Dr. Jaime Padro is a passionate man of faith. He travels the world to encourage a paradigm shift in the way Catholics think about their role as catechists in everyday life. The Miami-based Catholic leadership consultant and trainer was in Corpus Christi recently to address faith educators from throughout the Diocese.
“God is telling us today when we catechize, Jesus is speaking through us,” he said. “We need to get to the point in our churches across America where we have a catechist in every ministry at every parish. It’s up to you, now. You have this responsibility.”
Padro went on to theorize most Catholics shy away from boldly sharing details about their faith because they don’t feel knowledgeable enough about the Catechism. However, he implored the over 100 catechists from various parishes across the Diocese to combine their supernatural faith with their training and become courageous leaders.
“There needs to be a fresh and fruitful new way of catechizing,” he said. “catechesis is about our intimacy with Jesus, not about how much book knowledge we have or how much information we can memorize. It’s about having conviction in your beliefs.”
He noted the foundation for catechesis in both young people and adults is Christian spirituality and its three pillars: mysticism, reflection and action.
“We need to give people some autonomy; give them space to learn and give them the feeling they can come up with great ideas,” he said. “Assign a group project and ask them to answer an open-ended question. You will probably get some great insights once you allow them to think for themselves.”
Padro added Vatican II states in order to prepare for mature Catholics in the 21st century; we need to have knowledge in the social sciences.
“The beauty of it is Jesus does most of the work. We can’t forget our main mission as a Church is to save souls. We’re here to not only evangelize, but we need to be making disciples in the process. This means we are out there actively looking for those new disciples. Gather your parish leaders together and decide how you will conquer this task,” he said.
During his visit to Corpus Christi, Pardo gave one presentation in the morning for English-speaking attendees and an afternoon session for Spanish-speaking Catechists. The training was hosted by Holy Family Parish in Corpus Christi and the Offices of Multicultural & Social Ministry; Youth & Young Adults Ministry; and Family Life Ministry.