Bishop Carroll Catholic High School

Sr. Mary Magdalene, IHM

Course Goal:  The purpose of this course is to examine liturgical prayer as well as other forms of prayer emphasizing the absolute necessity and value of prayer as the means for defense against evil, to carry out God’s commands, to obtain grace, to save our souls, to benefit more fully from the Mass and Sacraments.

General Course Outline:                                                       

            What is Liturgy?

            Necessity of Prayer

            Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office)

            Liturgical Year and Calendar

            Sacramentals and Devotions

            Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

            Vessels, Vestments, Furnishings

            Seven Sacraments

            Rites of Baptism and Confession

Learner Activities:

            Class notes and discussion

            Assigned reading and discussion

            Liturgical and Private Prayer

            Written assignments

            Projects: see handout

            Tests/Quizzes

            Short Papers

Class Requirements:

Daily Class Materials

1.        Three ringed notebook and dividers: Journal, Class notes, Handouts, Corrected Tests and Quizzes

2.       Text:  Introduction to Catholicism

3.       Ballpoint pen

4.       Agenda Book

Grading Procedures

CLASS PARTICIPATION: 25% approximately

1.        Careful listening and note taking

2.        Answers to teacher’s questions, raising hands before speaking

3.        Respect for God, authority, others and yourself which will evaluated by external        

measures such as class behavior               

4.        Attendance and being on time to class

TESTS AND QUIZZES:  25% approximately

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS: 40% approximately

1.       Qualities: Prompt, Neat, Correct, Fulfilled teacher’s directives

·         NA: Not acceptable - Work that is not neat, did not follow procedures, etc., will be returned to do over; credit will be given and will be considered late.

·         LATE: All papers that are late will receive no higher grade than a C; except for serious illness, work submitted after assigned time will be considered late

·         LIMITED “GRACE PERIOD”:  After a limited time (2 days) late work will not be accepted. 

2.   Kinds of Written Work

·         Class work

·         Homework

·         Nine week Projects

                KEEPING AN ORDERLY NOTEBOOK:  10% approximately

                CHEATING POLICY:  Zero tolerance!  Zero credit!  Cheating includes copying homework                 from another student, cheat sheets on tests and quizzes, plagiarism, any communication during a                 test or quiz.

                 EXCUSED ABSENCE:  All work/tests must be completed within two days of returning from an            excused absence

Class Guidelines

                Respect and Courtesy AT ALL TIMES

                For God:

1.        Attention during prayers: giving God what He deserves

2.        Saying God’s Name respectfully

    For Each Other:

1.        Listening to and refraining from talking while others are speaking.

2.       Respecting each student’s right to learn the Catholic Faith in this class

Personal Responsibilities

1.        Bringing required materials to class

2.        Fulfilling all assignments

3.        Being on time; in your desk, ready to pray when bell rings (Unexcused Tardy: automatic demerit)

4.        Receiving corrections well

Classroom Rules

1.        May not leave desk without permission

2.        No food, drink, candy in classroom

3.        Courteous class participation

Hall Pass:  3 passes are issued for the semester. Agenda Book will be used to record passes used and unused.  Unused passes will each count for 3pts. extra credit to be applied to final exam at the end of the semester.

Honors Evangelization

• Meaning, importance and methods of Evangelization and Apologetics
• Church’s relationship to World Religions and Salvation Outside the Church
• The Nature of Truth
• The Existence of God
• The Evidential Power of Beauty
• The Problem of Evil
• The Necessity of Religion
• Abuse of Religion: Cults
• Historicity of the Gospels
• Proofs for the Divinity of Christ
• Four Marks of the True Church of Christ
• The Church and the Bible
• The Church and Tradition
• Papal Authority and Magisterium
• Infallibility
• Defending the Sacraments of the Church
• Refuting Fundamentalist’s Challenges
• Marian Doctrines
• Sola Fide
• Sola Scriptura
• Purgatory
• Intercessory Prayer
• Dialoguing with Jehovah Witnesses
• Dialoguing with Mormons
• Dialoguing with Moslems
• Current Apologetic concerns

“Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with goodness and reverence…”  (1 Pt 3: 15)

GRADING

Since apologetics aims to teach you how to defend your Faith in a practical way, it is important that you learn how to speak to others about the Faith. It is rare that someone will ask you to write an essay about why you are a Catholic; rather, most of us deal with verbal questions that are on the spot and demand a quick response. For this reason, participation is an important part of the grading, together with projects, which show how you intellectually and practically can deal with apologetics.

