Parish has 820 students in religious education classes

IC photo/Laura Vallejo

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Members of St. Francis of Assisi Parish's religious education classes gather Oct. 7 in the parish lobby to pray together before entering their respective classrooms. This year, 820 students are enrolled in the parish's religious education classes.

OREM — With 820 students in the religious education program at Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Orem, students, their families, catechists and the whole community are very excited and grateful to start this new journey.

“What is wonderful about this response is that it’s an effort of the families for to continue growing in the faith,” said Fr. Eleazar Silva Galvan, pastor, adding that this has also been an effort by the parish to promote the faith.

Education is a critical part of forming the faith in order to live a life formed by God’s love. “However, faith formation goes beyond these classrooms. … It is formation through actions, experiences, relationships; religious education is just part of it,” said Luis Velasco, who directs the parish’s religious education program.

Velasco has worked for more than 30 years forming the youth at the parish. This year, of the 820 religious education students, 620 are in the Spanish-language classes and 200 are in the English classes.

“It is an honor to work for the growth of their faith,” Velasco said, adding that now that the COVID pandemic is more controlled, the parish is able to offer in-person religious education classes even with a high number of students.

The religious education classes are open to all young people in grades pre-K through 12. Besides educating the children about Jesus and the Catholic faith, the classes also prepare the youth to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, their First Communion or their Confirmation. The groups are divided by age. Due to the number of participants, the parish has classes every day of the week.

“We don’t have enough catechists [for all the demand], but we are working hard to be able to form more than the ones that are here,” Velasco said.

At the moment, the parish is not accepting more students for their religious education program, but if parishioners have children in need of formation, they are encouraged to contact the parish.

“Educating our youth in the faith is really very important because we live in a state which is primary LDS, where the Catholic is a minority, but if our youth have their Catholic base very solid, one day they will be able to defend  their Catholic faith and never get confused,” Velasco said.

“Ignorance makes confusion greater, and wisdom helps you to know who you are and why your faith is very important,” he added.

“Seeing how the parishioners are stepping up and wanting their kids to learn more about the faith is a marvelous thing,” Fr. Silva said.

The St. Francis of Assisi Parish community is very diverse, and it is beautiful to see all the youth and families attending the religious education classes, Fr. Silva said. “The social base of the Catholic community here in Orem is certainly growing.”

This growth is the result of work by previous parish pastors, he said. “This is the labor of our precious priests; they have planted strong seeds in this community and now they are flourishing.”