The rule is that the divine message is always divine but the messenger is always human.

With that line in mind, it can be reassuring that our mystagogy resources, that is, the message of the Bible and the Catechism, remain a constant. However, for humans who are living in times where many of the supports for faith that were also constant before the last century, the response to learning and living our faith needs to shift as well.

The Vatican II council spoke to the need for these shifts in their documents on the Church in the Modern World and the shifting nature of social communication. However, those conciliar reflections were now 60 years age and those social influences are radically more powerful so our responses need to adapt as well.  Becoming a More Competent Catholic Christian can seem overwhelming.

While our faith remains a constant, what is considered the best approach to educationally has shifted and continues to move from an emphasis on “seat time,” that is, how many hours listeners spent being more passively taught in classes and large groups.

By comparison, competency-based educational approaches emphasize learning as a mentoring-tutoring-group-learning-together-experiential approach rather than passively focus on clarity of information taught that many of us have been exposed to. Content is part of the new approach, but so is attitude, many faith-skills, and self-assessment of progress rather than pass/fail grading on content.  Also, as a teacher/learner approach its focus is partially on content, but overall, on a person’s ability to demonstrate both knowledge and application of faith in real-world situations in which Catholic Christians now live.

Further, the responsibility switches from the teacher/catechist to each person becoming ultimately responsible for their own more complex competency in living fully as a person aiming to respond to the Vatican II Council’s universal call to holiness (November 21, 1964, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, chapter 5).

The leader’s role of assisting participants in their journeys from a competency perspective looks less like a teacher of content and more like what the Church calls catechists.

Competency as a learning approach has four parts (Hess, Karin; Colby, Rose; Joseph, Daniel. (2020, Deeper Competency-Based Learning: Making Equitable Student-Centered Sustainable Shifts. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage).

The four areas of competency are:

1. Attitudes, for example,
   1. Am I aware of my story as a baptized member of the Communion of Saints?
   2. Am I open to listening to the religious and spiritual stories of other baptized Catholics with respect, empathy and appreciation?
   3. Am I willing to leave “an empty chair” to symbolize Jesus-present-among-us when I meet with other baptized Catholics as they “tune in” to Jesus among us?
2. Knowledge, for example,
   1. I know some things about my faith, but what am I curious about my faith?
   2. Can I accept that others might be interested in other aspects of their faith and be willing to listen to, respect, empathize, and appreciate other’s longing to learn and grow?
   3. How has God been present to me and others at various developmental periods of my life and their lives?
   4. Have I learned strategies for avoiding harmful spiritual or religious influences in my life? Have others also learned strategies for avoiding harmful spiritual or religious influences?

3. Skills, for example,
   1. Have I looked at my unique history of my relationship with self, others, and God?
   2. Am I willing to listen to other’s history of their relationship with self, others, and God?
   3. Am I willing to search for religious and spiritual resources such as the vast resources of the many Catholic publishers?
   4. Am I willing to identify and work through my problems relating to self, others, and God in long-term friendship with other baptized Catholic Christians?
4. Assessment, for example,
   1. Am I willing to assess how I’m doing on my ascent to God?
   2. Am I open to advanced methods that go beyond the examination of conscience?

Much more will need to be said, but, hopefully, this is a small first-introduction to the competency learning model.

                                                                                                Deacon Ray

                                                                                                1-27-24