Elementary School Religion Texts Approved by U.S. Bishops

North Haven, Conn., June 17, 2005 -- The Treasure of My Catholic Faith, a series of Catholic religion textbooks based on the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church and approved in 2003 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is now available in both English and Spanish for Wide distribution among parishes and schools. The texts combine colorful graphics with age-appropriate lessons in the essentials of the Catholic faith.

"A small number of schools in the U.S. have been using The Treasure of My Catholic Faith already this past year, with great success," said Victor Prieto, Executive Director of Circle Media, publisher of the series. "We have had many others inquire about the series, and now we´re glad to announce the books are available for any educator who´s interested."

The series covers grades one through six. A follow-up series, Friends of Jesus, targets seventh and eighth grade students; it will be available for widespread use for the school year starting Fall 2006.

The textbooks have been produced under the guidance of priests of the Legion of Christ in collaboration with members of the Regnum Christi

Movement and other lay Catholics. As a first step the school of pedagogy at the Anáhuac University in Mexico studied religion text books from various countries (Spain, Italy, United States, Mexico, etc.). Then they carefully chose the goals for every school year, structured the contents and had expert designers working on the illustrations so that they World fit the different age groups. Distribution of the Spanish version started in Mexico in 1996. Several bishops and cardinals who got to know the materials urged that they be translated as they considered them some of the best Catholic religion textbooks available.

Pastors, educators and parents can read sample chapters from the books online at www.catholictextbooks.org.

They can also order the textbooks from that same web site.