Any call to action, no matter how necessary and well-meaning, will devolve into platitudes unless we have some idea of when and how to put it into practice. In his 2019 motu proprio letter Vos Estis Lux Mundi, Pope Francis called for “a continuous and profound conversion of hearts… attested by concrete and effective actions that involve everyone in the Church” (VELM, Introduction) to combat ecclesial abuse.

It is true that some members of the Body of Christ have a particular, formal responsibility for safeguarding. But if we take the relationships we have formed in our church communities seriously, then all of us have reason to think faithfully and prudently about who among us is at risk of harm, why they are at risk, and how and when such harm could come about. All of us, in other words, have reason to think about vulnerability.

In the first article in this series, I suggested — building on observations made by Paul Fahey — that the Directory for Catechesis, a 2021 document of the Dicastery for Evangelization, provides us with a blueprint for understanding and accommodating vulnerability in our pastoral relationships. I described the Directory as having a positive and a negative formulation of human flourishing, which together provide us with a truly healthy, balanced, and Catholic vision of pastoral vulnerability.

Both the positive and the negative formulations of human flourishing found in the Directory see a decisive role for the human conscience, defined by the Second Vatican Council as “the most secret core and sanctuary of a man,” which “reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor” (Gaudium et Spes 16). Among the forms of abuse that the Directory explicitly requires catechists to avoid is “abuse… of conscience” (DC 142), and it also emphasizes the need for “Christian formation of the moral conscience” in catechesis (DC 84). The conscience, the Directory stresses, should not only be protected but also actively strengthened through the catechetical relationship.

This teaching on the conscience gives a clear, useful starting point for thinking in more practical terms about vulnerability in catechetical ministry and for transforming our “conversion of hearts” into the “concrete and effective actions” that the Holy Father has asked of us.

Understanding conscience, understanding catechesis

First, it will be useful to give a brief overview of what exactly the Directory has to say about the conscience.

The Directory first talks about formation of conscience in its section on the tasks of catechesis, which include the task of “forming” others “for life in Christ” (DC 79). This involves “the Christian formation of the moral conscience” (DC 84), bearing in mind that “every child of God… has the responsibility of discovering his own role in the plan of salvation” (DC 85).

The Directory’s next reference to the conscience is a direct quotation from Gaudium et Spes, which it puts in the context of the sources of catechesis. The Directory encourages catechists to draw on Christian culture as a source of their catechesis, because an authentically Christian culture can “educate believers, in a time of fragmentation, to the vision of the “whole human person in which the values of intellect, will, conscience and fraternity are pre-eminent” (DC 105).

Having discussed the formation of conscience in relation to the tasks and sources of catechesis, the Directory then highlights the contexts in which formation of conscience can and should take place. It focuses particularly on the Christian family, which it describes as “a proclamation of faith” in which children begin their “education of the moral conscience,” quoting its predecessor,  the General Directory for Catechesis (DC 227).

The Directory, in a manner totally coherent with magisterial teaching on the conscience and its formation, is concerned that Christians are empowered to meet God as free persons, capable of genuine and authentic knowledge of the good to which He has called them. But reading these paragraphs in their context, it becomes alarmingly obvious that the Directory is presenting us with a vision of catechesis that is very different from what is found in many, if not most, parishes in the US and the UK. The Directory has little to say about programs and class sizes, timelines, and recommended resources. It is not interested in teaching tools and activities. Instead, its focus is on relationships: ongoing, organic personal relationships which are light on deadlines and bureaucracy and integrated into a living community of faith. As such, the catechist is not merely a “teacher” of faith, but also a “witness of faith” and an “accompanier” — indeed, an “expert in the art of accompaniment” (DC 113). It is within these relationships of equal parts teaching, witnessing, and accompanying that the Christian conscience is slowly and gradually formed.

When I was at school, teachers were often accused of “teaching to the test”: giving their students only what they needed to pass an exam, in a way that transmitted little of the subject’s deepest principles and certainly no love or enthusiasm for it. Much catechesis in the US and Europe today seems, analogously, to “catechize for the sacrament”: treating the reception of the sacraments of initiation merely as targets to be hit and, in the process, artificially decoupling them from the joys and demands of the lifelong Christian journey. Within such a mentality it is the requirements of the program, not the needs of the people within the program, which determine the pace and the content of catechesis. But this mentality, though widespread, is simply incompatible with the vision of catechesis presented to us in the Directory — and, moreover, entirely unhelpful when it comes to the safeguarding and development of conscience.

