Catechetics

CATECHETICS. - Oral teaching of the Christian religion by a competent minister of the Church.

According to its etymological meaning, the word c. (κατήχησις) from the verb κατηχέω, to make the voice reach from above, "to echo" or "to cause an echo"; in a figurative sense: to teach by word of mouth, in such a way that the teacher's word is like the echo to the disciple's questioning, and the disciple's answer to the teacher's question) evokes the idea of a question and an answer. Such is the principal form of c. from its beginnings: a mutual conversation. In this sense the verb κατηχεῖν is used, in the New Testament, by St. Luke, who composed his Gospel to remind Theophilus of what he had already learned from conversation: περὶ ὧν κατηχήθης (Lk. 1:4); it designates Apollo as κατηχημένος τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ Κυρίου (Acts 18:25); by St. Paul, who speaks in the assembly (ἐκκλησία) in order to instruct (ἵνα κατηχήσω, I Cor. 14:19) and wills that he who is instructed (ὁ κατηχοῦμενος) communicate with him who catechizes (τῷ κατηχοῦντι, Gal. 6:6); Rom. 2:18 means religious instruction in general. Hence, among the Greek Fathers, the use of the word κατήχησις, and among the Latins of the word catechesis to indicate either the act of teaching, or religious teaching itself, or even its subject matter. With the organization of the Christian catechumenate, this term takes on a more definite and more restricted meaning: it is applied particularly to the oral teaching that serves for the preparation for Baptism, and consequently is addressed only to the uninitiated. Another form of c., used from the beginning, is preaching, by which the Christian message is propagated. The arrangement and development of the theme change according to the audience: it is one thing for the Jews, another for the Gentiles.

I. APOSTOLIC CATECHESIS

Before the New Testament writings appeared (written catechesis), oral catechesis was already alive and operative, the authentic expression of the Church's magisterium, the primary source of written catechesis, which began with Peter's first discourse (Acts 2:14-36) and developed rapidly as the Christian religion progressed in extent and depth. In this ministry the Apostles were assisted by a special class of catechists called in the New Testament "evangelists" or proclaimers of the "good news," to whom were added the "doctors" or "teachers," that is, persons endowed by the Spirit with the "gift" of teaching (cf. Acts 21:8; 8:5 ff., 40; Eph. 4:11; II Tim. 4:5; Rom. 12:7; I Cor. 12:8: to the "evangelists" was perhaps entrusted the first evangelization, and to the "doctors" or "teachers" the task of perfecting instruction, always in dependence on the Apostles). No text or formulary of apostolic catechesis has come down to us. But the discourses reported in the Acts of the Apostles allow us in some way to reconstruct its broad outlines (discourses of Peter: Acts 2:14-40; 3:12-26; 5:29-32; 10:34-43; discourses of Paul: Acts 13:16-41; 17:22-31; discourse of Stephen: Acts 7:2-53). Above all in the Synoptic Gospels we have the reflection and expression of apostolic catechesis. The so-called Apostles' Creed (v.) cannot in its present form be traced back to the Apostles, but its content is apostolic. Likewise the Didaché or "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles" (which is not to be identified with the "doctrine of the Apostles," Acts 2:42; cf. Tit. 1:9), a precious document of the sub-apostolic age, is a vestige of the moral catechesis of the Apostles, especially in its first part (chaps. 1-6), which under the form of the "two ways" (cf. Mt. 7:13 f.) contains the principal norms of Christian life, with long lists of sins that find a counterpart in the apostolic letters (cf. Rom. 1:29; Gal. 5:19 f.; I Tim. 1:9 ff.; II Tim. 3:2 ff.).

The method of apostolic catechesis must have been that of oral teaching repeated several times, in simple and practical form. The generic subject was faith in Christ and the conditions for obtaining salvation. But both the method and the subject matter, though common in their fundamental lines, varied according to the hearers. These were divided first of all into two great categories: Jews and Gentiles. In catechesis to the Jews an appeal to the economy of the Old Testament and to the prophecies was essential, in order to show their fulfillment and realization in Christ (cf. the two classic discourses: of Peter at Jerusalem, Acts 2:14-36, and of Paul at Antioch of Pisidia, 13:16-41); for the Gentiles, on the other hand, it was first necessary to break down the obstacle of paganism and to inculcate faith in a God who is creator and redeemer (discourse of Paul at Athens, Acts 17:22-31). Furthermore, catechesis could be directed to a new audience, of people to be won to the faith, or to persons already initiated (who could be catechumens or neophytes or mature Christians). Therefore one must distinguish between a first and rudimentary catechesis (as, for example, to the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts 8:27-38) and a broader and more profound catechesis (cf. Acts 18:26; St. Paul distinguishes between the work of "planting" and that of "watering," between laying the foundations and building upon them, I Cor. 3:6-10). Among the "first elements of the word of God" (Hebr. 5:12) are listed repentance and faith in God, Baptism and Confirmation, the resurrection and the final judgment (Hebr. 6:1-3). This faith in God implied also, as is obvious, faith in Jesus Christ, the divine mediator and Son of God: in fact care was taken to proclaim Christ from the very beginning of catechesis with the aim of imparting at least a summary knowledge of his life and his work (cf. Acts 8:35; 10:36-43; to the centurion Cornelius). Around these fundamental common motives all the other elements developed in an orderly and gradual manner: dogmatic, moral and historical.

Although the catechists were many (Apostles, evangelists, doctors), nevertheless the primitive catechesis had a fundamental identity, as the various discourses in Acts bear witness; one can easily discern the common theme and motives amid the variety of form that improvisation and circumstances suggested. Moreover it is easy to think that catechesis, under the influence of the Apostles, unfolded with a certain order, according to a common line and a well-defined schema of doctrine (cf. Acts 2:42 "doctrine of the Apostles"; Rom. 6:16 "form of doctrine"; above all Lk. 1:2 traces the program of catechesis back to the eyewitnesses, to the Apostles). Subsequently there could emerge, by reason of the different requirements of environment, particular forms or types of catechesis (for example, that of Jerusalem, directed particularly to Jews or converts from Judaism; that of Antioch, which had to adapt to the needs of a mixed audience, Jews and Gentiles; and that of Rome, with a preponderance of the Gentile element). Likewise one can speak more specifically of a catechesis of Peter, of Paul, of John, of the other Apostles, as a reflection of the particular doctrine contained in their writings. But these are developments, adaptations, ramifications of the primitive and common type of catechesis, whose fabric is rightly traced back to the apostle Peter, both because of the pre-eminent place he held among the first proclaimers of the "good news," and because in his discourses he seems to have traced the broad outlines of catechesis (cf. Acts 1:22; 2:22-40; 10:36-43). And this catechesis was not the product of a creative collectivity, as many rationalists affirm, and recently the proponents of the "form-history method" (formgeschichte Method), but the expression of a magisterium that had the guarantee of the most immediate and qualified witnesses (Lk. 1:2; Acts 10:41).

The dogmatic and moral catechesis of the Apostles embraced, as one can easily deduce, the principal dogmatic truths and moral norms on the basis of Jesus' teaching. It is quite probable that from the apostolic age there existed a kind of formulary that expressed the most elementary truths in summary form. A. Seeberg attempted to reconstruct, starting from 1 Cor. 15:3, this rudimentary "creed," which would essentially comprise the following points: God, creator of all things, sent his Son, born of the stock of David, Jesus Christ, who died for us, was buried and rose on the third day according to the Scriptures, sat at the right hand of the Father, and will return on the clouds of heaven with majesty and power (Der Katechismus..., p. 85). But this reconstruction, which is a mosaic of fragmentary data scattered throughout the various writings of the New Testament, is subjective and insufficient. Above all, the apostolic catechesis could not have lacked an explicit mention of the Holy Spirit and therefore of the Trinitarian dogma: in fact, Baptism was conferred only on those who also had some knowledge of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 19:3); and the prescribed Trinitarian formula (Mt. 28:19) was of the essence in Baptism. Rather, it seems possible to affirm that the basis of dogmatic truths in the apostolic catechesis did not substantially depart from the content of the current Apostles' Creed, which from the 2nd century onward established itself everywhere as the genuine expression of the teaching of the Apostles.

