It has been quiet

It has been over a month since I've posted to the DDRE Forum blog. I'm devoting my time to several new projects that make posting to this blog less of a priority. First, on a personal level, I'm running for the North Platte City Council(See picture). This is my first plunge into the world of politics. In North Platte the City Council is nonpartisan so I don't have to deal with the "party" stuff. Taxes and managing the City's growth are two issues facing the Council. I do see this as an opportunity to put my faith into practice in a new arena. So, some of my so-called free time is going to learning how to run a campaign.

Our diocese started a new catechist certification program. We began designing, what we are calling the Core Course, in February and launched the program this fall. To be sure we have been busy. We are using the Compendium as the text for the four week course. About 250 people participated in our first round of courses. Our goal is for all 1,500 of our catechists to have participated in the course by the fall of 2008. Starting in the fall of 2008 catechists and anyone teaching religion will be expected to be certified at the core level within their first year of ministry. Response to the Compendium as a text for this course has been mixed. However, course participants find the Compendium a positive entry into a deeper understanding of Catholic teaching. One question that produced some extended research and much discussion is, "How many and what are the precepts of the Church?" How would you answer this question?

We are also developing a database to keep records on people who've completed the course and are therefore certified at the core level. We want to make the database accessible to parishes so as people move around the diocese a DRE or pastor can confirm a persons certification. Developing a database accessible by the parishes is a challenging project. If anyone is already doing this in Access I'd like to hear from you. That's the long and short of it. I hope your program year is off to a great start. Let us know what's going on in your part of the world.
Peace,
Don