By Mary Lackie

The future of religious education depends upon a great freedom to experiment, said Father Michael A. Morris, director of religious education.

“The prophets of the Old Testament were never hampered,” Father Morris said, “God always gave them the freedom to make use of their own personal attitudes and talents to put the message across to the people.”

In the field of religious education, the priest believes, “People must be given the freedom to experiment—not with Christianity or Catholicism itself, but with new forms and molds. The old forms are no longer attractive to people.”

“We have to take into consideration that in this archdiocese we have an unique situation,” said Father Morris. “There is a large urban center, satellite centers like Athens and Rome, and vast rural areas.”

To meet the needs of the situation, Father Morris plans to upgrade teaching methods, applying “all the modern sciences—psychology, sociology, urbanology—together with good catechetics.”

Religious education plans this year will involve an assessment of present programs, the priest said. “I don’t think we should plunge into programs without a through assessment.”

Five official schools of religion in metropolitan area of Atlanta will have a full-time religious supervisor. The nuns in charge of the programs spent the summer completing studies for master’s degrees in religious education or doing advanced study in related fields of adolescent psychology and sociology, Father Morris said. They attended Fordham, Loyola, Marquette and Catholic U., and will train laymen who will work in the programs.

“The layman is the backbone of the whole process,” said Father Morris. “Trained by the sisters, the layman’s activity in the program will bring a new awareness of their mission as properties and give them the self-assurance to take advantage of their Christian maturity.”

Father Morris stressed the importance of parental involvement. “Parents should exercise their primary duty in the Christian education of their children. If parents look at it only as an hour a week spent by their children in a class; then the program is not going to work in any case. Then we get the parents involved, we are getting into adult education, and there is no way to separate the proper formation of the child from adult education.”

The curriculum in the parish schools of religion will always vary somewhat to suit the needs of the parish.

“The only curriculum we have now is an experimental one,” the priest said. “There is no official textbook this year, but we are not teaching ‘a textbook’, we re teaching Christ,”

With the aid of parish directors and the sisters, Father Morris said, “We will work out a curriculum during the coming year, but the programs will be fluid for awhile.”

“This is what I mean by freedom”—said Father Morris, “The purpose of this program is to utilize the talents of the catechists; to get across to the child what all priests have learned in their theology courses—that God is the greatest good, the greatest desire. He is an ideal that all people and even teenagers should enjoy. Our job is to make the idea of friendship with God attractive.”

“I think we have put enough time and effort into educating children to know about God—when they end up not really knowing God at all,” Father Morris said.

“This first year is going to be interesting,” the priest said, “People involved in the programs are going to have to take the knocks for awhile—they will have to take criticism. The ideal is for every parish in the archdiocese to have a full-time religious supervisor—whether a lay theologian or a sister.”

This year, other parishes of the archdiocese will continue with whatever programs they have had in the past, Father Morris said, “And we will bend over backwards to help them upgrade their programs.”

The five parishes with full-time religious supervisors are Holy Cross, St. Thomas More, Christ the King, St. Thomas the Apostle, Smyrna, and St. Joseph’s parish, Athens.

“In these areas,” Father Morris said, “We will be able to do a really solid, scientific experimentation. We will use a variety of textbooks, depending upon the needs of the parish and the talents of the particular catechist,” he said.

“Though religious formation will result only from a ground swell of public opinion and support on the local level—concerned people working together to give of themselves, their time and talents. Until this happens, other things of lesser importance will always take precedence in the minds of those whose interest and support would make the difference,” said the priest.

“Everything we do—the church building we build, the schools, the liturgy—should contribute to Christian, Catholic commitment of persons. Perhaps we often become psychologically tied down by the very tools, which were meant to assure the end—namely, Christ-formed people who are thoroughly integrated convinced and committed people. Perhaps the time has come to reassess our efforts in the light of our final goal,” Father Morris said.

The newly opened Catechetical Center and Office of Religious Education is located at 329 Ivy St., N.E. Anyone interested in further information regarding the programs is asked to call Father Morris at 524-5059.