The Directory’s teaching on the formation of conscience only makes sense, and can only be effectively lived out, if catechesis is understood to take place first and foremost within human relationships and only secondarily within specific teaching programs. Violations of conscience are far less likely in situations where gradual and ongoing accompaniment is emphasized to the same extent as teaching; where the bonds of trust between members of the community are deep and organic; and where catechists do not feel pressure to force personal acceptance of the teachings of faith, or minimize the importance of that personal acceptance, due to the time constraints of sacramental preparation.

Reading the Directory on safeguarding and formation of conscience, it quickly becomes clear that this is a theme woven throughout the whole document — and not simply compartmentalized in one section. This suggests that formation of conscience is relevant to all catechetical ministry, not merely to certain times or forms of catechesis. And it also suggests that the easiest, most effective way to take formation of conscience seriously is simply to take the Directory’s entire teaching on catechesis seriously.

There are two elements of that teaching which, when properly implemented, are particularly conducive to the formation of conscience: the pre-catechumenate and the sources of catechesis.

Forming consciences: the stages of the catechumenate

The Directory presents the ancient catechumenate, restored by the Second Vatican Council and given to the present-day church through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, as the “typical” structure for the catechesis of the unbaptized (DC 63) and “inspiration” for all other forms of catechesis (DC 64). While many parishes begin their sacramental preparation with a phase of catechesis ending with reception of the sacrament, the catechumenate in fact begins with a period of inquiry, also called the pre-catechumenate, before moving on to catechesis proper. In this period of pre-catechumenate, which is “necessary in order to turn the initial interest in the Gospel into a deliberate choice,” the Christian community “carries out a first form of evangelization and discernment through accompaniment” (DC 33). The emphasis here is on taking time — as much as needed — to enable a person to make a genuine, informed and uncoerced choice for God before beginning preparation for a particular sacrament.

Having worked as a catechist for seven years, including a year as a parish sister in London, I have often had the uncomfortable feeling that the adults presenting themselves or their children for sacramental preparation had little real understanding of the parish community or the nature and purpose of the sacraments. But too often, the structure of the sacramental preparation courses did not leave time for the kind of open, gradual accompaniment where I could help them explore their desires, their motivations, and their relationship with Christ and His Church free of deadlines and expectations. Such accompaniment usually only took place with the parishioners with whom I was already personal friends. But rather than being the exception to the rule, as they too often have been for me, these “meaningful ecclesial relationships” which promote “the formation of mature Christian consciences” (DC 261) are meant to be integral to catechesis — and their roots are put down, if they do not exist already, in the period of pre-catechumenate.

Forming consciences: the sources of catechesis

In the period of structured and formal catechesis, development of conscience can be aided by proper use of the sources of catechesis. The Directory, as we have seen, talks of formation of conscience with reference to Christian culture. But because all the sources “can be traced back to the Word of God, of which they are an expression” (DC 90), all can be seen as related to the conscience. The link between conscience and the Word of God is made explicit in the Catechism: “in the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path” which “we must assimilate… in faith and prayer” (CCC 1785).

By using the sources of catechesis, the catechist regularly puts the person catechized in direct contact with the voice of God as heard in Scripture and sacred Tradition — the same voice which speaks in the private and interior sanctuary of the conscience. After all, catechists are called to help form consciences so that “in every circumstance [the person catechized] may listen to the Father’s will in order to discern, under the guidance of the Spirit and in harmony with the law of Christ, the evil to be avoided and the good to be done” (DC 84). But this is unlikely to happen if the catechist does not give the people they catechize regular opportunities to engage in that listening. When the sources of catechesis are sidelined, something has to fill the gap — and too often it is the catechist themselves, whose voice has no place in the inner sanctuary of the conscience.

I help run an after-school club for eight-to-eleven-year-olds in our local Catholic school. In our catechesis, we use a Scripture-based pedagogy for children’s formation called “Come, Follow Me,” developed by members of the French secular institute Notre Dame de Vie. Each session involves the catechist and the children reading a Bible passage together, exploring its meaning through a conversation aided by a visual representation of the scene, and finally spending some time together in silent, unguided prayer. When I first trained as a catechist, I found running these sessions immensely stressful. By putting the children in direct contact with Scripture, then inviting them to pray in their own way, I was severely limiting my ability to guide and manage their response — and I knew everything would be so efficient if only I could take over.

But by the end of the first term, the fruits of this catechesis were obvious. The children, who had at first had been baffled by Scripture, were now animatedly discussing different Bible stories, making spiritually mature connections and sharing what they had come to know about God. At the end of the session, children who had once shown themselves incapable of remaining in prayer for more than a couple of seconds were actively choosing to pray, even when I gave them the option of doing some coloring or a craft instead.

