Chai Brady
Apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Ossory, Bishop Denis Nulty (centre) 
Digital catechesis: teaching old practices using modern technology, Chai Brady writes
All Christians are called to proclaim the Gospel but in order to do so they must have a solid faith formation. Seeing the need to make learning about the faith more convenient as many parishioners are often very busy during the week, Fr Dermot Ryan tells The Irish Catholic how they went about creating their new app.
Aspal, which means apostle in Irish, is set to be offered to parishes and dioceses across the island of Ireland. The app is a collaboration between the Ossory Adult Faith Development Group, of which Fr Ryan is the director, and St Patrick’s College Maynooth.
Support
It is intended to support and train those who work in parishes: readers; baptismal teams; parish councils, parish administrators and secretaries; extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist; choirs and more.
There were several reasons the app was developed, according to Fr Ryan, who says: “We’re trying to broaden the number of people with whom we can engage. Oftentimes we have many members of our parishes coming to Mass at the weekend and they lead very busy lives through the week so through the medium of Aspal, we’re affording people a chance, on their own time, at a time and place that is convenient for them, to engage with a digital catechesis platform.
“The idea is they can journey through a course over a period of time on an evening or evenings that are suitable to them rather than the traditional form in parishes and dioceses when we declare training for Eucharistic ministers for four Tuesdays in Advent, whereas now it allows people to do it on their own time. That’s the logic behind it.”
Almost 50 people became the first students to complete the Aspal programme last week at its launch”
Four parishes of the Comer Tri Pastoral Area came together and parishioners signed up to try out one of the Aspal programmes, to prepare for ministry in Slieverue church.
Almost 50 people became the first students to complete the Aspal programme last week at its launch. Also in attendance was the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Ossory, Bishop Denis Nulty, who said that in “preparing you for ministry in your parish communities we are but restoring old practices – albeit by using very modern technology – whereby people lead each other in prayer”.
“In these rural communities, where we gather tonight, were not animals and crops blessed by men and women who for years carried their Easter water home, were not prayers said as neighbours died, and God spoken about in our domestic churches. Yours then is a future built on our strong past, yours is a Baptism finding new life,” Bishop Nulty said.
Our journey
Fr Ryan explained that it is “the first step in our journey”, saying that the local launch is just the beginning of “something we believe can serve the Irish Church”.
Aspal provides “excellent catechetical material for faith formation to any parish in Ireland at a time and in a place that suits the participants – thereby encouraging a much greater take up of faith development,” he said.
“The hope is that we will engage with parishes and dioceses and that a parish would come forward and say, ‘look, we want to train all our Eucharistic ministers’, or a diocese would come forward and say they would like to train all their parishe’s administrators, or all of their parish secretaries, whoever, and that the parish or diocese would sign up a group of people who would then be given log-in details for each individual member.”
Those who took part in the Aspal course were involved in a series of modules over six weeks. “People were able to engage in their own time and then on the feast of Ss Peter and Paul, Bishop Denis Nulty celebrated with a limited number of them, obviously given the current restrictions, and presented them with certificates of completion.
They will be working with St Patrick’s College Maynooth over the summer months in order to be able to offer a variety of courses to parishes and dioceses for the new academic year in September”
“At the end of the course, we were able to sign off that they had all undertaken each of the modules and submitted the necessary tasks.”
Asked what can be expected from the programme, Fr Ryan said: “The way we have it set up is that the participants would watch taught content for 10-15 minutes and for each there is a task, a reflection of maybe 200 words, on something to do with what they had learned. It is to get them to reflect on what they were listening to and then they submit that back in and it’s approved and marked by the Aspal team and once that’s done they can move to the next module, so you must complete a module-by-module journey through the programme.”
There has been interest in the app from dioceses in the US, with Fr Ryan saying that Ireland is doing well when it comes to keeping up with technological advancements.
“I’d hope to think that we might be dipping our toes in the water first and trying to lead rather than follow,” he said, adding that they will be using the first people who went through the programme as a focus group in order to make any improvements needed to Aspal.
They will be working with St Patrick’s College Maynooth over the summer months in order to be able to offer a variety of courses to parishes and dioceses for the new academic year in September.
Faith development
“Every one of us, from the moment of our Baptism to the moment we finally meet the Lord, we’re continuing to learn more and more about him. People involved in ministry and people who are not, by virtue of their baptismal calling, spend their days trying to learn more about the Lord. Ongoing faith development, encouraging people to continue ask questions about, and of, God is very important,” Fr Ryan said.
“That’s why we went with Aspal, it’s the Irish for apostle, it’s by virtue of our Baptism that every Christian is called and sent, each of us are missioned to go into the world to proclaim, so Aspal is an attempt by the Irish Church to be able to support people in that mission.”
More details can be found at Aspal.ie
