Latin American countries include many of the largest Catholic populations in the world, yet Constitutions and public life are among the most secular anywhere.
Large populations and vast territorial expanse of the typical parish (some with as many as 20-30 chapels in remote villages).
Several different languages and dialects are spoken by the indigenous people.
Language barriers make personal ministry and Catechesis by the limited number of missionary priests exceedingly difficult.

Catholic World Mission’s lay missionaries or “Evangelizadores” are fully trained Catholic catechists paid to work full time for the Church under the direction of their parish priest and local bishop.
These lay people are not outsiders, but native to the parishes in which they work. They are fluent in the local dialect, making their Catholic witness tremendously powerful to their neighbors.
27 different dialects are spoken among our evangelizers and Catechists.
Education and preparation of Catechists include five intensive weeks of study and prayer, continuing with week-long quarterly workshops.

Other projects in this area:

Mano Amiga School

Track Progress

Other Projects

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Evangelizadores de Tiempo Completo Program

Funding Priorities

	$125	Complete set of training books and materials
	$115	Sponsor a missionary for a week
	$25	Sponsor a missionary for a day

Amount Currently Raised: $6,224

Current Project

Providing sponsorship for education and materials for Catechists.

Project Goal

or call 800-961-8153 to make a donation

ETC's Impact in Helping to Cultivate Religious Vocations

	2004	2005	2006	2007
Diocesan Seminary	43	49	91	94
Religious Seminary	18	38	15	18
Religious Life (male and female)	16	36	31	25
Total of this period:	77	123	137	137

The Evangelizadores become the “foot soldiers” in our battle against poverty of body, mind, and spirit directly coordinating other Catholic World Mission projects in the areas in which they live, work, and know very well.”

– Alejandro Pinelo, Founder of ETC

Progress

Today this project has grown to include over 700 “Evangelizadores” or ETCs working in 60 dioceses.

ETCs have trained and managed over 35,250 part-time catechists, reaching over 2,100,000 people with their leadership.

Our five-year goal is to grow annually by 7% in the number of total ETCs:

By 2009 — Grow to 797

By 2010 — Grow to 852

By 2011 — Grow to 912

History of Evangelizadores de Tiempo Completo

In 1988, the ETC program was presented to and approved by the Mexican Episcopal Conference.

In 1989, ETC prepared their first missionaries with an introductory course, and launched its pilot program.

Initially the work was designed for rural areas where priests could not carry out all of their catechetical programs because of the vast area they serve.