CATHECHESIS

New Horizons of Catechesis in a World of Media

To begin with, let me introduce the ever-evolving phenomena of this new media environment. We live in a culture where the world becomes a global village. It is because the swift communication possible anywhere, anytime and without any delay. The mass media have given rise to a new language of communication. This new language even affects the faith life of everyone in the globe. Aetatis Novae (pastoral instruction on social communication) correctly pointed out, “Nowhere today are people untouched by the impact of media upon religious and moral attitudes, political and social systems, and education.” We communicate through gestures, images, symbols and rituals. In the age of images, new world views and languages that one needs to see the new shifts in catechesis from its traditional paradigm. Sharing Catechesis is not just the transmission of a message. It is nurturing of faith. It is an action that deals with the social and ecclesial elements that we believe in. Catechesis has the role of transmitting the divine message to societies and individuals who live in history and make history. Biblical studies have long emphasized that literary forms moulded the Christian faith from the start. Bible contains at least five dominant genres: story, law, proverb, psalm, and oracle. Each of these forms has communicative potentials. More importantly, because religious language is the language of metaphor and symbol, an integration of this language is absolutely essential for catechesis and evangelisation. God-talk moves back and forth between the world of common sense and the world of imagination.

Catechesis has always been related to communication.  But, people often reduce catechesis to a limited perspective of incorporating audio-visual elements (slides, videos, music) into the techniques of catechesis. I have observed this dangerous tendency among some experts. My observation is that some consider technology the hallmark of communication, though it does have a role to play. Applying audio-visual methods to an unchanged approach in catechesis is ineffective. One needs to reflect whether such incorporation affects the very concept of catechesis. According to Gabriel Moran and Maria Harris, catechesis involves language and form. That means one needs to go beyond words and schooling. The early Church employed a variety of forms in catechesis. Community, prayer, worship, proclamation of the word, works that serve justice have always been forms of educating in the church. They are named, for example, in Acts 2: 44-47, where the apostles are described as continuing in ... the teaching (didache) of the apostles (kerygma) and in the communion (koinonia)  of breaking the bread and the prayers (leiturgia) as well as being concerned about and aware of anyone who had need (diakonia). This view is again stressed in the General Directory of Catechesis as an essential task of catechesis. At the same time proclamation, witness, teaching, sacrament, and love of neighbour are essential dimensions of catechesis.  This perspective of catechesis leaves us a new catechetical world-view. Thus we who have received our faith from our parents, teachers and various sources have the responsibility and mandate to communicate this faith because we as called to catechise can’t remain without communicating our faith.

In the early twentieth century Wassily Kandinsky (Russian modern abstract painter) viewed art as a protest against materialism. He was convinced that art could be a source of spiritual reform. He believed that abstract forms, lines, and colours communicated a common religious language, transcending national values and orientations. For Van Gogh (a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter) the whole of the physical world was spirit-filled; thus a still life, an interior scene, or landscape could communicate a religious vision. The early icons were the gospel of the poor, so said Pope Gregory the Great. Walt Disney had a group of people called, imagineers. Their job was to be engaged in Imagineering, that is, to engage in constant creative thinking about the work they were missioned to do. We need to put new wine into new wineskins (Mt. 9: 17) if our communicating of faith is to be sustained in the future. What are these new wineskins and conditions required for s to be imagineers? First of all we need to shift from the perspective of working with old wineskins. We are beginning to see that as catechists develop more experience with computers and the Internet as learning and thinking tools, they realize that these tools could be a vehicle for restructuring our traditional understanding of the parish and school curriculum and classroom practice.

          In Communicating Christ to the World, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini wrote: “For authentic communication of the message to be possible . . . in a world that is reaching the dimensions of a ‘village,’ we must, in every field, commit ourselves to improving our competence in communications in order to place it at the service of the Gospel.” If we are to catechise effectively, not only must we witness to our faith and be willing to share our faith story with those we are catechising, but we must also employ the best pedagogical tools. Remember that we may decide to walk cautiously into the new media frontier, but we cannot ignore the possibilities or opportunities it has to offer our catechetical ministry. I am reminded of the Chinese proverb which is still relevant today: “I hear . . . and I forget. I see . . . and I remember. I do . . . and I understand.”

Fr. Robert Johnson (Archdiocese of Calcutta)