The following points should help you in becoming a good apologist and receiving a high grade:

1.   Participation: (35% of grade) Respectful, charitable and courteous discussion (points will be awarded for each days participation, percentage of points may be regained by those who are absent by showing me that you have obtained the day’s notes copied into your note book and that you have talked to a classmate about the class missed. It is the Student’s responsibility to find out and complete missed assignments.) If you find discussing aloud very difficult, but do have something to answer to a given objection, simply write your objections down. Do not resort to writing down replies unless you cannot get a "word in”, because of the vocal assertion of others. Participation includes note-taking as well as attentive listening.

2. Projects and Assignments (40% of grade) each nine weeks you will need to submit one project of your choice, see section on project ideas. There will also be reading and written assignments.

3. Tests (25% of grade)

Tests will be mostly essay, measuring your thinking skills, as well as knowledge of the material. Clear and logical answers that are thorough, terse and correct will gain you a higher grade. Bombastic language, unclear generalizations, etc. will lead to a lower grade.

Semester grade will be calculated as follows: [(sum of 3^rd and 4^th Quarters) * .9] + [final * .1].

CLASS PROCEDURES

·         Daily Requirements

o   Attendance and promptness

o   Be standing by your desk when the bell sounds

o   Unexcused tardies merit automatic demerit

o   Remain in desk until dismissed by the teacher

·         Necessities

o   Text books

o   Writing utensils

o   Notebook: 3 ringed loose-leaf not spiral

·         Requirements for Assignments (completion of assignment does not automatically equal “A”)

o   In ink, no pencil

o   On loose-leaf notebook paper: not ripped out of a spiral

o   Prompt, Neat, Correct, Fulfilled teacher’s directive

·         Not acceptable

o   Work that is not neat, did not follow procedures, etc., will be returned to do over; credit will be given and will be considered late.

o   Late:  All papers that are late will receive no higher grade than a C; except for serious illness, work submitted after assigned time will be considered late.

o   Limited “Grace Period”:  After a limited time (2 days) late work will not be accepted.

Cheating policy:  Zero tolerance!  Zero credit!  Cheating includes copying homework from             another student, cheat sheets on tests and quizzes, plagiarism, any communication during a test or quiz

  Excused Absence:  All work/tests must be completed within two days of returning from an                     excused absence.

PROJECT IDEAS

For each nine-week grade, you must submit a nine-week project displaying your mastery of apologetics and your use of logic, persuasion and trustworthiness to explain the Catholic Faith. These projects are due the last week of the nine-week period. You are MOST welcome to submit your projects before the due date. NO PROJECTS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THE LISTED DATE!

You have a vast array of choices from which to select. The following list contains approved ideas, but you may come up with another idea, provided you receive approval from me first.

In order to correlate with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, (from now on CCC) I strongly recommend taking from or tying your theme to the CCC. You will find it an excellent place to start your research because of the CCC's extensive index and cross-referencing.

1.   Computer apologetics:

a.       Debates on-line (provide a printout of this debate.)

b.   Collection of apologetics information and programs

c.       Your own apologetics webpage

d.   Other ideas

2.   Devil's advocate (If you play the role of opponent to Catholicism, make sure you)

a.   Defend well the opposing position

b.   Refute your position and show your errors at the end of the presentation

b.      Evaluate class' response ... did they argue with evidence, logic & persuasion? (See me for scheduling a date for this project)

3.   Analysis of various apologetic methods: cf. any of the Fathers of the Church

      a.   St. Augustine, esp. Confessions & City of God

      b.   St. Thomas Aquinas, esp. Summa Teologica & Summa Contra Gentiles

c.       John Henry Cardinal Newman, esp. The Apologia Pro Vita Sua & Certain Difficulties

d.      C.S. Lewis, esp. Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, & The Screwtape Letters

e.       G. K. Chesterton, esp. Orthodoxy

f.       Edith Stein (her specialty is the role of woman, and empathy)

g.       Hilaire Belloc

h.      Frank Sheed, esp. Theology for Beginners

i.        Rhonda Chervin, esp. Feminine Faithful & Free (refutation of Feminism)

j.        Karl Keating, Fundamentalism & Catholicism

k.      Peter Kreeft, esp. Fundamentals of the Faith (and much more!)

l.        Scott & Kimberly Hahn, Rome, Sweet Home (many audio tapes too)

4.   Articles from periodicals: (2-4 articles depending on difficulty level of periodical)

      a.   L 'Osservatore Romano: The semi­official paper for the Vatican, contains Papal statements in English, articles and statements by Curia and theologians (also www.vatican.va)

b.   Crisis: college level, make sure the article has to do with apologetics

c.   This Rock: practical apologetic articles, very readable

d.   Catholic League Newsletter or webpage

Excellent way to learn how to defend the Faith from attacks by the media and politicians

In your analyses, include a summary of the chief points from the article, and an evaluation. Was it well argued? Do you agree? Is there good logic and persuasion? Was it helpful? Inspiring?

