Catechetical Reawakening in Bloemfontein Archdiocese
By Ikenna Ekwerike – Catechesis has often been narrowly and wrongly understood as a once-off affair that prepares individuals for the sacraments.
Catechesis these days tends to be organised like the school system where the aim is to cover designated curriculum and then examination to determine and award qualifications. Far from that, chapter two of the General Directory for Catechesis (no. 171-188) notes that catechesis is a continuing encounter with the Gospel for daily conversion directed to all categories of people in the Church; adults, infants and children, young people and the aged. It is against this backdrop that the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s missiological and pastoral institute, otherwise known as Lumko Institute adopted its famous womb-to-tomb structure of catechesis to emphasise that catechesis is a journey of a lifetime.
To this end, there is renewed drive in Bloemfontein Archdiocese to make every baptised Christian assume and reflect brightly, in their individual lives, this deepest identity of the Church. The Archdiocese, in the first of week of March, convened a two-day intensive catechetical workshop that was mandatory for all priests and deacons in the Archdiocese as well as coordinators of catechesis at both deanery and parish levels.
In an interview, the chief pastor of the Archdiocese, Archbishop Zolile Mpambani SCJ, highlighted that catechesis was being revitalised in the Diocese in order that it could more fruitfully serve the pastoral plan of the Catholic Church in Southern Africa which urgently ‘invites communities to be and become an evangelising community serving God, humanity and all creation’.
He noted that the recipe for building an evangelising community of service was true conversion of community’s individual members. “Conversion”, he said, “is not something you verbally announce to people; it is the radical transformation of the human person that results in a more positive, attentive, affective, generous, gentle and sensitive manner of relating with others. Such a transformation, like a sweet fragrance, is easily perceptible and cannot be confined to oneself. It immediately reaches out, seeking to enrich the lives of other members of the community without discrimination”.
A workshop of such magnitude that aimed at strengthening the capacity of pastoral agents and at the same time equip them with useful novel methods and skills is definitely a bold but expensive investment. Human capital development, everywhere, requires a huge financial muscle; something that is farfetched today in most of the Dioceses across the country. But undeterred, the Archbishop declared that the mandate to evangelise is one that should go on regardless of the challenges. He stated: “As far as we are concerned, evangelisation and catechesis are priceless. We look forward to that time when our communities would have been transformed to look a lot more like the early Church. The early Christian community was a synodal Church where everyone took personal responsibility for spreading of the gospel and sustenance of the community”.
Fortunately, the new spark of evangelising catechesis in Bloemfontein is already re-igniting the fire within and causing men and women to rededicate themselves to the gospel and the community. Interaction with some of the priests who attended the workshop indicated a renewed sense of duty towards quality catechesis in the parishes. They expressed confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit to inspire Christians in the parishes to recommit themselves to God and to the community towards synodality.
Similarly, the workshop became an avenue for catechists to review the challenges facing catechesis, catechists, existing catechetical methodologies and catechisms. Many felt refreshed and brimmed with new vigour and enthusiasm.
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