Skip to main content

Institute for Pastoral Initiatives News

To Love and Serve Others

They showed off their smiles and certificates of completion from the University of Dayton’s Institute for Pastoral Initiatives (IPI).

IPI and Dayton parishes have partnered to create a new Hispanic catechetical program within the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to train catechists over eight weeks with lessons on the Catholic faith, the sacraments, liturgy, Mary, the process of initiating the faith of adults and a variety of other topics.

Fr. Satish Joseph, pastor of St. Anthony’s, Holy Angels, St. Helen’s, St. Mary’s and Immaculate Conception parishes in Dayton under the new Beacons of Light initiative established by the archdiocese, says the program will be valuable to the entire Hispanic community.

“This partnership will help the parishes to train and develop catechists who will give religious education to youth and adults,” Fr. Joseph said. The Hispanic Population is the fastest growing segment in the Catholic Church and it is important to cater to the faith-life of the people.”

As Fr. Joseph noted during initial partnership talks, IPI has the resources and the parishes have the people. This new program is a great opportunity to bring the two together and do something meaningful and life-changing. 

“We hope to deepen the partnership by offering advanced level catechists training and also create opportunities for the youth of the parishes,” Fr. Joseph said.

Liliana Montoya, coordinator of Spanish programs at the Institute, assists in choosing the training topics and the methodology being used, organizes the work of the volunteers and is attentive to the participant’s needs.

“I have been impressed by the receptivity of the people to the training,” Montoya said.

Montoya says the program started at St. Mary’s and Immaculate Conception parishes in Dayton. The next step is to provide these leaders with online training through the Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation, IPI’s global platform that provides hundreds of online classes in Spanish, English and Arabic.

“The community atmosphere that this formation is fostering among the participants has been impressive,” Montoya said. “I see an international Latino community with great leadership skills and a desire to love and serve others.”

For more information about the Hispanic catechetical program, contact Liliana Montoya, lmontoya1@udayton.edu. To learn more about other programs supported by the Institute, visit our website.

Previous Post

A historic day for Malawi

The Institute for Pastoral Initiatives facilitates a milestone for Malawi through online faith formation classes.
Read More
Next Post

A Faith Journey from Mexico

The university connects with people all over the world, and there's proof it is making a difference in their lives.
Read More