Educação e catequese : o catecumenato como processo de iniciação à vida cristã na Diocese de Caxias do Sul/RS

Abstract

This dissertation aims to think about the Catechetical practice in the Diocese of Caxias do Sul, performed on the guidance of two collections formulated for this practice, relating it to the Catechumenate (guided by the Catholic Church) and understanding it as an educational practice. In order to achieve this objective, documentary analysis, narrative interviews and focus groups were carried out. The documentary analysis was made by taking the documents written by Catholic Church that define and direct catechetical practice directly or indirectly, among them the Second Vatican Council, the General Directory for Catechesis, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, The Document of Aparecida. The narrative interviews were carried out with the purpose of knowing how the two collections that are used in the mentioned diocese to the catechetical practice were constructed, being two interviews about each collection. This choice was also due to the recent temporal delimitation (year 2000), the beginning of the mobilization of the Diocese for the formulation of those new collections. The focus groups were mobilized to know the collections from the perspective of the catechists who use them, with a focal group for each collection and a session for each group. From this empirical corpus, it was possible to relate the cachectic practice with the educational practice. In order to define the latter and use its own concepts that could help the catechetical practice, the theoretical reference used was Paulo Freire´s thought (1983, 2004, 2005), once he tinks education as a process of human formation. The research was divided in five chapters, the first being the preliminar considerations that seek to present some definitions of the concepts of Catechesis, Catechumenate and Christian Initiation, as well as the theoretical and methodological choices made to develop this research. In the second chapter, it was presented the documentary analysis, through which it is possible to understand the orientations of the Catholic Church so that the Catechumenate may be taken as a model for catechesis. The third chapter seeks to present the collections used in the practice of catechesis in the Diocese of Caxias do Sul, and the fourth chapter intends to present the relation of catechesis, as a human formation, and its characteristics exposed in the two previous chapters with the Freirean thought about education. It was mobilized the concepts of conscientization, humanization, formation, social praxis, autonomy, dialogicity, among others. Thus, it is possible to conclude that catechesis is a form of education, of human formation, that can use educational thought to improve its practices and understand its role in the Catholic community. The role of education is precisely to help catechists understand that they are part of a formative process that assists in the constitution of the Christian being. This understanding, in turn, with the help of educational theories, can make this practice more meaningful for catechizers, making them builders of their own faith. This process of education for the faith never ends, as well as human formation, and catechesis is the period in which this formation will have its foundations for the search for the being more and the unprecedented-viable Christian being.