But historical catechesis had greater prominence. In fact, it was of the utmost importance to the Apostles to make known first in summary fashion and then in an ever more adequate measure the person and work of Jesus, his doctrine, the miracles he performed, the rites he instituted. Within the framework of this catechesis there entered by preference, as can be gathered from the speeches in Acts, the facts of the public life, "from the baptism to the death and Ascension" (according to the outline traced by Peter: Acts 1:22), especially those relating to the ministry in Galilee, which offered the greatest number of miracles and a form of doctrine that was easier and more limited. Facts and discourses which, by their delicacy and sublimity, could not be the object of ordinary catechesis (such as the most sublime discourses reported in the Fourth Gospel), belonged of necessity to a higher teaching.

Expression and reflection of the apostolic catechesis are the Synoptic Gospels (the Fourth Gospel stands apart, and its singularity is due to the direct experience of the apostle John, who is its author). It is known that around the year 60, at the time of the composition of the Third Gospel, several compilations already existed (Lk. 1:1 ff.) concerning the facts of Jesus' life. Among these writings were certainly the first two Gospels; the others have been lost, because the Church took no interest in them. But all of them, as also the Gospel of Luke, had drawn upon the common source, upon the preaching or apostolic catechesis: that is, they were founded upon the authentic testimony of those "who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word" (Lk. 1:2). The imprint of the apostolic catechesis in the Synoptics leaps to the eye. The content and the common thread of the exposition (comprising the preaching of the Baptist and the beginnings of Jesus' public life, the ministry in Galilee, certain salient facts of the ministry in Judea, the well-circumstantiated account of the Passion and Resurrection) mirrors the broad lines of the catechesis; likewise the discourses of Christ reported therein are those which, by their moral and parabolic content, had the widest use in oral instruction. What Clement of Alexandria says of Mark (in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., II, 15, 1-2), that at the insistence of the Romans he committed to writing "the catechesis delivered orally" by Peter, must be affirmed of the other Synoptics as well, namely that they reported in their Gospels the facts and discourses of Jesus along the lines of the catechesis, apart from the preferences and adjustments which, without altering the substance, responded to the particular purpose of each.

Also for the so-called "Synoptic problem" one cannot neglect the factor of oral catechesis, which, although insufficient by itself to explain the singular phenomenon, nonetheless provides good elements for setting out toward its solution. If in fact one admits that the catechesis followed a common line, according to a substantially uniform type, but that on the other hand from place to place, from one mouth to another, it could not remain immune from differences in detail and form, one can in some way understand, even setting aside other considerations, how in the Synoptics the substantial concordance is not divorced from variations and divergences in particulars and expressions. But on this question v. SINOTTICI.

Gaetano Stano

II. POST-APOSTOLIC CATECHETICS

A precious document from the period immediately after apostolic times is the Didache, which in its first six chapters offers a model of a catechesis addressed to catechumens before Baptism.

It indicates the two ways: the one that leads to life through the practice of the twofold Gospel precept — the love of God and of neighbor — with the moral rule: do not do to others what you do not wish to be done to you; the other, the way of death, which is avoided by not committing the sins that are listed. Although this catechesis does not speak of what one must believe — it confines itself exclusively to the precepts of the moral life — it nonetheless presupposes that some had manifested their desire to renounce the pagan life and to profess the Christian life, and therefore presupposes at least a rudimentary knowledge of pagan errors and Christian truths. Moreover, it exhibits a primitive mode of instruction, such as had long been in use both in the East (at Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, as attested by the applications of the Didache found in the Letter of Ps.-Barnabas, in the Constitutiones Apostolorum, etc.) and in the West (which returns in the ancient Latin version), in the Doctrina domini Severini episcopi (5th cent.), in the Rule of St. Benedict, ch. 4 (6th cent.), in the Ammonitio sive praedicatio s. Bonifatii episcopi de abrenuntiatione in Baptismo, 8th cent. (MS of Melk: DACL, II, col. 2542 ff.), in the Dicta s. Pirmini (d. before 754, etc.); cf. J. Schlecht, Die Apostellehre in der Liturgie der Katholischen Kirche (Freiburg 1901, p. 84 ff., 127, 129).

Another aspect of primitive catechesis has come down to us in the concise doctrinal teaching of the Symbol, which, composed of phrases contained in the writings of the Apostles, received its primitive redaction in the baptismal Creed not later than the year 100. The formula "in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti" (Mt. 18, 19) presents the nucleus of the Trinitarian part, to which the Christological part was soon added, according to Acts (2, 38; 8, 16; 10, 48; 19, 5). The Creed, once composed, had to be explained to those who presented themselves as catechumens, and therefore the teaching of this formula of faith and its explanation are intimately linked to Christian initiation. Indeed, in a solemn assembly the bishop gave the text with his own commentary; in other, less solemn assemblies the Symbol was repeated until it was perfectly learned by heart, and defended against every alteration or variant and against the activity of dissident sects. Therefore the essence of the rule of faith is found in the Apostolic Fathers, especially in St. Ignatius of Antioch, and in the apologists, in St. Justin, Aristides, St. Irenaeus (cf. A. Harnack, Materialien zur Geschichte und Erklärung des alten römischen Symbols aus der christlichen Literatur der zwei ersten Jahrhunderte, in A. Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, Breslau 1897, pp. 364-90). The principal ideas of the Symbol that had to be expounded both to catechumens and to the faithful were these: the Messiah has come; his earthly life, the Crucifixion, deposition, Resurrection and exaltation; he is a true earthly man, with an earthly mother, and is true God, Son of God; the miracle of his revealed birth, the mystery of his person. As a king's son retains his majesty even in poverty and servitude, so Jesus preserves the insignia of his divinity in his humiliation. The formula of the Eastern symbol differed from the Western one until the Council of Nicaea (cf. J. Kunze, Das nicänisch-konstantinop. Symbol, Leipzig 1898). At Rome, in the first three centuries, baptismal catechesis was conducted in two languages, Greek and Latin, for obvious reasons. An echo of this is found in the ritual question of the celebrant on the day of Baptism: "Qua lingua confitentur Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum?"

The Two Ways and the Creed represent all that remains to us of the catechetical themes during the first two centuries according to the documents. Fortunately, Christian literature has preserved for us a certain number of writings which reflect the method and the object of the teaching given to the Gentiles to lead them to the knowledge of the fundamental Christian truths — thus, for example, the Apologia I of St. Justin at Rome and the Exhortation to the Greeks of Clement of Alexandria, which also insist before the Gentiles on the divinity of Jesus, proved by the existence and fulfillment of the prophecies. On the other hand, the Προτρεπτικός of Clement of Alexandria urgently invites the pagans to abandon paganism by reason of its absurdity and its ignominies and to lend an ear to the saving teaching of the incarnate Word, since he has always had pity on us and has come to free us, and has sent us the Paraclete who exhorts us to know the truth. The practical conclusion — such is the method of Theophilus of Antioch in his 3 books Ad Autolycum — is to atone for sins through penance and Baptism, to draw near to Christ, to embrace his doctrine, to obey his precepts, in order to have a share in his inheritance; otherwise the punishments that will never end are to be feared.

The apologists instruct on two things: they explain and defend the idea of a spiritual, omnipotent, transcendent God, the concept of the Logos as mediator, of good and evil angels; they demonstrate the advantages of Christianity, they set forth how it is innocent, beneficent, peaceful, worthy of respect; thwarting calumnies, defamations, fanaticism, they present the Bible as the source of all wisdom and truth, the supernatural operation of faith as transforming the soul in the divine virtues. There are lacking, however, the strictly Christian mysteries: of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Incarnation, of original sin, of the Redemption, of Grace, of the Sacraments. When, on the other hand, the apologists address the faithful, they penetrate more deeply into the content of Christianity: proof of this is found in a series of writings that set forth supposed discussions between Christians and Jews, though with the intent, more than of converting the Jews, of confirming the faithful in the faith.

Thus the Altercatio Jasonis et Papisci (PG, 5, 1278 ff.) of Aristo of Pella, the Dialogus cum Tryphone Iudaeo (PG, 6, 471 ff.) of Justin, the Altercatio legis inter Simonem Iudaeum et Theophilum Christianum of Evagrius, the Adversus Iudaeos of Tertullian and others. Although the apologies were not a catechesis in the strict sense, they nonetheless greatly benefited the instruction of the people; they make better known to us the delicate points on which the teachers and the catechetical teaching of the 2nd century had to insist, and they form a kind of pre-catechesis or of preparatory and initiatory discourses to the whole of Christian doctrine (cf. A. Puech, Recherches sur le discours aux Grecs de Tatien, Paris 1903, p. 99; P. Batiffol, Introduction to the work of J. Rivière, S. Justin et les apologistes du second siècle, Paris 1907, p. xv; H. Leclercq, Catéchèse, in DACL, II, coll. 2546-49).