5.   Critiques: To be able to sift the true from the false marks the true apologist. You can select from many articles to discern anti-Catholic prejudices and/or gross misconceptions as well as omissions. Some sources for criticism:

a.   Catholic League Newsletter: leads for what and how to critique

b.   U.S. Catholic: a periodical usually containing at least one dissenting voice to the Catholic Church

c.       America: Another magazine with some good articles on Catholic social doctrine, but dissenting articles as well

d.   Wichita Eagle: A newspaper whose religion section sometimes carries flawed views of Catholicism (cf other secular journals)

e.   Heretical books (see me)

f.    Anti-Catholic pamphlets and brochures

g.       TV: some tel-evangelists, Phil Donahue. CNN, etc.

6.   Letters to the editor/editorials

a.   Defense of Catholicism

b.   Defense of natural law & morals (letters to editor, pro-life lobbying, etc.)

c.   Defense of civil liberties and freedom of religion

7.   Interviews/surveys: before conducting interviews, make sure you have intelligently planned questions. With utmost courtesy, strive to leave a good impression of Catholicism. You can video-tape as well as write or read aloud your report.

a.   Catholic apologists

b.   Protestant ministers

c.   Jewish rabbis

d.   Greek Orthodox priests

e.       Anglicans

f.    Converts to Catholicism

g.   Catholics who have "come back"

h.   Former BCCHS students who are defending the faith at college

i.    Cult counselors, or former cult members, with non-Catholics, you may wish to ask compare/contrast questions. Be sure to have a section in your presentation that evaluates the interviewee's responses.

8.   Conversion accounts: It is fascinating tracing the steps of a convert, in which one can see clearly God's lead. You could read an account of a conversion story and tell the story to the class, For example, Rome Sweet Home, is the account of Scott and Kimberly Hahn's journey from evangelical Christian to Catholic Christian or Bernard Nathanson, an abortionist who converted to the pro-life side and eventually to Catholicism. Just recently, an entire Episcopalian parish, pastor and people came into the Catholic Church.

9.   Participation in conferences, lectures: Occasionally, there are some excellent conferences in Wichita. You could attend and report for either a nine-week project grade or extra credit. I will keep you posted on upcoming events.

10.  Teaching the Catholic Faith: You could teach either grade school or PSR high school. See me for further details

11. Compilation of "Catholic positions": You could research and compile statements of the Catholic Church on certain issues. (e.g. population control, euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, role of women in the Church, role of Mary in the Church. Be sure these statements are apologetics for the Church's teachings. )

12. Apologetics through Great Catholic literature and art: see me for list of books and                       artists/composers.

Honors Vocations

Class procedures

I.                    Daily Requirements

A.        Attendance and promptness

1.  Be standing by your desk when the bell sounds

2.  Unexcused tardies merit automatic demerit

3.  Remain in desk until dismissed by the teacher

B.         Necessities

1.  Text

2.  Ball-point pen

3.       Notebook: 3-ringed loose-leaf not spiral

II.                 Notebook Organization:  Grading determined by neatness, completeness & following directions

A.        Course syllabus

B.         Class notes

C.         Reading notes

D.        Corrected Work

E.         Reference

1.  Glossary

  2.  Handouts

III.               Assignments

A.        Format – See sample on board

B.         Requirements (completion of assignment does not automatically equal “A”)

1.  In ink.  NO PENCIL

2.  On loose-leaf notebook paper: NOT ripped out of a spiral

3.      Complete sentences when specified

C.         Lateness

1.  20% off (1^st day)

2.  10% more (2^nd day)

IV.              Grading

A.        Breakdown

1.  Class work:  25%

a.       Class participation:  respectful and charitable courtesy.  (Up to 10 pts                       will be awarded for each days participation, up to 8 pts may be regained by those who are absent by showing me that you have copied the day’s notes into your notebook and that you have talked to a classmate about the class missed.  It is the student’s responsibility to find out and complete missed assignments.)

b.      Notebook

c.       Quizzes

2.      Written work: 50%

a.       Writing assignments

b.      Reading notes

3.      Tests: 25%

4.      Final Grade: [(Semester average) x .9] +[Final x.1]

B.         Cheating Policy:  Zero tolerance! Zero credit!  Cheating includes copying homework from another student, “cheat sheets” on tests and quizzes, plagiarism, any communication during a test or quiz.

C.         Excused Absence:  All work/tests must be completed within two days of returning from an excused absence.