Catholic life lived in households, but in isolation from the culture.

Catholic children learned about their faith b living in a household of faith. The members of the household attended Mass every week and prayed at home; before every meal, every morning and evening, and together as a family especially

during Lent, by fasting, abstaining, setting up Marian altars, and observing feasts and seasons. They carried holy cards in their pockets, glued statues of saints to their dashboards, and generally lived their faith day in and day out.

CCD class or Catholic school filled in a tiny gap in the formation process. It offered the formulas and definitions, the doctrine and dogma, needed to elaborate the experience of faith which was going on in a daily life. Catholic school

religion or parish CCD class used a small catechism as its main source, but was greatly expanded by the sisters and brothers who did most of the teaching.

The example of faith coming from the religious sisters and brothers who did the teaching was an enormous factor. But it remains true that it was the “Catholic home life: from which the children came that formed the bedrock of faith.Time Period

Major cultural shift in the western world. The breakdown of the solid Catholic life.

The culture of Catholic home life began to change as transportation, communication, and media emerged with great force. The old piety of the 1950s gave way at home to television, out-of-home activities, TV dinners, and the influence of movements for social change.

Families prayed together less, and lived a less explicit Catholic piety.

The CCD or Catholic school now had a much larger gap to fill. There was less in-home formation, and parents now began to feel freer to embrace the social change of the culture. This meant more ecumenical marriages, less regular attendance at Sunday Mass, fewer children per family, less formal obedience to Church teaching, and greater openness to other faiths.

Religion class generally no longer used the old catechism, but also had not found anything new. It used pop culture itself as a means of teaching the faith: music, crafts, and “faith experiences” of various kinds, including experimental methods of faith formation.