Another element that in its own way entered into catechesis is the existence of penitents and of the sins committed by them. Penance involved different degrees according to the gravity of the sins. A. Seeberg, Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit (Leipzig 1903), pp. 25-30, has compiled an entire list of the sins mentioned in the writings of the first Christian authors, as also of the virtues that are more or less clearly prescribed (cf. H. Leclercq, Catéchèse, in DACL, II, coll. 2550-52).

Some sins committed after Baptism were considered irremissible, and by them one contracted excommunication and exclusion from the community: to these Heb. 4:4-8 already alludes, as do the Shepherd of Hermas (Mandat. 4, 3), St. Justin, Athenagoras, the Didascalia, etc. It is natural that the catechumens should also be instructed in this matter (cf. E. von Dobschütz, Die altchristlichen Gemeinden. Sittengeschichtliche Bilder, Leipzig 1902). There were, on the other hand, other sins that were easily remissible — Tertullian, De pudicitia, chaps. 1, 7 and 19: PL 2, 980, 991, 1017, distinguishes them into maxima, media and medica — which the penitential code could not make the object of catechesis except incidentally (cf. E. Vacandard, Le traitement des peccata leviora dans la primitive Eglise, in Revue du clergé français, 15 [1901]). In conformity with the doctrine of St. Paul, the Didaché requires Confession before common prayer (IX, 4): "On the Lord's day gather together to break bread and celebrate the Eucharist, after having confessed your faults, so that your sacrifice may be pure." Instruction was also wanted regarding the sins that had to be confessed.

From these data one can judge what moral instruction was like in that era: namely an examination of paganism, to break and condemn it; an appeal to history to demonstrate God's merciful intervention on man's behalf; an evocation of Gospel memories to point out the part played by Christ the Redeemer; dogmatic teaching and moral considerations to lead people to embrace the faith and Christian practices; the only means of saving oneself, obtaining the reward and avoiding the punishments of the future life. Such, in short, were the principal points that form the thread of primitive catechesis.

III. FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 3RD CENTURY TO THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY

The doctrinal and moral instruction of catechesis in ancient times was not reserved to a fixed time. However, from the time when, toward the end of the 2nd century, the catechumenate (v.) began to have different categories of postulants who were not at the same stage of preparation — some were simple postulants, others catechumens in the proper sense, others "competentes" or even neophytes — the catechist was obliged to proportion his instruction to the situation and the immediate needs of his hearers. Naturally a "competens" who had already been a catechumen for years and was preparing immediately to receive Baptism had to receive an instruction different from that of a postulant who for the first time asked to be admitted to the catechumenate.

1. Catechesis of admission to the catechumenate

It was natural that right from the beginning, when someone presented himself for the first time to embrace Christianity, a first instruction should be given to him: the principal points of the faith and of Christian morality were briefly explained to him, a first renunciation of pagan vices was asked of him together with the promise to adhere to the obligations of the Christian life; the motives for his conversion, his profession or his trade were asked, in order to judge whether these were compatible with the new life he was about to begin. Such a first catechesis has been preserved in the Traditio apostolica of St. Hippolytus and in the documents connected with it (cf. Ph. Oppenheim, Sacramentum regenerationis christianae, Rome 1946, pp. 13-15). St. Ambrose (In Lc. 6, 104-105: PL 15, 1696-97) gives another valuable teaching: "As for the pagans," he writes, "one must follow the example of St. Paul in the Areopagus: first they are to be taught that there is one God, who is the teacher of all, and that man must love him; then idolatry is to be condemned and reproved; finally it will be shown that Jesus Christ has brought us salvation and that one must believe in him, because the mere history of what he did on earth up to his Resurrection is an unshakable proof of his divinity."

On the method of giving catechesis and especially of proving, with arguments of reason, the mysteries of the faith before those who do not believe in the authority of the Church, an exemplary lesson is preserved for us in the Great Catechesis of St. Gregory of Nyssa (PG 45, 9 ff.; cf. J. H. Strawley, The catechetical oration of Gregory of Nissa, Cambridge 1903): he admonishes the teacher to adapt himself to the various needs of the candidates and, placing himself from the adversary's point of view, to follow him, step by step, in what he admits. One must indicate the principal dogmas, that of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Incarnation, of the Redemption, then the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, as well as the double sanction in eternal life for the good and the wicked; the purpose of catechesis is to lead unbelievers to the faith, and therefore one must act differently if it is a pagan who denies the unity of God, or a Jew who does not believe in Jesus Christ, or a heretic who errs concerning the Most Holy Trinity, attacking the divinity of Our Lord.

Even more explicit is St. Augustine in his catechesis sent to the deacon Deogratias of Carthage, in two versions, one longer and the other shorter, to be used according to the time available (De catechizandis rudibus). When it is a question of an illiterate person (rudis, indoctus), before entering into the subject, one must ask the reasons for his coming, either from him or from those who present him: if he alleges a false motive, a lie, one should not scold him, but praise a sentiment already in itself worthy of praise; if he alleges a motive foreign to the faith, one should gently indicate to him briefly and with gravity the true purpose of Christian doctrine, so that he may willingly embrace what he previously wanted to do erroneously or with pretense. If, however, he has come because of an inspiration, an event, a terror instilled by God, this can serve, as a starting point, to demonstrate the great and solicitous care of God for us. Then with a rapid historical exposition one must show him that everything God has done, he has done out of love, so as to lead the candidate to love God with a right conscience, with a pure heart, since in this consists the purpose and the fullness of the law: "ut ille cui loqueris audiendo credat, credendo speret, sperando amet" (De catechizandis rudibus, 4, 8: PL 40, 316). Then one shows God's intervention in history from the beginnings up to the present times through the six ages of the world, showing that the Old Testament is only the preparation and prophetic announcement of the New and that the New is the realization or revelation of the Old: this part is the "narratio." As a conclusion, one should insist on the future resurrection, on the last judgment, and on the eternal sanction of both good and evil; one should warn the weakness of that illiterate person against the scandals that can come from outside or from within; finally one should briefly and suitably set before him the precepts of the Christian life. If he then accepts to enter, let him attribute all the merit to God, love God and neighbor for God's sake, since God has loved him as an enemy and will justify him as a friend. When, on the other hand, it is a question of a man who already possesses some knowledge of Sacred Scripture and of Christian literature, one must be very brief on these points so as not to give the impression of wanting to teach what he already knows, simply enumerating them as though he knew everything fully; thus he will learn what he still does not know. It will not be useless to ask to which points of doctrine in particular he attributes his desire for conversion; when one knows them, praise them; when they are poorly understood, note that even good people can sometimes be mistaken, opposing to the authority of the universal Church the authority of some heretic or ignorant person. As for the practical conclusions, one must speak as to the ignorant. When finally it is a question of learned or cultured persons, but still ignorant in matters of faith, one should especially recommend humility to them to prevent them from despising those who know how to avoid errors more easily in conduct and in speech; one must instruct them especially in Sacred Scripture, which, as the word of God, is not to be considered like other books from a purely human point of view; one should recommend adhering more to the spirit than to the letter, to the soul than to the body, to listen more to the truth of the explanations than to pay attention to elegance of language. As for the Sacrament to be received, it is enough that one understand what it means; for the slower ones use explanations and comparisons so that they do not despise what they see. After the theory St. Augustine adds a model of practical catechesis, how to act on the mind and will of an illiterate person who wishes to become a Christian in view of the future life: after having praised him, the catechist should immediately refer to God who is the true good, who will judge and punish. True happiness even in the trials of this world consists in loving the precepts of God. If someone wishes to become a Christian for an interested motive or of a temporal order, he will be part of the Church, yes, but like chaff in the wind; whoever instead becomes a Christian for love of eternal happiness in God is on the right path; being on guard against temptation, he does not let himself be corrupted by prosperity, nor cast down by adversity: he is modest and temperate in abundance, strong and prudent in tribulation. In a summary of the history of the world St. Augustine then shows the creation, the fall and the reparation through the Incarnation of the divine Word. The Word became incarnate also for us and redeemed us. There are two cities on earth, in which the good are mixed with the wicked and will be made manifest on the day of Judgment. Before Christ there are five ages: everything in them is a figure of what was accomplished in the sixth, which is the one in which we live, in which Jesus came, died, rose again, ascended into heaven to send us the Holy Spirit; the one in which all those who believe in God now live, practice charity, count on eternal rewards, presently make up the Church; that Spirit in which the Church lives amid disturbances and trials. All this we see accomplished before our eyes; and this fulfillment of the past is a pledge for future events, such as the Resurrection, the Judgment and eternal life or condemnation.

