Current Events Publication Aims to Link Faith and Action

NORTH HAVEN, Conn. — Kris Cortes is a realist when it comes to education. She knows that someone will be educating the young people of the world.

“If it’s not us, then by default it will be the culture,” she said.

And she’s well aware of how the mass media saturates the culture with its secular viewpoint.

That’s why Cortes and her husband, Dennis, started a monthly current events- and issues-based publication called Our Faith in Action, which is now published by Circle Media, publisher of the Register and Faith & Family magazine. “We have to engage students to be in the culture but not of it,” she said.

Founded two years ago, Our Faith in Action is geared to help teens understand how the faith relates to current events.

“We connect a current event or issue to young peoples’ lives, illuminate how our faith speaks to the topic and the ‘whys’ behind the teachings, and finally, inspire students to live out the faith in their daily lives,” Cortes explained.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago is a supporter. “Our Faith in Action is a valuable resource to help young people see current events through the eyes of the Church,” he said. “The program has the added benefit of teaching our youth about the sacred Scriptures and the lives of the saints and familiarizing them with the Holy Father and his writings.”

“We’re trying to take the tone of John Paul II,” said Legionary Father Ernest Daly, the program’s editor and director, “and dialogue with young people. He showed his tremendous belief in them and at the same time was not afraid to challenge them.”

That means aspects of moral courage appear regularly in the lessons “because it’s something that’s attractive to young people,” Father Daly explained, “and also something very important for them in living their faith today.”

One story featured last school year focused on Jason Read, who led a rowing team to an Olympics gold medal and coordinated rescue workers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on New York City. As it turns out, his growth in faith led him to enter the Church.

Contemporary issues and people living out the virtues are a winning formula for upper grades at the Noonan Academy, an independent Catholic school in Mokena, Ill. The school’s founder, Roberta Noonan, recalls that a lesson on Pat Tillman, the former college football and NFL star who lost his life in Afghanistan, “just grabbed the boys to recognize that he was not only strong in his faith but had a sense of integrity and duty to his country. The kids were impressed. … It really gave them a lesson in putting priorities in place.”

Home-School Helper

Noonan likes lessons on good role models and people with ordinary lives doing extraordinary things. She said the kids learn, “It’s today, it’s now, you can do it, too, in spite of all the materialism and what the world and culture is telling you, and here are people who are doing it.”

In the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., vocation director Father Gary Dailey also likes the way Our Faith in Action makes Church teaching come alive.

“The layout is attractive and the content is both comprehensive and orthodox,” he observed.

That tells Dennis and Kris Cortes they’re reaching students.

“We hope to strike a chord on a national interest and then use that interest to illuminate an aspect of the faith,” Dennis Cortes explained. He added that Our Faith in Action was inspired to a great degree by John Paul II’s call to use modern technology and media to bring the love and truth of Christ into the world.

He pointed out that a recent issue examined genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. The lesson asked, “What is our responsibility as Christians, given our potential to protect those who are vulnerable?” Cortes said.

Suggestions such as contacting legislators or making donations are part of the lessons. “We try to offer realistic opportunities for young people to reach out to others and make a positive difference in our world,” he said.

Pam Pickett, a home-schooling mother in Kankakee, Ill., uses Our Faith in Action with her high-school-senior daughter, Kayci, and her seventh-grade son, Kevin. “It’s like teaching current events and religion at the same time,” she said.

Our Faith in Action always consists of the main article, “Bible blurbs,” quotes from papal teachings, Church documents and the Catechism, key vocabulary and mini profiles of two saints or heroes.

An issue on the fight over Supreme Court nominations, for instance, had quotes from John Paul’s “Gospel of Life.”

Of the saints and heroes section, Father Daly said it’s important for youngsters to see “real models.”

“The Church has a tremendous amount of heroes,” he said. “That’s one of the great things John Paul II did — he stressed the presence of real saints and heroes in the Church by beatifying and canonizing so many people. He was very aware of the power of a model.”

Helps With Debates

Theresa Carlson, a mother of seven, appreciates the way Our Faith in Action helps “focus on what we believe in as Catholics and help us spread our Catholic faith beyond our own families.

“Even if you don’t home school, you are the primary educators of your children in the faith,” she said.

Her 18-year-old son, Dan, relies on Our Faith in Action as a principal source for the 15-member debate club he’s formed for young men from parishes and schools in his area. Dan appreciates the quotes from the popes.

“Some pope quotes are hard to get unless we’re reading encyclicals all the time,” he observed. “For guys my age, this is a critical time for faith,” he said. “They need the formation because they’re about to head off into another state in life.”

Father Daly also sees Our Faith in Action evangelizing young people and making them protagonists in evangelization, like Dan Carlson is.

“John Paul attracted young people so much because he believed in their greatness and knew they could change the world,” Father Daly said. “We believe in the greatness of young people in the same way.”

Joseph Pronechen is based in

Trumbull, Connecticut.

Information

ourfaithinaction.org

(888) 881-0729