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Aquinas History with CGS USA

About the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) can trace its roots to the work of Maria Montessori, a renowned educator of the early 20th century who revolutionized early childhood education by creating hands-on, sensory-rich learning environments for children under the age of 12.  While Montessori is a familiar name among educators, few are aware that Montessori was devoutly Catholic and that she—at the urging of Pope Piux X—began experimenting as early as 1915 with ways to apply her pedagogical approach in the passing on of faith through liturgical catechesis.  In Montessori’s words, the "necessary complement of the religious instruction of the child: make the liturgy accessible to the child."

Montessori was the first to design a sensory-rich environment that she called an “atrium” adjacent to the church building in which children could slow down to reflect more deeply on what they had experienced in Mass.  The atrium was never to be a “children’s church” that separated children from the rest of the congregation for children’s worship, but rather a hands-on space to linger with stories they would have heard in the Liturgy of the Word; the prayers they would have heard and spoken in the Liturgy of the Eucharist; and the gestures they would have seen and made with their own bodies.  For Montessori, the deepening of children’s participation in the worship of the Church happens primarily through heightening their capacity to read and engage the symbols of the liturgy.  

Montessori’s initial efforts were furthered by two lay Catholic women—a fellow Montessori educator named Gianna Gobbi, and a biblical scholar named Sofia Cavalletti—who, beginning in the early 1950’s, set out to refine and develop Montessori’s early experiments in liturgical catechesis.  Gobbi and Cavalletti dedicated over 50 years of their lives to listening to the voices of children to discover with greater precision which elements of liturgy and passages of scripture best spoke to children’s questions at various stages in their faith journey.  Under their tenure, the work came to be called Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and began to spread beyond Europe, including to the United States in 1974. They also helped to clarify and develop what are now referred to as the three “levels” of CGS:  Level One for the 3-6 year old child; Level Two for the 6-9 year old child; and Level Three for the 9-12 year old child.

Aquinas Institute’s History and Relationship with CGS

Just as CGS was founded by a small circle of women who listened closely to the voices of children, the Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies program with a concentration in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (MAPS-CGS) program at Aquinas Institute was founded by a small circle of women who listened to the voices of the women who listened to children.

In 2005, Tina Lillig, Director of the United States Association of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGSUSA), began conversations with Dr. Ann Garrido, a CGS catechist and faculty member at Aquinas Institute, around developing a theological and ministerial partnership for leadership development within CGSUSA.   As the association was growing and its original members (including Sofia Cavalletti) were aging, the CGSUSA Board of Trustees recognized it would be important to have a robust cadre of future leaders who could continue to think theologically about the liturgical life of children and provide ministerial leadership in congregations where CGS atria were located.

Aquinas Institute and CGSUSA jointly launched the MAPS-CGS program in 2006.  From the beginning, the plan was that students would complete 18 hours of credit with CGSUSA (Levels One, Two, and Three of catechetical formation plus the writing of their personal albums at each level) and then complete 30 hours of credit with Aquinas Institute in liturgy, scripture, and pastoral leadership.   Each student would also complete four credits in spiritual formation to help deepen their knowledge of the particular theological underpinnings and spiritual practices of the CGS founders.

Since the launch of the partnership in 2005, Aquinas has had 10 biennial cohorts of MAPS-CGS students, with 74 students having graduated the program.  MAPS-CGS alumni and students remain directly involved in children’s liturgical and catechetical ministries in their local congregations throughout the US.  In addition, they serve as formation leaders for the movement, board members and employees of CGSUSA, diocesan staff, and hold other key positions in local churches advocating for children’s inclusion.

In addition to the 10 cohorts of MAPS-CGS, Aquinas has led two year-long cohorts of the CGS Heritage Program – a one-year online course in life-long learning for catechists in the scriptural and liturgical fundaments of the CGS movement.  These courses have engaged members in reading the great thinkers of Vatican II and discussing how they apply to liturgical and scriptural formation of children. More than 70 catechists participated in these two cohorts of the CGS Heritage Program.

The Emerging Need and Opportunity

In light of the 20th anniversary of the partnership between Aquinas Institute and CGSUSA in 2025, the school performed a strategic review of both the MAPS-CGS and CGS Heritage programs with an eye toward strengthening these endeavors and the partnership with CGSUSA.  A key finding? The need for future well-formed leaders remains great, as CGS struggles to meet the current demands:

  • CGS has more than 5,000 national members serving approximately 135,000 children ages 3-12 in more than 6,750 atria
  • An average of 340 CGS formation courses are offered annually issuing some 2,000 catechist certificates each year
  • Courses are currently offered in 42 states by 173 recognized CGS formation leaders, with 123 more in the pipeline


Beyond resourcing an expanding cadre of CGS leaders, however, Aquinas Institute is now poised to become a center for dialogue around children and worship more broadly.  No other theological institution in the U.S. has such a sizeable and experienced population of alumni working with young children around issues of liturgical participation.  Moreover, no other theological institution has a faculty that has been so primed to incorporate the voices of children into the theological endeavor. 

Therefore, in partnership with CGSUSA, with the assistance of the Lilly Endowment, the Aquinas Children's Worship Partnership (ACWP) was established. The goals of this program are to:

  • Revise and re-initiate its popular online CGS Heritage Courses, studying the theologians who influenced Sofia Cavalletti and the development of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
  • Re-invigorate its MAPS-CGS program with more intentional integration of CGS content and skill-building throughout the curriculum, accomplished through a series of faculty, staff, and board development opportunities.
  • Host a “Liturgy and the Child” symposium to mark the 20th anniversary of partnership between CGSUSA and Aquinas Institute, inviting liturgical scholars into conversation with experienced CGS catechists.