By introducing these children to God’s voice in Scripture and in prayer, source-based catechesis had given them the opportunity to recognize this divine voice and strengthened their personal desire to listen to it. It may have caused me my fair share of angst as an inexperienced catechist, but, far more importantly, it had served to “awaken the child to the knowledge and practice of the interior law recognized by conscience” (CCC 1784).

Forming consciences: teaching within accompaniment

My experience of catechizing children whose consciences were in the early stages of development led me to reflect on my experience of catechizing adults. I used to give ongoing formation to a group of Catholic mothers who would gather once a month on Zoom for prayer, a short catechesis on a set theme given by me or the group leader, and finally a time of questions and discussion. Early on in the course of my involvement in the group, I began to notice something about the questions I was being asked by the mothers following the catechesis. Often there was an assumption that I, the catechist, would be able — or at least willing — to supply a ready-made solution to a particular moral dilemma, as if the Church’s teaching on the moral life were a treasury of such solutions to which only I had the key. Being treated in this way did, I must admit, go to my head a little; as my sisters will tell you, I need little encouragement to start talking and quite a lot to stop. I had to develop the discipline of pausing, mentally stepping back from the question, and committing myself to describing the building-blocks of a free moral decision rather than constructing the finished product on my questioner’s behalf.

Thankfully, the group leader was keen to set a very different tone. Though respectful of my position as catechist, she had absolutely no desire for that respect to become distorted into moral dependence. When she told me that she would like me to give a catechesis on the teaching of Pope St Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, and in particular the spacing of pregnancies within marriage, I immediately began plotting how to fit all my key teaching points into a one-off, thirty-minute catechesis — but she had other ideas. She wasn’t expecting me to present the group with the entirety of Catholic sexual ethics next week; instead, we would do that session in several months’ time, after I had catechized the group on the basics of Christian anthropology, sanctifying grace, the elements of moral decision-making, and the nature and purpose of the sacrament of marriage — all the while building personal friendships and keeping responsive to the particular concerns and questions of the group.

It would have been far more efficient — that word again — to simply deliver a single catechesis on Humanae Vitae and then take questions as my token gesture towards accompaniment. But instead, I had been given the time and encouragement to not simply propose specific doctrines to the conscience, but to propose the conscience to itself: to help make these women aware of the nature and purpose of their conscience, of the gracious help that God has given them, through the sacrament of Baptism, to exercise it, and of the great dignity and importance He has bestowed on their human freedom in His plan of salvation. This accompaniment-based teaching not only helped strengthen the group’s understanding of certain doctrines, but also helped clearly establish the role that I and the group leader played in these women’s lives. I was not the director or arbiter of their personal moral decisions, replacing their discernment with my own quick fixes; I was, instead, there to observe and accompany the exercise of the baptized conscience from alongside.

In the questions and discussion that followed each catechesis, I was given ample opportunities to show this in very practical ways. Whatever question I was asked, I would try my best to invite the questioner to consider how she would use the cardinal virtues infused in her by her Baptism to make this decision, and if there was a particular gift of the Holy Spirit she felt she also needed. I would try to put her decision in the context of particular magisterial pronouncements, and suggest other trusted people, with particular knowledge of the matter at hand, whose counsel she could seek. In the parts of our conversation where I was proposing something to the mother that was largely or entirely new to her understanding, I endeavored to make sure that it was rooted in the sources of catechesis — the objective content of the Scriptures, the Tradition of the Church, the example of the saints, and so on — and contained as little of my personal opinion as possible.

I was not, and still am not, a flawless example of a conscience-forming catechist of the kind envisaged by the Directory. (I probably wouldn’t think about catechesis as much as I do if I didn’t have so many mistakes to reflect upon.) But this experience of catechizing adults on a contentious and often highly emotive Church teaching, helping to develop consciences while still respecting their rightful boundaries, was how I came to understand the Directory’s teaching on human flourishing and its particular emphasis on the conscience — and bolstered my commitment to offering this formation to even the youngest members of the Body of Christ.

Both the pre-catechumenate and the sources of catechesis can be used to make our catechetical relationships places of genuine spiritual accompaniment, where consciences are both protected from harm and given space to develop in God’s timing. Within such relationships, catechetical teaching takes its rightful place as a process of guiding and proposing, rather than externally directing.

Such relationships are, by their nature, places where opportunities for harm co-exist with opportunities for growth. But by paying due attention to the Directory’s teachings on conscience, and by committing ourselves to the formation of conscience as an essential element of our catechesis, this vulnerability becomes both easier to understand in principle and easier to accommodate in practice.

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Image: Adobe Stock. By Vibe Images.