Daily Reflection

NAVIGATING A NEW PATH FOR CATECHESIS: AN URGENT TASK FOR THE CLERGY AND THE RELIGIOUS IN NIGERIA

BY  
REV FR AMOBI S. OMEAYO
INTRODUCTION
Right from her earliest days the Church has treasured catechesis and used it as an instrument of nurturing the faith, transmitting and consolidating it. The activities of the apostles as recorded in one of the foremost documents called Didache and subsequent magisterial documents show that the Church has never lagged behind in those early years of her evangelizing mission. Even as time counted and history made, a lot could be said to prove the fact that one of the things that  has kept the Church alive is the persistence of her leaders in teaching the faith in order to effectively and efficiently transmit it from one generation to the next.  Incidentally, the content of faith remains the same always and if any type of change occurs, it is usually on the method of evangelization and never on the truth that is communicated.  As it is, the changing circumstances of various eras have led to the adoption of different approaches to catechesis which have kept the Church bustling and bubbling in spite of so many vicissitudes that have come to be associated with her history. In our own time especially in Nigeria, there seems to be an urgent need to review the current method of catechesis and perhaps find a more suitable means of tackling the challenges that confront the Church in her mission of evangelization. As a matter of fact, cases of superstition, syncretism, materialism, corruption and secularism as we notice today in the country are evidences to the fact that most of the Christians including the Catholic faithful in Nigeria are still at the initial stage of conversion in spite of the geometric rise in the numerical strength of Christians and the number of years they have spent in the Church.  What it means is that there is a serious need to formulate a new system of catechesis in order to nurture the faith, consolidate and transmit it in the country. That is why our effort in this paper is not just to identify problems but to proffer practical solutions on how to confront the pastoral challenges of our time. 

