Catechists are volunteers who share their faith with the children of our parish. All classes are held in the parish center. The ideal group size is 10-12 children. Therefore
many catechists are needed. Please consider sharing
your faith with a small group of children.
Two catechist meetings are offered to discuss the content of upcoming lessons and to keep the catechists apprised of what’s new in the parish. The meetings begin in the O’Connell Room with prayer, general remarks and information. Class lists and catechist guides are given out at the first meeting in September. Catechists are asked to call the parents of the children in their group to inform them of the start date, classroom number and directions, if needed. The Director and Faith Formation Staff provide calendars, lesson plans, and student handouts. All do their best to support catechists in their ministry.
We offer a catechist meeting just for new catechists in September before the classes begin. At this meeting, we give the new catechists a little more instruction so that they are well prepared when first starting out.
We invite all catechists to an end of the year evaluation meeting. This meeting gives us the opportunity to see what worked well, what should be let go of and what needed to be changed. We value your feedback and use your comments in panning for the upcoming year.
VIRTUS The office of Child Protection in the Diocese of Rockville Centre requires all adults who volunteer to work with children to undergo a background check and participate in a VIRTUS training session.
VIRTUS sessions will be given at St. Joseph’s in the Fall. Please call the office to confirm the date. If you have not yet participated in a VIRTUS session, please sign up online at
www.virtus.org and click on the “registration” button and then scroll down to “Rockville Centre” diocese and follow from there.