Commentary
“Faith in action” is the guiding premise for service learning. Involving young people in service to others is to engage them in discipleship. Learning to serve and serving to learn are mutually inclusive opportunities for young people to discover biblical principles regarding the call to justice and the rich tradition of Catholic social teaching while acting as God’s agent of justice, peace and forgiveness in service to others.
The “Pastoral Circle” (based on the work of Peter Henriot and Joseph Holland and adapted by Thomas Bright and John Roberto) describes the process of service learning. This four-step catechetical model provides opportunities for involvement, exploration, reflection and action that lead to growth in awareness of social injustice and the ability/skills to positively impact areas of social injustice:
- Involvement asks participants to get in touch with their own experiences of social injustice. Involvement asks the question, “What is going on here?”
- Exploration widens the reflections on their own experiences to examine the relationships between the values, structures, ideologies, etc. that cause injustice. Exploration asks the question, “Why does this happen?”
- Reflection examines experiences through the lenses of Scripture and Catholic social teaching, and allows participants to discern how our faith lifestyle motivates us to respond. Reflection asks the question, “As a Catholic Christian, what did I learn? How did I grow?”
- Action is the crucial fourth step and the culminating purpose of reflection and exploration. While complex social issues rarely result in simple solutions, it is possible to make some kind of positive and effective response. This step helps people to identify the particular role they can play in weakening or eliminating injustice. Action asks the question, “What are we, as a Catholic Christian faith community, going to do about it?”
The response of action inevitably leads to more involvements that call for more exploration, reflection and action, each time building upon previous insights and experiences, hence the “Pastoral Circle.”
Service learning formats vary from program to program. A popular format is a variation of the summer camp model. For a week or two during the summer, young people are gathered daily (or every other weekday) to participate in the Pastoral Circle process. Usually, service projects and sites have been prearranged. Part of the day is spent exploring issues, and then participants go to the prearranged site to serve. They gather back at the end of the day for debriefing and reflection on what they experienced and observed at the service site.
More typically, service learning that takes place as one-time events sprinkled throughout the calendar year. Opportunities to serve at a soup kitchen, food pantry, nursing home, etc., accompanied by reflection before and debriefing afterward, can be meaningful.
Advantages of Discipleship in Action
- Young people learn to “walk the walk while talking the talk.”
- Youth have personal experiences of empowerment and the ability to participate in the transformation of society into the Reign of God.
- The Pastoral Circle allows for intentional catechesis about biblical principles and our rich church tradition of Catholic social teaching.
- Young people and adults are generally already predisposed to “doing something” to make the world a better place. They want to be asked to serve but they want assurances that their service is meaningful. Service learning supplies the means for purposeful service.
- Teens and adults learn vital skills of discipleship: looking at the world with God’s eyes and being moved to compassionate action for the benefit of God’s children.
Some Concerns about Discipleship in Action
- Like summer camp, not all youth will be available to participate in a weeklong program. Other service opportunities must be made available to them.
- Like the retreat model, larger service opportunities such as mission trips, can be cost restrictive.
- Service learning is one of many catechetical efforts. It cannot stand alone as the sole means of catechesis for adolescents in a faith community.