Five years ago, as I began my travels around the diocese, I listened closely as parents, priests and religious educators expressed a common concern: “We need more help in the formation and education of our youth and young adults!” Less than two years later, our Diocesan Pastoral Council heard the same concerns, coming from parents in cities, towns and rural areas from Libby to West Yellowstone, from Harlowton to Superior.

We struggled to find ways to respond to this pressing need at a time when the financial wolf was at the door. We kept asking ourselves, “How can we provide for diocesan youth ministry when our resources are stretched so thin?” In response to those concerns, our Son Light Celebration was born as a way to “jump start” youth ministry in the Diocese of Helena during a time of scarcity. In four short years, Son Light has produced fruit beyond measure.

The care and generosity of our pastors and parishioners have allowed us to recruit and hire one of the most creative and courageous youth ministers in the Northwest, Doug Tooke. Doug has built upon the sturdy foundation of the past and has become a master at raising up the goodness and glory of our young people! He has provided not only solid and energetic programs and services for the young, but also inspires the leaders in parishes and deaneries to follow suit. Doug and his cadre of young leaders have inspired the youth to claim their rightful role among the baptized, to become the “salt and light” that will transform culture and society in the light of the Gospel for years to come.

How gratifying and inspiring it is to be with our young people when they gather in large groups, whether at Catholic Youth Convention, Legendary Lodge or the leadership conferences, at home or in foreign lands. I am amazed at the resurgence of junior high ministry—the QUEST Retreat in Bozeman, the Junior High Rally (whose numbers rival the longstanding high school event). I am proud of the CYC Board, with over 100 members representing 40 faith communities. The new collaboration between campus and youth ministry, evident most recently at the ecumenical gathering called Creation Northwest, bodes well for the future.

Do you know how good it is when students from Carroll College, the University of Montana or Montana State University interact with the youth of Guatemala in Guatemala, and how that changes hearts forever? I am touched deeply by continual stories of our young people gathering in their parishes for early morning Scripture study, for service projects that help the poor and needy or for study groups that help those young people understand and embrace the mind and mission of the Church.

Son Light has served as the catalyst for this remarkable transformation. The diocesan Faith Formation Services office with John Fencik and Doug Tooke stands ready to assist deaneries or parishes wishing to strengthen and enhance their own ministry to youth and young adults.

The from Age to Age Campaign has picked up on the energy created by youth ministry, and will provide, over time, endowed monies to ensure that this vital ministry will continue well into the future.

But something more is needed.

The Second Vatican Council described the Catholic home as the “domestic Church” where the parish and pastor, teacher and religious educator support and augment the teaching role of parents, not the other way around.

The National Directory for Catechesis states, “Parents are the most influential agents of catechesis for their children.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church is even more emphatic, stating, “The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.” Some parents excel in their role as primary religious educators, and have invested themselves wholeheartedly in the formation of their children.

But far too many parents feel insecure and ill-prepared to take on the role of religious educator. Some have relegated this duty, by design or default, to the local parish. Others have simply allowed their children and themselves to opt out of religious education entirely.

The causes of these difficulties are many and varied, but there are some common threads. Some parents were educated in an era when Catholic schools still assumed the role of primary religious educator, and parents were more than happy to designate the Sisters and lay teachers as the primary religious educators of the young.

Other parents were educated in a time of enormous transition, as the Baltimore Catechism gave way to experiential or experimental models of religious education.

The late Cardinal Avery Dulles, in his insightful review of religious education, is even-handed in his praise and criticism of each new generation of religious education. He maintains that there never was a Golden Age of religious education.

In acknowledging the critics who found that the Baltimore Catechism, with its many successes, relied too heavily on memorization and rote response, Cardinal Dulles, speaking two years ago at Diocesan Catechetical Day in Lansing, Mich., said that “for many students, the content was too abstract; their emotions and imagination were left untouched.”

Successive phases of religious education stood in marked contrast to the Baltimore Catechism era. As early as 1985, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote, “As a matter of fact, the result of this process of ever-new adaptations was an emptying out of catechesis.” In his Lansing remarks, Cardinal Dulles said Cardinal Ratzinger had found that “some of the current cathecheses had almost no content but simply revolved around itself. The power and beauty of the Christian message were almost lost from view.”

In the time of post-conciliar flux, generations of parents and grandparents were lost at sea, feeling ill-equipped to carry on their important role of primary teacher of the young.

Unrealistic expectations have been placed upon parents’ shoulders, without providing them with the tools or resources needed to assist them in this duty.

The Diocese of Helena has a special responsibility to respond pastorally, sensitively and concretely to the needs of parents—matching the vigor with which we have responded to the needs of youth. My interaction with parents and my conversations with pastors tell me that most parents deeply desire to share the Catholic faith with the young, but many feel constrained by their own paltry or nonexistent faith formation experience.

From my vantage, parish catechesis of the young, no matter how well executed, will be impaired or encumbered without the full, active, conscious participation of parents in the faith life of their children, including and especially through their prayerful presence at Eucharistic liturgy, in sacramental preparation, home prayer, informed table conversation and in service projects in the local parish community. In short, kids learn first by example, then by word.

Therefore, the next step we must anticipate and bring to life is the faith formation of our adult community—especially parents—which will ensure the stability, longevity and viability of the youth ministry we have created together.

We should be undaunted by the present challenge, which, if embraced properly, will serve to strengthen and enrich the projects we have undertaken.

Therefore, I have asked John Fencik, the Faith Formation Services director, to help us analyze the dimensions of this pastoral need and to help formulate a plan in concert with our Presbyteral Council, our religious educators and volunteers, parents and the theology department at Carroll College. I also have asked John to look at technology and its attendant costs to make distance learning attractive, affordable and user friendly, especially in the rural communities scattered across the diocese’s 52,000 square miles.

We know from experience that successful faith formation in children is most effective when it is comprehensive and multifaceted—with prayer and Scripture, sound curriculum, opportunities for dialogue, active participation in the liturgy, peer support, service elements and a commitment to lifelong learning. Our approach to parents should offer no less.

Cardinal Dulles, who died last year, was in the twilight of his life when he prepared his wonderful keynote address on catechesis and concluded with words reminiscent of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero:

“Catechists are called to be privileged instruments through whom God continues his saving work today. The success of their efforts will depend not only on themselves alone but more crucially on the grace of God and the freely given response of the students. When the seed falls on fertile ground, a rich harvest may come forth. The evangelist may sow the seed; the catechist may water the growing plant, but only God can give the increase.”