Alejandro Pinelo to the right of His Excellency Victor Hugo Palma, bishop of Escuintla (Guatemala), with some of the Full Time Lay Missionaries from that country.

Escuintla (Guatemala), June 18, 2005.  Who are the Full-Time Lay Missionaries?  They are pastoral workers serving parishes and dioceses whose priests are stretched too thin. The full-time lay missionaries dedicate themselves to teaching the faith to people -- typically very poor people -- who otherwise would have no way to learn and grow in their Catholic faith.

Recently, Bishop Victor Hugo Palma Paul of Escuintla, Guatemala, and secretary of his country´s episcopal conference, sent a letter to Fr. Alvaro Corcuera, L.C., General Director of the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement.

Bishop Palma thanked Fr. Corcuera "for the presence of the Full Time Lay Missionaries in Escuintla," where a dozen full-time missionaries are supported fully by Legionary and Regnum Christi fundraising efforts in order to serve "a million and a half inhabitants with only 21 priests from nine countries....

"I have found in the effective preparation, the human and doctrinal solidity, and above all the spirituality of the full-time catechists a sound means for the laity to fulfill the mission proper to them," Bishop Palma wrote.

The lay missionaries work under the authority of the local parish priest and bishop.  Both their initial and ongoing training are provided by the Legion of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement.  The missionaries are sustained financially by the generosity of committed lay people.  More and more lay people are deciding to support this form of advancing the New Evangelization as called for by the Holy Father by donating funds to sustain one or more lay missionaries every year.