Parish Plans

The Parish Plan is intended to meet the needs of an increasing hunger among parish adult groups who want to enrich their spiritual lives, and growing closer to God, learn more about the teachings of the Catholic Church which guide the faithful to an
ever-deepening relationship with God.

The Parish Plan is one of the many ways CDU has responded to the U.S. Bishops' concern that parishes create ways to encourage and help adult Catholics nourish and grow in their faith - a faith that is "living, explicit and fruitful." While it is called a parish plan, it is designed to be effective within any group including religious communities and non-parish based apostolates.

The format of this program can be customized to meet the needs and personality of the group. Some parish plans are formal with scheduled weekly sessions and assignments. Other groups take a more informal approach meeting with no scheduled meeting times. Depending on the "personality" and resources of each parish, CDU's parish plan program is designed to provide educational structure with administrative flexibility to meet the needs of each parish and group.

Flexibility with online seminars and courses

CDU's parish plan offers the option of taking any of CDU's online seminars and any of the five CDU's online individual Catechism series courses. Key to the success of any parish plan program is the parish plan coordinator who will oversea the program within the parish or group. A minimum of three participants is required to start a parish plan.

Program participants work with the parish coordinator to enroll in seminars and courses offered at a group rate. The parish coordinator is responsible for advertising, distributing and gather enrollment forms, completing the coordinator’s form and sending this with enrollment forms and a single payment to CDU, as well as submitting the program evaluations after the seminar has been completed.

For information on the Parish Plan fee schedule
For all the forms needed to sign-up and enroll in the Parish Plan
For information on how to sign-up for the Parish Plan

Learn More
Contact Sr. Mary Margaret Ann, Dean of Catechetical Programs, to learn more about how the CDU Parish Plan can be used in your diocese. She can be reached at 888.254.4238 ext. 709 or srschlather@cdu.edu.

We use the parish plan for our catechists and co-catechists. The ultimate goal is for them to have a deeper knowledge of our Catholic faith in order to share their zeal with not only our students but the faith community within our parish. Our catechists who have participated in this program have loved the CDU courses and want to continue learning more. And these same catechists are now actively encouraging other catechists to participate.

Georgia Maklakiewics
DRE, St. Katherine Drexel in
Weston, FL