Cardinal Cobo puts the focus on adult catechumenate and laity formation in Madrid

The Archbishop of Madrid (Spain), Cardinal José Cobo, will focus on the adult catechumenate and the formation of the laity, in addition to addressing a parish and territorial restructuring in the coming months.

The purple outlined in his Pastoral letter on the occasion of the Pastoral Course 2025-2026the main lines of action inspired by considering that “everything we prepare and do has Christ as a source and goal.”

Putting a special emphasis on the importance of baptism as a source of community identity and stating that “we are all protagonists and responsible in this church that exists to evangelize,” the cardinal first proposes “implanting the catechumenate of adults.”

“Although the figures are not as high as we would like, we cannot be oblivious to the reality of the increasingly high number that baptism is already adults. To this is added the experience of those who return to faith after years of total departure,” explains Mons. Cobo.

In this area, purple expresses its desire to achieve the harmonious integration of the first evangelization initiatives with “Christian initiation processes that gestate Christians who live enjoying all the dimensions of faith.”

It also calls “better articulate the different realities and ecclesial methods that the spirit raises with the parishes and the diocesan church to add and not subtract.”

For this, this course will be launched eight pilot centers to welcome those who wish to join the Christian life in a process that, he says, will be “complex” and that will require that the usual procedures with the new catechumenate centers coexist.

Cultivate the desire to meet Christ

The laity formation constitutes the second axis of the pastoral action proposed by the Archbishop of Madrid, with the objective of “offering a comprehensive, flexible formation space that responds to the needs of all.”

Thus, it is intended to offer specific content for each vocation and trunk content necessary for all, articulated on three levels. The first, more “experiential, face -to -face and initiatory, focused on the core of the Christian faith.” Another, constituted by systematic content on sacred writing, theology, liturgy, spirituality, moral and social doctrine of the Church. Third, it will seek specific training with “practical tools, methods and procedures” appropriate to pastoral action in which lay people are involved.

This program will be carried out experimentally during this period, to be implemented in the Pastoral Course 2026-2027, with a view to “cultivate each Christian in desire to know Acrist and deepen the faith, with humility to learn, discern and live as a member of the Church in each specific situation.”

Priests, youth and vocational pastoral

The proposal of Cardinal Cobo for this course includes the celebration of a presbyteral assembly in February under the motto “What shepherds does Madrid need today?”, Which is expected as a result of the elaboration of a “framework in which each community and each orderly minister can feel reflected and enable to undertake new paths and strengthen the priestly identity, spirituality and pastoral charity.”

As for the youth and vocational pastoral, “special moments” dedicated to the vocation to the ordered ministry, which will have the impulse of the celebration of a beatification ceremony of the seminarist martyrs of the ecclesiastical province of Madrid, which includes the suffragan dioceses of Getafe and Alcalá de Henares will be promoted.

Reactivate synodal groups

Cardinal José Cobo also sets as one of the axes of pastoral action to deepen synodality, in the conviction that “laity are co -responsible for evangelization”, especially in environments such as family, culture, politics or economy.

“We must deploy all possible means and initiatives for the laity to fulfill their mission of illuminating and ordering temporal issues according to God,” invokes purple. For this, the reactivation of the synodal groups and revitalize the co -responsibility bodies is expected.

On the other hand, and following the planning methodology defined In the synodality synod (“transparency, accountability and evaluation”), Cardinal Cobo calls to review pastoral planning as “an exercise of community discernment.”

“Sinodality is not a theory, if not a way of being of the Church. It is about listening to everyone, opening spaces for sincere dialogue, being challenged by reality and looking for together what the Lord asks us today,” defends the purple.

With this key, the diocesans calls for the review of the parish pastoral advice, organizations for the obligatory constitution after the publication of a Decree last June.

Territorial restructuring

The Pastoral Charter for the 2025-206 course also foresees a territorial restructuring that goes beyond a mere organizational change and is configured as “an opportunity for conversion and spiritual renewal”, which aims to “open paths so that the parishes remain living houses of communion and mission in a Madrid in continuous growth and change”.

Cardinal Cobo concludes the document, among other issues, urging the faithful to make the archdiocese of Madrid “an oasis of hope”: “We go out to the street together, to the neighborhoods, to the places where life hurts, where hope has been lost. We go out to witness the joy of the Gospel. Let’s be a church with open arms. We open our doors to others, without judgments.”