Environmental Engagement in Catechesis: Critical Analysis of the Apprehension of the Relation between Catechesis and the Care for the Environment by the “New Directory for Catechesis”

Abstract

New Directory for Catechesis released in 2020 deals directly with problems arising from the environmental crisis. In this article, it will be explored how this document deals with problems that come from man’s relationship to the environment. The first part shows how the previous two Directories – “General Catechetical Directory” from 1971 and “General Directory for Catechesis” from 1997 – dealt with those issues, then the second part shows how the new one approaches them throughout the whole document and, especially, in numbers 381‒384. In the last part, several critical remarks will be made on the document. The main hypothesis is as follows: the new Directory strongly emphasizes that engagement related to environmental problems is at the heart of Christian identity. But, in some places of the text, this argument could be more emphasized and also adequately incorporated into other topics it deals with.

Keywords

• ecological engagement
• creation
• catechesis
• “new directory for catechesis”
• encyclical letter “laudato si’”