Watch Over Your Catechists Future
Archidiocese of Chicago
The Archdiocese of Chicago is the third largest Archdiocese in the U.S., serving more than 2.3 million Catholics in Northeastern Illinois, and administrates the nation’s largest private school system.
The Archdiocese took an innovative approach to restructuring their Catechist Management program. They started by speaking with more than 700 individuals to help draft the future direction.
Challenge
They discovered their programs weren't as accessible as they needed to be, weren't always aligned with expectations and outcomes, were taught with mixed quality, and were often too expensive.
Solution
Partnering with Catholic Faith Technologies, the archdiocese’s new programs are reflective of requests they received, and the demands of the younger people we want to attract as catechists. They cut initial programs by 50 percent and built a structure of ongoing formation to make formation easier, more accessible and exciting for all age groups.
They also developed a catechist formation and certification program in Polish, as nearly 15,000 students attend and learn their faith through Polish schools.
The Results
The “Answering the Call” program helps catechists and teachers in the Archdiocese to be trained consistently and provides them many options for retreats, online and live classes, and ongoing formation.
Hundreds of Polish speaking catechists who are fully certified and teach the faith in the same way as parish-based English and Spanish programs.