The ongoing formation of believers is a priority for a missionary Church. Pope Francis’ decision to institute a new ministry of catechist is an important recognition of the vital role increasingly played by laymen and laywomen in the deeper understanding and transmission of the faith

Pope Francis has created a new lay ministry of the catechist. You might say this is a natural progression in the Pope’s desire to encourage the greater participation of laymen and -women in the leadership of the Catholic Church. But Francis is merely giving formal recognition to a ministry that has been part of the life of the Church for centuries. He has deliberately called his apostolic letter Antiquum Ministerium, which means “ancient ministry”. Laymen and -women have acted as partners with bishops and priests in the transmission and growth of the faith and the building-up of the Church from apostolic times.

The Second Vatican Council acknowledged this service as greatly contributing to the exercise of the Church’s mission (Dei Verbum 8). Since Vatican II, the Church has come to a renewed appreciation of the importance of lay involvement in the work of evangelisation. Catechists make an outstanding and necessary contribution to the spread of faith – and this is particularly important today, when the number of priests is sharply declining in many parts of the Church. Since the council, popes and bishops have played their part in the renewal of catechesis.