Pope Leo has just given us a treasure chest of wisdom for our ministry. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s a really big chest and just getting the lid open is going to be a lot of work. I am talking about the pope’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. The document is
The catechumenate in the age of AI
If you’ve followed us for any time at all at Team Initiation, you know that we are very focused on the church’s vision of how to implement the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. When we first started talking about this vision (almost 20 years ago!) we didn’t apply the word “synodal” to our analysis
From classrooms to companions: A synodal vision for the catechumenate
Sometimes ministry can feel more like a chore than a charism. We can easily find ourselves trapped in the “chokehold” of the school-model paradigm, where faith formation is treated as a series of classes with a fixed syllabus and a predetermined graduation date. We feel boxed-in, exhausted, and stressed. We wonder when we started managing
Six core principles that will lead your catechumens to Christ
Several years ago, Diana and I were in Panama over the Thanksgiving holiday. In Panama, as in most of the world, November’s fourth Thursday is just another day. There was no turkey, no football, and no cranberry sauce to be found. But oddly, there were massive Black Friday sales everywhere you looked. Black Friday, it
Thanksgiving as a way of faith for the catechumens
Many parish teams choose a safe, predictable path when forming seekers. We rely on our lesson plans, our schedules, our outlines, and it all feels responsible, even holy. But what if the Spirit is calling us somewhere less familiar, less comfortable and yet, more far more compelling? Over the past few weeks, we’ve been reflecting
The costly path of discipleship
You’ve no doubt heard the story of the wise man who went to the river to meditate. When he arrived, he found a group of agitated people gathered on the riverbank. As he drew closer, he saw them frantically wading into the water to rescue people from drowning. Every time they pulled someone to shore,
Go upstream: Forming disciples to confront injustice
When Pope Leo issued the first major document of his pontificate, he presented a big challenge to catechumenate teams. His apostolic exhortation, Dilexi te (“I have loved you”), is essentially an introduction to the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching. This is a teachable moment that we can use to introduce Catholic Social Teaching to
Encountering the poor is a prerequisite of faith
What if I told you that baptism is NOT the real goal of adult initiation? Surprised? That’s the insight of Hendrik Manders, a Redemptorist priest and sacramental theologian who, along with others, shaped the renewed understanding of the catechumenate process after Vatican II. Manders’ goal was to prevent the not-yet-developed catechumenate process from becoming a
Growing committed disciples through the catechumenate
Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pope and a longtime missionary in Peru, brings a fresh pastoral style to the papacy. There has been a lot of news coverage about his election and his first months as pope. However, his early address to the cardinals of the church hasn’t gotten a lot of attention. In
Will Pope Leo XIV’s six priorities change your catechumenate ministry?
In a previous article, I wrote about how we might apply the principles of synodality to conflict in the catechumenate process. In this article, I want to go a little more deeply into how we might accompany one another when conflict arises. Deepening our understanding of synodality To be honest, I don’t deal with conflict
Accompanying one another through conflict
