Who will benefit from using Our Catholic Heritage?

Unchurched Children

Our Catholic Heritage is designed for children with a variety of backgrounds and needs. Some of the children with whom you will be sharing the teachings and traditions of the Church may have been baptized Catholics as infants, but have never participated in a religious education program for one reason or another. Others may have been part of a faith formation program only sporadically, due to a family relocation or other situations.

RCIA for Children of Catechetical Age

Some of your students may be preparing for full initiation into the Catholic Church through the three sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. One or more of their parents may be part of your parish R.C.I.A. process. Although the children’s religious formation will take place in your sessions, they may also be part of the parish’s Liturgy of the Word sessions for children and any rituals that are part of the initiation process. Still other children may have been baptized into another Christian tradition and, along with their parents, are now candidates seeking membership in the Church. These children, too, will benefit from participating in Our Catholic Heritage sessions as they prepare to profess their faith in the Catholic faith.

Initiatory Catechesis

Our Catholic Heritage can also be used with students who have missed one or more years of religious education with their peers or for those students who have not participated in a religious education program since receiving First Eucharist. In addition, Our Catholic Heritage provides excellent preparation for the first phase of a two-year Confirmation program. Through this program, students have the opportunity to review the important teachings of the Church in Year I before working in a Confirmation preparation text in Year II.

All these children and others with different circumstances will benefit by using Our Catholic Heritage. The program makes it possible for you to prepare the children to celebrate the sacraments they have missed and help them become familiar enough with the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church, so that they can be fully prepared to enter into regular religious educations classes with their peers when they complete the program.