UNIVERSITÀ PONTIFICIA SALESIANA, U. MONTISCI (a cura di), , San Paolo Edizioni, Milano 2023, pp. 720.
The Institute of Catechetics (ICa), of the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the Salesian Pontifical University of Rome, after having curated the national research Catechists today in Italy (LAS, Rome 2021), with the coordination of Ubaldo Montisci promotes this platform updated for the training of catechists, making use of specialists in the catechetical field, in the theological sciences, education and communication, known in Italy and abroad.
Descrizione del libro
What does it mean to teach religion today in Italy?
What is the cultural context in which catechesis is grafted?
And, in turn, what are the cultural processes (languages, contents, methodologies) that it applies to be part of this cultural fabric in transformation?
The Catechetical Institute of the Pontifical Salesian University has tried to answer these and many other questions through this well-curated volume dedicated to the formation of catechists.
The volume offers a path for the formation of today’s catechists in Italy, developed in seven parts.
Each explores a fundamental aspect: from the identity and formation of catechists to the vision of catechesis as a process that involves several generations, from the method and language of catechesis to its analysis in the context of the local Church.
The first part outlines the horizon and presents the coordinates of culture in Italy today, including religious and pastoral.
The second part presents the specific focus of catechesis. We enter into the language and languages, the content and method of catechesis, recalling the relationship between God’s pedagogy and human pedagogy, the narrative, dialogic and linguistic structure, digital culture, the function of catechisms and written texts and multimedia.
The third part dwells on the determining and central point of the identity of the formation of catechists.
The fourth part explores the vision of catechesis as a process. The phases and dynamics of the Kerygma and of the “first proclamation”, of initiatory catechesis and forms of initiatory resumption by young people and adults, of ongoing catechesis with adults, of family and “intergenerational” catechesis are presented. The fifth part considers catechesis in context, especially in the local Churches.
The sixth part, on the border, deals with the teaching of the Catholic religion which falls within the scope of the “educational pact” with and for the new generations.
The seventh part offers a panoramic view of catechetical science both in its epistemological and in its formative characterization.
In support and conclusion of the work, the training proposal of the Institute that takes care of the volume and of other centers present in Italy is outlined.
The presentation is by Mons. Giulio Francesco Brambilla, President of the Episcopal Commission for the doctrine of the faith, proclamation and catechesis, CEI.
«The historical moment that we live in Italy, in Europe and in the other continents is particular: pandemic and war, energy crisis and threats to the ecosystem, but also the desire for peace and fraternity, the need for conversion and change of course.
The breath impressed by Pope Francis and repeatedly reaffirmed and relaunched in meetings with the Italian Church awaits to be inculturated in our national context, with a renewed sense of ministeriality and diakonia, with the promotion of an “outgoing” catechesis, in the sign of mercy and as a “laboratory for dialogue” – as expressed in the recent Directory for Catechesis of 2020 (nn. 48-54)”.
