The new guide­lines for Lay Eccle­sial Min­istry Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion will include a process for Initial/​Catechist Lev­el cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. This process will be very sim­i­lar to the cur­rent Advanced Cat­e­chist Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process. The only changes will be a more stream­lined online appli­ca­tion process once for­ma­tion is com­plete, and the old ​“intern­ship” process is being replaced by a more flex­i­ble require­ment for 5 hours of method­ol­o­gy or min­istry spe­cif­ic train­ing. Also, peo­ple in any min­istry can be cer­ti­fied in this lev­el, not just those who are catechists.

If you are look­ing to have your cat­e­chists cer­ti­fied and are just start­ing the process, we rec­om­mend hav­ing them reg­is­ter for the four cours­es list­ed above and work­ing on those, as well as mak­ing plans to attend an Encounter retreat. Both of these require­ments will still be part of the new require­ments com­ing in sum­mer 2025. Make sure the cat­e­chist keeps all cer­tifi­cates of completion.

There are equiv­a­len­cy options through Cat­e­ch­esis of the Good Shep­herd Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, Fran­cis­can Uni­ver­si­ty Cat­e­chet­i­cal Insti­tute, or Cat­e­chist For­ma­tion in Span­ish offered at Holy Redeemer parish. Con­tact the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion office for more infor­ma­tion at certification@​shms.​edu

Fol­low the process described above. We would also rec­om­mend send­ing the doc­u­ments dig­i­tal­ly instead of mail, and con­tact­ing our office as soon as pos­si­ble at certification@​shms.​edu

CBSM is a won­der­ful way to learn the scrip­ture, which is one com­po­nent of the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process, but not the only com­po­nent. As such, par­tic­i­pa­tion in CBSM would only sat­is­fy those com­po­nents of the Pro­fes­sion of Faith class that per­tain to scrip­ture. Com­plet­ing CBSM is not an equiv­a­lent for all 4 On Fire for the Faith cours­es on Equip.

Yes, if you have tak­en col­lege lev­el the­ol­o­gy class­es at Sacred Heart Major Sem­i­nary or anoth­er accred­it­ed Catholic col­lege, uni­ver­si­ty or sem­i­nary, it is very like­ly that would be a full equiv­a­lent for some or all of the four cours­es of On Fire for the Faith on Equip. Please con­tact our office at certification@​shms.​edu to deter­mine your next steps

It has always been the pol­i­cy of the Arch­dio­cese that cat­e­chists must retain the records of their own for­ma­tion. If a cat­e­chist has records of for­ma­tion com­plet­ed at any time pre­vi­ous­ly, those records can be sent to us at certification@​shms.​edu for review and we can grant equiv­a­len­cies in the cur­rent process. If the cat­e­chist has not kept their own records, it is not like­ly that our office has any record of their atten­dance at any work­shops or class­es in the past, espe­cial­ly if this was before 2009.

Yes, if you are a parish leader who has a cat­e­chist who has com­plet­ed some of the 4 cours­es for On Fire for the Faith on Equip, the cat­e­chist them­selves can con­tact us to see how many class­es they have com­plet­ed or how far along they are. It should be the cat­e­chist them­selves who con­tacts us, as their records are their respon­si­bil­i­ty. They can email us at certification@​shms.​edu

The new cer­ti­fi­ca­tion web­site com­ing in sum­mer 2025 will have a run­ning list of upcom­ing Encounter Retreats or approved equiv­a­lents. This site is not avail­able yet