Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst and Archbishop Rino Fisichella present the apostolic letter ‘Antiquum ministerium’ at the Vatican, May 11, 2021. / Vatican Media.
Vatican City, May 11, 2021 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Tuesday instituted the new lay ministry of catechist, with the apostolic letter Antiquum ministerium (“Ancient ministry”).
You might have questions about what this ministry is and who it is for. In this explainer, CNA answers your burning questions about this new (or is it?) ministry in the Church.
What is the instituted ministry of catechist?
An instituted ministry is a type of formal, vocational service within the Catholic Church. It can be either lay, such as lector or acolyte, or ordained, such as deacon or priest.
The newly instituted ministry of catechist is for lay people who have a particular call to serve the Catholic Church as a teacher of the faith.
The ministry is “stable,” meaning it lasts for the entirety of life, independent of whether the person is actively carrying out that activity during every part of his or her life.
But catechists already exist. How is this different?
Many catechists today serve the Church at the parish level, but the instituted ministry of catechist will be tied to the diocese and be at the disposal of the diocesan bishop.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella explained at a Vatican press conference May 11 that “the institution of a ministry by the Church is confirmation that the person invested with that charism is performing an authentic ecclesial service to the community.”
Fisichella is president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, which oversees the Church’s instituted ministries.
The institution of this ministry, together with the lay ministries of lector and acolyte, “will make it possible to have a laity that is better prepared in the transmission of the faith,” the archbishop said.
He also emphasized that the instituted catechist is dedicated to the transmission of the faith through proclamation and instruction — he or she does not have any kind of liturgical responsibility.
The catechist collaborates with the local bishop and priests in the teaching of the faith to the local community. And it can be a benefit in places where priests are scarce.
Pope Francis “is well aware of how many areas of Latin America and Africa today still have catechists at the head of the community,” Fisichella said. He stressed the unique nature of each ministry, noting that they are not interchangeable.
“At stake here is much of what is new in this ministry,” he said. “Men and women are called to express their baptismal vocation in the best possible way, not as substitutes for priests or consecrated persons, but as authentic laymen and laywomen who, in the distinctive nature of their ministry, are able to experience the full of extent of their baptismal vocation of witness and effective service in the community and the world.”
Who is qualified to be instituted into the ministry of catechist?
Pope Francis’ letter said that a lay person called to be instituted in the ministry of catechist should have “deep faith and human maturity,” be an active participant in the life of the Christian community, and “capable of welcoming others, being generous and living a life of fraternal communion.”
Bishops’ conferences will be responsible for deciding the “necessary process of formation and the normative criteria for admission” to the new ministry.
Individual bishops are tasked with determining appropriate candidates in their own territories, and ensuring they have been properly prepared through “suitable biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation.”
Prior experience of catechesis is also a prerequisite.
Archbishop Fisichella said that “it is obvious that not everyone who is a catechist today will have access to the ministry of Catechist.”
“Of primary importance is the vocational dimension which implies a willingness to serve the Church where the bishop considers it most beneficial,” he explained. “Ministries are not conferred for personal gratification, but for service to be rendered to the local Church where the bishop deems the presence of the catechist necessary.”
The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments will publish a Rite of Institution of the new lay ministry of catechist. It will be ready “in a short time,” according to Fisichella.
Where did the idea of the lay catechist come from?
In his apostolic letter, Pope Francis emphasized the history of the catechist, beginning with the New Testament’s First Epistle to the Corinthians, which refers to “teachers” within the early Christian community.
He said that catechists played a critical role in the Church’s missionary expansion in the following centuries and noted the renewed appreciation for lay catechists in the work of evangelization following the Second Vatican Council.
Fisichella said his pontifical council, at the request of Pope Francis, has been studying the institution of the lay ministry of catechist for more than five years in collaboration with bishops’ conferences and experts.
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The extent of corruption in the Church is physically nauseating at this stage. Is this predatory monster going to be defrocked of his cardinalatial scarlet and laicized like McCarrick? Is he going to be prosecuted by French authorities under French criminal law for his rape of this 14-year-old girl? Is His Eminence Jean-Pierre Ricard going to be publicly deputed by the appropriate Vatican authorities and the French bishops’ conference to a life of prayer and penance in a strict monastery for his “reprehensible” crimes? Since he is a Bergoglio protege, we can guess what the answers are. And how many more predatory monsters are there among the “princes of the Church”?
I pray for this priest of God and the young woman he abused when she was 14. Sin is real; repentance and remorse are possible; forgiveness and reconciliation are made possible by Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. We don’t hold people in their sin who have asked forgiveness.
That is the catechism and the most constructive ethos from an anthropological perspective. And we have the directive from Christ, himself. But I do note that Jesus forgive nearly every type of sin while personally present on earth (of course with the injunction to go and sin no more), EXCEPT the sin of corrupting a child.
I hope that you’re not suggesting that this prelate’s sin is unforgivable.
It is if he doesn’t truly repent which, given his age, is reasonably questionable. To suddenly repent decades later? Sorry, but I don’t buy it. If he’s not genuinely repentant he’s goin to Hell.
Is he “repentant” because he got caught. If there is one victim, there’s likely more.
Our Blessed Lord Himself made it clear that it was indeed unforgivable, and that when the corrupter of children was flung into the depths of the sea with a millstone round his neck, into the depths of the sea was precisely where he would stay.
Sir, perhaps more biblical study, and less flaunting to total strangers of your purported diaconate, would be to your spiritual advantage.
I have no authority of absolution. I do wonder what Christ holds in these cases since the clue he left us in the case of leading children astray is ominous.
35 years later at age 78 after a life spent in the highest reaches of the hierarchy? I think it would be irrational to accept simpliciter his “asking forgiveness” now.
While it may seem this HIGH RANKING CHURCHMAN should be commended for coming clean, it is beyond reprehensible that he waited until he had lived out his life in a position of power and ease. He’s 78. He won’t be spending much time in prison for CHILD RAPE. He’ll be dead soon. His victim’s soul was murdered decades ago. May God have mercy on his soul.
11 Bishops in France so far including one cardinal, are being investigated for committing or hiding abuse. What does this say about character and leadership for a people who are defined by the extent to which they follow the character and the ways of doing life as Jesus demonstrated in a clear and decisive manner in how he lived and taught his disciples! I will ask this question. Most people in the modern ‘christian’ west have no idea who Jesus was and is, his character attributes etc etc and who would be the cause of this ignorance? Jesus is a threat to the Catholic Church as it has become, and a threat to the economic paradigm of modern western culture! Just as he was a threat to the power base of the Pharisees and King Herod and that is why he was set up with the Romans to be crucified! Mankind has ‘defined’ god in his own image!
This Cardinal needs to be laicized. Prison is simply not sufficient punishment.
A very different attitude to Cardinal Jean-Pierre Richard is evident in most responses here to the attitude of responses to Cardinal Pell’s series of trials and the ultimate overturning of his conviction. A different response was also evident in Cardinal Pell’s relationship with Ballarat priest serial child abuser Father Ridsdale whom Cardinal Pell lived with and later supported in a court appearance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ridsdale#:~:text=Ridsdale%20was%20born%20at%20St,where%20he%20was%20a%20chaplain.