Rome (Italy). In the months of June and July 2024, the Youth Ministry Sector of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, with the International Commission of Catechesis, brought together the Provincial Councils of the various conferences through a multimedia platform to present the synthesis of the responses to the questionnaire on catechesis.
This is the scan of the online meetings: 26 May for the NAC Conference, 21 June for the CIB Conference, 6 July for the CICSAL Conference, 12 July for the CIAM Conference, 13 July for the CINAB and PCI Conferences, July for the CIAO and CIMAC conferences, and July 27 for the SPR.
The questionnaire is a tool implemented to respond in more depth to one of the guidelines of action proposed by General Chapter XXIV: “give new impetus to evangelization by giving priority to the First Proclamation of Jesus and catechesis.”
Sent to the Provinces in September 2023, it had two specific objectives: to accompany the Provinces in a more updated and concrete knowledge of the resources present in them, with attention to this essential dimension of the mission; to consider how the International Commission of Catechesis could best respond to their requests.
In her initial greeting, Sister Runita Borja, General Counselor for Youth Ministry, explained that the online meeting was a way to thank all the Provinces for their participation and for the commitment and accuracy with which they answered the questionnaire. She affirmed, “We believe that a cultural, theological, and catechistical Salesian formation is fundamental to give a new impulse to the processes of evangelization, the first proclamation of Jesus, and catechesis.”
At the end of the presentation, the International Commission of Catechesis left some suggestions based on the results, so that each Province and Conference may continue this commitment of renewal as an Institute:
- In each Province, a person is to be appointed to be responsible for evangelization-catechesis which, in close coordination with the coordinator of the Provincial Youth Ministry, provide guidelines for structured and systematic catechesis in each community.
- In each Province, an evangelization-catechesis team is to be set up that can systematically organize formative spaces for catechists (sisters and lay people) at the provincial level. This team, starting from the reflection on the province reality, must promote the elaboration of catechetical itineraries that respond to their own context.
- Each conference should consider the possibility of having an inter-provincial team for catechesis, with the aim of sharing human and material resources to enrich the process and give new impetus to catechesis in each Conference.
- Each conference highlighted formation centers that offer courses, diplomas, licenses for updating in catechesis, Bible, theology, etc. Each Province is encouraged to turn to these formation centers in order to better qualify better Sisters, lay people, young people, and catechists.
- From the responses to the questionnaire, it is evident that in each Province various processes have been initiated to give new impetus to catechesis, which they are encouraged to continue. In turn, the International Commission for Catechesis will continue to offer two webinars per year, in March and December.
In each meeting, the Provincial Councils expressed deep gratitude for the care that the institute has given to catechesis. Each meeting ended with the message of Sister Runita, “May Mary be your teacher, as she was for Saint John Bosco, for Saint Mary Mazzarello, and for generations of Sisters and young people of the Institute who, through catechesis, accompanied others to the personal encounter with Jesus, Way, Truth, and Life.”
