Comics and Catholicism

I am considered a Cradle Catholic, meaning I was born and raised in the Catholic faith. I grew up in a very small town and the majority of the congregation at the church my family attended were very old. My younger siblings and I were the only parishioners under the age of 25, so church wasn’t exactly the most exciting weekend activity. When we were old enough to start receiving sacraments, we had to attend religious education classes that we absolutely dreaded every Sunday. The textbooks we read were ancient and boring, plus the volunteers weren’t thrilled to stay after mass to teach us why we did certain things in mass and what their significance was.

We managed to finish all our classes, and I continue to practice my faith today. Recently, I have been attending more religious education classes at my new parish to receive the sacrament of confirmation. It was at one of these particular classes when the teacher brought in a couple of graphic novels that she was excited to share with us.

She had found online a series of graphic novels titled “The Saints Chronicles” that vividly brought to life the stories of courageous Christians from the earliest days of Christianity to modern times. Each novel would highlight about four to five different saints and explain their life stories and how they became prominent figures in the Catholic faith.

If I had grown up reading these comic books instead of the dusty old textbooks that were available to me, I probably would have been way more excited to learn about my faith.

I would imagine that some of the older members of the church would dismiss these books as “only for children” and not as a useful tool to teach any age about the Catholic faith. How could they trust a book that 95% pictures to actually teach you about Catholic saints?

I can tell you from experience that “The Saints Chronicles” were very entertaining, engaging to read, and I retained way more of the information than what I had read in my textbooks. Especially when educating young children, it is important that they are having fun while learning so they want to pay attention for longer periods of time. By utilizing these graphic novels to educate young people about the faith, there is a higher chance that readers will be captivated by the dramatic images and want to ask questions and learn more about the Catholic church.

It was exciting for me to learn that these graphic novels existed because it seems like the Catholic church is attempting to adapt and become more easily accessible to younger audiences. My hope is they will continue to come up with creative ways to reach out to young people and interest them in joining the Catholic faith.