MISSION Magazine Spring 2024

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From the Dioceses:
‘Here I am,’ I said; ‘send me!’
By Maureen Crowley Heil*
When a white van pulled into the
courtyard of Chitula Parish in the
Archdiocese of Lilongwe, Malawi at
the beginning of December 2023, the
reception was so joyful, so raucous,
that you could be forgiven for
thinking that Pope Francis himself
was about to step out!
Women in colorful, matching
outfits danced, sang, and chanted as
the door swung open to reveal the
visitors: a group of regular American
Catholics representing The Pontifical
Mission Societies in the United States
©2023 TPMS-US National Office
Photo by Margaret Murray
(TPMS USA). Instead of deflating the
crowd by our ordinariness, they got
louder!
As we left the van, the crowd
surged and surrounded us, leading
us to a small building constructed
of locally made and fired bricks. It
was their church – built years ago
when they were still an outstation of
another parish. They had long ago
outgrown it but were so proud to
show it to us.
Now a full-fledged parish
dedicated to Saint Bernadette, they
have three outstations of their own.
This means that the faith has been
spread far beyond their original
borders. Small Christian communities
exist in places that are many miles
from the parish proper. Members of
these communities meet regularly to
pray, study Scripture, and learn more
about the tenets of Catholicism. As a
parish grows, it will develop many of
these so-called outstations.
The lynchpin of this whole scenario
is the catechist.
This is my twenty-fifth year
of service to TPMS; I have been
privileged to witness the growth
of the young mission Church on
every populated continent. In all my
travels, it is the catechist whom I have
come to admire most.
The ministry of a catechist in the
missions is quite different from that
of one in our Western society. We
may think of this position as someone
who volunteers a Sunday morning or
a weekday afternoon to teach faith
formation to children for an hour
or so. In the missions, a catechist’s
ministry is an all-encompassing, fulltime
commitment.
In Malawi, to become a catechist,
one goes to live at a training center
with their family for a couple of
years. They are given a small plot
of land to farm to feed themselves.
The catechist-to-be attends theology
and teaching classes. Their children
go to school, and their spouses
(not all catechists are men!) devote
themselves to a different type of
education. They learn economics,
basic hygiene principles, farming
techniques, land conservation skills,
and more. This is so that once the
catechist is commissioned, the spouse
can also be active in the community,
helping people to better manage
their households, and farms, and
participate more fully in the life of the
Church.
This program is just one of many
supported by The Pontifical Mission
Societies.
After graduation, the catechist is
responsible for the faith formation of
everyone at their assigned outstation
– children and adults alike. They
prepare people for sacraments, run
Liturgy of the Word services, and
help to bury the dead in the absence
of a priest. Some outstations are so
remote that they may see a priest four
or five times a year at most. In these
cases, it is the catechist who is the
glue that does whatever is necessary
to hold the faith community together.
One catechist I met, while on a
mission trip to Zambia some years
ago, walked thirteen miles each
way to the outstation she served – a