Catechesis and Catechists
- Directory For Catechesis (DfC), (the new, third edition). This Vatican document is not yet available online.
- The Ministry of Catechist Apostolic Letter of Pope Francis Instituting the Ministry of Catechist
- Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
- Evangelii Gaudium Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today's World
- Address of Pope Francis to participants in the pilgrimage of catechists, Sept. 2013
- Pope Francis' Video message to participants at the 2nd International Catechetical Congress, Sept. 2018
- Address of Pope Francis to the Meeting promoted by The Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, Sept. 2021
- Liturgy of the Word with Children Guidelines – Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales
Liturgical Ministries
- Celebrating the Mass – A Pastoral Introduction – Liturgy Office – Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
- Vatican II – Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
- One Bread, One Body – Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
Family Catechesis
The Church’s teaching on the family, the role of parents in the education of their children and the form that may take has its foundations in Scripture. The Church regularly presents new insights into the nature of the Christian family and family life. Here you will find some key passages from a number of Church documents.
Abbreviations of documents are used after the first reference. In addition, please see the Couple and Family resources.
Domestic Church
"The family is the image of God, who is a communion of persons" (Amoris Laetitia 71 (AL)
Foundation in Scripture - AL 15, 16, 29
Church documents
- Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), particularly paragraphs 11 and 35 (LG)
- Evangelii Nuntiandi (Evangelisation in the Modern World) 71 (EN)
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 1656 (CCC)
- AL 87
- Directory for Catechesis (DfC): 226 "Thanks to the family, the Church becomes a family of families and is enriched with the life of these domestic churches. Therefore, “with inner joy and deep comfort, the Church looks to the families who remain faithful to the teachings of the Gospel, encouraging them and thanking them for the testimony they offer. For they bear witness, in a credible way, to the beauty of marriage as indissoluble and perpetually faithful” (AL 86.)
Parents as Primary Educators
".....the overall education of children is a “most serious duty” and at the same time a “primary right” of parents (cf CIC 1156) This is not just a task or a burden, but an essential and inalienable right that parents are called to defend and of which no one may claim to deprive them….Schools do not replace parents, but complement them. This is a basic principle: “all other participants in the process of education are only able to carry out their responsibilities in the name of the parents, with their consent and, to a certain degree, with their authorization”. (AL 84 cf Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality ( Dec. 1995), 23.)
Foundation in Scripture - AL 17
Church Documents
- Gravissimum Educationis (Declaration on Christian Education) 3 (GE)
- CCC 2221, 2223, 2224, 2225, 2226
- Familiaris Consortio (On the Role of the Family in the Modern World) 36, 38, 39 (FC)
- AL 85 and 287: "Faith is God’s gift, received in baptism, and not our own work, yet parents are the means that God uses for it to grow and develop…. Handing on the faith presumes that parents themselves genuinely trust God, seek him and sense their need for him, ….“couples and parents should be properly appreciated as active agents in catechesis…Family catechesis is of great assistance as an effective method in training young parents to be aware of their mission as the evangelizers of their own family”.