Each parish in our diocese is responsible for sharing YEARLY Safe Environment lessons to every age group in grade school. This is a yearly requirement of YOUR CURRICULUM. Please be sure to follow our diocesan requirements. More information can always be found in our policies and procedures portal:

The holiday season provides us with an excellent opportunity to reach out to those who may only join us for Christmas and to encourage them into a deeper relationship with our faith. There are a significant number of digital and printable resources that your parish can use during the season to invite those who have been distant from your parish to reestablish a connection. Click on the link below to view and download those resources your parish could use!

Join us for a day of retreat as we unpack what this spirit of hope means for our pilgrimage through Advent and the Jubilee celebration in 2025! We are blessed to welcome Father Aaron Kelly, Parochial Vicar at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Rochester and judge on the diocesan tribunal, as our retreat leader. The day will include two engaging talks, Mass, an opportunity for the Sacrament of Confession, personal prayer time, and lunch. This retreat is open to all in Pastoral and Catechetical Ministry! Following the retreat, there will be an Advent social gathering. Click the image below for more information and to register for the retreat!

Send an invitation to sign-up under your institutional subscription:

You can now invite other individuals to sign-up under your institutional subscription for FREE!.

Start by going to your institution's home page. Keep in mind that you must be a leader for your institution, so if you haven't created an account yet, do that first. When we receive your account confirmation, we will designate you as a leader on the back of the diocesan home page. Then, visit your parish home page.

Simply choose the appropriate category (Institutional Leader, Learner, or Mentor) and copy & paste the link in an email to the individual you want to invite. Franciscan at Home will provide a unique link to your parish account. Upon visiting the link, he/she will be prompted to either log in to an existing account or create a new account. Once that step is completed, the individual will then automatically be signed up in the correct category under your institution!

If you have any questions, contact us at ci@franciscan.edu or contact Leslie Barkin in the Office of E and C. (ext. 1244 or Leslie.Barkin@dor.org)

Here is a tutorial on sending a workshop link and tracking progress!

Please note that invoices for all parishes who requested a subscription to Franciscan at Home went out last week via the finance office. Remember that this is a one time fee, per year, of $400. Thank you!

Join Don Smith for the second Catechist formation of the programming year for a look at the theological virtue of hope as we prepare to the Jubliee in 2025. We will explore what it truly means to be hopeful. Other topics that we will touch upon are Faith and Love as well as Jubilee and pilgrimage.

2:00 PM Session: Please click on the orange welcome message below to REGISTER

7:00 PM Session: Please click on the orange welcome message below to REGISTER

Project Based Learning is a great way for youth and families to learn and engage their imaginations. Assign a topic such as The Seven Sacraments, Saints or Prayers and invite participants to make a "book page" with information and visuals about their assigned topic. Then head to Book Creator to put everything together. There is an option to record, to add images, video, text and drawings, so you could even invite families to contribute directly to a book in your library, that they could then view, interactively, or download or print! Book Creator is a fun tool and a great way to connect with families and youth in a new and engaging way!

The Hands of Christ is a recognition program, sponsored by the Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, in which the Most Reverend Bishop Salvatore R. Matano affirms high school seniors of our parishes who have been the “Hands of Christ” in their churches, homes, schools and communities. Seniors will be recognized at one of several diocesan recognition ceremonies in 2025. Ceremony details will be shared at a later date.

• More information about the nomination process can be found below.
  
• Helpful hints for conducting the nomination process can be also found below.
• A paper nomination form (to assist in the parish nomination process) can be used and found below.

• Approved nominations must be submitted online by clicking the button below.
• The deadline to submit approved nominations is December 1, 2024.
• Approved nominations submitted after the deadline will be accessed a late fee.

Pleae be aware that because of how the online nomination form is setup in RegFox, families of the nominees are also receiving a confirmation email when a nomination is submitted!

On the Veteran's Day weekend, 19 high school young people from 14 different parishes in the Diocese of Rochester came together at Camp Stella Maris in Livonia for our 2024 Youth LEAD (Leadership Evangelization And Discipleship) Retreat weekend. These young people encountered Jesus in one another, learned what it means to be a servant leader, and discovered how God is calling each of them to give of themselves in service to him. Many thanks to the parishes who supported these young people's participation in this enriching opportunity. A special thanks goes to all the ministry leaders who served on our leadership team for their willingness to give our their time for our young people.

With the support of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM), the New York State Community of Catholic Youth Ministry is a platform for those involved in youth ministry within New York State to collaborate with/support one another and engage in the work of NFCYM. NFCYM is recognized as the largest youth ministry organization in the United States and is the foundation for synodal dialogue about the needs and concerns of those who minister to youth. ALL THOSE WHO MINISTER TO/WITH YOUTH IN THE DIOCESE OF ROCHESTER ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO JOIN THE COMMUNITY'S FACEBOOK GROUP BELOW. For more information, email Mark here.

Connect with us!

The National Catholic Committee on Scouting (NCCS) and the National Catholic Committee for Girl Scouts and Camp Fire (NCCGSCF) provide several opportunities to recognize adult scouting leaders for their outstanding contributions to helping Scouts grow in their Catholic faith. Why not give the gift of nominating an adult for one of these recognitions this Christmas. To learn more about these recognitions and to nominate someone, click the button below! NOTE: Nominations will be accepted after the deadline listed on the website.

