Weekly three-minute episodes begin streaming September 18, 2026
Beginning Friday, September 18, children across the Diocese of Bridgeport will be able to learn the Catholic faith from a familiar figure in an unfamiliar form: an animated Bishop Frank J. Caggiano.
Bishop Frank Teaches the Faith, a new weekly series from the Institute for Catholic Formation, introduces young children and their families to a different topic of the Catholic faith each week through short, colorful episodes, two to three minutes in length. The series launches two days before Catechetical Sunday, with the first ten episodes available at once and a new episode every Friday after that.
“Every generation of the Church is called to find new and creative ways to proclaim the Gospel,” said Bishop Caggiano. “Our children are growing up in a world shaped by digital media, and we have an extraordinary opportunity to enter that world with them and introduce them more deeply to Jesus Christ and the beauty of our Catholic faith.”
Each episode pairs animation and age-appropriate storytelling with Bishop Caggiano’s own voice. The goal is not a list of facts for children to memorize. It is to help them recognize that the faith is an invitation into a relationship with Jesus Christ and a way of living each day.
“Anything we can do to help parents raise faith-filled children is a win,” said Dr. Patrick Donovan, Executive Director of the Institute for Catholic Formation. “Bishop Frank Teaches the Faith takes the truths of our faith and presents them through a medium children already understand and enjoy. Our hope is that these short episodes will spark conversations at home, reinforce what children are learning in their parishes and schools, and, most importantly, help them grow closer to Jesus.”
More than a year in the making
The first 52 episodes took over a year to produce. Seminarians and teachers from diocesan Catholic schools wrote the scripts, and the response surprised even the organizers. “We were amazed at the response,” Donovan said. “It’s an opportunity that will be repeated in the coming weeks as we begin planning for season two and three.”
Families and invited guests previewed several of the early episodes at a screening last March. Among them was Monsignor Lucio Adrian Ruiz, Secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, who praised the project for meeting children and young people in the digital world they already inhabit.
For parishes, schools, and the kitchen table
The series is built to be used, not simply watched. Catechists, Catholic school teachers, and faith formation leaders can fold episodes into lessons and parish gatherings, and families can make them part of an ordinary Friday. Coloring sheets, challenge questions, word searches, and other free resources are available online alongside each episode.
Parishes and schools that want to celebrate the launch can request a toolkit from the Institute, complete with magnets, stickers, pencils, crayons, and a mug for the teacher or catechist. More than 225 toolkits were requested and delivered to parishes and schools in early September.
Bishop Frank Teaches the Faith is part of Start with Sunday, an initiative of the Institute for Catholic Formation that already includes animated Sunday readings to help parents prepare their children for Mass. The initiative is supported by a $1.23 million grant awarded to the diocese by Lilly Endowment Inc. in 2024.
The series reflects a conviction that runs through the Institute’s work: that the Church’s mission never changes, even as the tools for carrying it out do. Helping people encounter Jesus Christ, understand the faith, and become His disciples is the same work it has always been.
Bishop Frank Teaches the Faith begins streaming Friday, September 18, 2026. Learn more at formationreimagined.org or startwithsunday.org.
