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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Heroes of our faith

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published September 19, 2008

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Sergeant Al Carter of the Royal Oak Police is one of many who shares his time and talents by teaching Scripture to children. Sept. 21 is Catechetical Sunday, a day the U.S. Bishops have set aside to recognize all laypeople who teach the faith to others.

Metro area — At 7 a.m. each morning, Sergeant Al Carter of the Royal Oak Police Department straps on his holster and gets to work, uncertain as to what the day will hold.

On Tuesdays just after dinnertime, however, Carter takes on the role of a different kind of hero — he opens a Bible and shares it with grade-school-aged children at his church, St. Mary Parish in Royal Oak.

"The best part to me is when the children absorb the message of Jesus Christ and you can see it in their eyes when it clicks," says Carter, who with his wife Yvonne has four sons. "When they absorb it and you're passing that faith on to another generation, you're basically spreading the Word of God. I find that the most rewarding part."

Every parish in the Archdiocese of Detroit has people who, like Carter, take their life experiences and talents and use them to spread the Word of God to others. This Sunday, Catechetical Sunday, the Church in the United States recognizes all those who take on their baptismal role by formally teaching people of all ages about their faith.

They might be teachers or directors of religious education, or they might have day jobs as factory workers, accountants, plumbers and so on. Whoever they are, when they open God's Word to their brothers and sisters, they are foremost evangelists sent by Christ. "We live in a world of bad news coming at us from every angle," says Maureen O'Reilly, director of the archdiocesan Office for Faith Formation/Catechetics. "Yet the amount of absolutely wonderful work that is going on in our parishes and schools from all kinds of people is humbling. You see God at work in tiny ways and in major ways. You see people persistently, untiringly continue in this ministry… so much good is happening person-to-person."

This year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops identified the theme of Catechetical Sunday as "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church." Building on this theme, many parishes across the archdiocese will recognize their catechists with commissioning ceremonies at weekend Masses.

O'Reilly says it's important to note that catechists — though often thought of as the ones who teach religion to children — are actually there to support Catholics at every age, in every situation.

"All those in catechetical ministry are there not only to support parents in their role, but to work with all Catholics their whole lives long," she says. "Catechists are there to work with people after confirmation as they enter adolescence and young adulthood. They're there for young couples as they build their families. They're there to help all adults continue to grow in their relationship with God and the ways they can share that love of God with people in their communities."

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Inspired by catechists in her own life, Connie Garbacik of St. James Parish in Novi has been a catechist since she was a teenager. She now conducts an adult Bible study and grief ministry at St. James.

Connie Garbacik, a parishioner at St. James Parish in Novi, for example, helps spread God's Word through an adult Bible study and through the parish grief ministry. She had started volunteering as a catechist at 19, following a positive experience she had with the catechists who had taught her in her youth.

"Because I personally got so much out of my CCD classes at the time, I thought when I became an adult, this was one way of giving back," she says.

Garbacik draws on many life experiences to relate with fellow parishioners, from having a career as a nurse, to tragically losing her infant daughter, to being unable to walk unaided for a couple years due to an accident.

Through the trials, she says she's seen it as her duty to keep her Christian calling a priority.

"I just feel that we are in this world to touch other people, to hopefully bring them closer to God, however we do that — be it a formal ministry or a simple act of kindness," Garbacik says. "That is what God has created us to do, to extend his love to everyone. And when all is said and done, to hopefully all be in heaven together."

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Larry Conley, a St. Hugo of the Hills Parishioner, helps parishes and ministers spread the Word of God 21st century style, with computer networking.

Some catechists work to spread God's word in the Church by working above the parish level. Larry Conley, a parishioner at St. Hugo of the Hills Parish in Bloomfield Hills, is one of them.

Having spent a career in computers with Ford Motor Co.'s sales and marketing team, integrating an enormous digital network of 6,000 dealers across North America, he also wanted to use his technology skills to connect networks of the Catholic faithful.

Today, he consults with the Archdiocese of Detroit on their technology plans, and with many parish communities, demonstrating how they can use modern means of networking to strengthen the Church — for example, with online forums, chats and calendars.

"Back in Antioch, there was a guy named Barnabus and a guy named Paul who formed house churches," Conley says. "Those small communities were the genesis of how Christianity grew. The digital world is bringing us back to that house church. You can digitally connect communities with like interests in the parish."

In churches throughout the archdiocese, many unsung catechetical leaders will step forward to renew their commitments to the ministry. Catholics in Detroit might take this weekend as an opportunity to show their appreciation for those who teach the faith.

Michelle Sollars of St. Mary Parish in Royal Oak will. She takes her grandchildren to Al Carter's faith formation classes each week, and says she appreciates how he can relate with them.

"This is the young part of their years, and it's a learning period for them," says Sollars, who often assists in the class. "Their retention of what he teaches has been successful. Like they say, it takes a village to raise a child, and it's truly the case in this day and time. Mr. Carter has a way to present the truth about God in a way that a child can understand it."

The stories he's able to tell about his job as a police officer help get youngsters interested in what he has to say about Christ, too.

"They see the superhero mentality," he says. "and in reality they end up seeing your average person who just has a strong faith who happens to wear a uniform of a police officer."

Whatever uniform they wear, and whatever wealth of life experiences they bring to the table — Catholics in the archdiocese find ways to spread the Gospel. And in the end, all that matters is that the people they reach see and grow closer to Christ.

"Everyone has a different take, a different point of view, with different experiences," says Bridget Nemzek, St. Mary's director of religious education. "And the kids and the grownups need those different ways of hearing God."