Fr. Maximo Villanueva Jr. of the Diocese of Balanga, Bataan developed a three-dimensional game called Paolo's Journey based on Pope Benedict XVI's Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

According to Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, chair of CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education, the Church needs to carry out a new evangelization, not for faith propagation, but to remind the faithful of the social teachings of the Church. Grade 3 pupils up to college students are tha target gamers of the said video game.

To give a little background about the video game, Paolo, 10-year-old child, falls into a deep well as he was looking for his kitten. Inside the well, he meets an angel who tells him to collect the three keys he needs to be able to return home.

As the player, who will play as Paolo, acquires the key, he moves forward to the next level of the game. Along the way, creatures called Bloobas will come out, which needs to be eliminated by the player. The player also needs to collect scrolls and to answer 45 catechism questions.

In the easy level, questions are all about the Sacraments; the medium level, the player needs to answer questions about the 10 Commandments; and in the difficult level, the player would be tested on Christian values.

The video game is available in five different languages: English, Filipino, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

Fr. Villanueva said that he took a year to develop Paolo's Journey. And even before this, he studied computer animation at the New York Film Academy, and eventually had his internship at Nickelodeon.

During the plenary assembly, Bishop Soc said that they have produced 1,000 copies of the game for distribution to bishops. Each of them will be given 10 copies each that will be distributed to public school catechists in their dioceses.

They are also planning to tie up with the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), a group of Catholic private schools in promoting the said catechism video game.

Meanwhile, traditional catechism would still be taught in schools.

The video game will be soon available in Catholic bookstores for P200.

Aside from this game, they are also planning to have the follow-up of Paolo's adventure, wherein he will be looking for his love interest, Marissa, who also got lost. And again, the player has to answer questions related to the parables in the Bible to find her.

With this kind of step made by the Church, it will be more possible for the youth of today not to forget Christian values that would make them a better person. [via philstar.com]