MICHIGAN CITY – “What is God’s will for all people?” The thought provoking, theological question officially kicked off the 2023 Catechism Bowl which sent the Queen of All Saints team into a quick huddle to discuss an answer. After the smoke cleared, 110 questions later, it was the team from Notre Dame Catholic School who walked away with the Catechism Bowl Thurible Trophy.
Queen of All Saints hosted this year’s bowl on April 24, with teams from QAS school and religious education program, St. Matthias, St. Stanislaus Kostka and Notre Dame competing for this year’s title. Diocese of Gary seminarian Nick Emsing was the evening’s commentator.
The competition challenges students with catechetical questions centered around their Catholic faith in a fun, competitive way.
“It was amazing. It was awesome to see these kids excited, enthusiastic, really ready to share their experience of being young Catholics and being able to answer some basic questions about their Catholic faith,” said Lucia Bim-Merle, QAS pastoral associate.
The Catechism Bowl is the fruit of Bim-Merle’s desire to liven up the catechetical experience for a “bored” religious education class she had while at St. Joseph parish in LaPorte. She said from its humble classroom beginnings, the bowl “just took off from there. We made it a larger event where we invited other teams. Each year it just grew and more and more students started to participate.”
“I’m really thankful to have a way for the kids to learn their faith in a friendly and competitive environment, where they have fun, win prizes, and just enjoy being Catholic kids,” said Bim-Merle.
While some of the questions were fairly simple, there were an equal number of challenging questions. Zen Wendt and Timothy Kelly, members of the QAS religious education team, stated the questions were pretty tough but the experience was great.
Emsing was impressed with the students’ responses. “I was very impressed with the ability they had to go in depth with their answers and really grasp and comprehend the material.”
He went on to praise Catholic education and religious education programs for giving students “the opportunity to be saturated in their faith, to grow and live in and experience their faith. It’s a way to make it fun, make it something more than just memorization.”
The final scores illustrated the students’ knowledge of their faith. Notre Dame topped the scoring chart with 230 points, QAS School and St. Matthias tied for second with 220 points. St. Stanislaus Kostka followed with 190 and QAS Religious Ed. with 180.
“I thought it was really close. All the schools worked really hard, and they did a great job with all the questions. Some of the questions were quite difficult and they were able to give detailed answers,” said Laura Wozniak, QAS director of religious education.
Wozniak noted the teamwork and comradery between not only teammates but teams as well. “They seemed to be having a great time. They were working together, supporting each other, cheering each other on, even before it started,” she said.
St. Stanislaus teammates, Roman Wozniak, eighth grade, and Sydney Ratliff, seventh grade, agreed the Catechism Bowl was fun. They particularly enjoyed learning about their faith while being part of a team.
“Studying definitely has enhanced our minds as we learned about what our faith is all about,” said Ratliff.
Wozniak added, “We go to church all the time. Now, because of what we’ve learned preparing for the Catechism Bowl, it’s opened our eyes more to what Mass actually is.”
QAS seventh grader Elijah Arnold admitted he was nervous at first, but it came down to teamwork. “Teamwork was very important. You have to work together to come up with the right answer in the time allotment,” said Arnold.
“It feels pretty good,” commented ND eighth-grader, Timothy Wadle, following his team’s victory.
“It was very tough. St. Matthias was putting a lot of fire into it. They got the first question wrong and if they had gotten that correct, we would have tied. So, I guess we were lucky,” said Wadle.
Notre Dame’s win not only gives them bragging rights for a year, but the treasured Thurible Trophy.
Bim-Merle explained the significance of the trophy, which dates back to 2018. “It’s very unique. This thurible came to us from the Cathedral of the Holy Angels.” She said the thurible was used many years ago before it was retired and put into storage. It was then gifted and mounted on a trophy stand to be used for the Catechism Bowl.
The trophy stays with the winning team for the year. The students’ names from the winning team are engraved on the side along with the year they won. Each student from the winning team also receives $50. All the other contestants receive a $10 Culver's gift card.
Bim-Merle’s hope is that more teams compete in the future. “My hope is that they’ll always stay close to the Lord and by knowing him better through the Catechism Bowl, they’ll have more confidence being Catholic in the world.”
The lengthy travel didn’t keep the St. Matthias team from competing. Jackie Gentry, pastoral assistant at St. Matthias, and her team traveled nearly 45 minutes from Crown Point to take part in the annual event.
“It’s a great opportunity for our young people to learn about their faith. We don’t get too many opportunities for competition when it comes to our learning about our faith. We had a blast. Even though we didn’t win, we learned so much,” said Gentry.
Gentry stated that she has witnessed much growth in the students as they worked and studied together as a team. “I hope it goes beyond today,” she said. “I hope the competition helps them to want to dig deeper in their faith, to grow spiritually and learn what some of these long crazy answers are all about. Then for them to live that out in their everyday lives.”
The second-place finish gave the St. Matthias team incentive for next year. Gentry put the other teams on alert for next year. “We’re going to get them next year. No more of this losing by one question. “We’re coming after them all,” quipped Gentry.
As for the answer to the first question, QAS correctly answered with the response, “to know, love, and serve Him in this life and the next.”