Teaching the Catholic faith isn’t just the responsibility of priests. Lay persons play an important role, too. It was in that spirit that the Diocese of Brooklyn marked Catechetical Sunday on Sept. 18 with priests blessing their catechists at Mass to start off a new year of religious education programs.
While greeting public school students Sunday, Sept. 18, at Our Lady of Perpetual Hope Parish in Ozone Park, Bishop Robert Brennan appreciated that some of them might not yet know him.
This year the Church celebrates Catechetical Sunday on September 16, 2018. The 2018 theme from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is “Enlisting Witnesses for Jesus Christ.”
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
To announce Catechetical Sunday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states, “This year, the Church will celebrate Catechetical Sunday on Sept. 17, 2017. This year’s theme will be ‘Living as Missionary Disciples.’ Those whom the community has designated to serve as catechists will be called forth to be commissioned for their ministry.
This Sunday we will celebrate Catechetical Sunday. This year’s theme is “Prayer, the Faith Prayed.” Catechetical Sunday is always celebrated at the beginning of the academic year because this is when our programs of catechesis begin in earnest.
Safeguarding the Dignity of Every Human Person is the theme for the annual Catechetical Sunday, which will be celebrated on Sunday, Sept. 20. This Catechetical Sunday will mark the beginning of a week of great joy and celebration as we welcome our Holy Father, Pope Francis, to the U.S. During these next few days of preparation for his visit, it would be good to reflect on the goals of our 2015-2018 diocesan springboard plan for evangelization and renewal, fittingly named The Joy of Encountering Christ: The Families Hope, in place since Holy Family Sunday of 2014.
