“We have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the center of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal”
Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, 164
Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, there has been a debate around the role of the proclamation of the kerygma in catechesis and evangelization that is reflected in the term’s usage in the GCD and GDC. In the 1971 General Catechetical Directory, the term kerygma is not used once, despite the widespread discussion of kerygmatic catechesis at the International Study Weeks on Catechesis of the 1960s that influenced this document, while the 1997 General Directory for Catechesis uses the term only six times, primarily in describing the work of the pre-catechumenate or initial proclamation of the Gospel. The current Directory makes use of the word kerygma or kerygmatic at least thirty-one times, not including five uses in the Preface to the document, and regards the kerygma as “the essential dimension of every moment of catechesis,” no longer relegated to an initial stage preliminary to catechesis (Directory, §57).
The Directory’s validation of the necessity of kerygmatic catechesis is a recognition of Pope Francis’ fellow Jesuit scholars, the late Josef Jungmann, SJ and the late Johannes Hofinger, SJ, who pioneered and promoted the method in the twentieth century, but it also expands upon their work to address later criticisms that led to the decline of its promotion in the 1970s. The Directory defines the kerygma as “simultaneously an act of proclamation and the content of the proclamation itself, which unveils the Gospel and makes it present” (Directory, §58). Pope Francis summarizes this proclamation, “Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.”[1]
For Pope Francis and by extension the present Directory, the proclamation of the kerygma holds the various mysteries of faith together in a cohesive manner that is relevant, concise, and concrete to the listener, while avoiding the temptation to reduce the beauty and joy of the Gospel to a few philosophical doctrines, leading the listener to life in community and engagement with others through charity. (cf. EG, §§165, 177) The effort to proclaim the kerygma in all aspects of catechesis is what binds catechesis to evangelization and forms individuals to become missionary disciples.
According to the Directory, the elements of the kerygma that are to be emphasized in the plurality of catechetical situations include “the nature of what is proposed; the narrative, affective, and existential quality; the dimension of witness to the faith; the relational attitude; the focus on salvation” (Directory, §59). With this quotation, the framers of this Directory are pointing to Jungmann’s kerygmatic model that went beyond the proclamation of the kerygma in a narrow sense to a broader catechetical method designed to form its audience in the Christian way of life through a comprehensive system of Christian formation attentive to the particular learner. As the Preface explains, “The primacy of the kerygma… [leads] us to propose a kerygmatic catechesis” (Directory, Preface). In other words, one of the goals of this document is not just to encourage a greater use of the proclamation of the kerygma, but to propose a renewed model of kerygmatic catechesis based on Jungmann’s work.
It is propositions from Jungmann’s broader kerygmatic model that the Directory envisions when it states that the kerygma is fundamental to catechesis, central to evangelization, and key to any renewal that will take place in the Church or conversion in the believer. The Introduction itself alerts the reader to the primacy of the kerygma explicitly, but also implicitly when describing the Directory’s narrative thread, especially in its summation that, “The proclamation of the Gospel… requires, in fact, overcoming any opposition between content and method, between faith and life,” a key theme of Jungmann’s kerygmatic model (Directory, §4).
The Directory also does well in summarizing Jungmann’s model with its various instructions to catechists. The catechist is expected to present the particular teachings of the faith in the context of the central theme of God’s redeeming love. A catechist must understand not just the particular teaching of the faith, but also its meaning and value for the listener’s life. The task of this catechist is to be able to convey this message of God’s loving plan of salvation to the listener in a way that is attractive, narratively appealing, but more importantly, inspires the listener to respond in faith and charity. In addition, the catechist must be a witness to the faith and accompany the listeners by forming a relationship with them that the listeners may become witnesses and accompaniers themselves. Because of the centrality of the kerygma, the Directory notes that the specific vocation of the catechist is first and foremost “a witness of faith and keeper of the memory of God… reawakening it in others, and placing it at the service of the proclamation” (Directory §113a).
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[1] Directory, §58; cf. Evangelii Gaudium, §164. Pope Francis more succinctly presents the kerygma proclamation in Christus Vivit as three great truths, “God loves you; Christ is your Savior; he is alive” (CV, §130).