Abstract

In proclaiming the message of salvation amidst changing social, political and cultural circumstances the Church in Poland has from the dawn of its history not only preached the Gospel, administered the sacraments and organized worship and education. It has above all paid attention to catechesis. The apprehension of catechesis has varied over the ages but its aim has remained the same: it is to make people: „fully mature, with the fullness of Christ himse!f (Ep. 4.13). The Church has always understood the need for and the importance of cat.echesis and realized that cątechetic ·work is crucial to the future of the whole CathoHc nation as T\'ell as that of the individual. It comes as not surprise, then, that also in our time catechesis occupies the foremost place in pastorał ministry of the Church. In the present Polish situation, marked by both spontaneous and directed secularization, catechesis as seen in the 1971 programme still bears the stamp of authentic Church ministry to the young. Its basie goal is to bring the participants to the salutary meeting with Jesus ChrisL From the point of view of theology, the catechesis is trinitarian, Christocentric, ecclesiastic and Marian; in anthropological terms, it is personal, national and apologetic. The main obstacle to catechesis lies in the inadequate preparation of catechists fork work with the young. A high proportion of Polish catechists, trained for catochesis in the old style, implement an intellectualistic conception of catechesis, trying to convey the maximum amount of information about the Christian doctrine.