Ad Altare Dei Counseling

[T2Eagle 902]

Our troop is planning on starting an Ad Altare Dei program, the BSA religious award for Roman Catholic scouts,  for interested scouts in our troop and a couple other local troops.

The materials say the program could take 6-8 months but it doesn't seem at irst brush that it should take that long to compete.

Has anyone run this program or seen it run recently?  How long did it take?  How often did you meet?  Any starting tips you'd like to pass along?

[Eagle94-A1 2687]

When I did it back in the day, it could take a year. Part of that was you had to go on a retreat. I did mine in about 6 months, but we were also doing other Scout stuff. Don't remember many details except the retreat and going to the cathedral for the archbishop to present it to us.

[HashTagScouts 437]

I have been a mentor for this award, and make sure you read through the book and make note of the various "project" components in each section.  There are requirements to make posters/presentations, to conduct a service project, the day retreat, visiting the church, etc.  My groups have met for 1 1/2 hour meetings bi-weekly, total of 9 meetings just to do the book work.  Some of those "project" things the kids had to do on their own at home to bring to the meetings.  The target age group of this award is 11-13 year olds, but I've had 9th graders do it and say it was a lot of work.

[Oldscout448 697]

I'm afraid I can't help much. I wanted to get this back in the day and was very active in my parish. But the good Father would only sign off on the application if you were an alter boy for two full years. In addition to all the other requirements. 

What with Boyscouts, explorers, OA, and a rifle team, I just couldn't devote a Sunday every three weeks for two years.