Pandemic opens up new ways to educate, evangelize

By Darci Swisher | Correspondent

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to evolve, the Diocese of Austin is looking at ways to ensure ministries remain safe, healthy and available this fall.
“We find ourselves in a new reality where new frontiers of evangelization are opening up to us and ways that we have done things in the past aren’t as efficient or as effective,” said Father James Misko, vicar general.
During these very difficult times of illness and seclusion, it is important to trust in God, he said.
“Our Lord does not want bad things to happen to us. St. John of the Cross said God allows bad things to happen for only one reason –– so that we will put our trust in God.”
Public celebration of Masses in the diocese resumed in May after a nearly two-month suspension. During this period, parishes also ceased most in-person ministries, including religious education. Catholic schools moved online for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. Seminarians returned to the diocese mid-semester and took up residence in parish rectories.
Behind the scenes, diocesan departments and offices provided essential guidance to parishes and schools and are now fine-tuning this expertise to effect change until a vaccine is available.
“There’s a lot of different needs of our parishioners during normal times, a pandemic multiplies that in a way that is very difficult and very challenging for pastors and their teams,” Father Misko said. “I think the parishes have been extremely entrepreneurial and creative in the ways they have gone about their work.”

Religious education
Gustavo Rodriguez, director of evangelization and catechesis, said continuing the faith formation of religious education students was imperative, as many were preparing to receive the sacraments.
“Parishes promptly prepared student packets that included books and resources and distributed them to their families,” he said. “Others transferred to online learning or a combination of both. They used platforms such as Zoom or Google Classroom and continued constant communication with families.”
Parishes will extend these practices into the fall, with an emphasis on empowering parents to be the primary catechists for their children.
“DREs and catechists will serve as mentors and coaches for the families, and material delivered using primarily online formats,” Rodriguez said.

Youth ministry
The Office of Youth, Young Adult and Campus Ministry is working closely with the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis to increase family involvement in its ministries as well.
“We see this as an opportune time for parents to increase their involvement in the faith formation of their children, and in turn strengthen the faith of their families, the domestic church,” said Jennifer Kodysz, associate director of youth, young adult and campus ministry.
Staff members have ramped up communications to parish ministry leaders through additional newsletters and opportunities to connect weekly through Zoom.
“During these meetings, we have covered different topics from what an online youth gathering looks like, how to meet the needs of teens virtually, to planning for the summer and the fall,” Kodysz said.
The office also set up a web page (www.austindiocese.org/children-youth-resources) dedicated to available resources, many of which are new due to the pandemic and targeted toward transitioning from in-person to online gatherings. Serving the younger generation has also helped with this, she said, since they have a “comfort level with technology that has made the transition to online programming pretty smooth.”

Catholic schools
The Office of Catholic Schools is working with principals from the diocese’s 20 Catholic schools to develop return to school guidelines, so they may bring students and staff back to campuses in “the safest way possible,” said Misty Poe, diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools.
“These guidelines would encompass everything a student would go through in a day, from arrival to school and classroom operations to what to do during lunch and electives,” she said. “It would also include a section regarding distance learning should our schools have to transition to an e-learning model once again.”
The Office of Catholic Schools has been in active communication and engagement with the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops Education Department and Texas Education Agency as well as local and state authorities.
“Working collectively with the different officials has helped us stay informed of new developments and regulations and has served us well in providing relevant and up-to-date guidance to our administrators, as well as to be one step ahead in these unprecedented times,” Poe said.
During weekly meetings with principals they discuss scenarios that may arise as faculty, teachers and staff head back to school, and they provide trainings for the new processes and protocols regarding sanitation of common spaces, social distancing and alternative learning platforms.

Social ministries
Catholics throughout the diocese must also remain faithful to promoting the sanctity of life, and the uncertainty of the fall will require adjustments to all the ministries of the Secretariat of Life, Charity and Justice, said F. DeKarlos Blackmon, secretariat director.
“In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the social unrest associated with the recent deaths of Black men by those who are sworn to serve and protect, we are called — individually and through our parishes and lay ecclesial movements — to be communities of ‘salt’ and ‘light,’ living out our faith in our families, communities and the world,” he said.
One of the secretariat’s ministries, restorative justice, has been significantly impacted, with most, if not all, inmates in Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) facilities essentially on lockdown and the suspension of in-person Catholic religious services in prison units.
“Restorative justice is providing local TDCJ chaplains with materials and supplies, video faith formation programs and other programs for use by Catholic inmates during the pandemic,” Blackmon said.
In collaboration with TDCJ, restorative justice — through John Gilluly, Father Harry Dean and Deacon Ronnie Lastovica — has arranged for prerecorded liturgies to be broadcast in all TDCJ prisons across Texas. In addition, Father Dean arranged with Red C Radio in College Station to communicate via radio broadcast to inmates incarcerated in TDCJ prison units throughout the greater Gatesville region. These radio broadcasts offer words of encouragement, prayer and scriptural sessions to allow Father Dean to provide a consistent level of pastoral care while not having a physical presence in the prisons.

Spirituality
Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in Temple typically averages 70 retreatants a weekend at its three meeting spaces. Although that number decreased after Texas began reopening, it is now slowly rising, and the staff has instituted additional cleaning measures with recommended disinfectants, said Brian Egan, director.
“We are fortunate that our conference center is very large, and we can now seat 40 people at their own table and still be part of the big group,” he said. “This setup works for presentations and dining and keeps a safe distance at the same time. Our conference center can also be used for worship space.”
Also Franciscan Father Albert Haase, Cedarbrake’s chaplain, is offering five-day “private retreats” using Skype and a three-part Zoom retreat is in the works for October.

Seminarians
Father Greg Gerhart, the new diocesan vocation director, said the 33 men in seminary formation — including 12 new seminarians entering priestly formation — will continue in-person formation at their respective seminaries in the fall. Seminary faculties have made significant adjustments to the “normal” way of providing priestly formation.
“While the way that formation is delivered may have to change, the goal of helping our men conform their hearts to the love of Christ the Good Shepherd remains,” Father Gerhart said. “Our Lord … remains faithful, and our men have responded generously to the challenges this pandemic has posed.”

Our priests
Father Misko said throughout the pandemic, priests in the Diocese of Austin have worked diligently to keep themselves healthy, as they realize the church needs them to bring the sacraments to the people of God.
The few who have tested positive for coronavirus have followed protocols from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as state and local health experts to ensure the health of their congregations.
“As priests, we face this bravely, knowing that we, too, could get the coronavirus,” Father Misko said. “And if we do, we will deal with it, as everybody else does, so that we can get healthy quickly and get back to the work of caring for God’s people.”