Bible and Christian History - Any Catholics using MFW?

[cbollin]

I am just wondering if there are any Catholic Christians that use MFW for their family and if so, how do you like the curricula? Is the curricula useable for both Catholic Christians and other Christians? I am wondering how or even if any topics of disagreement between Catholics and Protestants are addressed in your families. Is the curricula useable for a Christian Catholic who would want to teach Catholic faith issues to their family? Thank you for any information you can give me.

Tracy,
Hi. I'm not Catholic, so I can't address it from that perspective.

I do want to say that in the years that I've used MFW, the materials do not push any specific perspective of doctrine. The Bible is used to teach Bible and that leaves each family to be responsible for interpreting the scriptures and instilling their faith and practices.

From an historical point, MFW treats Catholic/Protestant from the historical side of things.

Oh wait, I just remembered from Rome to the Reformation, the Nicene Creed is in there. it is discussed from the historical perspective that in 325 AD when it was written, there was no division of Protestant and Catholic; and that catholic is derived from Latin and means "universal".

You will need to add in the names of the books of the Bible that appear in the Catholic bible, but not in protestant ones when you are memorizing the books of the Bible.

hth a bit.
--crystal

[Julie in MN]

Hi Tracy,
I know there are Catholics using MFW because the conversation has come up before. But in case no one is online, I'll mention that I was raised Catholic & have many dear family members who are, so I don't teach my children to have anything but respect for their fellow Christians.

We have used ECC, CTG, and are early in RTR.

The only thing that comes to my mind right now is that some of the missionaries in ECC Hero Tales (the short stories) were trying to reach Catholics. It's not prominently stated, but I understood what they were talking about. Nothing I felt the need to skip, but did have a couple minor discussion points. I think by getting an extra volume of Hero Tales, or your own book of choice, you could completely eliminate that issue, if desired, by switching a couple of missions around.

I also thought one art lesson (in a book of hundreds of art lessons) was not sympathetic to Catholics (Week 21 of CTG), but there are so many art lessons that one of them can easily be skipped.

There will always be minor differences -- the books of the Bible (as Crystal mentioned), the numbering of the 10 commandments (not really numbered by God, but broken down differently by different groups), etc.

But most of all, like Crystal mentioned, the Bible itself is taught -- by *you* -- rather than any Bible *curriculum* workbook with pre-determined answers that you may or may not agree with. I *LOVE* that about MFW.

Julie

[Toni@homezcool4us]

I too was raised Catholic, attending Catholic schools from 6-12 grades. I currently attend a non-denominational bible church.

As you stated you would want to teach Catholic faith issues to your family, I believe you could use MFW to do so. While you won't find a Catholic doctrinal position being presented, I also believe you won't find an anti-Catholic message. You will use the bible as your "textbook" for biblical instruction and I really believe you will find it spiritually refreshing to see how MFW brings our Creator to the forefront of the lessons, regardless of subject.

Posted Wed Sep 10, 2008 12:26 pm by Toni@homezcool4us
As someone who was raised in Catholicism and attended Catholic schools, I have not found any anti-Catholic message in MFW to date. We're in our 4th year with MFW and I do believe there is room for common ground (considering that a Catholic edition bible includes all the books that a non-Catholic version would contain, hence common ground).

One suggestion that might be helpful to you is this. MFW suggests PLL and ILL for grammar. There is a company out there that has produced a Catholic version of these resources.

[texastea]

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 7:30 pm
I am.

I have used MFW PreK, K, ECC, RtoR and Exploration to 1850 this year and have not found anything to be anti Catholic. On the other hand you will not find anything that teaches or supports Catholic doctrine either or any other doctrine for that matter.

The authors of MFW have done a beautiful job of writing a curr. that is Biblical but also free of doctrine. There are alot of missionary books used and I think all of these are protestant missionaries. Sometimes we read these stories and sometimes we read stories about catholic missionary or saint.

We love MFW and plan to continue. I hope this helps. I know there are some other Catholic ladies using it too.

[Jen Spinner]

I wondered what, if anything, you tweak or add to make MFW fit your world-view. I want to be careful to guard against "anti-Catholic" tones from books as I work with my own children as well. Since we are doing R2R I know I want to be careful while discussing the Reformation and all of that. Any help would be appreciated.

This is our first year with MFW and we are using K and ECC. Thus far, I've completely omitted the Protestant missionary books and "Hero Tales" in favor of learning about the Saints celebrated daily in the liturgical year. As we move into specific geographical studies, we'll study the saints associated with those places, i.e., Elizabeth Seton and Kateri Tekawitha for North America.

[MelissaB]

So after much, MUCH thought, prayer and internal debate, I finally put our curriculum choice for my soon to be 3rd grade son up to family vote. My husband, my college age son and my 8 year old all voted for MFW...that definitely beats my ONE still undecided vote, so MFW it is! We will be starting with Adventures. I'm really excited about this year but what sold the guys on this program over the others was the next 5 years. All of them loved what was coming up and felt if would fit with my youngest's learning style.

Also, we are a Catholic family. We do not mind books from a Protestant viewpoint but will there be books that are very "anti-Catholic"...for lack of a better term, that we would need to substitute in Adventures?

Thank you so much for your thoughts on this. It is very appreciated. I'm very excited to have this decision made and look forward to our journey with My Father's World!

Hmm… Not being Catholic, I may have overlooked something. But, No, I don't think so. We're doing 1850-Modern Times right now (the last year of the 5-yr cycle), and I haven't noticed anything remotely anti-catholic. The historical battles b/t Protestant & Catholic are presented in a factual manner, not with a lot of opinion or moral lessons - just the facts of the battles. I don't get an anti-Catholic feel from anything we've read & studied thus far.

Welcome aboard!

[Julie in MN]

I agree that Adventures should not be a problem at all, and MFW in general should be fine for you. I have a Catholic family so I do notice things that I might cushion so my children will not say something hurtful to family, and there have been very few times I needed to worry about that. A couple of the missionary stories over the years (or the authors of those stories) have brief references to converting those who are Catholic, but my impression has been that they were in name only and not truly converting from one denomination to another. However, some families have chosen to sub studies of famous Catholics.

Here is a thread from a few more users, basically confirming what Melissa said:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... t=catholic

During Bible time, MFW has you open your own Bible and read it in your own way to your children. I love that about MFW, nothing is inserted in between God's Word and you.
Julie

[potpourri0710]

We are Catholic and have looked through Adventures extensively and you will not need to worry at all! Also, the following year in ECC, is where you'll encounter the missionary stories mentioned. What many do is substitute the study of missionaries to a study of Catholic saints from the country you're learning about. I was told that MFW is much more Catholic-friendly than basically any other all in one curriculum (including HOD, Sonlight etc...)