THE “GENERAL DIRECTORY FOR CATECHESIS” IN THE CATECHETIC PROJECTS OF THE PARTICULAR CHURCH

Professor Manuel del Campo Guilarte

1. I have been requested to analyse all that refers to the diocesan project for catechesis in the various elements in Part Five of the Directory and that depicts catechistic pastoral care that must be promoted and achieved in the particular Church. To do this, I shall first of all establish the fundamental assets or pillars that, I believe, are addressed at organising this project, hence: basic inspiring principles, the coordinating criteria, the figure of the catechist and catechesis in Christian initiation. I will then present the internal elements, or “architectural components” of the diocesan catechetic project.

2. Let us first of all address, the inspiring principles as the basis and foundation of the entire project. Before addressing the functional rules and guidelines, it is necessary to define the principles and criteria that provide the foundations for objectives and activities and also coherently orientate the whole ensemble.

Now, during this first stage this is not only important, but also difficult to establish, since it is necessary for all those involved in the project to establish, interiorise and adopt those persuasions and basic certainties that will provide the source of inspiration and common reference point for everyone in the entire working process.

3. The project’s second pillar consists in the principle of coordination. It is a question of searching for and achieving unity, both for the various activities and achievements of catechesis and also catechesis’ unity regards to the Diocese’s other pastoral activities (see no. 278).

This criterion for coordination is not based on purely functional reasons, but rather on the principle of unity and communion, corresponding to the very essence of the particular Church (see CD 17).

The Project will also have to establish in particular, the necessary coordination between the main locations and the “seats” in which the faith is passed on and religious instruction is provided, such as parishes, families, Catholic schools, the teaching of the Catholic religion, associations and Apostolic movements.

4. In all these environments there are teachers of the faith, who respecting their specific responsibilities, can and must be aggregated among themselves in the field of principles, objectives and duties (see no. 278). The figure of the catechist, the attention paid to his identity and training, for this very reason represent another of the fundamental pillars that must be taken into account in formulating the catechetic project.

5. The fourth pillar consists in Christian initiation’s priority attention for catechesis as a constitutive characteristic of the diocesan project for catechesis.

The Directory, which invites one to coordinate “the different catechetic processes offered by the Diocese” (no. 274) emphasises however processes addressed at Christian initiation, presenting these as the very horizon for current catechesis. The formulation in the diocese of catechesis with catechumenal characteristics at the service of Christian initiation, renders compulsory the incorporation of new field of implantation and new variables in diocesan projects for catechesis.

For all these reasons, without excluding the Baptismal catechumenate for those not baptised, catechesis for adults and permanent catechesis, the diocesan project for catechesis must also above all deal with instituting processes involving catechesis for Christian initiation for the baptised, considering the situation in our particular Churches.

6. Here I propose the main constitutive guidelines for a Framework-project for catechesis at the service of Christian initiation benefiting those children, young people and adults, who being baptised, need to “complete” their initiation. The guidelines I propose can be considered as the “architectural components” for creating a diocesan project at the service of Christian initiation.

a) The reference model for this catechetic path, capable of helping to grow up and mature in the faith and in a Christian life, will be same as proposed by the General Directory for Catechesis as the typical model for Christian initiation, hence the Rite of Christian initiation for adults (see DGC nos. 90-91). This typical path will be established as the first stage of an organisational outline, to later move on to its implementation in various stages, internal actions and applications to various age groups, according to local and temporal circumstances.

b) In this manner, the main guidelines for the Framework-project would include, on one hand, the stages of the catechetic process, which could for example be: the awakening stage (0-6 years old), the stage of real Christian initiation (7-13 years old), the stage involving in-depth study of the Faith and the Lord’s sequela (14-18 years old), the stages of youth and adult life.

c) On the other hand, the internal elements integrating and so to speak setting-up each individual stage of the process: the receivers’ profiles; objectives and contents, both general and specific; pedagogic criteria and methodological principles; focal experiential principles and those of the social-cultural environment; locations and places and their coordination; the catechists and teachers of the faith; liturgical and sacramental celebrations; catechisms and catechetic material.

d) In formulating the diocesan project for catechesis, these stages of the path to be followed and these internal elements must be closely organised, with the objective of coordinating actions, objectives, situations, educational environments, agents responsible for religious instruction etc. The various stages must also be explained in detail, depending on the diocese’s specific environments and needs.