Around the archdiocese

The staffs of the New England Diocesan Directors of Religious Education and Diocesan Directors of Youth Ministry met for an all-day symposium on adolescent catechesis at the Pastoral Center May 12.

Speakers included USCCB evangelization and catechesis chairman Bishop Richard J. Malone of Portland, Maine, Boston Auxiliary Bishop John Dooher, and the archdiocesan Secretary for Faith Formation and Evangelization Janet Benestad.

Robert J. McCarty, executive director of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM), and Michael Theisen, NFCYM Director of Membership Services, facilitated the day.

In his remarks to the attendees, Bishop Malone praised the New England dioceses for their collaboration. He noted that bringing together the diocesan leadership of these two important offices, religious education and youth ministry, was an historic, groundbreaking moment.

The curriculum frameworks will guide publishers in the development of new texts but Bishop Malone reminded the group that all catechesis must be intentional, comprehensive, and evangelizing.

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Catherine Cameron has been appointed as the new principal at Quincy Catholic Academy, its board of trustees announced May 18. Quincy Catholic Academy will open at the present Sacred Heart School in the fall for grades Pre-K to 8.

Cameron currently serves as principal of Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy’s Neponset campus.

Prior to serving as principal of John Paul II’s Neponset campus, Cameron was principal of St. Mary School in Quincy from 2005 to 2008 and St. Mary School in Winchester from 1998 to 2004. Before that, she was a longtime first grade teacher at St. Brendan’s School in Dorchester.

Since 2005, she has also been an instructor for the Graduate Education Program at Curry College.

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Father Richard Erikson, the vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Archdiocese of Boston, was a speaker in a panel discussion entitled “A Spirituality Panel: Meeting the Needs of Men and Women in Combat and Afterwards” May 7 at St. Paul Parish in Cambridge. Father Erikson is also a chaplain in the Air Force reserves, where he holds the rank of colonel.

Other speakers that day were Rear Admiral Mark Tidd, a Presbyterian minister and Marine Corps chaplain; and Bernie Steinberg, executive director of Harvard Hillel, an organization that serves Jewish students at Harvard University.