Resources for Parish Programs

In this new edition of RCL Benziger Family Life, we are developing a number of resources and strategies to make the program easier for parish programs to use. The stated goal of RCL Benziger Family Life is to provide a moral catechesis to enrich Catholic families. Since the majority of parents in the U.S. Church send their children to parish programs, we want the program to be more accessible to them. Here are some initial ways that we have tried to do so.

Shortening of the ten chapters in each grade from six pages to four pages.
Development of Spanish editions of the Parent Connection magazines for Grades K-8 so that Spanish-speaking families can participate more fully. Parent Letters and Family Time activity pages are now available online in Spanish.
Alternative implementation models in the Program Director’s Manual to accommodate parish program needs.
Whole Family sessions for each of the five units of the student text

Here’s a little more information about the Whole Family sessions. We think these five unit sessions may be the best strategy for parish programs wishing to incorporate the Family Life curriculum. Families would attend five sessions spaced monthly or throughout the school year—or even in the summer. We are providing you with complete in-service outlines and directions for these sessions. You can view a sample now of the initial unit session, God’s Gift of Family.

The purpose of these sessions is to introduce each unit theme and launch family conversations around it. Between sessions, the families would guide their children through the content of the unit’s two chapters. The children would read through the chapters on their own. Parents would make a commitment to spend at least a half hour before the next large gathering in conversation with each child about their book’s content. We feel that this model will provide a structure for faith-filled family conversations around important values in Catholic family life. The addition of a family activity taken from the With My Family page could provide additional enrichment.

If you cannot find space in this year’s calendar for five gatherings, we offer another alternative—a two-session model. All families would begin with the first unit’s session, God’s Gift of Family. It holds the opportunity for the most important conversation of all—What does it mean to be a household of faith? For the second session, we are creating a model combining the third and fourth units on God’s Gift of Life and God’s Gift of Love. These two themes allow important conversation within families on the sanctity of life, loving relationships, and issues in human sexuality.

We hope these ideas will help you. Let us know what else we can provide to make this wonderful curriculum more accessible to you.

OTHER FAMILY RESOURCES