STEUBENVILLE, OHIO—One of the biggest challenges facing the Church in the United States is how to bring a new evangelization to an increasingly secularized, fragmented culture. Parish mergers, shrinking budgets, and a shortage of priests and catechists to instruct the laity compound the challenge.

Against this backdrop, Franciscan University of Steubenville announces the launching of the Franciscan University Institute of Catechetics.

“The institute’s overriding desire is to reach into parishes, families, and communities to support the strengthening of Catholic culture and the handing on of the treasure of faith, in every possible place and situation,” said Dr. Petroc Willey, director of the Institute of Catechetics.

Through conferences, new catechetical resources, and especially online courses, the Catechetical Institute seeks “to serve all those who form others in the faith” said Willey. This includes priests, parish catechists of all types, Catholic school teachers, and parents—the primary educators of their children.

The cornerstone of the institute’s work is a vast online library of one-hour workshops that will eventually total more than 650 videos.

The workshops will be available in many certification tracks:

• Priestly Catechetical Renewal,
• Ministry of Parenting,
• Catechist,
• Parish Catechetical Leader,
• Culture of Life,
• Catholic Schools,
• Youth Ministry,
• Campus Ministry,
• Pastoral Accompaniment,
• First Proclamation,
• Music Ministry,
• and more.

The videos are presented by faculty teaching in Franciscan University’s renowned Catechetics Program and incorporate art, innovative media, music, and other creative elements that also communicate the faith.

All presentations are rooted in Sacred Scripture and are loyal to the magisterium and guided by the Catholic Church’s most foundational documents on catechesis and evangelization.

In 10-15 minute segments filmed in front of a live audience, the workshops touch upon almost every aspect of catechesis, ranging from catechetical theory and Christology to basic evangelization skills, public speaking, and vocational discernment.

Unique to existing online formation programs, the Catechetical Institute doesn’t replace diocesan services with distant experts. Rather, it works with dioceses to establish local, on-the-ground mentoring programs that connect participants to veteran catechists living and working in their dioceses. These mentors provide feedback and personal encouragement to participants.

“We do not want the lack of resources in any particular place ever to be an obstacle to these rich resources,” said Willey. For partner dioceses, a token yearly subscription paid by the parish or other parochial institution grants full access to the institute’s video library. Individuals may also take any workshop for enrichment for a nominal monthly fee.

Full details on the program are available at Catechetics.com, the official website of the Catechetical Institute. There, you will also find information on the institute’s annual St. John Bosco Conference in July and the October 13-15 conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Catholic Catechism.

For additional information, contact William Keimig, assistant director of the Catechetical Institute at [email protected] or 740-283-6754.