Parish Catechetical Leaders

“The single most critical factor in an effective parish catechetical program is the leadership of a professionally trained parish catechetical leader.”                  

                                                                                                                                p. 224, National Directory for Catechesis

On this page, you will find information on:

              Catechist Formation

              Charis Newsletter

              Faith Sharing Centers - under construction

             MCEA certification

              Tuition Data   and Salary forms

             Weaving Safe Environment into Faith Formation and Youth Ministry

Catechist Formation

The importance of catechist formation can not be overlooked. This needs to be a priority for all catechetical leaders. Please think creatively in how you might better address the formation of your catechists for the second half of this school year, and try to implement one more thing with them. In order to have good catechetical programs, we must have well-trained catechists.

The Echoes of Faith video assisted catechist formation process is a wonderful resource to aid you in this process. This resource can be checked out of the Diocesan audio/visual library by e-mailing JHerdina@dow.org.

Charis Newsletter

This newsletter is mailed quarterly to all parish catechetical leaders with updates to help you in your ministry

Minnesota Catholic Education Association (MCEA)

Over the past five years, the MCEA in collaboration with the United States Catholic Conference of Bishop’s Committee on certification and accreditation has developed a statewide process to certify ministers serving as Parish Catechetical or Youth Ministry Leaders.  This process has been approved by all the Bishop’s of the State of Minnesota.

The MCEA website, www.MNCatholiced.org has more information about this process and the application process.

This process is designed to focus the on-going formation of parish ministers in a systematic way through the five national standards. These standards are:

• Standard One: Personal and Spiritual Maturity: A Lay Ecclesial minister demonstrates personal and spiritual maturity with the people of God
• Standard Two: Lay Ecclesial Ministry Identity: A Lay ecclesial minister identifies the call to forma and public ministry as a vocation rooted in Baptism.
• Standard Three: Roman Catholic Theology: A Lay Ecclesial Minister integrates knowledge of Roman Catholic Faith within ministry.
• Standard Four: Pastoral Praxis: A Lay Ecclesial minister engages in pastoral activity that promotes evangelization, faith formation, community and pastoral care with sensitivity to diverse situations.
• Standard Five: Professional Practice: A Lay ecclesial minister provides effective leadership, administration and service, in the spirit of collaboration.

One of your first steps can be to create a three-ring binder divided by these five national standard areas and insert all the workshop or conference fliers behind the appropriate standard.

There is no deadline for when you complete your binder and submit it for certification, but the state does accept completed binders on March 15, and October 15.

Weaving Safe Environment into Faith Formation and Youth Ministry

The Diocesan website, www.safeandsacred.org, provides many resources to assist you as you integrate the safe environment themes into your existing parish ministry. Please let us know how we can assist you in implementing this diocesan –wide process.