Catechism in Australian Catholic Schools

¶ … Catechism in Australian Catholic Schools

Why did the question-and-answer catechism cease to be used in Australian Catholic schools in the 1960s?

The fundamentals of the Christian tradition are often said to be that of kerygma or acting as a 'herald' of the Good News; leiturgia, or coming together to pray (and to accept the body and blood of Christ); koinonia (coming together as a community); didache (teaching) and diakonia (charity) (14). The function of the catechism with in the Catholic Church grew increasingly controversial during the 20th century and the refinement of its function could be said to touch upon all aspects of these elements of the faith, given that the transmission of its truths takes place within a communal, liturgical context and involves how the teaching of the word of Christ will be passed down from generation to generation. The ultimately successful movement to reform the catechism was known as the kerygmatic movement as it focused upon the manner of the transmission more so than how or what meaning was transmitted.

Teaching rightly to spread the word of Christ has always been an essential part of the Christian faith, given that it began as an apostolic, missionary movement designed to convert all listeners to the truth, regardless of where they lived. This explains the concern over 'correct' transmission of that faith (15). Almost immediately, the question arose: did this way of 'right teaching' of the words of Christ also mean sharpening the intellectual facility of the learners? In the early church, there was a schism between advocates of teaching pagan, Platonic learning as a way of better understanding Christian teaching, and Christian thinkers who wished to pass down only 'pure' Christian thought.

In the pre-Vatican II era in Australia and much of the Western world, there was a growing call to question received knowledge in any form, even within the Catholic community. The traditional question-and-answer catechism was challenged by reformers who believed that such an approach was only valid after students had learned to more creatively engage with the material and truly learn and understand what the words meant. Humanistic philosophies of education that focused on the learner as a person, and the value of process-based learning began to penetrate Christian pedagogical thought. The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) stressed that merely transmitting the words of the catechism was not enough. Precisely how those words were understood and received must also be taken into consideration. Merely changing the current catechism would not suffice -- the method of passing on the Good News had to be adapted to the new environment. The beginning point of instruction must be rooted in the individual's own life experiences, and not founded on the transmission of words.

It should be noted that as radical as such a concept may have sounded, it is not without precedent within church tradition. St. Augustine, after all, called his sacred text the Confessions, and began with a story of his own transgressions after proceeding to explain how his life story of conversion was instructive for all Christians (16). The resistance to the change was rooted in the fact that the existing catechism had been a part of the structure of Christian teaching since the 1500s. At the time, the question-and-response format seemed an ideal way of instructing converts and children 'correctly.' The text originally began as a preacher's reference, rather than was intended as a pedagogical instrument (25). As pointed out by Herbert Lombaerts, the catechism arose as a reaction to the Protestant Reformation -- as a way of purifying the new Catholic faith, and distilling its very essence from the trappings of the cult of the saints and papal authority. The catechism itself, however, became a kind of holy relic, and the words and structure of the text took on symbolic value, beyond their actual meaning (Lombaerts 1986: 5).

Studying a mid-1970s classroom text for use in Australian Catholic entitled Here and now reflects a far different concept of the student than the rote repeater of dogma of the pre-Vatican II era. In the textbook, the student is asked to make a list of all personal characteristics, secular as well as sacred, and compare his 'I am' list with such 'I am' statements as made by Christ in the Bible (4). As noted by Lombaerts, as much as this may seem to be a product of the 'Me Generation' era, it is also a reflection of a desire to continue the transmission of timeless truths in an effective fashion. While faith and the truth of Christ's teaching may be eternal, the essence of free will is understanding this to be the case and receiving it within one's heart. This is of far greater importance than merely memorizing answers (Lombaerts 1986: 14).