In her own words, Anne Cunningham, Director of Religious Education at Sacred Heart-St. Patrick’s in Redding says that what began as a revamping of the religious education program has evolved into a comprehensive parish-wide program re-engineering of faith formation for the entire community.
She first submitted an application for a competitive program support grant through the St. John Paul II Fund for Faith Formation in 2023. Her proposition was intriguing, having found that her parishioners could not answer the fundamental question ‘What do Catholics believe?’ she sought to help them find the answer, no matter where they were in their faith journey, and to provide the building blocks for a sustainable Catholic community.
Practically speaking, the program would target those participating in the parish’s established faith formation programs, with the understanding that their families and parishioners at large would also benefit. Mrs. Cunningham’s assessment was that parents weren’t in a position to cultivate experiences of faith because they simply didn’t know what they didn’t know. Often blurring the lines between Catholicism and the multi-denominational Christian landscape of XXI century America.
“If they do not know what they believe how can they build a relationship with God? The Catholic church has a rich history and tradition, but it has largely been forgotten by the older members of the parish, not heard of by the parent-age members, and so is not likely to be passed down to the young without a focused approach to teach them the good, the true, and the beautiful.”
Sound familiar? That’s because truth, beauty, and goodness are transcendentals—they reveal aspects of God’s nature and His relationship with creation. And the three pillars of Bishop Caggiano’s The One.
In essence, Mrs. Cunningham sought to bring faith formation to anyone who walked through the parish’s doors. But how?
Simple, by providing sacramentals, books, educational activities, prayer cards, all part of a curriculum curated by Mrs. Cunningham and Fr. Terrence Walsh, Pastor of Sacred Heart-St. Patrick parish. The program identified three goals: getting people back to Mass, getting parishioners to learn more about the faith, and building community. The simplicity of its approach is what we found compelling, and which we believe has contributed to the high level of engagement and success of the program.
For example, in year one, families received an altar kit at the beginning of the school year. It included a lace altar covering, a Bible, a Benedictine Cross, a votive, holy water, a rosary, prayer cards and instructions on how to set up the home altar along with a schedule of Masses. This promoted prayer throughout the week and made the Church visible to both children and parents alike beyond their Sunday obligation. In November, the program highlighted the devotion of to the Miraculous Medal by offering blessed medals and information on the history and promises of the devotion. In January, the program provided the booklet “The Wonders of the Holy Name” as the Church dedicates the month to the Holy name of Jesus.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and specific: “It is personally edifying and a great help as a parent of grade school children for it to be reinforced that the Church is constantly bestowing spiritual gifts upon the faithful and that it is not merely a place of obligation. By equipping us with these sacramentals you help us to keep the holy office of motherhood in mind with heaven as the goal for my children with a constant reminder to bless and strengthen them for the real journey home. Thank you for all that you are doing!” said one parishioner in an email to Mrs. Cunningham.
As a result of a second grant in 2024-2025, Sacred Heart-St. Patrick was able to institute new initiatives. One of them was a Vocation Prayer Bag, wherein a handful lunchbox-size bags were prepared with a wooden chalice, several prayers for priestly vocations, and a picture of the current Diocese of Bridgeport seminarians and placed at the back of the church for families to take them home, pray for vocations and seminarians during the week, and return the following Sunday so another family could do the same. A prayer chain for vocations and seminarians in the Diocese of Bridgeport was thus established and demand for the prayer bags grew as word got out, prompting additional ones to be prepared.
Another compelling initiative from year two included ‘Praying our Prodigals Back to Church” which is comprised of a wooden lock box placed at the church’s back pew alongside novena prayer cards for return of lapsed Catholics and paper pen for parishioners to write the names of their prodigals and deposit in the wooden box. Masses and Adoration held in the Church are said for these intentions periodically.
This past Spring, Sacred Heart-St. Patrick’s submitted for and received a third grant for the implementation of the Credo (I Believe) program. Since 2023, Foundations in Faith has awarded the program $7,000 for the past three years. Without the grants, the parish, which has experienced financial hardship, would not be able to continue the program.
When you walk into Sacred Heart-St. Patrick you find an abundance of resources to engage even the least catechized of Catholics. Including on the Mass, the Rosary, Adoration, The Ten Commandments, The Beatitudes, Fruits of the Holy Spirit, Way of the Cross, the Saints, Penny Catechism, Holy Water, Blessed Oil, Blessed Salt… There’s even a section with some Spanish resources.
In our Final Report form, we ask our program support grant recipients to share “Ah-ha” moments or “feel-good-stories” related to the program. Mrs. Cunningham began her response with “So many” then went on to list some of them. A parishioner who had taken a Miraculous Medal asked if he could take an extra his friend who is homebound. This simple interaction led to an increase in Fr. Walsh’s homebound ministry. Another parishioner wrote “Thank you for all the material that was available during Lent. I started new devotions I didn’t know existed. I went to adoration which I didn’t know about and I went to a couple of Stations of the Cross. I think this was my best Lent ever!”
Regarding the starting goals, Sacred Heart-St. Patrick reported that weekend Mass attendance had almost doubled and that various opportunities for parishioners to engage with the faith outside of Mass via retreats, a new Women’s Faith Group, and even virtual series led by Fr. Walsh on ‘What you should know about the Catholic faith,” on the Gospel of St. John, and a 33-day Consecration to Mary and a 30-day Consecration to the Eucharist were all well attended. Fr. Walsh also began holding Adoration twice a week which saw regular attendance grow considerably.
The program also helped build community, which is always the most challenging. But again, perhaps the simplicity of the program helped ease parishioners into new routines. Mrs. Cunningham reported that while the after-Mass coffees were not popular at first, once children realized doughnuts were available they began making a bee-line for them and eventually the parents followed. On multiple occasions she heard it said people who had known each other from the school pick-up line or afterschool activities only then realized they were Catholic and belonged to the same parish.
Fr. Walsh is quite pleased and clear about the need the program aims to address. “I am delighted with the progress Anne Cunningham has made in our faith formation efforts, along with her faithful team of parishioners who have volunteered their time and effort to draw our families toward a deeper appreciation of the richness of our faith. We have three key aspects in our Faith formation program – Respect (for one another), Accountability (for oneself), and most importantly Relationship (with God). The challenge is helping the kids (and parents) understand the interior relationship God desires to share with each one of us. It’s not just about memorizing the X’s and O’s to ‘get your sacraments’ but rather experiencing God’s presence in the soul through a faithful life of daily prayer, reflection thoughtfully on the Scriptures, developing a true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, our true Mother, and St. Joseph, our spiritual father, and actually being in a real, tangible relationship with them—a relationship that begins at baptism and deserves primary place in our daily lives.”
Faith formation, not just religious education, is at the heart of bringing our brothers and sisters back to the Church, back in communion with each other and with The One. By supporting The Credo (I Believe) program, the St. John Paul II for Faith Formation Foundations in Faith has shown that by bringing forth what is already in the deep well of the traditions of our faith, along with prayer, we can transform our ministries, our parishes, and our communities. Teaching the families about this relationship is the heart of our program, a relationship that begins at baptism and deserves primary place in our daily lives.”
