VATICAN: New Catholic Directory Offers Guidelines on Evangelization and Catechesis
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
A new directory for Catechesis released in the Vatican last week by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization has provided guidelines for use to strengthen the mission of the Church on the connection between evangelization and catechesis.
“The new directory for catechesis lays down guidelines for catechesis and present universal norms to guide pastors and catechists in the work of evangelization,” members of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization explained from the Vatican on Thursday, June 25.
The directory that was approved by Pope Francis on Monday, March 23, is the latest edition that follows the “General Catechetical Directory” published in 1971 and the “General Directory for Catechesis” published in 1997.
According to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, the directory is an “extensive document containing practical pastoral recommendations on how to organize catechesis.”
Containing 300 pages, the directory has proposed three key areas of focus namely, “Witnessing, Mercy and Dialogue” in order to “transmit the faith within the awareness of our society today” since the “Church no longer lives in a Christian regime but in a secular society.”
It has emphasized that to be authentic witnesses of the faith, catechists have to be “catechized before being catechists.” Hence, Catechists are called to be vigilant in performing their specific task “so that absolute protection is guaranteed to every person, particularly to minors and vulnerable person.”
The new directory underscores the role of family in the process of catechesis, noting that it is in the family where people can receive Christian education in a humble and compassionate manner and that those being evangelized can live the faith in a simple and spontaneous way.
“Second Vatican Council originally inspired a directory for catechesis to ensure that the Church’s catechetical efforts may be vibrant, informed, and faithful and attuned to the needs of the time,” the Pontifical Council members explained via a video clip.
Talking about evangelization, the directory “invites the Christian faithful to be courageous witnesses of Jesus Christ in the family in the work place and in the wider community.”
Further, the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization” affirms the presentation of a Catholic faith which draws deeply from the Scriptures and the recent writings of the Popes, more especially Pope Francis.”
