Faith Formation

Faith formation is a life-long process of growth in prayer, relationship with the Lord, and knowledge of his teachings as articulated by the Church Jesus founded. In order to be good stewards in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others, we must know our Catholic faith and be ready to joyfully share it with others. Faith formation is not primarily for our own personal spiritual enrichment but to equip us to share our faith effectively so that it can transform our culture.

• Faith formation is for all Catholics of all ages.
• Parents are the first to form their own children in the faith. Our faith formation must equip parents to be stewards of the Gospel.
• Catechists and Catholic school teachers of all subjects have a special role to play in handing on the faith to our children and youth and preparing them to be evangelizers. Our faith formation must prepare them to hand on the faith to our youth in such a way that our youth are committed to the mission of being stewards of the Gospel.
• Our Catholic schools are an effective infrastructure for formation in the faith. To assure that this valuable infrastructure is available to us Catholics and others for generations to come, we must do all we can to make them available, accessible, and affordable to all Catholic parents and their children.
• All Catholics are called to shine the light of faith on family life, the economy, business, health care, education, and political life. Faith formation of all adults must equip them to effectively be stewards of the Gospel in all of these venues and many others.
• The death and resurrection of Jesus, and his continued presence with us in the Eucharist and the Church, is to be the center of our faith formation, so that it will not be ourselves we preach, but Jesus Christ. The Word of God and the Eucharist must be presented as true encounters with the risen Jesus, encounters that can transform lives and cultures.