Online Conference hosted February 2022

In February, 2022, the IMF hosted an online conference on the Vatican Directory for Catechesis 2020.  Nationally renowned speakers covered major sections of the Vatican Directory for Catechesis and the recorded videos continue to be a treasure for the Church.

Not an age of changes but a change of age: A renewed approach to catechesis from a missionary key

In 2020, the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization published and Pope Francis signed, the third Directory for Catechesis since the Second Vatican Council. What is new about it? The new Vatican Directory on Catechesis (2020) has “as its point of reference…the Synod on The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith, together with the apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis Evangelii Gaudium. … A closer look at the cultural context brings out the new problems with which the Church is being called to live: two in particular. The first is the phenomenon of digital culture, which brings along with it a second implication, the globalization of culture.” (from the Preface)

What is the structure of the Directory?

“The three parts of this Directory for Catechesis therefore, develop the catechetical journey under the primacy of evangelization.” We speak of a kerygmatic catechesis. “The primacy of the kerygma, to the point of leading us to propose a kerygmatic catechesis, does not detract at all from the value of mystagogy or from the witness of charity. Only a superficial mindset could lead one to think of the first proclamation as an argument designed simply for the purpose of convincing one’s interlocutor. Proclaiming the Gospel is witnessing to an encounter that keeps the focus on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnate in the history of humanity, in order to bring to fulfillment the revelation of the Father’s saving love.” (from the Preface)

How is faith transmitted?

“Faith, in fact, is transmitted through interpersonal connection and is nourished within the circle of the community. The need to express the faith with liturgical prayer and to bear witness to it with the power of charity entails going beyond the fragmentary nature of specific initiatives in order to recover the original unity of Christian existence. This has its foundation in the word of God proclaimed and transmitted by the Church with a Tradition that is alive, able to incorporate the old and the new (cf. Mt 13:52) of generations of believers spread through every part of the world.” (from the Preface)

Conference speakers

The following experts from around the country presented at this online conference:

• Barbara Matera
• Judene Indovina
• Deacon Larry Sutton
• Trinka Hamel
• Bishop Larry Kulick
• Bobbie Anne Abson
• Dana Winters
• Michael King
• Michel Therrien
• Helene Paharik
• Nick Wagner
• Mary Ann Boyarski
• Mary Mirrione
• Annie Sarlo
• Fr. Boniface Hicks, OSB
• Celine Mitchell

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