EVALUATING THE CONTEMPORARY METHOD OF CATECHESIS
To identify the root of a problem is always the first step to solving it. The present method of catechesis in Nigeria is inefficient for so many reasons that include the following.
1.    There is a serious case of poor understanding of the concept “catechesis” among the clergy and the laity in Nigeria.
2.    The Church in Nigeria is still far from coming to terms with the recommendation of Vatican II Council on “Reading the Signs of Time.”
3.    There is a misconception that Catholic schools without parish catechetical schools are capable of providing for the catechetical needs of the people.  
4.    The leaders of the Church in Nigeria are yet to understand that catechesis cannot be done without financial backing.
1.    POOR UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONCEPT AND SCOPE OF CATECHESIS
Of the so many problems that militate against catechesis in Nigeria, the greatest has to do with the fact that the concept is yet to be properly comprehended among the members of the clergy who are supposed to be the vanguard of its cause. Actually what many people refer to as catechesis is just catechism. As a result of this, the only formal faith formation that is given to the laity in Nigeria is the rote memorization of catechism which according to Bishop John I. Okoye is geared towards memorizing facts and doctrines that are easily forgotten within a short time.  Sequel to this, majority of the members of the laity in Nigeria have a shallow faith formation in spite of the amount of time they have spent in the church and also the fact that some of them have attained very high levels of erudition in secular sciences. This will not be surprising if we remember that St. Pope John Paul II also criticized the catechism method when he said that it lends itself to insufficient or at times almost non-existent assimilation which reduces knowledge to formulas that are repeated without being properly understood.   From practical experience, we know that a lot of people who were very good in reciting catechism as children can no longer do it now just as those who can find it difficult to apply them in practical life. The reason is that the catechism method especially as it is done in Nigeria falls short of the capability of transforming the individual and making present in his or her heart that which rote memorization has bequeathed to the head.
That is why we can say without fear of contradiction that our sole reliance on rote memorization of catechism is partly the cause of lay ignorance as we have it today in the country. This is even worse given the fact that the learning of this catechism always stops as soon as the individual has received the sacrament of his or her quest. Thus, since there is no system in which catechesis is continued as the young person graduates from childhood and matures into adulthood, the result is that an imbalance is usually created in his life whereby every zest and vitality of life is slanted towards secular activities living no room for the religious. That is why in Nigeria today we notice a large number of people who throng to the church and profess the Catholic faith on weekly basis but lack the disposition to participate actively at liturgies. Indeed, understanding catechesis as a concept together with its scope is very necessary if proper catechesis will ever be done in Nigeria.
What it means is that catechesis is not just an induction course as most people think. It is rather more of a continuation of an endless process of formation that forms a person into a full disciple of Christ. Again, it is not solely catechism. Thus, catechism is only one of the pedagogical approaches to catechesis. Hence, catechesis is defined as “a particular form of the ministry of the word which matures initial conversion to make it into a living, explicit and fruitful confession of faith.” 
 2.    THE INABILITY OF THE CHURCH HEIRACHY IN NIGERIA TO READ THE SIGNS OF TIME
The idea of reading the signs of time and interpreting the events of history according to the message of the gospel was a brain child of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council.  The Council Fathers believe that the gospel message is incarnational and as such capable of being made present in the world irrespective of the differences of culture, sex, history and languages.   Catechesis itself is a dynamic and ongoing activity which in its scheme is meant to consider the different mentalities of different cultures and eras in so far as they are not opposed to the basic principles of the gospel of Christ.
This idea again calls to mind the ancient wisdom in which the Fathers of the Church held that every culture has what they call the seed of the word, that is, an element of a culture which is not opposed to the gospel message but which is rather in tandem with it. Hence, since the Second Vatican Council which took place in 1960s, there has been serious emphasis among the leaders of thought in the Church that theology should move from its old speculative approach to a more practical method in which the variable elements of cultures, sexes and ages could be given attention in order to properly make it possible for the word of God to take flesh among peoples.
Unfortunately, the Church in Nigeria is too slow in appropriating this new idea, making it very difficult for catechesis to take a practical turn in its objective of nurturing and transmitting the faith in our culture.  Accordingly, what we have is a kerigmatic form of catechesis in which deductive arguments are endlessly advanced in the lecture halls of the seminaries, theological conferences, symposia, synods, communiqués and all sorts of public debates which are all conducted without much effort being made to bring their fruits into practical language for the comprehension of the lay person.  
In the prologue to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) which is a product of Vatican II Council, it is clearly stated that the Catechism does not provide the adaptation of doctrinal presentations and catechetical method required by differences of culture and age spiritual maturity together with the social and ecclesial conditions of those to whom the catechism is addressed. In furtherance it states that such indispensable adaptations should be the responsibility of a particular catechism.  Unfortunately, I am not aware of the diocese in Nigeria has done this adaptation that is so important for the contextualization of the gospel. Instead, leaders in the ecclesiastical circle have kept holding conferences just as our academia keep organizing public lectures which often end up in abstract and deductive communiqués. The question now is: why is it difficult for us to learn that the Catechism cannot achieve its aim in our cultures unless it is contextualized and brought into practical language for the comprehension of the people?