Don looks at the season of Advent.

Please share your Confirmation retreat information with us! You can email the date, time, cost, and any other information to Don at donald.smith@dor.org. I will only share the information with Confirmation Coordinators who are looking for retreats. All requests for an alternate retreat to the parish offering should come from you, not parents.

Notre Dame Retreat House is offering a Confirmation retreat on January 12 from 10am-5pm. You can get details and register by emailing Jodie at jscordo@notredamereterat.org.

The Diocese will have a make-up retreat limited to 7 youth per parish (or a conversation with Don). Each parish is asked to send an adult to be with their candidates during the retreat. The retreat will be at Camp Stella Maris on Saturday, February 22 from 10am to 4pm. Parishes (not individual families) need to email Don to register a candidate(s) for this retreat.

There will be a mandatory meeting for Confirmation Coordinators who celebrate at the Cathedral on Tuesday, January 7 at 10am at Sacred Heart Cathedral. We will review the celebrations and expectations for the upcoming celebrations.

As of the First Sunday in Advent, the National Statutes for the Christian Initiation of Adults are the guiding norm for Adult Initiation. The OCIA text and rites may be used going forward and will be required as of Ash Wednesday 2025.

Below, you will find the Statutes and an updated list of the Rites showing who receives them and when. Of particular note, when individuals go through the Rite of Entrance into the Catechumenate, they should be recorded in the register. If your parish does not have a Register of Catechumens, you can find them through liturgical publishers.

OCIA Numbers/Registrations
Please provide us with your registration information for the Rite of Election and Calling to Continuing Conversion. As in years past, we are gathering names and information for the Rites as well as delegation letters for the Easter Vigil. Please use the form at https://forms.gle/dsLBYmhsADoSca9a7 to register your parish and candidates/catechumens.

It has been 10 years since the Policies for the Administration of the Sacraments were promulgated by Bishop Matano. Over the next few months, we will look at key highlights from the policies that can help shape our ministries.

from the Key Policy Statements

• All the faithful obtain their proper parish by means of their domicile or quasi domicile. All laity should be urged to attend their proper parish; however, with good reason they may transfer from their proper parish to another parish of their choice.

• Because the parish unit is so important, the ordinary place for the celebration of Baptism is in one's proper parish church.

• Ultimately, the universal Church is locally evident and personally experienced in and through the parish. For every Catholic, participation in parish life is both a right and a duty.

• Ideally, participation in parish life includes a variety of actions – registration as members, contribution of time, talent and financial support of parish activities, apostolic service to the needy in the parish and its larger communities, cooperation in the religious education of all family members, regular sharing in the sacramental life and worship of the proper parish community.

• Membership in a parish is often a key factor in problems attending to the administration of the Sacraments. Much concern is expressed about the quality of membership. With reference to “practicing Catholic,” these ideal expectations cannot solely be used as the maximal criteria as a basis for celebrating or delaying Sacraments. Pastoral leadership will need to have a Christlike understanding for people who do not always or even regularly meet these ideals, and need assistance / encouragement to strive for them.

• Similar to all other religious education programs, sacramental preparation programs of Baptism, First Penance, First Communion, and Confirmation are parish-based and should make use of textbooks that are listed in the USCCB Conformity Listing of Catechetical Texts and Series as being in keeping with the teachings contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Let's Explore that...

The parish is where Sacramental preparation and reception is the norm. While Catholic Schools play an important part in the education of young people, the primary place for Sacramental life is the parish. Similarly, every Catholic should be encouraged to be a part of parish life, so they can be supported (and support others) in their faith.

Being a part of the parish life is an invitation that may need to be extended regularly. The determination for preparation and reception of the Sacrament should include that invitation, accompanied by the "Christlike understanding for people who do not always or even regularly meet these ideals, and need assistance / encouragement to strive for them" that the bishop references.

Recently, I watched a webinar with Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak on Franciscan at Home, entitled A More Peaceful Family by Christmas: A Catholic Parent's Guide to Advent. While the webinar started with the basics of Advent, it soon went much deeper into thinking about the ministry we do at this time of year, and the expectations and stress our parish families experience. The webinar is geared toward parents, though, as ministry leaders, it can absolutely help us understand the domestic church a little better. How can we help families in our parish create homes that are an "outpost of grace in a hurting world"?

How might we support families and put the trust in them to transform their homes into little ways of holiness? Statistics show that that is the number one factor in keeping our children Catholic. Our ministries need to support families and give them the space to see God's grace at work. It does not involve more programs and steps on our part but it does involve us letting go of our old ways and looking at the how we can build up the families in our parish through 12 steps!

We wish Sean Costello, of All Saints Parish in Corning, the best of luck as he moves onto a new opportunity. We also welcome Theresa May, in her new role as a Confirmation and Youth Minister at St. Patrick's in Victor!

Contact for information on all newsletters, evangelization, training, consultation

Mark Capellazzi, Project Coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry x1375

Contact for youth ministry/young adult or Catholic scouting consultation/website questions, Certification process

Don Smith, Coordinator of Sacramental Catechesis and Family Life x1243

Contact for Sacramental information and Fully Engaged

Website: oec.dor.org
Location: 1150 Buffalo Road, Rochester, NY, USA
Phone: 585-328-3228