Good Shepherd Catechesis started in the 1950s as a lay-led catechesis program. It's grown a lot in Canada and the United States in the last several years.I see two issues here. One is that, yet again, only a handful of ordinariate parishes would be able to afford it -- if Our Lady of the Atonement is considering it, will it pay the catechists' fees, or will they finance it themselves? But the impression I continue to have is that, beyond the small size of typical ordinariate groups, which would make adopting the program impractical from economies of scale vs expense, even if individual ordinariate members could afford the tuition, I think they'd just be too cheap to pay it -- especially if they've taken their children out of diocesan schools to join an ordinariate co-op.In the last 10 or 15 years, the Montessori method had grown in popularity, at least in my area, among both Catholic, Protestant, and secular families. In fact, the public school system the next city over from mine opened a Montessori elementary school.
That's probably why Catechesis of the Good Shepherd has been implemented in a number of parishes and dioceses in the United States. Near as I can tell, it's spearheaded by Catholic moms. That's certainly the case in my diocese: parishes that have implemented it do so when moms go get CGS training at their own expense.
There are three or four CGS "atriums" in our diocese, including one in a Catholic preschool. An Episcopal parish and one of the ACNA churches each have one too. There has been. . . I won't say an outcry. . . but a strong desire to implement it in more places. All of it's coming from moms in pews. Part of the hold-up has been the expense. CGS training is expensive and time consuming: something like 300 hours to become a "Level III" catechist, and parishes aren't able to shell out for it. It also has to happen at one of a handful of CGS training centers. As I said, a few moms are doing it on their own so they can present it to their pastors as turnkey.
Other parishes (including mine) are adopting aspects of CGS, especially for younger children, without going full-tilt for the program.
I know nothing about Our Lady of the Atonement, but my relatives' Ordinariate parish wants to adopt CGS. Last I heard, they were talking about how to deal with the same sticker shock my own parish saw. But everything I've seen of it indicates that it's worth having.
The second issue is that quality catechesis doesn't seem to be on the minds of either ordinariate laity or clergy. Houston, as far as I'm aware, has issued no guidelines or policy nor recommended any program. It's interesting that the visitor above mentions TEC and ACNA parishes taking an interest in CGS -- but would that be part of what would make the ordinariate attractive to Anglicans? Apparently not, if there's a better chance for Anglicans to find CGS in their own denominations.
Related to that, it seems to me that the merits of a particular catechesis program are an issue that would appeal primarily to conscientious cradle Catholic families in the first place. As far as I can see, Houston's very vague idea of its target market would be disaffected Anglicans who'll jump ship over women's ordination and the 1979 BCP -- I hate to say it, but the issues with McCarrick and the other gay Catholic bishops have taken the Gene Robinson selling point off the table.
The problem there starts with the fact that the people who left TEC in the late 1970s are aging and were never as big a group as they thought they were. But the old observation about "continuers" is still accurate, that they'll tolerate unqualified priests and bishops, so why on earth would they be particular about the quality of a catechesis program? (And did I mention that they're cheap?) So Houston is probably correct in its unspoken assumption that a good catechesis program isn't what the market necessarily wants, except they've still got the problem that the market they're after isn't big and has probably already been fully exploited.
This seems to be an area where diocesan parishes, led by laity, are showing initiative and doing the best they can. Anglicanorum coetibus will have nothing to do with any progress in better catechizing Catholics, though it will evangelize few Protestants, either. This goes to the basic lack of seriousness in Houston and the inward-looking culture of ordinariate laity and clergy.
