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It is not easy today to address the catechesis’issues with adults and
try to make it a budget in the pastoral today. There are now more than
forty years that the Documento Base (=DB) or Base Document marked
catechetical practices in Italy; the priority and urgency of this issue
were already well outlined in paragraph 124: "In all ages the Christian
needs to adequately feed on the Word of God. The adults are in the
fullest sense the addressees of the Christian message, because they
can learn about the richness of faith, remained implicit or no-deepen in
the previous teaching."
The first addressees
First addressees of evangelization as of the deepening of faith are
then as adults, to understand fully the riches of grace and of the
Christian life, we need a mature, if not necessarily coincide with the
chronological age of the person, however, it is closely related. You
need a life’s experience, the ability to understand what it means in
practice to carry the cross, follow Christ, dying and rising with him.
It is not a coincidence that Jesus himself - although having a
particular attention to the children’s lives - has always paid the
proclamation of the Kingdom to the adults around him.
Always at n.124 DB there is a second observation: "They are also
educators and catechists of the new Christians generations. [...]. The
Church can give a reason for her hope in proportion to the maturity of
faith of adults." In other words: not only the adults are the first
recipients of the Gospel of salvation, therefore they will also
become the first witnesses / heralds with their lives and words. To them
the younger generation are entrusted, the first their children,
called to find out in a gradual way and according to their ability the
treasure
of faith.
This invitation is so precise, well thought out, seems to have
remained almost unheeded, or at least underestimated in the Italian
pastoral. It is significant the letter published in the fortieth of the
DB edited on 4th April 2010 by the Episcopal Commission for
the Doctrine of the Faith: Announcement and catechesis for the
Christian life: "In fact, this primary objective of forming mature
Christians, able to account explicitly for their faith with the life and
words, was often rejected by our communities. Yet there have been
suggestions and proposals "(No. 13).
I would soon try to understand why this situation almost a stalemate of
a priority is well marked and emphasized repeatedly by the Bishops who
struggles to result in the ordinary pastoral today.
Heavy Disproportion
It must say that the problem is complex, it is not enough good will
to address it, ways to manage it after forty years are still impassable,
few have borne good fruit, but also revealed many problems. Looking at
the panorama of Italian catechists have emphasized the net imbalance
that sees almost 90% of our energy and efforts towards children of the
completion of Christian, relegating what remains - sometimes very
little! – to the adults and young people’s world. There is consensus in
affirming the "sterility" of a catechesis only for the world of boys.
However, we continue to employ the vast majority of catechists in that
area which is becoming more tenuous and problematic. Why? Come into play
in my three decisive factors, closely related: the subject, the timing,
the proposals.
Subjects
The subject: the adults’ s world is not an undifferentiated
monolith block. We are so careful in the way of Christian faith’s
process on the age group corresponding to the years of Primary and
Secondary Schools, as we continue to turn to adults regardless of their
age and needs that may be very different. Adults are those who are
preparing for a life choice, they are building a family way; adults are
also those who live in the world of work, which see their children leave
the house to form a new family; adults growing begin to compete with
loneliness, with the disease, with death.
Only a simple illustration to tell the urgency of a proposal for a
faith that knows how to truly meet the life, the questions, the needs of
the adult world. Undifferentiated routes may not cross the living, not
to touch of the most sensitive people’s strings. Recent Guidelines
of CEI emphasize for the decade 2010-2011: "A true education must be
able to speak to the need of meaning for people happiness" (No. 8)
There are the questions, they are part of the life, are constantly
called into play by the experiences we do; we should take them
seriously, give them the needed time, if we are not pebbles in shoes
slowly turning into something we can not make available any way. "Knock
and it shall be opened!" It becomes increasingly necessary to deepen the
first verb, to arose a wish of a walk in the faith road then meetings
and finding new life’s answers and questions. Often our Christian
communities are surprised that in front of so many answers are so few
open ports or to accept the invitation to join the church life. As far
as we are concerned to bring out the questions? As far as we are
concerned to arouse the knocking desire?
The
times and the proposals
The times: the traditional catechesis for adults was often
entrusted to the priest, On Sunday or during the week mostly in the
evening. The life and work ‘s times are radically changed. For example,
how many parents can afford, with all their good will, to change working
hours, the time of ride, the dinner to prepare at home?
The meeting in the Parish becomes an increasingly effort, that
hardly sees the presence of both parents. It is no coincidence that the
most compelling proposals for adults today are on Sunday in the more
appropriate day: paradoxically, the very day of the week which in itself
would reserve only to the family can become more livable space for the
growth of whole family’s faith. The Lord's Day lives by prayer,
Eucharist, communion, training, healthy and intelligent rest.
The proposals: this third variable is, in the end, the more delicate
because, if poorly managed, can undermine even the best of intentions
and choices. A journey of faith with adults today can not reproduce the
same type of meeting where you talk to boys. What is true for the times,
a fortiori it applies to relations.
We must develop an adult faith’s journeys from real comparison with
the adults’ life, in groups that specifically allow an exchange of ideas
and experiences, questions and answers. Need to manage these sites for
the maturation of faith not only infantile, but carefully avoiding that
they become a place of expression of personal opinions, speeches across
the board which may often be a personal outlet, necessary but still
insufficient for a journey in faith. We have to consider as a wealth
the adults’ competence, the establishment of their experiences,
sharing their questions.
That's why more and more we have in our parish and diocesan Pastoral
dedicate time and energy to the formation of the catechists with adults.
Recent CEI Orientamenti, Guidelines explicitly emphasizes: "We
need to promote a common responsibility of the laity, because the
sensitivity germinate to take educational duties in the Church and
society. In relation to specific Pastoral areas some shapes must
develop, such as lay missionaries who bring the first proclamation of
the Gospel to the homes and among immigrants; parents companions asking
for their children the sacraments of Baptism or initiation’s sacraments:
catechists for the catechumenate of young people and adult ;educators
and teachers’ trainers; street evangelizers in the world of the
deviance, of the prison and of various forms of poverty "(No. 54).
Pietro Biaggi
Responsabile Ufficio Catechistico
Via
XXIV Maggio, 50 - 24100 Bergamo
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