Agents of the New Evangelization

We are ready to start a new catechetical year 2012-2013!

August-September is one of the busiest times for our catechetical teams.  It is in these last three weeks that we are finalizing registrations, getting together new exciting materials, making (or remaking) lists, assigning catechist candidates, and registering new families, among other things.

Some programs start right after Labor Day weekend; other programs wait for Catechetical Sunday to start with a big and deserved send-off by the whole parish community. 

What is Catechetical Sunday?
Catechetical Sunday is the celebration in which the Catholic Church in the United States reflects on the role that each person plays, by virtue of baptism, in handing on the faith and being witness to the Gospel. On this day, the Church especially acknowledges, affirms and commissions all those who are catechists. Catechetical Sunday is always celebrated every third Sunday of September.

The idea of establishing a catechetical day in each parish was presented by Pope Pius XI in his instruction titled "On Better Care for Catechetical Teaching" (Provido sane consilio) published in 1935. In paragraph 25, he writes that the day should be a day in which…

• The faithful should be called together in the parish, and having received the Holy Eucharist, they should pray to obtain greater fruit from catechesis (divine teaching)
• A special sermon should be preached to the people on the necessity of catechetical instruction. Parents are to be told about their duty to instruct their children in Catholic doctrine and to send them to parish catechism (religion) classes.
• Books, pamphlets, and other material suitable for the purpose should be distributed.
• A collection may be taken up for the promotion of catechetical works.

The first celebration of a national catechetical day in our country is recorded to have been on October 30, 1935, in Rochester, N.Y.

This year, the Catechetical Sunday theme is Catechists and Teachers as Agents of the New Evangelization. Whether your parish is preparing a formal commissioning service within the Sunday eucharistic liturgy or at another appropriate time, take the opportunity to acknowledge your catechists and your catechetical team!