The Development of Catechetical Directories after the Second Vatican Council (1971–1997–2020)

Abstract

On 23 March 2020, Pope Francis approved a new Directory for Catechesis, which was prepared by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. The first Directorium Catechisticum Generale of 1971 responded to the great ecclesial event of the Second Vatican Council and its general reform and renewal. The subsequent catechetical documents also responded to the signs of the times in a rapidly changing world, continuing the main message. The Second General Directory for Catechesis of 1997 drew on synods, which emphasised the importance of catechesis, and especially the John Paul II’s Exhortation Catechesi tradendae (1979) and the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) had a decisive role in the new development of the objectives, contents and methodological issues. The third Directory for Catechesis of 2020 is a dynamic elaboration on the two previous texts maintaining continuity with them. It is also a reading of contemporary signs of the times.

The Directory is a normative ecclesial document that contains fundamental theological-pastoral principles drawn mainly from the documents of the Second Vatican Council, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and other documents of the Church’s Magisterium in the area of catechesis, as well as general guidelines for episcopates to develop national catechetical directories which, while taking into account specific conditions, will guide the path of catechetical ministry in particular Churches. Their development after the Second Vatican Council marks the transition to the next stage of the proclamation of the Gospel in the modern world.