‘Catholic Faith in Plain English’ course moves online for September

For the third consecutive year, Father Vincent Hawkswell and Maureen Creelman will offer their course “The Catholic Faith in Plain English,” but this year they will have to offer it online.

“People can watch and listen via YouTube and/or download the print material so they can read it,” said Creelman, who retired in 2010 from 36 years of teaching mathematics and physics in the public school system.

“We are very well aware that some people take in information better by hearing and others by reading,” she said. “Father Vince is one of the former and I am one of the latter.”

Father Hawkswell retired as a diocesan pastor in 2015 and now spends a good part of his time filling in for other priests.

The course, which is free of charge, consists of 36 sessions, one per week, each 100 minutes long.

“Our main reference works are the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and other authoritative Church documents,” said Father Hawkswell. “This is not our private take on the Catholic faith, but what the Church itself teaches.”

“And we don’t pull any punches,” Creelman added. “After all, the doctrine we find most difficult to accept is probably the doctrine we most need to hear and understand.”

The two teachers are faithful to the Church’s magisterium, but they also try to explain what the Church teaches as well as they can – in plain English. They stress what St. Thomas Aquinas said: that love is based on knowledge.

“We quote (Catholic author) Frank Sheed,” Maureen said. “Love of God is immeasurably more important than knowledge of God. However, you cannot love God unless you know him. And if we love God knowing a little about him, we should love God more from knowing more about him; for each new thing known about God is a new reason for loving him.”

“A great many faithful and loyal Catholics have questions,” Father Hawkswell said. “Perhaps they’ve never known where to look for answers. We try to supply them, as well as we can.”

Both the instructors welcome questions, but this year they will have to receive them and answer them by phone and email.

“It’ll be a challenge, but we are both enthusiastic about the Catholic faith,” said Maureen.

“I answer my phone 24/7,” added Father Hawkswell.

The course starts Sept. 6. To participate, visit https://beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. On each Sunday (except for a two-week holiday at Christmas), another session will be made available and will remain available for viewing until the course ends in May.

Participants are asked to register when they start the course, but “it’s just for our own information,” said Father Hawkswell. “If people decide to drop out, we don’t hassle them. And people can simply drop in for one session if the topic interests them.”

“The course is not quite the same as last year,” Maureen said. “Every year since Father and I started teaching RCIA together in 1997, we have edited it, partly to respond to questions and partly because we ourselves have learned more about the faith.”

“We’re both looking forward to teaching it again.”