The conclusion is: to believe firmly in these things without letting oneself be disconcerted; to be on guard against the demons and their ministers, whether pagans or Jews or even Christians; to attach oneself by preference to the good, without placing hope in them, since this is placed only in God; and doing so, to persevere in the faith even in tribulations; to preserve humility, because God does not allow one to be tempted beyond his strength.

Notable in this model of catechesis is also the skill with which St. Augustine teaches the articles of the Creed, without saying that they are part of the formula of faith, and sets forth the whole of Christian morality; and above all, the very precise purpose that hope and charity inspire faith. Thus he does not hesitate to return several times to the rewards promised to the faithful and the punishments reserved for the impious and wicked Christians: an excellent means of inspiring through fear a beginning of the love of God. Thus in the patristic period the catechesis of St. Augustine represents the model of a catechesis for beginners.

2. The catechesis of the catechumens

Once admitted to the rank of the catechumens, the future believer had to know better the Christian doctrine and practice. The ordinary homily that explained the passage of Scripture occurring in the divine office was insufficient because of the reserve and discretion owed to the discipline of the arcane (v.); in such public teaching only general questions of faith and morals were treated, or simple allusions or summary hints were made that remained an enigma for the uninitiated. A supplementary instruction was therefore necessary for the catechumens. On the other hand, if they read the books of the Old Testament, including the deuterocanonical ones (Origen, In Num. homil., 27, 1: PG 12, 780) or other writings such as the Didaché and the Shepherd of Hermas (St. Athanasius, Epist. fest., 39: PG 26, 1437), they certainly did not understand their doctrine and scope: hence from this side too the necessity of a supplementary and special instruction, which was entrusted to the διάδοξα, doctors or catechists, clerics or laymen, priests or deacons, who had to adapt themselves to the actual needs of the catechumens and to the progress of their preparation.

It was limited to a more complete and definite explanation of what they had heard in the first catechesis, especially of Sacred Scripture. The dogmas of creation, of the fall and redemption up to the Resurrection and the general Judgment had their place there, and one could emphasize the goodness and justice of God, the Incarnation of the Word of God, the Redemption and above all morals with the explanation of the various precepts of the Decalogue and of the double commandment of love of God and love of neighbor. The instruction was of such a nature as to provoke a firmer adherence to the spirit of faith and hope in God; it was also therapeutic for healing souls from the madness of paganism and from the attachment to sin; therefore it was essentially a moral formation of the will, an impulse of the heart to the practice of good, that is, an education. For this reason the book of Wisdom was preferably read, which offered striking examples of it, while the books of Tobit and Esther served to illustrate faith in God, confidence in him, and the moral virtues. Thus the Bible and the Gospel truly offered precious help for education. Moreover, according to the Apostolic Constitutions (VIII, 32: PG 1, 1132) and St. Augustine, the teaching was done with greater diligence and insistence (cf. A. Gruber, Des hl. Augustin Theorie der Katechetik, Salzburg 1820, Regensburg 1870).

3. The catechesis of the competentes

When the catechumen passed to the time of immediate and proximate preparation for Baptism, he had to receive the complement of his religious instruction. The catechesis destined for him had a particular importance and was surrounded by certain solemnities. According to the Apostolic Constitutions (VII, 39: PG 1, 1040) the subject was creation, providence, the Trinity, the laws of the Church, the Judgment, the last things; in Jerusalem at the end of the 4th century, according to the Peregrinatio Aetheriae (46, ed. B. Geyer, Vienna 1898, p. 97), the law, faith and the resurrection of the flesh.

According to St. Augustine (De fide et oper., 6, 9: PL 40, 202) the Bible and its history, the principal truths of the faith and the moral precepts continued to be taught. A particular place was reserved for the Symbol, the sacred formula of what must be believed: its individual articles were briefly and successively explained; it was not written down but kept in memory and in the heart. Before Baptism it was recited solemnly and then, like the Pater noster, also given and explained, it was for the rest of life the formula of prayer par excellence. All the catecheses «in tradition Symboli» preserved for us, because of the importance of this catechetical teaching, were pronounced by bishops or by priests specially delegated for this. Thus, for example, St. Cyril in Jerusalem, St. John Chrysostom in Antioch, St. Augustine in Hippo were entrusted, before being bishops, with the instruction of the competentes. On the method, the nature, the subject and the importance of such instructions nothing informs us better than the catecheses that St. Cyril in 348, in the name of Bishop Maximus, pronounced in Jerusalem; this collection consists of a pro-catechesis, or preface, of 18 catecheses addressed to the competentes during Lent, and of 5 mystagogical catecheses addressed to the newly baptized in the week after Easter. The method used by Cyril is that of a popular exposition, simple and clear, lively and pressing, as far as possible adapted to the intellectual or moral needs of his hearers, and, consequently, very practical and objective. He makes them repent of the sins committed, leads them to penance and prepares them, by means of ascesis, for Baptism, gives them the weapons against the errors of the pagan, Jewish or heretical environment, prepares them to formulate with precision the dogmatic truths supporting them with arguments drawn from reason or from Sacred Scripture; finally he expounds the moving symbolism of the various practices preparatory to initiation (cf. A. Knappitsch, S. Cyrilli Hierosolymitani catechesibus quae principia moralia continuantur, Graz 1899). Not dissimilar and of great interest are the recently discovered catecheses of Theodore of Mopsuestia (v.), which go back to the end of the 4th century (cf. R. Tonneau-R. Devresse, Les hom. catéchétiques de Th. de Mops. [Studi e Testi, 145], Vatican City 1949).

4. The catechesis of the neophytes

Initiated into the Christian life through Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist, the neophytes remained for eight days under the direction of their teachers before being associated with the ordinary life of Christians, and continued to receive some particular instruction: in Jerusalem the five mystagogical catecheses of St. Cyril represent this kind of instruction. St. Cyril here discourses on the ceremonies of Baptism (Catech. 19, PG 33, col. 1065 ff.), on the anointing done with the exorcised oil and on Baptism (Catech. 20, col. 1077 ff.), on the anointing done with the holy chrism (Catech. 21, col. 1088 ff.), on the Eucharist (Catech. 22, col. 1097 ff.), on the Eucharistic liturgy and on participation in the body and blood of Jesus Christ (Catech. 23, col. 1109 ff.). These mystagogical catecheses, shorter because of the Easter festivities, do not contain everything that we know from other sources.

Certainly for the neophytes these things were not of absolute importance. The Peregrinatio Aetheriae (ed. B. Geyer, Vienna 1898, p. 99) notes, speaking of these instructions, that the bishop on this occasion expounded everything that was done at Baptism. In the West the same practice was followed of giving some supplementary instruction to the neophytes in the days following Baptism. At Milan, for example, St. Ambrose postponed the explanation of the Mysteries until after Easter, since the vivid impression caused by direct participation in the divine Mysteries seemed a preferable lesson to that of a preparatory explanation: "inopinantibus melius se ipsa lux Mysteriorum infuderit quam si eam sermo aliquis praecurrisset" (De Mysteriis, I, 2: PL 16, 389); this, however, did not prevent a minute explanation of the various rites. The De Mysteriis is in fact for the most part composed of instructions addressed, as at Jerusalem, to the newly baptized and relating to Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist. In Africa, on the contrary, and especially at Hippo, the majority of these explanations preceded the administration of Baptism; nevertheless the week of Easter was reserved for instructions "ad infantes", that is, to the neophytes, both to make up for the insufficiency of the teachings given on the Mass and on Communion, and, more especially, to encourage the neophytes to perseverance (cf. St. Augustine, Serm., 260 and 353: PL 38, 1202 ff. and 39, 1560 ff.).

IV. FROM THE END OF THE 5TH CENTURY TO ST. GREGORY THE GREAT

In Italy, North Africa, Spain, Gaul, in part of Germany and in the British Isles the majority of the population had embraced the faith; therefore the ancient organization of the catechumenate lost its reason for being, since the Baptism of children had become the rule. However, even for their Baptism, during Lent the special ceremonies of the tradition of the Symbol and the Pater noster were still practiced, to which, in some countries, that of the Gospels and the Decalogue was added; the triple renunciation of Satan, his pomps and works, the triple affirmation of faith have always retained their place. Godfathers and godmothers took the place of their spiritual children. The ancient catechesis preparatory to Baptism had to give way to post-baptismal instruction. Primary instruction, as a natural and just obligation of natural or spiritual fatherhood, fell to parents and godparents; it remained, however, for various reasons, rudimentary. Therefore parish priests completed it; yet they too, like the others (parents, godparents), had to adapt to the capacities of children and young people and therefore reduce the teaching to its simplest expression. Little by little it took on the form of today's catechism (v.). But in pagan countries, in the missions of eastern and northern Europe, catechesis preserved its traditional form.