3.    MISCONCEPTION ABOUT THE PROSPECTS OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
There is yet another aspect of the wrong perception of our pastoral responsibility that is gradually emerging. The fact that so many a clergy and religious in our country are relying on the return of some of the Catholic schools that were forcefully taken away from the Church as a panacea to the problem of catechetical inefficiency in the country is indeed ridiculous. No matter how it sounds, it is important to note that there are so many limitations to such Catholic schools in terms of catechetical efficiency. The reason is that what we have as Catholic schools are usually schools whose proprietorship is that of the Church but which does not have enough catechetical education that is capable of providing a solid faith formation for the laity. This may account for the reason the graduates of these schools who were scattered in various strata of governmental positions at the time were not able to stop the formulation of policies that forcefully took away schools from the Church. We can then see the reason why Anthony Akinwale O.P. berated the former Catholic schools in the country when he said that they were only able to produce intelligent and cultural Catholics who lacked Catholic intelligence and so were unable to protect the interest of the Church in the government. The fact is that what forms the curricular materials of Catholic schools in Nigeria are mainly secular subjects that are also available in the schools owned by individuals and the government. Hence, in order to provide a lasting solution for handling catechetical issues the Church must think of establishing catechetical schools in the parishes. Indeed, there can be no alternatives to parish catechetical schools no matter the amount of prospects the Catholic schools may hold. This is also the position of the General Directory for Catechesis.  
Be that as it may, our intention here is not to undermine the benefits of the Catholic schools. However, it is still worthy of note to say that catechesis cannot be effectively pursued in those schools since  catechetical subjects are not usually given a place of prominence in their curriculum of studies. For now what we have in the schools are biology, mathematics, physics, economics et cetera and perhaps very little moral instructions. Catechetical subjects like sacraments, sacramental, sacred music, practical liturgy, hagiography, ecumenism, inculturation et cetera are only mentioned in passing or not even mentioned at all. Yet, it is mainly these catechetical subjects that have the potentials to challenge modernism and its negative dimensions of secularism, Pentecostalism and neo-paganism.
4.    THE INABILITY OF CHURCH HEIRACHY TO UNDERSTAND THAT CATECHESIS NEEDS FINACIAL SUPPORT
Another serious obstacle to doing a proper catechesis in Nigeria is the inability of the Church hierarchy to understand that it cannot be effectively done without being supported by serious financial assistance from the budgetary appropriations of the Church.   If we understand what catechesis is, we shall see that it requires as much financial attention as the other spectacular aspects of the Church’s mission such as building physical structures and performing works of charity. Little wonder St. Pope John Paul II opined that the more the Church gives catechesis priority over other works and undertakings which are more spectacular, the more she finds in it a strengthening of her internal life as a community of believers and her external activity as a missionary Church.  
Unfortunately, what we have in the Nigerian Church is a situation whereby every budgetary allocation is geared towards the spectacular, giving the impression of an empiricist mentality whereby ecclesiology is understood to be more of physical building than of the people of God- Kahal Yahweh. This poor understanding of ecclesiology also gives rise to a situation whereby both the authorities (mainly the local ordinaries) and the lay faithful assess the performance of a pastor only on the strength of such provision of infrastructural facilities.  This is also the reason why those who teach catechism in our parishes are usually not paid or at least given incentives, whereas a lot of money is expended on daily basis in constructing physical structures.
Indeed, there is an urgent need to redirect our pastoral effort in order to be able to cope with the realities and challenges of the modern times.  We cannot do this if we do not develop a new system of catechesis for the Church especially in Nigeria

NAVIGATING A NEW PATH FOR CATECHESIS IN NIGERIA: WHAT IT REQUIRES
Having identified some of the inadequacies of the current method of catechesis in Nigeria, our effort now is to provide workable proposals on how a new system of catechesis that will be capable of repositioning the Church in Nigeria for the better. In this new scheme the following has to be addressed.
1.    There must be a concerted effort right from the seminaries and religious houses of formation to get the candidates to the priesthood and religious life imbued with catechetical passion.  This is in line with the provision of the Fathers of the Second Vatican council in which catechesis is given a pride of place in the formation of a candidate to the Catholic priesthood.  During this training, the candidates should be made to understand that whatever they gather as part of their intellectual formation should be to be used in educating the lay faithful. Therefore, they should be discouraged of the old mentality that theological discussions are the exclusive reserve of the priests. The laity also has the right to be educated in faith.  St. Pope John Paul II also subscribed to this view when he said that every Christian from the theological and legal point of view has the right to be catechized.  In fact, the old mentality of thinking of theology as something that is reserved for the priests has led to a situation whereby so many priests after graduating from the seminary find it difficult to bring the fruit of their intellectual formation into the arena of pastoral experience. Therefore, the effort should be to train the candidate to the priesthood in such a way that he will be able to put into practice all the theories he has acquired from the classroom of the seminary. Accordingly, catechesis as a subject of study in the seminary should be made a compulsory subject rather than an elective one. Also, to maximize its benefits, it could be made to run through the entire process of seminary training instead of a semester programme as it is done in some of our seminaries.

