CATECHUMENATE AND CATECHUMEN. — The catechumenate may be defined as the novitiate of the Christian life, imposed by the Church upon those aspiring to Baptism. A catechumen is the aspirant himself who attends the catechumenate. Both terms derive from κατηχήσει (to teach by word of mouth). This immediately indicates that doctrinal formation is the foundation of the catechumenate.
I. THE CATECHUMENATE IN THE EARLY AGES OF THE CHURCH
In the early centuries of the Church, the catechumenate involved a combination of rites, moral obligations, and instruction, from which no one could escape.Its development varies in the different Churches of the West, whereas the substance is common in the Churches of the East. From Justin (I Apol., 61: PG 6, 420) we learn that three conditions were necessary to receive Baptism: being convinced and believing the Church’s teaching to be true, committing oneself to live as a good Christian, and repenting of past faults. The period of preparation was spent in prayer and fasting. There was thus no fixed term of preparation such as the Apostolic Constitution of Egypt, attributed today to Hippolytus, describes—a term that could be shortened to three years. The universal and complete establishment of the catechumenate was the result of a complex of causes, including the spread of Christianity, the need for more thorough formation in the face of heretical attacks, and perhaps indirectly the influence of pagan mysteries. At first, Baptism was administered throughout the year, preferably on Sundays, and thus there was no precise period for the discipline of the catechumenate.
When it became customary to administer Baptism at Easter, those enrolled, while following during Lent the penitential discipline practiced by the faithful, devoted themselves in particular to the three practices that together constituted the baptismal training: 1) catechesis (v.); 2) exorcisms: consisting of various ceremonies and holy initiations by which the candidates for Baptism renounced Satan and his works and were gradually sanctified and prepared for the sacrament of regeneration; 3) scrutinies: examinations in which the candidates were questioned about what they were required to know and promise regarding faith and Christian living, to be deemed fit to be enrolled in the Christian family. There were three scrutinies, celebrated on the Sundays before that which we now call Palm Sunday, which in the ancient rite was intended for the candidates who solemnly received the sign of the Creed (traditio Symboli). In the sixth century this was preceded by the handing over of the Gospels (aperitio aurium) and followed by that of the Pater noster. When, in the seventh century, the Baptism of adults became little more than a liturgical remembrance, the rites of the catechumenate passed from the realm of actual practice into that of symbolism, where they developed wonderfully. The scrutinies, for example, became definitively seven “according to the form of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.” The catechumenate existed no longer than in the memory of rites preserved substantially in the Ordines for the administration of Baptism, but in some Churches those who were to become spiritual fathers were called to attend, so that they might renew the notions of faith they would one day have to impart to their spiritual children: this lasted until about the fourteenth century. From antiquity, since catechumens were not yet admitted to the Eucharistic rites, after the first part of the Mass (the “Mass of the catechumens”), they were dismissed.
II. THE CATECHUMENATE IN THE MISSIONS
In the missions, the catechumenate has not always received the importance and development it deserved. Around the mid-sixteenth century, the Jesuits and others sought to counter the insufficient preparation of catechumens, as did some councils and synods, but without great success. Thus, examples of the catechumenate arose in China and, more successfully, in Africa through the work of Italian Capuchins.
Papal documents in general, and especially the prescriptions issued by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and the Holy Office, insisted on the necessity of the catechumenate, recommending thorough prebaptismal preparation. In the instruction of 1669 to the French vicars apostolic of the Far East, the Congregation of Propaganda established a forty-day period for the catechumenate, while in that of 1801 it left the duration to the discretion of the vicars apostolic. At present, the duration of the catechumenate in the various missions varies widely, ranging from a few months to four or five years, especially in African missions. Such diversity in practice depends on many subjective and environmental factors that may delay or expedite an individual’s preparation for Baptism. The territories of mission exhibit such varied conditions that it is impossible to establish fixed criteria, and therefore an elasticity is necessary that, for the most part, does not unnecessarily delay the day of grace.
Modern methodology has introduced the precatechumenate or postulancy, during which candidates acquire the indispensable dispositions to enter the catechumenate proper. It seems that the priority belongs to Cardinal Carlo M. Lavigerie, who, concerned about the difficulties presented by the conversion of Muslims, sought thus to subject them to the influence, if not the yoke, of the Gospel. According to this principle, he distinguished three classes of those catechized: postulants, to whom only the fundamental truths of the natural order, illumined by the light of Revelation, needed to be taught (admission to this instruction, which constituted the precatechumenate, required no commitment or sacrifice); catechumens, who formed the second class; and the faithful. This was the practice introduced by the White Fathers, founded by the same Cardinal Lavigerie, and imitated by others.
The precatechumenate must be organized outside and independently of the catechumenate, with regular meetings in premises distinct from the church. The true catechumenate, on the other hand, is the period of preparation for Baptism and begins when the pagan postulant is enrolled in the list of those to be baptized. In China, India, and Africa, where it is most in use, admission is accompanied by a public ceremony that includes instruction; a solemn renunciation of fetishism, idolatry, and polygamy; a profession of faith; and a formal request for Baptism.
In many missions, it is customary to gather catechumens for several days, often for many months, in a central mission station or even in the residence of the missionary, in a kind of closed catechumenate. Houses of the catechumenate were introduced in the Portuguese colonies at the initiative of St. Ignatius, who had seen them in London, and he himself established one in Rome for converted Jews. In some missions, the entire preparation for Baptism takes place in these houses; in others, only immediate preparation is done there, while candidates first undergo a trial in their villages. Elsewhere, they are brought in repeatedly—at the beginning of the catechumenate, after several months, and at the end for final preparation. Moreover, some missionaries require that all catechumens spend some weeks there, while others are content if each family of catechumens sends one of its members. There are also those who demand this only of isolated converts, and when dealing with groups of families, the missionary himself visits them.
In the Congo and Rhodesia, the Jesuits introduced *fermes-chapelles* as early as 1895 to gather children there in order to remove them from the corrupt pagan environment. In 1933, due to government hostility, the *fermes-chapelles* ceased to function altogether. Nevertheless, the Jesuits still today apply similar methods, seeking to establish new villages in Rhodesia with candidates for Baptism.
The multiplicity of initiatives in this matter and the variation in the duration of the catechumenate depend on the goals to be achieved, as well as on the urgency of remedying numerous inconveniences arising from closed catechumenates, especially when they are prolonged for a considerable period. Short, repeated internships are to be preferred. The method of *fermes-chapelles* and Christian villages
It is not free from difficulties, both because of the complex organization it requires and because in many regions inhabited by individuals of different tribes it is doomed to failure, being contrary to the principle of respecting the ethnological and moral units of the territories.
**