Pittsburgh, Pa., May 24, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Diocese of Pittsburgh will honor 2,100 volunteer religious educators at a convocation Thursday at the David Lawrence Convention Center. They complete a two-year certification program, based on The Catechism of the Catholic Church. About 6,000 volunteers teach 53,000 students in grades K-12 throughout the diocese.
Diane Kirk, diocesan director for religious education, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that if there weren’t volunteer catechists, spreading the faith would be very difficult.
About 75 percent of all dioceses have an adequate training program for catechists, but Pittsburgh is one of the best, Fr. Daniel Kutys, deputy secretary for catechetics at the U.S. bishops' conference, told the newspaper.
He said the U.S. bishops see Bishop Wuerl “as one of the real leaders of catechesis in this country.”