Boy Scouts of America offers four religious awards, two of which can only be earned as a Cub Scout. SSA Pack One encourages scouts to earn at least one of the two religious awards and earning both is preferred. For Roman Catholics the religious emblems are "Light of Christ" and "Parvuli Dei". While scouts are in the 1st and 2nd grade they can earn the Light of Christ and when they are in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade they can earn the Parvuli Dei award. The highlighted links provide the requirements, what follows are the the instructions on obtaining the award from the Diocese.

Either award requires parents to work one on one with their sons to discuss aspects of the bible and Catholicism. Light of Christ is excellent preparation for First Communion while Parvuli Dei is excellent preparation for Confirmation. The hardest part is getting started. Once you do, it takes anywhere from 30 to 90 days to complete depending on your time. There are due dates of end of year 12/31/20xx for the Detroit Diocese or 2/01/20xx for the Lansing Diocese. If you haven’t started it yet and still want to, you first need to obtain the workbook “Light of Christ” from the Scout Store in Ann Arbor or order it on line at scoutstuff.org

Once you have completed the requirements detailed in the workbooks, you complete the application in the back which requires various signatures including that of your local parish priest / deacon (or religious Ed director). Then follow the instructions below for either Lansing or Detroit diocese. You can choose either diocese regardless of your parish.

Lansing Diocese Option
Award is presented to boys in a ceremony (not a Mass) in the Cathedral of Lansing on at Sunday afternoon a couple weeks after Easter providing the following conditions are met.

No later than 2/1/2012, send the original application (make a copy of completed application for your files) and a check for $15 made out to “Catholic Committee on Scouting” to Kris Krochmal 10406 Barbara Street, Pinckney, MI 48169 (734-878-6881).

To attend the ceremony at St Thomas Church, 955 Alton Road in East Lansing (again this year due to construction at the Cathedral), show up to the Parish Center on Sunday, April 25, 2010, at 1 pm for registration and a light reception, then at 2:30 pm is the ceremony (expect it to be packed, standing room only) whereby boys will receive their awards (metal) from the bishop or representative. Note, this is a ceremony only and not a Mass. Before the event a postcard will go out to each Scout which they should bring to registration. It will speed up the check in and serves as a reminder of the event and includes directions. It is a uniformed event and families are encouraged to attend.

Detroit Diocese Option
The completed application is due to Catholic Youth Organization, 305 Michigan Ave., GRB - 9th Floor, Detroit, MI 48226-2605, Phone: (313) 963-7172 by end of year (12/31/2011) in order for boys to receive a certificate presented at the Detroit Cathedral in early March at a Mass presided by someone on the Cardinal’s staff.

Send completed application and check for $12.50 made out to “CYO Scouting” and mail it to CYO Scouting 305 Michigan Avenue Detroit, MI 48226. CYO will then send to you (within a couple weeks) your son’s metal which you would then ask your local priest to present (usually following a Mass).

General Notes
Once the paperwork is on file you may ask your den leader to get the purple religious knot for them to wear. They may wear only one knot even if Scouts have earned both religious awards, however there is a unique medal that goes with each of the two religious awards. (Should only wear the medals for formal events like the annual Blue & Gold banquet otherwise boys could get hurt when playing at pack games).

It might be nice to see all of our boys go to Detroit together, but some might not be able to make the 12/31/1/2011 application deadline in which case the Diocese of Lansing provides more time…

Please let your den leader know of your plans as we want to encourage all boys to earn at least one of the two religious awards and want to track progress.

Rosary Patches

Being a Cub Scout pack chartered by a Catholic School, our pack committee wants to have overtly Catholic elements in our pack. Thus we say a prayer to begin and end each of our meetings; we encourage boys to earn the religious awards offered through scouting (two in Cub Scouts and two in Boy Scouts). We also encourage boys to earn patches they can display not on their uniform but on their red vest. The National Catholic Committee on Scouting offers several patches around praying the rosary and the pack committee would like to see our scouts earn at least the “Pray the Rosary” patch (although there are four others available too).

Here are the requirements for 1st through 5th grade:

1. Memorize "The Apostles Creed" prayer

2. Memorize "The Our Father" prayer

3. Memorize "The Hail Mary" prayer

4. Memorize the "Glory be to the Father" prayer

5. Memorize "The Hail, Holy Queen" prayer

6. Memorize "Fatima Prayers"

7. Memorize "St. Michael Prayer"

8. Pray the Rosary by doing one of the following:
- 5-Decade Joyful Mysteries
- 5-Decade Sorrowful Mysteries
- 5-Decade Glorious Mysteries
- 5-Decade Luminous Mysteries

The above referenced prayers can be found at this link:

http://www.nccs-bsa.org/pdf/Praying%20the%20Rosary%20-%20Prayer%20Reference.pdf


Once you scout has completed the above requirements, you can complete the order form and send a $4 check to receive your patch. Here is the link to order the patch:

http://www.nccs-bsa.org/pdf/NCCS%20Patch%20Order%20Form.pdf


Upon receiving the patch, present it to your den leader and we will award it to your scout at a pack meeting when he receives other achievements.

Once you complete the “pray the rosary” patch, should you want to pursue the other 4 patches (covering all the Mysteries), you can do so by following the requirements at these four links:

http://www.nccs-bsa.org/pdf/JoyfulMysteriesFlier.pdf

http://www.nccs-bsa.org/pdf/LuminousMysteriesFlier.pdf