Msgr. Kelly’s expertise reaches into national Totus Tuus program

BY BILL DOYLE  
CFP CORRESPONDENT

The Worcester Diocese didn’t offer Totus Tuus until last year, but there has been a Worcester connection to the national Catholic educational summer program for far longer than that.
The Totus Tuus program debuted in 1987 in Wichita, Kansas, and has since expanded across the U.S. Totus Tuus adopted some of its methodology from “The Mystery We Proclaim,” soon after Msgr. Francis D. Kelly, a Worcester native, wrote the book in 1993.
Msgr. Kelly, 86, admitted he was pleased but surprised that Totus Tuus uses his book as a teaching tool. Even though he wrote the book about the mystery of faith 30 years ago, its message holds true to this day. Totus Tuus incorporated the part of the book that details how to teach religious education.
“The whole purpose of religious education,” he said, “is to help young people enter into the belief and the life of the Church. So the center of that is to help them understand what has been revealed to us, the revelation of almighty God to his people.”
Msgr. Kelly said that God strives to reveal mostly his love, and out of that abundance of love he created the human family. Further, Jesus revealed the depth of that love by taking on the sinfulness of the human race, dying on the cross and rising.
“That’s the whole point of Christianity,” he said, “and the Church and therefore religion. We’re trying to introduce these kids to this wonderful story of the intervention of the creator God in the human race to give us mercy, love, peace, hope and some direction on how to live good lives. So that’s what catechesis is all about.”
Msgr. Kelly said fun and games at religious summer programs are fine, but they need to be connected to the larger story of God’s revelation and intervention.
In June, Msgr. Kelly spoke from the Chancery via Zoom with the Totus Tuus missionaries from Worcester, Portland, Maine; Burlington, Vermont; and Manchester, New Hampshire, during their 10 days of training at Magdalen College in Warner, New Hampshire.
“The problem with Zoom is you’re looking at a screen,” Msgr. Kelly said. “So I didn’t get any feedback. But, obviously, it helped them develop these programs.”
Darlene Farland, associate director of the diocesan Office of Religious Education, was with the missionaries at Magdalen College and said they were happy to see Msgr. Kelly. A couple of missionaries from Burlington were especially thrilled because they had read his book as students at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio which uses it in its religious education program.
“They were very excited because they were seeing the actual person,” Mrs. Farland said, “rather than just reading the material in the textbook.”
Msgr. Kelly has written four books in all and he authored, “The Mystery We Proclaim” during his 12 years as executive director of the department of religious education at the National Catholic Education Association in Washington, D.C. His impressive resume also includes serving as rector at Blessed John XXIII Seminary in Weston for 13 years and working in Rome for 25 years, including eight as superior at Casa Santa Maria, the house for English-speaking priests pursuing graduate studies at the North American College.
In addition, he worked with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on the Catechism of the Catholic Church when Pope Benedict was known as Cardinal Ratzinger.
While speaking with The Catholic Free Press, Msgr. Kelly retrieved his copy of the 1999 second edition of the book from a shelf in his room at Southgate at Shrewsbury, a continuing care retirement community. He said he hadn’t held it in a long time.
“Gee, that’s not bad,” he said while he flipped through it. “How did I come up with that? I couldn’t do it today.”
Nevertheless, his book continues to make an impact.