Here we are in September of 2026, and many catechumenate teams still haven’t recovered from the shutdown caused by COVID in 2020. Nobody is getting sick, but everybody is still exhausted.
I joined a new parish four years ago and discovered the catechumenate team had disbanded. I volunteered to help rebuild it. It took a couple of years to get commitments for all the spots I wanted to fill, but we got there in the summer of 2025. Now, a year later, we’re starting over again.
I know many of you are in the same spot, struggling to find the team members you need to return to pre-COVID strength. In this article I want to share why I think there’s one team member you do not need to recruit: the catechist.
Why one catechist is enough
I don’t mean you need zero catechists, but in most cases, you don’t need more than one. And that one is probably you, so there’s no one else to recruit.
This is important because if a team leader thinks she needs many catechists, the vision of the whole catechumenate process gets distorted. The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults envisions the formation of seekers as the concern of “all of the baptized” (OCIA 9).
This means your parishioners, not a group of catechists, are the ones doing most of the formation. If you recruit a lot of catechists, you relieve parishioners of carrying out their responsibility.
If you have a single catechist, it forces you to get creative in thinking about how the activities of the parish become the “textbook” for formation.
What is a catechist?
It’s common to think of a catechist as a religious education teacher, but that’s not quite right. Pope John Paul II said: “In catechesis it is Christ… who is taught… and it is Christ alone who teaches” (On Catechesis, 6). Your parishioners, the local Body of Christ, are the ones who “teach.”
A more accurate word for catechist is accompanist. Pope Francis calls accompaniment a spiritual process requiring “prudence, understanding, patience, and docility to the Spirit” (Joy of the Gospel, 171).
It’s easier to think of a catechist as a teacher because we know what teaching looks like. Accompaniment isn’t a methodology or a set of best practices. It is a spirituality, a way of being in the world that is rooted in the example of Jesus himself. When we embrace the art of accompaniment, we’re participating in the life of the Trinity, in a sacred dance of mutual self-giving.
Accompaniment requires a profound humility and openness on our part. We have to let go of our need for control, our desire to have all the answers, and to trust that each person we walk with is already filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
Accompaniment isn’t a methodology or a set of best practices. It is a spirituality, a way of being in the world that is rooted in the example of Jesus himself.
How do we catechize as accompanists?
To understand how to catechize, we have to hold onto two anchors.
First, Pope John Paul II said:
The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ. (On Catechesis, 5)
Second, Pope Francis said:
We must not think that in catechesis the kerygma gives way to a supposedly more “solid” formation. Nothing is more solid, profound, secure, meaningful and wisdom-filled than that initial proclamation. (Joy of the Gospel, 165)
Holding onto these two anchors, the parish catechist-accompanist (probably you) starts by listening. Each person is a sacred mystery. You’re listening for their story of where God has already been active. And you’re listening for the gaps. Where are they missing encounters with Jesus Christ that would bring them into communion and intimacy with the Risen One?
There are four places Christ is present in our parishes, and these are where we accompany seekers toward that “initial proclamation” of his love for them.
Word
The main source of catechesis is the living Word of God — the Logos — encountered not only in Scripture but in the church’s Tradition, most of all in the Sunday proclamation and the homily that expounds on it.
Community
We also encounter the Risen Jesus in the community of disciples. Accompanying seekers in all the ways that we are a community, they learn to pray more easily, to witness, to trust the Spirit, and to love their neighbor even when it’s hard.
Worship
In prayer and worship, we join ourselves to Christ, offering praise to the Father. Accompaniment means bringing seekers first to Sunday Mass, then into the church’s prayers and devotions. This includes a regular prayer practice in their own home.
Witness
The church is not focused inwardly on itself. Rather, we accompany seekers into the church’s outward, apostolic mission. By our example, they learn to testify, especially to those on the margins, that Jesus Christ loves them, gave his life for them, and stands by them every day to enlighten, strengthen, and free them.
Your work as catechist is two-fold. First, you’re a weaver, weaving your seekers’ lives into these four threads of encounter. Second, you’re a mystagogue gathering the seekers regularly to unpack and mystagogcically reflect on their encounters with the Risen Jesus.
In this way, you will bring the seekers into intimacy and communion with Jesus Christ and continually announce, in deeper and deeper ways, that initial proclamation of our faith, which is the most solid form of catechesis.
Your work as catechist is two-fold. First, you’re a weaver, weaving your seekers’ lives into these four threads of encounter. Second, you’re a mystagogue gathering the seekers regularly to unpack and mystagogcically reflect on their encounters with the Risen Jesus.
What will happen if we do this?
If we can let go of the classroom paradigm and begin to accompany our seekers the way Jesus accompanied his first disciples, we will have a similar impact. Just as Jesus’s first followers left everything to follow him, our seekers will begin to respond “to the desire for the infinite which abides in every human heart” (Joy of the Gospel, 165).
We still need many other team members for the many tasks of accompanying seekers. But if you weave your seekers into the life of the parish and gather with them regularly for mystagogical reflection, you can check “catechist” off your recruiting list.
Your turn
In my parish, we’re still building our team, one role at a time. If you’ve found your one catechist — or you’re still looking — I’d love to hear where you are in that process. Please comment below.
