(OSV News) — The Diocese of Salt Lake City is initiating a new lay ministry role of “Worthy and Suitable Catechists” who can administer minor rites to those joining or completing their initiation into the Catholic Church.
“We understand we’re the first diocese in the United States to do this,” John Valdez, OCIA coordinator at St. James the Just Parish in Ogden, Utah, told OSV News. “I’m hoping it takes off across the nation — and across the world.”
Valdez is one of 31 Worthy and Suitable Catechists recently commissioned by Bishop Oscar A. Solis of Salt Lake City to impart some of the minor rites of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, also known as OCIA. Most of these 31 catechists already have extensive experience as certified catechists and lay ecclesial ministers or lay church leaders.
“Through the witness of their lives, the teaching of the faith, and their pastoral accompaniment of those God is growing through the Catholic faith, they will help form disciples and prepare catechumens and Catholics to receive the sacraments of initiation,” Bishop Solis said of the catechists at their commissioning Sept. 19 during the 2026 Utah Catholic Conference in Draper, Utah.
The 31 catechists currently represent 25 parishes within the Diocese of Salt Lake City, which ministers to the entire state of Utah. The diocese serves nearly 200,000 Catholics with 48 churches, 20 missions, 10 smaller chapels and stations, three Newman Centers, a cathedral and 16 Catholic schools.
A ‘win-win for the parishes’
In particular, these 31 catechists can administer one of nine special blessings and one of 11 minor exorcisms, Lorena Needham, director of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of Salt Lake City, confirmed to OSV News. The diocese references OCIA and “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy approved in 1963 by the Second Vatican Council, for the authority to appoint catechists.
Needham defined a Worthy and Suitable Catechist as “an authority that the bishop can give to those who are initiation catechists under the OCIA.”
These catechists empower parishes to be more thorough in serving OCIA inquirers and catechumens, she said. While priests and deacons can also administer these minor rites, the diocese is struggling with a shortage of priests and deacons.
“It’s a win-win for the parishes, since really Christian initiation is to be a parish endeavor, including everyone on the team,” Needham said. “And when the team members can’t be here, like the pastor and the deacon, then we all reach out to what we are authorized to do and help people along the journey.”
Responding to a need
Needham spoke about the importance of the blessings and minor exorcisms that the catechists can administer. A minor exorcism is a prayer “used to break the influence of evil and sin in a person’s life, whether as a catechumen preparing for Baptism or as one of the Baptized faithful striving to overcome the influence of evil and sin in his or her life,” according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“There are doubts and setbacks along the way, and these blessings and minor exorcisms are designed to help people over those humps,” Needham said of people’s faith journey. The blessings and minor exorcisms are also “designed to help open people to the process of being made ready for initiation.”
While the number of people seeking baptism has remained steady in the diocese, Needham said they are seeing a surge in people who want to complete their initiation or get their marriages blessed.
“(The catechists are) actually pretty excited about being able now to have a tool to help … the catechumens along the journey,” Needham said. “I’m frankly excited too because there’s just so much help that people need on these journeys of faith, for the unbaptized in particular.”
Meeting the catechists
Two of the newly commissioned catechists, Valdez and Teranie Pelch, director of adult faith formation at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Sandy, Utah, told OSV News they have already administered blessings in their new role.
“We are able to use the blessings of the ritual text and administer those to our catechumens,” Pelch said. “There’s over 40 rites in the OCIA, so this really gives us the ability, as leaders, to help our people and bless them on their journey and provide a richer experience for them.”
Pelch is a convert who entered the Church in 2004 and has remained involved in initiation ministry ever since, calling it “my heart and my soul and my joy in life.”
Valdez said that he has been involved in initiation ministry since the ’90s. He said OCIA coordinators met with Needham last year to discuss how to include all of the rites called for in the initiation process.
“We have been deputed to impart these blessings and minor exorcisms to help and strengthen and facilitate God’s blessings to these people who are beginning their journey not only into the Catholic Church,” he said, “but, more importantly, where are they in relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A note of encouragement to other dioceses
Those involved in this new role told OSV News that they hoped other dioceses would consider something similar.
Pelch encouraged other dioceses to “look at the ritual text and see those notations where a catechist or catechetical leader can aid the clergy in providing more opportunities to receive these blessings and follow the ritual text more completely.”
“In our diocese, as a mission diocese — a very rural diocese because it covers the whole state of Utah — it’s very important to empower the laity in the mission of serving in the church,” she said at another point.
Needham encouraged dioceses to use the gifts of their laity.
“I would encourage all missionary dioceses to consider lay professional development, theological development, in order to fulfill the demands of the body of Christ,” Needham said. “If we’re really going to be ‘Church’ with a capital ‘C,’ then we need to use everyone’s talents.”
“I’m very glad that people stepped up to do this,” she added, “and I’m really excited to see how it turns out a year from now.”
Katie Yoder is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Maryland.
