OUR JOURNEY
Fe y Vida begun training leaders in a national symposium, in 1995. Today it offers a comprehensive Leadership Training System consisting of 30 programs, from foundational formation to training of trainers. Most of the programs are also offered nationwide and could be offered at the local level at dioceses and parishes. They are presented by a Mobile Pastoral Team consisting of trainers at a communitarian level and professional pastoral trainers.
The annual National Leadership Program annually offers five alternative one-week intensive programs in a university setting. As many as 200 young adult pastoral leaders and ministers from nearly 40 dioceses attend annually.
A highpoint of Fe y Vida is La Biblia Católica para Jóvenes [The Catholic Bible for Young People] (BCJ, by its Spanish acronym). This study Bible—the first of its kind in Spanish—is in the hands of over 1.5 million young people and pastoral advisers; it has been translated into Italian and Portuguese, and soon will be published in English.
With the BCJ at its core, Fe y Vida has developed a Biblical Initiative with multiple leadership formation programs and resources; its biblical Facebook page has close to a million followers, between the ages of 13 and 30. These resources are helping young Latinos in the United States and throughout Latin America to read and understand the Word of God, pray with it, apply it to their daily lives, and share it with their peers.
In May 2015, Fe y Vida affiliated with Lewis University in Romeoville, IL and opened an office on its campus. The affiliation with Lewis University is grounded on a common mission and desire to have young people develop their leadership potential as Christians motivated by social justice.
Over 35,000 people have participated in Fe y Vida biblical and pastoral formation programs, and close to 6,000 have been trained as pastoral leaders. New programs are continuously being designed to meet the needs of the Latino young people in the U.S. In addition, workshops, conferences and courses in diocesan and university programs are presented.
Through its alumni, programs, and publications, Instituto Fe y Vida contributes to the pastoral action of the Church in almost all the dioceses in the United Sates. A missionary outreach in Latino America trains trainers in biblical pastoral ministry. Since 2016, it also offers training the trainer programs to support parents in the education of their adolescent children.
In 2018, Fe y Vida published La Biblia Católica para la Fe y la Vida [The Catholic Bible for Faith and Life] (BFyV, by its Spanish acronym) geared to parents, catechists, and pastoral ministers. Its reflections and resources, besides helping them to live the Word of God, assist them in their efforts to pass on their faith to younger generations. This Bible animates various formation programs por parents with an emphasis in their adolescent children.
