Pope: The necessity of a 'ministry' for catechists in a globalized culture

It is a "lay ministry" for men and women, which "will emphasize even more the missionary commitment proper to every baptized person, a commitment that must however be carried out in a fully “secular” manner, avoiding any form of clericalization".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Pope Francis is "institutionalizing" catechists. As of today the Church recognises the work of a catechist as a "ministry", that is a recognized and regulated service of the ecclesial community, thanks to the Motu Proprio "Antiquum ministerium." The ministry of catechist will be given by the individual bishop with a rite that the Congregation for the divine worship and the discipline of the Sacraments "will soon publish".

The title of the papal document refers to the fact that "the ministry of Catechist in the Church is very ancient": the apostles and the letters of St. Paul refer to it. " From the beginning, the Christian community was characterized by many different forms of ministry carried out by men and women who, obedient to the working of the Holy Spirit, devoted their lives to the building up of the Church".

These charisms also included "baptized persons [who] exercised the ministry of transmitting in a more organic and stable form related to different situations in life the teaching of the apostles and evangelists ". And "even in our day, many capable and tenacious catechists are at the head of communities in different regions and carry out an irreplaceable mission in the transmission and deepening of the faith".

Pope Francis then recalls that attention has grown since the Vatican Council for the importance of the commitment of the laity in the work of evangelization. The conciliar documents were followed by those of popes, synods, episcopates, individual bishops, "to acknowledge this service as a concrete expression of a personal charism that contributed greatly to the exercise of her mission of evangelization".

Today, "without detracting from the Bishop's own mission of being the first Catechist in his Diocese", "it is necessary to recognize the presence of lay people who by virtue of their baptism feel called to collaborate in the service of catechesis ". “This presence is all the more urgently needed today as a result of our increasing awareness of the need for evangelization in the contemporary world (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 163-168), and the rise of a globalized culture (cf. Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, 100, 138) This requires genuine interaction with young people, to say nothing of the need for creative methodologies and resources capable of adapting the proclamation of the Gospel to the missionary transformation that the Church has undertaken.”

The Council affirmed that the lay faithful “the laity come to realize that they “are given this special vocation: to make the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it is only through them that she can become the salt of the earth” (ibid., 33)”, but, in addition to this, they can be called to "collaborate more immediately with the apostolate of the hierarchy".

"The role played by catechists is one specific form of service among others within the Christian community.” "At the same time, every catechist must be a witness to the faith, a teacher and mystagogue, a companion and pedagogue, who teaches for the Church."  It is a "lay ministry" that "will emphasize even more the missionary commitment proper to every baptized person, a commitment that must however be carried out in a fully “secular” manner, avoiding any form of clericalization." It calls " men and women of deep faith and human maturity, active participants in the life of the Christian community, capable of welcoming others, being generous and living a life of fraternal communion. They should also receive suitable biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation to be competent communicators of the truth of the faith and they should have some prior experience of catechesis." But that they operate "in a fully secular form, without falling into any expression of clericalization".

But, underlined Msgr. Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, at the presentation of the document, the catechists "are called to best express their baptismal vocation, not as substitutes for priests or consecrated persons, but as authentic lay people who in the peculiarity of their ministry, allow the baptismal call of witness and effective service to be experienced as far as it goes out into the community and in the world”.

“It is obvious - Msgr. Fisichella - that not all those who are catechists today will be able to access the ministry of catechists. This ministry is entrusted to those who will correspond to some requirements that the Motu proprio lists. First of all, that of the vocational dimension to serve the Church where the bishop considers it the most needed".

“It should not be forgotten that in various regions where the presence of priests is zero or rare, the figure of the catechist is that of one who presides over the community and keeps it rooted in faith. It is in this sense that what Pope Francis writes must be understood:  It is in fact a stable form of service rendered to the local Church in accordance with pastoral needs identified by the local Ordinary, yet one carried out as a work of the laity, as demanded by the very nature of the ministry". (FP)