MAKATI CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- Church workers Aleth and Willie Hernandez hit computer keys and clicked the mouse at a school near Manila to register for an Internet-based formation program for catechists and religion teachers.

The couple serve in a parish Family Life Ministry in Las Pinas City, south of Manila. They were registering along with five other people on Aug. 15 to train as "learning facilitators" in the Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation (VLCFF), started by the University of Dayton, in Ohio, the United States.

With the exception of one religion teacher, the group is comprised of graduates and students of a master's program in Religious Education under Salesian Father Renato de Guzman, who is developing VLCFF Asian Connection, a one-year certificate course for catechists, and religion and Christian-life teachers. The course is to be offered locally in January on a test basis, before being offered to students all over Asia.

Beginning on Aug. 31 at Don Bosco Technical Institute in Makati City, southeast of Manila, the seven future facilitators will train online for five weeks. Each will train on a chosen subject. After the five-week training, from September to November, they will learn specifically about using the Internet for teaching and formation.

The University of Dayton's Institute of Pastoral Initiatives (IPI) developed VLCFF in the 1990s, according to the VLCFF website (http://vlc.udayton.edu).

Father de Guzman told UCA News the partnership with IPI started with discussions in 2004 with institute director Sister Angela Ann Zukowski. At the time, the priest was dean of studies at the Don Bosco Center of Studies, in Paranaque City, south of Manila. The Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart nun had come to make a presentation on The Gospel in Cyberspace: Nurturing Faith in the Internet Age.

The one-year course will comprise six to eight subjects, and students work from their computers following their own schedule.

The IPI will provide the facilitators and students with access to the VLCFF online facilities free of charge. The Don Bosco center's Institute of Catechetical and Youth Ministry will also adapt the courses to Philippine and Asian needs, train and hire facilitators, and run the Asian operations.

Father Guzman said each facilitator will moderate a virtual community of 15 students per subject. Learning activities include personal reflections, discussions of online materials and books, group online discussions, individual consultations and simulated situations. A subject segment covers one week of individual work and online interaction.

The Salesian priest said he hopes VLCFF "prepares catechists to be adept at employing new technology" to advance evangelization. He added that he plans to be able to obtain subsidies for catechists from "poor parishes," including funds to buy computers for remote and impoverished communities.

The enrollment cost will be announced later, he said.

Gina Esporlas, head catechist of Paranaque diocese, anticipates the online course will be a "big help" to catechists who have limited money and little time to travel to school. She told UCA News many catechists leave the house around 6 a.m. on weekdays and return at night after teaching full-time in public schools with 60-100 students per class.

In their free time, catechists help parishes prepare candidates for First Communion, and run seminars for them and their godparents, Esporlas added.

She said professional catechists in Metro Manila get between 8,000 and 10,000 pesos (US$174-$218) a month.

Initial results of the 2008-2009 survey of Manila archdiocese and five other dioceses in the Metro Manila count 1,764 paid and volunteer catechists in the area.

According to the 2007-2008 survey of the Manila Archdiocesan Parochial Schools Association, 465 people were teaching religion in 67 of its 90 member-schools.

Around the country, there were at least 14,381 paid and volunteer catechists, according to the 2001 national survey of the Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education. However, only 30 percent of parishes responded to the survey.

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