In Africa, in Spain, in Gaul the catechumens and competentes continued to be treated as before. Ferrandus, deacon of Carthage, concerned for the fate of a competens who had died, relates among the other practices of the catechumenate also that he had received the instruction proper to his rank and the notification of the Mysteries and of the Christian life (Epist., 1, reproduced in the reply of St. Fulgentius, Epist., 12, 1 and 2: PL 65, 380).

In Spain, where the Arians were numerous, in 572 the Second Council of Braga indicates the way to be followed, during Lent, as regards the competentes, and the instruction relating to the exorcisms and the symbol; the bishops, in their pastoral visitation, are exhorted to urge the faithful to abandon pagan errors and grave faults (can. 1: J. Hardouin, Acta Concil., III, pp. 351 and 386). According to St. Isidore (De officiis, II, 21-27: PL 83, 812-24) the catechumen rejects the worship of idols and learns that there is only one God; the competens is instructed in what concerns the Sacraments, the Symbol and the rule of faith, Baptism, Confirmation and the imposition of hands. St. Ildephonsus (De cognitione Baptismi) first follows the manner of St. Augustine's «narratio», then distinguishes between catechumen and competens (op. cit., 30: PL 96, 124) and cites, as forming part of his special instruction, the Symbol, the Pater noster, the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist (ibid., coll. 132-42, 166-71).

In Gaul we know from Gennadius (De eccles. dogmat., 74: PL 58, 997) what was taught to the candidates for Baptism at the end of the 5th century. In the 6th century St. Avitus (d. 526) left us a small poem in five cantos (De Mosaicae historiae gestis libri V: PL 59, 323-28), which recall a part of the Augustinian «narratio», treating of creation, of original sin, of God's judgment that drives Adam from Paradise, of the flood and of the passage through the Red Sea (two types of Baptism); St. Caesarius (d. 542), a faithful echo of the bishop of Hippo, makes known to us the obligations of parents regarding children (Serm., 6, 6: PL 39, 1751), of godparents for their spiritual children (Serm., 168, 3: ibid., col. 2071); he enumerates the vices and superstitions of the time that must be abandoned in becoming 'Christians' (Serm., 265, 5: ibid., col. 2239), explains the duties of the competentes (Serm., 267: ibid., col. 2242), dwells on the various articles of the Symbol that were the object of the catechesis preparatory to Baptism (Serm., 237-43: ibid., coll. 2183-84; cf. Serm., 244-51, on the faith owed to the Symbol, on the Trinity, on the Redemption and on the last Judgment). St. Gregory of Tours (d. 543-44) cites in his Historia Francorum, III ff. (PL 71, 241 ff.) some passages relating to the administration of Baptism during the 6th century.

To have a complete idea of catechesis in the 5th and 6th centuries, one would have to seek out the method of St. Patrick (d. 460) among the Irish, of St. Columba (d. 573) among the Picts and Scots, of St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604) among the Anglo-Saxons, of St. Gall (d. ca. 627) among the Alemanni of Switzerland, and of others still; unfortunately, however, no catechesis of that era has come down to us, perhaps because it was delivered by those preachers and missionaries in the vernacular. There was always paganism with its superstitions to be overcome, and, although the preparatory catechesis was not always sufficient, it nevertheless had to contain the truths strictly necessary to believe and the duties to be practiced by every Christian, and therefore in it are found the majority of the elements of apostolic and patristic catechesis. St. Eligius, for example, enumerates a great number of superstitions to be abandoned (Vita s. Eligio, II, 15: PL 87, 524-50); the Council of Leptines (743) counts about thirty of them in its Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum (PL 89, 810 ff.; J. Hardouin,

Acta Concil., III, 922). There is then the proclamation of one God, creator of heaven and earth, who sends his Son to save men, with a compendium of the religious history of the world and of the economy of the Redemption. Part of it is also Baptism with its exorcisms, renunciations, promises, a list of faults to avoid and duties to fulfill. There is finally the question of the novissimi, of the general Judgment, of the sanction of eternal rewards or punishments.

The letter, moreover, with which St. Gregory the Great congratulates St. Augustine on the conversion of Ethelbert, king of the Anglo-Saxons, which took place at Christmas 597 at Canterbury (Epist., XI, 27: PL 77, 1139), gives a glimpse of the catechetical method of the famous Anglo-Saxon missionary. In 624, the letter of Boniface V to Edwin, Saxon king in Northumberland still pagan, is the program of a catechesis: vanity of idols, importance of faith in God the creator, who has sent his only Son to save the human race, necessity of embracing the Gospel and of a rebirth through Baptism: these are the principal points of the treatise (Epist., 3: PL 80, 438). St. Eligius, who every year at Easter gave Baptism to a crowd of catechumens, showed the people successively the pagan fables and beliefs, the superstitious practices, and spoke to them of the one true God creator, inspired in them the fear of the future judgment and spoke of eternal reward: he made use of the writings of St. Caesarius and St. Augustine (Vita s. Eligio, II, 8 and 15: PL 87, 523 and 524-50). St. Gall (d. ca. 627), in a discourse delivered at Lake Constance, summarizes the religious history of the world after the first sin up to the redemption on the cross of Jesus, then treating of the mission of the Apostles and the vocation of the gentiles, of the divine constitution of the Church, ark of salvation (Serano: PL 87, 13-26), openly echoing St. Augustine's «narratio».

Thus catechesis at Baptism, faithful to the tradition of the first centuries, continued to teach the same principal and essential truths of the Christian religion, although, little by little, because of the Baptism of children, it was taught after Baptism, at a convenient and suitable age, until there developed what we call the catechism.

Filippo Oppenheim

V. FROM ST. GREGORY THE GREAT TO THE COUNCIL OF TRENT

1. Adaptation of the Church

The ancient organization of the catechumenate, which is gradually disappearing in Christian countries because of the increasingly general practice of baptizing infants, still remains for some time in certain missions of Europe (v. above). Here the Church's earlier conduct deserves particular emphasis: while keeping doctrine intact, it sought to adapt to the capacity of the barbarians, preserving whatever was not contrary to the faith, yet elevating it, or turning it (temples, feasts, popular customs) to a Christian meaning and use.

Thus in the first Benedictine mission, led by St. Augustine among the Anglo-Saxons, St. Gregory the Great gives the wisest and most prudent directives for evangelization, which influence the very manner of catechesis: not to destroy the temples of the gods, but to bless them and consecrate them to the worship of the true God; to introduce Christian feasts in place of the pagan ones; to redirect the sacrifices of animals, which were followed by lavish banquets, no longer to the devil, but to God, the giver of every good thing, enjoying them and satisfying themselves: «et donatori omnium de satietate sua gratias referant ut dum eis aliqua exterius gaudia reservantur, ad interiore gaudia consentire facilius valeant, nam duris mentibus simul omnia absidere imposit is impossible that it should not be doubted, because even he who strives to ascend to the highest place is raised by steps or paces, not however by leaps" (Ven. Bede, Hist. eccl., I, 30: PL 95, 70 ff.; ed. by C. Plummer, I, Oxford 1896, pp. 64-66, and the commentary; II, ibid. 1896, pp. 57-61). The same method was followed by the Anglo-Saxon missionaries in the evangelization of Germany, principally their great apostle, St. Boniface (672-754), who kept Latin in the rite of Baptism, but addressed the questions to the neophyte in German; he allowed the continued use of the bonfires of joy of the summer solstice, associating them with the feast of the nativity of St. John the Baptist (24 June); and to the cult of the warrior god Wotan he substituted the cult of St. Michael the Archangel, chief of the heavenly hosts. The liturgical language and that of the dogmatic formulas remained Latin — a providential guarantee of doctrinal exactness and of the unity of the Church — with the vernacular being reserved for catechetical and pastoral explanations. Only one example to the contrary is found in the early Middle Ages: in the 9th century the two missionary brothers, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, introduced the Slavonic ecclesiastical language into Moravia, tolerated by the popes, soon replaced there by Latin, but which has remained to this day among the Southern Slavs (cf. G. Marckovic, Gli Slavi e i papi, I, Zagreb 1897, pp. 94-159). It happened quite differently in the conquests of the Franks, whose armies themselves cleared the way for the missionaries, destroying the places and houses of idolatrous worship; the conquest was followed by ecclesiastical organization and mass Baptism; later came catechesis and instruction to promote true interior conversion through the work of the monks. Thus under Charlemagne, Saxony was incorporated into the Church.

