The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd celebrates 70 years since its foundation

This month, the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS), a catechetical learning method for young students inspired by Montessori education, celebrates 70 years since its founding and 40 years as an official organization in the United States. Joined.

Founded by Sofía Cavalletti and inspired by the educational style of Catholic educator María Montessori, the CGS catechizes children from the earliest years to 12, appealing to each child’s stage of development and placing strong emphasis on the child’s relationship with God.

The nascent CGSUSA organization has grown since its establishment in the United States in 1984, expanding to include Orthodox Christians, Episcopalians, and other Christian churches who wish to incorporate this thoughtful, creative, relationship-based way of teaching children about God.

In the United States, there are more than 6,500 “atriums” or classrooms tailored to child development needs, with three headquarters offices in Arizona, Georgia and Iowa.

CGSUSA has 4,700 active members from 21 different Christian traditions. Members and catechists serve an estimated 75,000 children.

CGS spaces are designed for the needs of each age group, whether they are children from 16 to 30 months, 3 to 6 years, 6 to 9 years or 9 to 12 years.

“The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd offers the child a place and time to be with God,” commented Mary Mirrione, national director of CGSUSA.

“We dedicate a lot to the care and training of the catechist, the adults who are in that room with the children. But that room is prepared in such a way that everything in it points to God and is a gateway to the mystery of God into which the child can enter,” he told CNA, the English agency of EWTN News.

The rooms have furniture tailored to the child, depending on the age range for which the classroom is designated. Artwork and shelves are easy to access. Religious-themed activities are available for children, including tactile liturgical calendars, maps of the Holy Land, and a liturgy area with a mini altar.

“We have a beautiful little set of everything they see at Mass, and we help them with the names because they are fascinated by the names as they learn to speak,” she explained.

CGS focuses on different aspects of God through different classroom activities and decorations, as well as parables, depending on the age of the child.

The name of the classrooms, “atriums” (singular “atrium”), is taken from the space between the Church and the outside world.

Catechists prioritize the child’s relationship with God rather than just factual learning, emphasizing parables such as that of the good shepherd and the prodigal son.

“It is not a subject, it is a Person. It is not knowledge that they are acquiring, it is a relationship that they are enjoying, and, of course, they receive knowledge in that enjoyment,” said Mirrione.

“By nature, being His children, and in the fullness of their baptism, (children) have a relationship with God that is between them and God. The only people allowed in their soul are them and God. The rest of us, we can serve that, and we can do it well, but we need to see who they are to be able to do it,” he added.

Foundation and growth

Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi founded CGS in Rome, inspired by the Church and Montessori-style education.

Cavalletti, a biblical scholar and theologian, was invited by a friend to teach catechism to her young children. Although she initially commented that she knew nothing about children, Ella Cavalletti was attracted to her unique perspectives. Taking inspiration from the rabbinic way of reading Scripture, to which she was accustomed, she joined forces with Montessori educator, Gianna Gobbi, and developed the CGS.

“They started an experiment, a Montessori experiment, in a prepared environment,” Mirrione said.

They decided to call the classroom space an atrium, inspired by the space between the world and the church.

“In San Pedro, there is that space, and there are those huge golden doors with the life of Christ on them: that is the atrium,” he explained. “In St. Paul Outside the Walls, there is a large atrium for the catechumenate, because that is where the catechumens learned about the faith, and that was the space between the two.”

The organization grew, and Pope John Paul II made a pastoral visit to a CGS group at Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Italy, on February 13, 1983, while the children worked with the catechists.

“He approached each group and listened carefully, then asked a question, and then listened again, amazed and moved by the children’s responses,” Mirrione told CNA in an email. “At the conclusion of his visit, he told Sofia and the catechists in the atrium that he had never heard such a good homily and that it was proof that the kingdom of heaven belongs to children.”

Growth

This year, CGSUSA celebrates nearly 5,000 active members who help manage or support CGS locations across the country, 40 years as an association and 70 years of CGS. The organization certifies more than 2,200 catechists each year, and volunteer catechists dedicate an estimated total of 20,000 hours each month.

“It took us a while to become an association because we are still small. We have always been small. But this year we are also celebrating, and it fills me with joy, that we have almost 5,000 members,” Mirrione explained.

Mirrione has led the organization for more than 27 years and has worked in catechism since the early 1990s.

He explained that he began taking CGS classes at the request of his pastor and later felt a personal connection to the program.

“However, going through the course from day one, being called by name to this beautiful place, which is like a retirement home for children, really captured my attention and my heart,” she recalled. “The Gospel is proclaimed in such an essential way.”

“We say that our foundations are the Scripture, the liturgy, and the child, the human person before us. And that, in its simplicity, is really profound. For example, one of children’s favorite parables is ‘the kingdom of the Heaven is like a mustard seed, so small when it is planted, but it grows so much that the birds take shelter in its branches,” he continued.

“Jesus was talking about the Jerusalem mustard seeds, which I think unless you see them, you don’t know how tiny they are; they’re so small! And when you walk through Bethany, you step on them. It would have been so present to people of his time.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.