.

“We're just trying to help the parents understand what it is they're called to do,” she said. “Kids get it, but if they don't take it home and do something with it, it doesn't make any difference.”

‘We Kind of Coach Them'

When programs like Generations of Faith are used, ideally they should be supplemented with other resources like textbooks, said Mary Beth Coates, director of religious education for the Buffalo Diocese.

New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Catechesis, concurs, saying he would have difficulty with a program that did not use catechetical texts or materials in conformity with the Catechism.

“It would not be fulfilling what the Church asks in regard to catechesis,” he said.

Coates said the Buffalo Diocese does not require parishes using alternative programs like Generations to supplement them with textbooks, but tells religious educators that when textbooks are used they must be diocesan-approved.

“Typically in this day and age, it means they have to be on the conformity listing of the U.S. bishops,” she said.

However, she said it would be difficult to know whether everyone is following the policy, adding, “We have 267 parishes here in Buffalo and three full-time staff members in the diocesan office. We want to work as collaborators in a support system rather than a police department.”

Coates said diocesan officials learn what books are being used through a statistical profile that religious education directors are asked to complete each year.

She said she thinks most catechists in the diocese are using books from the conformity listing. If she notices from the profiles that someone is using outdated materials or something that doesn't follow the diocesan curriculum closely enough, she said, “We kind of coach them into looking at other options that might accomplish whatever they liked about the other series that has a fuller recognition of the Catechism and our curriculum.”

Asked whether he planned to strengthen the current diocesan policy on textbooks, Buffalo Bishop Edward Kmiec said through a spokesman, “Textbooks selected for use in our classrooms must have an imprimatur and be approved by the diocese. Approved religious education texts follow the diocesan curricula.”

In response to another question about whether he was concerned that out-of-conformity texts were being used in some parishes, the bishop replied through a spokesman by citing the current policy, which states that the diocese annually reviews catechetical textbooks being used to make sure they are in conformity with the Catechism and deals with publishers who are aware of the conformity requirements.

Judy Roberts is based in Graytown, Ohio.