2. Matter and time of catechesis — In the Middle Ages, catechetical instruction passes very quickly from parents and godparents to their children and godchildren, and then to priests, as villages and fixed groups take shape and a stable clergy becomes possible. Catechesis everywhere comprises the same elements: in the first half of the Middle Ages, the fundamental truths of the faith (the Creed) and of the moral life (the Commandments, the Sacraments, the Pater noster); in the second half, other points are added as well: sins, virtues, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, the precepts of the Church, the Ave Maria. The extent and content of this medieval catechesis can be gathered from the various catechetical manuals or formularies that still survive, composed in different manners and methods and intended to serve as an outline for the priests who taught catechism (v. CATECHISMO). Of particular importance are the "formularies for confession," because they aimed not only at arousing the right dispositions for the Sacrament, but also at instructing ever more deeply on the different qualities and gravity of sins and at inculcating the norms of a worthy Christian life.

Medieval catechesis took place especially on Sundays and feast days, both in the cathedral and in the other churches and in the schools of the convents and parishes, and according to the various indications and prescriptions of the provincial synods; and it was assisted by wall tablets, on which the principal formulas were written (the sign of the Cross, the Creed, the Pater, the Decalogue), which the priest had to recite aloud every Sunday before and after the sermon and explain several times a year; by illustrative pictures, which recalled the meaning of the principal truths and precepts or depicted biblical scenes and were hung next to the tablets and also carried around by preachers (for example, the Biblia pauperum) (v.); and later by the "mysteries," the "lauds" and the "sacred representations." Not to mention that the frescoes and paintings of the churches, the bas-reliefs of the doors and capitals, the mosaics, the miniatures of devotional books and Bibles, formed just as many points of reference to particular facts and truths.

3. Legislation of the Church

The conscience and wisdom of the ancient Fathers had thus passed to the Middle Ages, which had expressed them in enactments, the which, while on the one hand they attest to the Church's maternal care and intelligent adherence to the diverse and changing needs of the faithful, on the other hand foreshadow and prepare the forms of modern catechesis. The Council of Clovesho in England (747), to limit ourselves to a few examples, had already wisely organized parochial catechetical instruction (cann. 3, 10 [Mansi, XII, coll. 396, 398]) eight hundred years before the Council of Trent; similar provisions were issued for the Carolingian empire by the Synod of Frankfurt (794 [can. 33; Mansi, XIII, col. 908]) and, for Italy, by the Council of Cividale del Friuli (796), convened by St. Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia (cann. 12-15: PL 99, 293-95). The same is found inculcated and ordained by Charlemagne in several of his Capitularies; indeed he forbade anyone who did not know the Creed and the Pater from serving as godfather or godmother at Baptism (cf. Fliche-Martin-Frutaz, VI, pp. 88-89). In times closer to the Council of Trent, when, with the increase — especially in the Renaissance period — of schools, also of lay teachers, it was painfully realized how greatly religious instruction had declined and been reduced, the Fifth Lateran Council, in its Bulla de reformatione Curiae (sess. IX, 5 June 1514 [Mansi, XXXII, col. 881]), decreed that all teachers should instruct their pupils in the human disciplines, but also in religious subjects, such as the Commandments, the Creed, the sacred hymns, the psalms, the lives of the saints; that on feast days they should teach nothing other than faith and morals, exerting all their possible effort to have the pupils participate, not only in the Mass, but also in Vespers, the divine offices, and sermons.

As can be seen, catechesis had expanded not only in its subject matter but, so to speak, also in its scope, because the provision of the Council concerned all schools, including those now called secondary, and aimed, through theoretical instruction, also at the practical exercise of religion. "The school did not ignore the Church, did not separate instruction from education, nor speculative knowledge from its application to life; it did not disregard the obligation of feast days, the Sacraments, religious and moral conduct; like the Church and with the Church, the school followed the pupils through life and made of the teacher a father, who took unceasingly to heart the children entrusted to him by their parents, as souls to be formed" (Tamborini, op. cit., p. 15).

Almost as an application of this hoped-for handshake between Church and school, the publisher Aldo Pio Manuzio in his schoolbook De litteris graecis et diphthongis (Venice 1495) printed in Latin and in Greek the Pater, the Ave Maria, the Salve Regina, the Creed and the Gospel of St. John, "quae - he says in the prefatory notice - operae pretium existimavimus scire adolescentulos"; and in the Grammaticarum institutionum libri quattuor (ibid. 1508), he placed before the grammatical rules the Commandments, the psalm Introibo ad altare Dei, the morning and evening prayers "quoniam omnibus in rebus a Divinis incipiendum est", observing in the letter prefaced to the teachers: "nitudinum est pro viribus ut a te sanctos mores et bonas litteras simul edocantur adolescentuli". In the dedications, moreover, to the two volumes of the Christian poets (Venice 1501), he says he published them so that children might read them instead of pagan fables; "ita adolescentuli non in pravos et infideles, quales sunt hodie plurimi, sed in probos et orthodoxos viros evadent, quia adeo a teneris assuescere multum est" (G. B. Castiglioni, op. cit., p. 204).

VI. FROM THE COUNCIL OF TRENT TO OUR DAYS

1. New Religious Orders

The outbreak and spread of the Reformation in the 16th century, while they brought into relief the gaps that existed despite the appeals of the authorities, also served as a stimulus toward a more lively and profound reform, and intensified the development and adaptation of catechesis, multiplying the norms and practical suggestions and the drafting of catechisms for the various classes of persons. And this even before the Council of Trent; indeed even before the Protestant Reformation, because other earlier heretics had already taken advantage of religious ignorance. Indeed the Council itself did not have only an anti-Protestant function, but concentrated and organized the many fragmentary energies already deployed here and there under the impulse of a very widespread desire for Catholic reform (v. CATECHISMO).

The new Religious Orders professed the teaching of the catechism in a quite special way. St. Jerome Emiliani had the "little orphans dispute the Christian doctrine" as early as 1524; indeed he had them recite the following prayer, in which one hears the echo of the Catholic reform as opposed to the Protestant Reformation: "Sweet Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray thee by thy infinite goodness, that thou reform Christendom to that state of holiness which was in the time of thy apostles" (S. Santinelli, Vita di s. Gir. Em., Venice 1767, p. 152), and he had a catechism composed by his friend Fra Reginaldo, a Dominican. St. Ignatius and his first companions taught the Christian doctrine, and the Society of Jesus, established in 1540, was to be distinguished in this work; its professed members make a special promise to teach the doctrine to children and to simple people. Likewise the Barnabites, whose general St. Alessandro Sauli published at Pavia in 1577 a Istruzione breve delle cose necessarie alla salute; the Piarists, whose institution dates back to 1597, had their Spiegazione della dottrina cristiana secondo il metodo dei Padri delle Scuole pie; still later the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded by St. G. B. de la Salle in 1681, would have catechesis as their principal aim; therefore in their school a stretch of time is set aside every day for the explanation of the catechism. Religious Congregations of catechists, such as that of the "Secular Priests of Christian Doctrine," called "Doctrinarians," founded by the venerable Cesare de Bus in 1592 in France. At the end of the 16th century the Florentine blessed Ippolito Galantini (1555-1619) established the lay Congregation of Christian Doctrine of the "Vanchetoni," so called from their modest demeanor ("Van cheti" - "they go quiet").

2. The Companies of Christian Doctrine

Castellino da Castello, a priest of the diocese of Como, in 1536 established the first company of Christian doctrine under the title "Company of the servants of the little children in charity" (begun from the gatherings of children in the church of St. Andrew, which the wool-carder Francesco Villanova held there to teach them the catechism). Similar Companies soon spread to other cities of northern Italy (Genoa, Vigevano, Verona, Piacenza, Parma, Lodi, Cremona, Varese). In Rome, in 1560, the first school of Christian Doctrine was begun in the church of St. Apollinaris through the work of the pious Milanese layman Marco de Sadis Cusani, under the spiritual direction of the Piacenzan Father Enrico Pietra, a contemporary and companion of St. Philip Neri, and of Father Cacciaguerra. The schools spread through the city, supported and promoted by the followers and penitents of Neri, and elsewhere, and they too took the name of "Companies of servants of the little children in charity." With the schools there also multiplied the sodalities that attended to them. One part of the Company established by Cusani was constituted, in 1586, as a Congregation of "Secular Priests of Christian Doctrine" called "Doctrinarians" or also "Agatists" from their church of St. Agatha in Trastevere; these were later, by Benedict XIV, united in 1747 with the French Doctrinarians of de Bus; the other part, which always remained a confraternity, was erected in 1607 as an archconfraternity by Paul V and still exists in Rome, but is harmonized and almost merged with the diocesan catechetical Commission of the Vicariate (Fr. Pascucci, L'insegnamento religioso in Roma dal Concilio di Trento ad oggi, Rome 1938).

