2025 ANNUAL REPORT
Over the past six years, Faith and Family Life Catholic Ministries, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and a public association of the faithful in the Diocese of Orange, has continued to accompany families, parishes, and dioceses as they renew how faith is lived, shared, and handed on. What we are witnessing is not simply programmatic growth, but genuine transformation at each level. Families are reclaiming their role as the heart of faith formation, parish leaders gaining confidence in a clear and unified process, parish communities becoming places where faith and life are intentionally integrated, and dioceses being equipped and reenergized for mission.
The Home is A School of Discipleship
As families open Pathways resources in their homes, faith encounters the real rhythms of everyday life. In the midst of that lived experience, God shows up. Parents and children are discovering that faith is not something added on, but something that shapes who they are and how they live. Parishes that once struggled to engage young families are now filled with parents walking together, sharing life, prayer, and mission. The home has become a school of discipleship where habits of faith and virtue are confidently formed with parents as the catalyst.
Gratitude for Our Partners
We remain deeply grateful to our benefactors, parish partners, and diocesan leaders who believe in this mission and make it possible. Your generosity and trust continue to bear fruit in the lives of families and in the renewal of parish life. This year, Pathways served over 18,000 families, working with 142 parishes across 54 dioceses in the United States and internationally. Our continued growth reflects both the urgency of this moment in the life of the Church and the effectiveness of an integrated, lifelong approach to faith formation.
Transforming Formation Structures
At the heart of our mission to rebuild the Church one family at a time, is the transformation of faith formation structures. We have learned that shifting approaches is difficult without first-hand experience of what the catechumenal process looks and feels like in practice. The Mysterion Formation Institute was created to meet this need by leading small cohorts of diocesan and parish directors through a personal experience of the catechumenal process.
In 2025, five dioceses completed the Mysterion Formation Institute. We are currently accompanying three additional dioceses and are preparing to begin a new Mysterion cohort with the Diocese of Saskatoon, Canada. Most encouragingly, three diocesan participants have begun leading Mysterion within their own dioceses, forming additional leaders and extending the impact of this work well beyond the original cohort. What began as formation is now becoming multiplication.
Multiply: Growing Leaders the Way Jesus Did
This spirit of multiplication has also shaped our broader outreach. Over the past year, we were invited to lead our Mission Workshop for twelve dioceses, with six more already scheduled for 2026. The Mission Workshop is designed to help parishes invite parish teams into the mission of evangelization by presenting a clear and compelling vision of the integrated, lifelong catechumenal process. Rather than offering another program, the workshop helps leaders reimagine how formation, accompaniment, and mission fit together within parish life.
This vision came to life in a particular way at our Pathways Conference in Chicago, where we introduced a new formation process called Multiply. Multiply is a guided series of formation experiences that helps ministry directors identify, invite, and invest in a growing network of mission-aligned leaders. Rooted in the methodology of Jesus, Multiply equips parishes to grow teams intentionally and sustainably, expanding leadership capacity while maintaining clarity of mission. Through this process, parishes are learning how to build accompaniment teams that create networks of support and shared responsibility.
Expanding Our Team and Resources
As these teams take shape, we are seeing renewed participation in the liturgical, communal, and apostolic life of the parish, alongside deeper habits of faith forming within the home. To support this expanding work, we were able to hire a Formation Director this year. This role allows us to more intentionally accompany parish teams as they move beyond a K–8 model of formation toward a truly lifelong process that accompanies families to and beyond the sacraments to an active life of faith.
Alongside this structural work, we continue to expand and deepen our formation resources. This year marked the completion of two major ongoing formation experiences. Sent is an ongoing formation journey for the entire family that invites participants into discipleship and discernment. Families grow in the habits and practices of a disciple and are equipped to take up the mission of evangelization. Devotion invites families into twelve popular monthly devotions while guiding them in the creation of a personalized home devotional prayer book. Devotion helps families weave prayer naturally into the rhythm of daily life. Over time, these practices deepen faith at home while strengthening a family’s connection to the parish.
We also expanded our Claim resources to provide formation towards the sacrament of Baptism for families with 0-10 year olds. In addition to our parent version, we introduced a family-centered version and are preparing a middle school adaptation for release this spring. Claim invites parents to reflect on the gift and responsibility of raising a child in the faith, equips them to participate more fully in the liturgical celebration of Baptism, and inspires families to live out their baptismal call through hands-on activities and meaningful conversation.
Building for the Future
Looking ahead, we have begun working with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to have our resources added to the conformity list, recognizing Pathways as a new and integrated approach to faith formation. This spring, we will complete our first early childhood resource, Build, designed for families between Baptism and Communion. Build focuses on cultivating the soil of human formation through twelve stand-alone sessions centered on parenting skills, community building, and intentional engagement during a particularly formative stage of family life.
Our primary goals for the coming year are to accompany our current partners to grow their parish teams and to continue building relationships with additional dioceses. We also plan to update our sacramental resources to include middle school at-church Sessions, revise the teen component to our Zeal resource, and develop one new offering: Create, a Pre-Cana Marriage formation resource. We also received a generous real estate donation in Texas. We are dreaming up ways it may help us to continue to sustainably grow our mission into the future.
Support Our Mission
Faith and Family Life Catholic Ministries mission remains steadfast: to rebuild the Church one family at a time. We invite you to prayerfully consider partnering with us as this work continues to grow. Your support allows us to accompany families, form leaders, and help parishes reclaim a clear and hope-filled vision for lifelong faith formation. Thank you for your generosity, your collaboration, and your commitment to the life of the Church. Be assured of our prayers for you and your family.
