About the Fleet: Faith Supplements

The Catholic Navigator was launched in Advent 2013. Our idea at that time was to build publications into a “fleet” that would serve to catechize, or echo the truths of the faith to the entire family. Formatted as a double-sided single sheet, each weekly print issue provides information and reflection associated with the upcoming Sunday Scriptural Readings, seasons, events, and persons memorialized in the liturgical year. All three publications strive to pass on the same truths of the Faith in language appropriate for that readership.

Reference is regularly made to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC). Any short excerpts cite the specific paragraph number (e.g., CCC 1324) in accordance with the guidelines for permitted use published by the copyright holder, the United States Catholic Conference, Inc. To further assure fidelity to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church – the Magisterium – each issue has received ecclesiastic permission to publish (Imprimatur) which is so noted and dated.

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The Catholic Tugboat, first launched in 2014, has been refitted to serve the needs of third to fifth graders.

 *Note Well: TheTug’ is a tool for parents, the primary catechists of the Catholic faith (see CCC 2226, 2372), and teachers. This means that teaching and learning happen together when the child is engaged and not left to themselves.

The Catholic Clipper, having set sail in 2016,  addresses the interests and educational needs of young adults, parents of growing families, and individuals building their lives.

The Catholic Navigator is designed for those with a firm foundation in the Faith, including its unique vocabulary, history, traditions, and sensibilities.

Each week our fleet of three sails together to negotiate the cross-currents, swells, and storms that work to impede our journey in the Faith. They are ready for viewing and downloading each Monday in advance of the Sunday they address.

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The Catholic Navigator is the lay apostolate of a small group of Catholic religious educators, each with a specific area of expertise, committed to a fuller appreciation of the Sunday Liturgy as well as to keeping the Faith alive and vibrant for ourselves and others.

Our apostolate was shaped by reflection on Pope Benedict XVI’s 2011 Apostolic Letter, Porta Fidei, in which he announced the Year of Faith celebrated during Liturgical Year 2013. The Holy Father stressed as essential the knowledge of the content of the Faith we profess weekly in the Credo at Mass.  He cited as resources Blessed Paul VI’s Credo of the People of God, Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church (see Sidebar) promulgated by St. John Paul II, among others.

Pope Benedict also noted that “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith” was the theme of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (convoked October 2012). Our American Bishops (USCCB) saw this theme as an opportunity to “usher the whole Church into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith.” They then followed by initiating The New Evangelization –  all Catholics are called to learn their Faith  and take this Good News into the world.

This is the mission of the Catholic Navigator Apostolate.

 

The Design –
… of the Faith Supplements:

Our apostolate has been blessed with the talents of two professionals:

  the graphic designer

and the artist-illustrator:

… of this Website:

is simple and without unnecessary embellishments to support each print issue of The Catholic Navigator, The Catholic Clipper,  and The Catholic Tugboat during the week it is distributed in your parish and posted online. Because of space limitations in the printed materials, this site’s purpose is to offer the sources to information cited in the print issues as well as links to web sites providing additional material.

We endeavor to use reliable, but easily accessed sources, to better serve the fast paced and highly mobile lives of Catholics today. Not every link is to a Catholic site. Occasionally you will find links to Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Protestant, and even secular sites to assist in the fuller appreciation of an historical event or a cultural insight. No material referenced is incompatible with our Church’s teachings. Please note, however, that we can only vouch for the information cited in the article, not for the contents of an entire website. Also, while our website is ‘mobile friendly,’ not every site referenced may render as well on mobile devices.

… of the source page:

Sources for material in articles or for further reference are now grouped weekly under article titles and listed as Fleet Sources. This reflects the interrelationship of the three publications. Posting is at noon  following each Monday’s earlier release of the faith supplements.  As each posting of a source is replaced by a subsequent source, the replaced source is archived and can be revisited in the Archives section. All archived sources are available until the end of the given Liturgical Year, after which they are removed.

For more information about us, comments or inquiries, please Contact Us.