Of the great good that these schools and Companies did, St. Charles Borromeo was a witness in Rome; therefore, having entered his diocese of Milan in 1566, he perfected and organized them: every castle or village of the diocese was to have its Company of Christian Doctrine; every school, five classes; every Company its "officers," who were to attend to the implementation of the practical norms imparted. His Costituzioni et Regole della Compagnia et Scuole della Dottrina cristiana (Milan 1585, reproduced in A. Ratti, Acta Eccl. Mediat., III, ibid. 1892, pp. 149-261) are a splendid model of catechetical legislation. And the fruit was so abundant that, whereas at his entry into the diocese he found only 15 schools, these, at his death, had risen to 740. The constitutions, increased with new practical norms by Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, were republished in 1610.

Contemporary with the work of Borromeo was that of Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, archbishop of Bologna. He too, from 1566, undertook to spread the same schools, giving them wise Ordini, one for "the boys" and the other for "the girls," in which is contained the program of the individual classes and the manner of ordering and governing them with discipline; then an Istruzione per li putti che desiderano vivere in Dio et particolarmente per quelli della Dottrina cristiana, a little manual, one might say, complete in etiquette; and finally, to be sure of the execution of his orders, a Regola da servirsi da tutti li curati (for the 16th century and part of the 17th, cf. the well-documented work of A. Tamborini).

Meanwhile in Germany, in contrast to the Lutheran c. of a "theological" character, people began to think, after the first attempts of G. Witzel and G. Dietenberger and after the proposal made by the Council of Trent (sess. IV, 5 April 1546), of compiling a "summary theology" for educated persons, as well as of drafting a brief catechism that would contain its principal conclusions for children and the common people. Hence the various catechisms of St. Peter Canisius, of great benefit to Catholic c., and in Italy the two similar works of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine.

From what precedes it can be said that the 16th century, for the religious Orders, the pious sodalities that arose to promote religious instruction and for the famous catechisms of Canisius and Bellarmine, was the golden century of Catholic c.; to which the Roman Catechism, composed by decree of the Council of Trent and published in 1566, gave authoritative doctrine and direction. The same can be said of the 17th century.

3. C. in the 18th century

However, from the end of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century c. suffered, by reaction, the influence of the currents of unbelief, which were growing stronger and becoming systematized. The Enlightenment, which proclaimed the autonomy of reason, rejected the supernatural, every dogma and every religious authority, and admitted no truths other than those that could be proved by reason, influenced not only pedagogy but also c., by minimizing the supernatural element and developing more extensively moral and rational teaching. Even without departing at all from the right faith, c., especially in the schools and in the instruction of youth and of the educated class, took on the aspect of apologetics, in which the philosophical theses of "natural religion" precede, as "praeambula fidei," the exposition of the revealed truths: the traditional partition (Creed, Commandments, Pater, Sacraments, works of mercy, virtues) is succeeded by systematic exposition, explaining the Doctrine and sometimes proceeding by Socratic questioning, according to a logical development of theses and propositions. The author who most distinguished himself in this is Ignaz Felbiger (1724-88), reformer of the schools in Silesia and Austria (cf. F. Weber, Gesch. des Katechismus in der Diöz. Rottenburg von der Aufklärungszeit bis zur Gegenwart, Freiburg im Br. 1939).

In the Papal States, on the other hand, traditional c. remained alive, thanks to the vigilance of the Popes, to the catechisms of Bellarmine, prescribed there, and to the work of the Archconfraternity of Christian Doctrine of Rome. In this period there arose in Viterbo the female religious Congregation of the Maestre Pie founded by the venerable Rosa Venerini (1656-1728), with the principal purpose of catechetical instruction for girls, for which she composed suitable question-and-answer texts, together with elementary instruction and women's work. At Montefiascone, this same Congregation took the name of "Maestre Pie Filippini," from St. Lucy Filippini, a disciple of Venerini, who continued its work at the wish of Cardinal M. A. Barbarigo (v.).

4. C. in the 19th and 20th centuries

In the 19th-20th centuries the revival of Catholic c. coincides with the re-establishment of the Society of Jesus (1814) and the rise of new religious Congregations that attend to the education of youth. In Italy particularly to be noted are the Salesians of St. John Bosco (1815-88), with their very popular Oratories and schools of every kind; the Giuseppini of the servant of God Leonardo Murialdo (1828-1900); the Stigmatines of the venerable Gaspare Bertoni (1777-1855) and the many female Congregations that take care of girls and small children.

Religious instruction, excluded in Italy from public schools because of the triumph of laicism (cf. N. Rezzara, Il problema scolastico nell'ora presente, Bergamo 1913), took refuge in the parishes and in Catholic educational works. Three distinguished bishops labored especially to promote it: Cardinal Alfonso Capecelatro (1824-1912), Archbishop of Capua; Geremia Bonomelli (1831-1914), Bishop of Cremona, clear and effective author of the excellent catechism manual Il giovane studente istruito nella religione (Brescia 1869), which went through many editions; and Giovanni B. Scalabrini (1839-1905), Bishop of Piacenza, a great organizer of diocesan and parochial catechesis and of the formation of catechists, founder of the first catechetical periodical in Italy: Il catechista cattolico, which appeared on 5 July 1876; and likewise the organizer of the first Catechetical Congress, in 1899, at Piacenza, which was attended by 400 delegates from various parts of Italy. After Pius X's encyclical on catechesis Acerbo nimis of 25 April 1905, various catechetical congresses were held: Milan 1907, Rome 1908, Lucca and Bologna 1909, again at Milan 1910. More important was that of Brescia in 1912, because it presented an organic and complete plan—diocesan, parochial, scholastic—to make up for the lack of religious instruction in the public school, with the formula approved by Pius X, of a «Catechism in the form of a true school with a cyclical intuitive method», which served as a guide for subsequent congresses and for the «catechetical weeks» and «days» in the various regions, particularly for the clergy. The purpose of the Congress was to study the means of making the teaching of religion more effective for adults, for young people, for apprentice workers, for young women and for children, and on that occasion a memorial was also sent to the Ministry of Public Instruction so that religious instruction might be restored in the public schools.

A first step occurred in 1923 (decree of 1 October, no. 2185), when the teaching of religion, considered as «foundation and crown of elementary studies», was made compulsory for the primary school; a second, when this teaching was permitted in the secondary school; the third and last when it was sanctioned for them in art. 36 of the Concordat between the Holy See and Italy on 11 February 1929. Courses of preparation and qualification were then instituted for elementary school teachers and teachers of religion in secondary schools; many textbooks designed for the various schools appeared, and even lay educationalists began to take an interest in the application of so-called «active» methods to catechesis, especially in the school.

Religious instruction still remains excluded, at least officially, from our universities, ever since (law of 26 January 1873, no. 1251, art. 1) the chairs of theology were abolished; nor are the times yet ripe for re-establishing them (cf. R. Lombardi, Filosofia e teologia nelle università regie, in Civ. Catt., 1942, I, pp. 188-200, and the I Convegno nazionale di studi filosofici. Relazioni, Rome 1941). However, after the experience of two wars which has brought to light, in all its harshness, the true sickness of society, which is its being uprooted from God, an attempt has been made to remedy this by instituting «theological studies for the laity», with programs and divisions of subjects suited and conforming to a true university teaching. Begun at Florence in 1945, they soon spread, in order of time, to Padua, Naples, Perugia, Messina, Assisi, Viterbo, Albano, Potenza, and they are flanked by the review Città di vita, which appeared in 1946 and serves as the official organ for the various centers (cf. R. Sciamannini, Gli studi teologici per i laici, in Ecclesia, 8 [1949], pp. 488-90).