2.    Serious effort should be made to educate both the clergy and the laity that the concept ‘catechesis’ is not identical with catechism. Catechism is only one of the pedagogical approaches to catechesis. Catechesis covers a much wider spectrum of theories and practices within which catechism itself is found. For it to create the desired impact on an individual, it must be made to meet the three educational objectives which according to Benjamin Bloom include the cognitive, affective and psychomotor objectives. Catechesis as such is not only theoretical. It is also practical and involves singing, liturgical practices like serving at Mass, reading at Mass and other liturgical activities.  It can mean learning of musical instruments. Catechesis can be marriage instruction.  The Church should seek to include all these in order to ensure an integral formation of the lay person. Accordingly, “As the vitality of the human body depends on the proper function of its entire organ, so also the maturation of the Christian life requires that it be cultivated in all its dimensions… When catechesis omits one of these elements, the Christian faith does not attain full development.”  It is actually this much desired fullness of development of a personality that is the task of catechesis that catechism in its method is not capable of achieving. The reason is that it is theoretical and abstract and too deductive such that it can hardly impart on the practical life of an ordinary Christian. It can as well be boring.
3.    As a result, the local Churches in Nigeria should make urgent effort to study the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other relevant documents in order to provide the necessary adaptations for their contextualization. This will make it possible for the message of the gospel to be more receivable by our people.  In the spirit of the New Evangelization which is “new in method, new in ardour, and new in expression”, a new way of imparting this message should accordingly be developed in order to make it presentable to the people of our time.
4.     The Church in Nigeria should through its theologians and educators endeavor to develop a curriculum of studies which will cater for the catechetical needs of the different classes of people according to their age and spiritual maturity.  Within this framework, textbooks on various catechetical subjects should be graded in order to meet the catechetical needs of people according to their various cognitive developments.  Appropriating the findings of developmental psychologists in order to determine what can be taught a candidate in a particular age developmental categorization is very important and must be pursued by those who are entrusted with the task of catechizing.

5.    The Church in Nigeria and even beyond if it wants to counter the negative effects of secularism and Pentecostalism must act urgently to establish catechetical schools in the parishes. The purpose of these schools will be to meet up with the recommendation of St. Pope John Paul II who taught that catechesis cannot be done in a haphazard and improvised manner but rather in a systematic style in order for it to be capable of reaching a precise goal.  What it means is that each diocese or each ecclesiastical province should develop a uniform and methodic way of handling catechetical issues.  To be discarded, therefore, is the current system in which the formation of the laity depends only on the individual programmme of a parish
priest who, according to his whims and caprices, may decide either to promote it in his parish or not to.
6.    There is a very serious need to provide the laity in Nigeria with basic education in faith, that is, the level of education that can be comparable to what a child gets in his primary and secondary schools. For more efficiency, the Church should seek to accomplish this level of education during the period of childhood and adolescence when the children are still in their formative years and are yet to be encumbered with the heavy responsibilities of adult life. 

7.    For the same reason of providing basic education for the lay people in matters of faith, the Church should not rely on Catholic schools but rather try to establish catechetical schools in the parishes. This is in line with the recommendation of the Congregation for the Clergy which sees the parish as the most important locus in which the Christian community is formed and expressed. According to the congregation, the parish is called to be a fraternal and welcoming family where Christians become aware of being the people of God since within it, all human differences melt away and are absolved into the universality of the Church. This is because the parish is the usual place where the faith is born and in which it grows. Thus, it constitutes a very adequate community space for the realization of the ministry of the word.

