Exploring Catholic Social Teaching

LESSON PLAN
DAY TWO
Warm-Up
Project once again an image of Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet and read aloud a few of the most
interesting questions offered by the student groups the previous day. Allow students to share their
reactions and other personal responses to the art.
Activity and Formative Assessment
A. Ask students to refer to Handout A: Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet, and have them skim over the
questions they discussed the previous day. Then call on groups in turn to share their answers to
each of the questions.
B. Display the image on Handout B: Foot Washing. Ask students to compare this image with the
Brown painting. As a class, discuss the following questions:
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What is the pope’s role in the Church?
Why would he imitate Jesus this way?
Whose feet is Pope Francis washing?
Why would the pope wash the feet of prisoners?
C. For homework, have students ask their parents to help them locate and bring in an image of a
pope doing any of the following things:
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Caring for a sick person
Visiting the imprisoned
Feeding the hungry
Helping the poor
Comforting someone
DAY THREE
Warm-Up
A. Have students share the pictures they brought in for homework and explain what is happening
in the pictures. When they are done, they should affix the pictures to a bulletin board or
another display area.
B. Discuss how the pope is Christ’s representative on Earth and is called to imitate Christ in a
special way. Then ask: “Are only priests and religious called to be like Christ?” Of course the
answer is no: we are all called to live as Christ did. In this unit we will study closely what that
means.
EXPLORING CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING, Lesson 5 61