This movement for the educated laity had been preceded from 1918 onward by the work of the Jesuit Father Agostino Garagnani, attached to the Gregorian University; at the beginning it had as its program an isolated chair of apologetics; but already from the following year, 1919, it developed into a true institute of higher religious culture, with systematic courses for university students, the study circle and the circulating apologetic library. In 1927-28 the courses were placed at the disposal of the organization of Catholic Action (cf. R. Lombardi, Una opera e un uomo: il p. Garagnani, in Civ. Catt., 1944, III, pp. 202-13). From 1940, Pro civitate christiana has held annually at Assisi a course of Christian studies, following as its outline the articles of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed; courses which are assuming an ever-growing importance and interest both because of the authority of the teachers who give the lectures and because of the attendance of the participants (cf. the volumes published under the title: Il Simbolo, Assisi 1940 ff.; and La Rocca, quindicinale di informazione cristologica, there from 1942). From the same Pro civitate christiana there came, a few years ago, the appeal for the founding of Domus christianae, periodic gatherings in private houses, where, under the guidance of a priest, religious questions are treated and discussed. Alongside other similar higher courses of religion, mostly attached to institutes of culture, mention should also be made of the religious conferences held in secular settings (universities, theaters, public halls, etc.), whose attendance and success attest how alive in the modern mind is the interest in religious subjects.

VII. CATECHETICS IN THE CHURCH'S PRESENT-DAY LEGISLATION

The CIC devotes an entire chapter to catechetical instruction (cann. 1329-36) and establishes with vigorous wording that "it is the proper and most grave duty, especially of pastors of souls, to attend to the religious instruction of the Christian people" (can. 1329). In the following canons it determines the obligation of parish priests in the various particulars, both toward children as preparation for Confession and Communion; and toward young people in the subsequent years, for whom a broader instruction must be organized; and toward adults, to whom the catechism must be explained every Sunday and holy day of obligation. The parish priest may have recourse to the help of other ecclesiastics and of religious, who are obliged to lend it, and especially to the more lay persons enrolled in the sodality of Christian doctrine. Moreover, parents or guardians, godparents and masters must also ensure for those under them a good religious instruction. To the canons already cited, others must be added, e.g. can. 711 § 2 (confraternity of Christian Doctrine in every parish), cann. 509 § 2, 565 § 2, 1366, 1373 (concerning religious instruction in religious institutes, in seminaries and in schools); can. 1020 (for a possible examination in catechism before marriage), can. 2182 (concerning the related penal measures).

The whole catechetical legislation of the CIC summarizes various decisions already issued previously (e.g., Council of Trent, sess. XXIV, De Reform., chaps. 4 and 7; Benedict XIV, encyclical Etsi minime, 7 Feb. 1742; Pius IX, encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum, 8 Dec. 1849; Leo XIII, letter In mezzo, 26 June 1878; and especially Pius X, encyclical Acerbo nimis, 15 Apr. 1905, the "magna carta" of the catechetical movement in modern times; encyclical Editiae saepe, 26 May 1910). Pius XI, in his turn, wished to impart more definite norms in relation to the imperious needs of the times: by the motu proprio "Orbem catholicum" (29 June 1923), he established at the Sacred Congregation of the Council the Catechetical Office to regulate catechetical works throughout the whole Church; by the decree Provido sane consilio of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, 12 Jan. 1935, he determined in particular the organization of diocesan and parochial catechetical works in the form of a true school and the obligation of bishops to report on them every five years to the same Sacred Congregation, according to a questionnaire of 24 points. And already earlier, by a brief of 26 Apr. 1932, he had proclaimed St. Charles Borromeo and St. Robert Bellarmine heavenly patrons of all works of religious instruction throughout the world (cf. for these and numerous other documents: G. Luzi, La legislazione catechistica di Pio XI, Rome 1941).

VIII. CATECHETICS IN THE MISSIONS

From the Middle Ages onward, until the discoveries of the great navigators and after them, Christian princes considered themselves obliged to bring Christianity to the conquered lands (and believed themselves invested with the authority to impose it even by force) through Baptism conferred on the population en masse; therefore the catechesis of missionaries is later (cf. A. Våth, Das Bild der Weltkirche, Hannover 1932, p. 30).

The first work of evangelization by St. Francis Xavier in the Portuguese Indies in fact took place in the catechesis of the Paravas of the Fishery Coast, Christians in name only. Having barely landed at Goa in 1542, the Saint began (Epist., 15, nos. 12-15) to teach the prayers, the Creed and the Commandments in Portuguese to the children; then, translated into the Tamil language, to the populations already baptized but without any instruction on the Fishery Coast and at Tuticorin; then at Malacca, in the Malay language; finally in Japan in the Japanese language. The procedure of his catechesis was very simple, and he himself sets it out in an instruction for catechists (Epist., 53). The first part of the lesson consisted in the recitation of the common prayers, sometimes in dialogue form, so that the catechist, by his question, elicited as a response an article of the Creed, or a clause of the prayer, or one of the Commandments. There followed the variable part, that is, the explanation of some one of the truths of the faith and of other things necessary to be known. It concluded with a prayer. The Saint (Epist., 59, no. 3) also made use of the singing of children and of the various popular classes, both in place of profane songs and to make it easier to retain by memory the answers of the catechism (cf. G. Schurhammer and J. Wicki, Epist. s. Francisco Xaverio aliaque eius scripta [Momm. Histor. S. I., 67-68], 2 vols., Rome 1944-45, especially I, pp. 93-105; and for the catechesis in the Tamil, Malay and Japanese languages: II, pp. 581-99).

In India, a land of millennial civilization, of subtle philosophical-religious speculations and of an iron separation of castes, catechesis demanded very special procedures and methods in order to win to the faith the Brahmins and the high castes, who had always opposed a wall of bronze to evangelization, even that of Xavier himself, who complained of it and carried out his conversions among the lower castes. These were begun by the Jesuit Father Roberto de Nobili (1577-1666) with adaptation to their mentality and their customs, with a perfect knowledge of their spoken language and of Sanskrit (the language of their sacred books), and with the avoidance of all direct polemic. He began by declaring the concept of God and of creation from nothing; by dispelling, through the positive exposition of the truth, the fundamental errors of Hinduism: theopanismo, a kind of idealistic pantheistic emanatism, and the transmigration of souls; then he proceeded gradually in the expositions of Christian dogma and morality. Thus he succeeded in converting a great number of Brahmins (cf. P. Dahmen, Un Jésuite brahme, R. de Nobili, Bruges 1925). In the same way, except for the adaptation of customs, no longer necessary, catechesis is carried on even now among the Hindus of high caste, although conversions are still few (cf. M. Barbera, L'incantesimo dell'induismo, Brescia 1939).

In the modern missions catechesis is embodied in the whole complex of methods of evangelization, which vary according to the degree of civilization of the various peoples. It suffices here to note that among peoples of ancient civilization (India, China, Japan), for the educated class, the dogmatic exposition is preceded by instruction in the moral and religious truths of a rational order, in order to dispel the prejudices proper to the respective religions, separating out whatever in them conforms to reason. This is generally done in the schools opened by missionaries to all, in conferences, etc. Among barbarous peoples, on the other hand, one begins by humanizing them (as the Jesuits did in the famous Reductions of Paraguay) through works of charity; then one proceeds to catechesis in the catechumenates, and Baptism is not given until they are sufficiently accustomed to Christian customs (cf. J. Schmidlin, Missionslehre im Grundriss, 2nd ed., Münster in W. 1923, pp. 359-72, 421-22).

Celestino Testore

IX. CATECHETICS IN CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Catechesis, generally entrusted to presbyters, sometimes also to laymen or to widows, is often depicted in ancient Christian art and especially in sculpture. A magnificent example is the Lateran sarcophagus discovered in 1881 near the tomb of Licinius Peto on the Via Salaria Nuova, dating from the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 3rd. On one side a bearded teacher is represented wearing the philosophical pallium, surrounded by standing figures: he sits and gazes toward a volume that he holds open with both hands. Similar figurations are found in other sarcophagi in which the catechumens are depicted either as praying figures (sarcophagus of S. Maria Antiqua), or in the act of listening (sarcophagus in the Museo Civico of Ravenna).

Wilpert saw the scene of catechesis imparted in a carriage by the deacon Philip to the minister of Queen Candace in a series of reliefs from the early years of the 4th century depicting two men on a carpentum, as in a relief in the Museo Nazionale Romano (Inv. 8492). Such sculptures, however, seem rather to be scenes of the last journey so dear to Etruscan and Roman artists. The catechesis of St. Philip appears instead for the first time in the 11th century in the Menologion of Basil II. - See Pl. LXI.

Giuseppe Bovini