CHAPTER I

Adaptation to those to be catechized:
General aspects

The need and right of every believer to receive a valid catechesis (³⁸)

167. All the baptized, because they are called by God to maturity of faith, need and have therefore a right to adequate catechesis. It is thus a primary responsibility of the Church to respond to this in a fitting and satisfactory manner. Hence it must be recalled that those to be evangelized are "concrete and historical persons",(³⁹) rooted in a given situation and always influenced by pedagogical, social, cultural, and religious conditioning. They may or may not be aware of this.(⁴⁰) In the catechetical process, the recipient must be an active subject, conscious and co-responsible, and not merely a silent and passive recipient.(⁴¹)