Pope Francis is asking Catholics to pray for catechists in December. The Pope intended specially that catechists will witness to the Gospel with courage and creativity.
The Pope was sharing his December prayer intention through a video message on 30 November.
“Let us pray for the catechists, summoned to announce the Word of God: may they be its witnesses, with courage and creativity and in the power of the Holy Spirit,” reads the prayer intention, promoted by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
A catechist is a Catholic who instructs Christian doctrine and the Gospel to others. Pope Francis had instituted a new ministry of catechist for laypeople earlier this year. The catechists are those who have a particular call to serve the Catholic Church as a teacher of the faith.
“There is a need for “good catechists who are both companions and teachers, ” said Pope Francis.
“The lay ministry of catechists is a vocation; it’s a mission. Being a catechist means that you ‘are a catechist,’ not that you ‘work as a catechist.’ It’s an entire way of being,” the Pope said.
“We need creative people who proclaim the Gospel, but who proclaim it neither with a mute nor with a loudspeaker, but rather with their life, with gentleness, with a new language, and opening new ways,” he said.
Pope Francis noted that in many dioceses around the world, “evangelization is fundamentally in the hands of a catechist.”
The Pontiff expressed deep gratitude to catechists’ for their dedication to the service of the Church.