Michael Arnone, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Fewer Roman Catholic clergy members and increasing numbers of
Catholics living in the United States have led more Catholic colleges
to offer distance-education programs to train their lay members
to perform ministerial tasks.
While
the institutions uniformly see a great need for pastoral distance
education, some debate exists on whether traditions fit as well
with Catholic teaching traditions as more traditional distance-learning
techniques.
Officials at some Catholic colleges think that online courses
and pastoral education are a match made in heaven. For example,
the Satellite Theological Education Program at the University
of Notre Dame offers six not-for-credit courses online. Students
can download their course material, turn in assignments by e-mail,
and participate in online chats. The program now serves eight
dioceses with 300 participants and expects to add the Anchorage,
Alaska, and Atlanta archdioceses soon, said Thomas Cummings, its
director.
"We
think the national scope of the market is approximately 100,000,
and we think it's possible to reach 20,000," Mr. Cummings
said.
On the other hand, the Loyola Institute for Ministry Expansion
at Loyola University in New Orleans, the largest granter of lay
ecclesial-ministry degrees and certificates in the nation, offers
no online courses.
"We've
pretty much decided that the majority of our work will be face
to face," said Cecelia Bennett, the institute's associate
director. "Right now, [Internet] technology doesn't enhance
what we're doing."
Loyola offers 51 degree and certificate programs via distance
education. More than 800 students from 49 states and Britain gather
weekly in groups of 12. A facilitator guides discussion and shows
a video prepared by a Loyola professor.
"The
key to quality education is communication between the faculty
member and the student," said Sister Angela Ann Zukowski,
director of the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives at the University
of Dayton.
Dayton uses live teleconferencing through the Internet to hold
classes every three weeks with students at Chaminade University,
in Oahu, Hawaii, said Sister Zukowski. The university's new Virtual
Learning Community for Faith Formation, which she heads, started
last month and offers online courses to Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana
residents. To foster a sense of community among students, class
sizes are limited to 12 students per section.
Catholic colleges are training lay members to do pastoral work
that priests, nuns, and brothers no longer do because of falling
numbers. Since 1965, the total number of Roman Catholic clergy
members in the United States has dropped more than 48 percent,
to 128,793, according to figures from the Center for Applied Research
in the Apostolate, at Georgetown University. In that same period,
the Catholic population in the United States has grown by 33 percent,
to 60.6 million. More than one parish in six doesn't have a resident
priest.
More than 26,000 lay ministers now hold leadership posts in dioceses,
parishes, and Catholic organizations. From 1985 to 2001, the number
of lay ecclesial-ministry programs has doubled, to 314 nationwide,
and enrollment has tripled, to 35,582. Most Catholic colleges
offering pastoral-ministry programs grant master's degrees or
certificates in pastoral ministry, religious education, and pastoraleducation.
Sponsoring dioceses get professionally trained lay ministers with
graduate-level credentials and competencies to teach religious
education, said Ms. Bennett, of Loyola.
"For
religious educators who will be parish or diocesan directors,
having credit gives them a big advantage," she said. Some
dioceses -- including many in the Northeast -- require their personnel
to have degrees or certification."