8.    In order to achieve this purpose of providing the lay people with basic education in matters of faith, we must understand that the catechetical subjects are not inferior to the mundane sciences. Hence, it is important for us to recognize that the catechetical subjects such as moral theology, music, hagiography, ecumenism, sacraments and sacramentals can and should receive the elaborate treatment which mundane subjects like biology, government, economics, and physics receive in the secular schools. In that case, effort should be made to ensure that all the academic efforts that take place in the primary and secondary schools like teaching, taking of notes, quiz competition, assignments, and examinations are also obtainable in the parish catechetical schools.
 9.    This system of catechesis should be made compulsory for it to produce the desired effect of forming a formidable laity and challenging the existing ills of secularism in the world of today.
10.    Because of the financial implications of this new system of catechesis, efforts should be made by pastors of souls and all who are involved in decision making in the Church to allocate fund for the scheme. St. Pope John Paul II assigned this function to the bishops when he said that it is their principal role to bring about and maintain a real passion for catechesis in their dioceses; a passion which according to him is embodied in a pertinent and effective organization such as putting into operation the necessary personnel, means and equipment, and also financial resources for catechesis.  In fact, it is just like saying that the task of promoting and doing catechesis rests heavily and mainly on the office of the bishop than any other ecclesiastical offices. There is no doubt about this since we know that it also falls within their authority to determine how financial expenditures are made in their dioceses. As a matter of fact, if the Church sees catechesis as a necessity, twenty percent of what is used in building physical structures can effectively pursue its cause.
11.    Again, such a compulsory and systematic catechesis can be possible if we see catechesis as a priority among all other functions that belong to our vocation as pastors. The Bishops in particular may use their official powers to formulate policies that will make such systematic and compulsory catechesis for children and adolescents unavoidable. For instance, since they are the ones who are fundamentally responsible for giving the Sacrament of Confirmation, they can decide that no candidate who does not go through the rigours of this training should receive the Sacrament.  In order to make this feasible, an external examination can be conducted either at the provincial or diocesan level to meet this goal. What it means is that a central examination body has to be created either at the diocesan or provincial level to cater for this. In that case, such an examination should have a certificate attached to it. The certificate may become one of the criteria for admitting people into the seminaries, convent, knighthood or any other noble associations in the Church.
12.    Parish catechetical school as being proposed here should also be the eye of the parish priests. Together with the parish pastoral council and parish catechetical committee the parish priest should leave no stone unturned in implementing within his parish all the diocesan policies that will be designed to promote this new system of catechesis. He is to appoint lay catechists, send them to diocesan catechetical centre for training and also make sure that they receive good remuneration for their job.  Animators should also be trained in order to supplement for the shortage of qualified catechists. All those who are involved in the business of catechesis should all receive their pay from the parish or the diocese.
13.    In this new system of catechesis, parents and guardians will have as their duty the task of enrolling their wards into the catechetical school and also providing financial support for the success of the venture. They should henceforth be made to understand that they also have the obligation of educating their wards in the catechetical schools just as they do in their secular education.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we wish to reiterate that catechesis is the instrument with which the Church nurtures and transmits the Faith. Of all that has to do with mission, catechesis is a special obligation of the Church issuing from her divine mandate to bring the gospel message to the door step of all races and peoples. Though it is part of integral education, catechesis cannot be submerged under secular studies. The inability to give catechesis a distinct place and special attention in the whole business of Christian education has led us to various manifestations of crisis of faith as we have it today in the country.
We must understand that catechesis is not just catechism but a complex whole within which catechism itself is found. Catechism itself being only a pedagogical approach to catechesis and so limited in what it can offer. The goal of catechesis is not just the head but the entire person. Hence, it is holistic and more importantly a subject of the ultimate concern. Catechesis is more practical than theoretical. It is deductive but more inductive; kerigmatic but more existential. Catechesis is not a jumble of a chaotic disorder. It is systematic and organic. That means that it cannot be haphazardly done. Or can its goal be achieved through improvised means.
Catechesis should not be left at the discretion of a single parish priest. It is an ecclesial affair. The Church in Nigeria should formulate a policy that will not only make it compulsory up to the end point of teenage maturity but also make it unavoidable with rules and incentives. Personnel need to be trained and lucratively employed for the work of catechesis. The Church in Nigeria should learn that ecclesiology is more of the people of God than physical building. Hence, in an age of scientific and technological advancement like ours, the Church should learn that catechesis cannot be done without funding. To read the signs of time and interpret it properly, the Church should learn from the scientific world, precisely from developmental psychologists on how to train a child and what type of catechesis an individual should need at a particular stage of cognitive development. Hence, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other relevant documents must be contextualized and graded to meet the catechetical needs of those who belong to different cognitive development. Therefore, our theologians and educators and policy makers in education should team up to ensure this. Catechesis does not need to be boring. It should be able to engage the interest of the youth. It can even be made a leisurely affair and thus enjoyable.