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Characteristics of catechesis for infants
and children
(67)
178. The catechesis of children
is necessarily linked with their life situation and conditions. It is the work
of various but complementary educational agents. Some factors of universal
relevance may be mentioned:
– Infancy and childhood, each understood
according to its own peculiarities, are a time of primary socialization as well
as of human and Christian education in the family, the school and the Church.
These must then be understood as a decisive moment for subsequent stages of
faith.
– In accordance with accepted tradition, this
is normally the time in which Christian initiation, inaugurated with Baptism,
is completed. With the reception of the sacraments, the first organic formation
of the child in the faith and his introduction into the life of the Church is
possible.(68)
– The catechetical process in infancy is
eminently educational. It seeks to develop those human resources which provide
an anthropological basis for the life of faith, a sense of trust, of freedom,
of self-giving, of invocation and of joyful participation. Central aspects of
the formation of children are training in prayer and introduction to Sacred
Scripture.(69)
– Finally attention must be devoted to the
importance of two vital educational loci: the family and the school. In
a certain sense nothing replaces family catechesis, especially for its positive
and receptive environment, for the example of adults, and for its first
explicit experience and practice of the faith.
179. Beginning school means,
for the child, entering a society wider than the family, with the possibility
of greater development of intellectual, affective and behavioural capacities.
Often specific religious instruction will be given in school. All this requires
that catechesis and catechists constantly co-operate with parents and school
teachers as suitable opportunities arise.(70) Pastors should remember
that, in helping parents and educators to fulfil their mission well, it is the
Church who is being built up. Moreover this is an excellent occasion for adult
catechesis.(71)
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