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It provides guidelines for the Church's mission of proclaiming the Gospel through catechesis and evangelization
Archbishop Rino Fisichella presenting the new Directory for Catechesis during the press conference (Photo courtesy of Vatican News)
By La Croix International staff | Vatican City
The directory, released in the Vatican on Thursday, was drafted under the direction of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.
"The publication of a Directory for Catechesis is a joyful event in the life of the Church," said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the pontifical council, during the release.
Archbishop Fisichella said the new edition, the third since the Second Vatican Council, is the result of a wide international consultation.
This latest edition comes as a follow-up to the "General Catechetical Directory" of 1971, and the "General Directory for Catechesis" of 1997 both of which were issued by the Congregation for Clergy.
The new directory seeks to highlight the close link between evangelization and catechesis.
It underlines that every baptized person is a missionary called to find new ways of communicating the faith with commitment and responsibility.
It proposes three major principles of action: Witnessing, Mercy and Dialogue.
The new directory of over 300 pages is made up of 3 parts divided into 12 chapters.
The first part, entitled "Catechesis in the evangelizing mission of the Church", treats the formation of catechists.
The second part, "The process of catechesis", highlights the importance of a "profound and effective communicative model".
The third part, "Catechesis in Particular Churches", is dedicated to catechesis in parishes, ecclesiastical movements and other Church associations.
The directory also points out that ecumenism and interreligious dialogue with Judaism and Islam is a special area for catechesis. Catechesis must "encourage the desire for unity" in order for it to be a true instrument of evangelization.
It also proposes that catechesis should be directed towards educating people in the proper use of the digital culture, which has both good and bad elements. Catechesis should also focus on helping young people distinguish truth and quality amid the "culture of the instantaneous."
Other themes highlighted by the directory include the call to a "profound ecological conversion". Catechesis promotes this conversion through attention to the safeguarding of creation and the avoidance of consumerism.
It highlights that catechesis is to inspire labor according to the Social Doctrine of the Church with special attention to the defense of the rights of the weakest.
Archbishop Fisichella said "the need for a new directory was born of the process of inculturation which characterizes catechesis in a particular way and which, especially today, demands a special focus."
"The heart of catechesis is the proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ," Fisichella said. Jesus "surpasses the limits of space and time to present Himself to each generation as the good news offered to reach the meaning of life," he added.
Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promotion of the New Evangelization said that the Directory is attentive to the signs of the times and interprets them in the light of the Gospel.
Click here for the text of Archbishop Rino Fisichella's talk during the press conference.
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