Evangelization Outreach / Deacon Jim Wood

Program assists youths to fill their ‘ARK’ with knowledge of faith

Author G.K. Chesterton once said, “The difficulty explaining why I am Catholic is that there are 10,000 reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.”

This quote has stayed with me throughout my years as a married lay person and now as a permanent deacon for the archdiocese.

As my second anniversary of diaconate ordination approaches, I can state one thing for certain: I can’t remember when I have been so in love with Christ and his Church, and all the folks that make up the body of Christ.

Since I was a boy, I became very interested in the Church. I wanted to understand the Mass better; I wanted to fully participate in the sacraments; and I wanted to know why we did the things we did throughout the liturgical year.

My catechetical upbringing was meager at best, yet filled with hope that I was following the one and true Christian religion. I had several mentors who helped me along the way, to which I credit my path of following our Lord, Jesus Christ.

These folks helped me to see that Jesus was the Word made flesh who pitched his tent among us. They helped me see Jesus as my Lord and Savior, my redeemer. And they helped me see the Eucharist as God with us, body and blood, soul and divinity, to which this day I follow with zeal for the Gospel.

As I matured in my faith, and resources for catechesis and evangelization got better, I became an insatiable reader of the works from Aquinas to Augustine, from the Church Fathers to Bishop Robert E. Barron. And this naturally led me to want to spread the faith to my brothers and sisters in Christ. Through the many years of being a catechist and teacher, I passed on to others the gift of knowing the faith with courage and conviction.

Throughout our archdiocese, we have hundreds of catechists, teachers and youth ministers who pass on the faith to our young people. During the months between the school and program year, they prepare their students for the annual assessment we call ARK, which is an acronym for “assessment of religious knowledge.”

Given annually in the spring, ARK is a new tool used by the archdiocese to assess not only students’ religious knowledge but also their belief and behaviors toward our faith.

ARK is replacing ACRE (Assessment of Child/Youth Religious Education), another assessment tool. Beginning in the 2024-25 school and program year, all schools, religious education programs and youth ministry groups will be required to assess their students using ARK in grades 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. Most of these assessments will be completed online; however, ARK does offer a written paper and pencil version.

ARK can keep track of a child’s performance in subsequent years as they progress through their catechetical upbringing. Catechists, teachers, administrators and youth ministers can also be assessed with an adult version of ARK.

All in all, ARK will be a necessary and beneficial tool moving forward. So, fill your ARK, learn about our faith, and be assured that, as theologian Carl Olson said, “… not everyone can be a theologian, but everyone should know some theology.”
 

(Deacon Jim Wood is catechetical resources coordinator within the archdiocesan Department of Parish Leadership. He can be reached at jwood@archindy.org.) †