Catechesis of the disabled. Basic mistakes and challenges

Abstract

Contemporary catechesis of people with disabilities strives to change them is conceptions about the life of the disabled spread by the media in our country. The ideas about the life of limitations that non-disabled people form on the basis of various messages on TV channels rarely reflect the reality and rarely express our understanding of people with autism or intellectual disabilities. The primary subject of study  is, however, the three mistakes that catechists often make. The first mistake is searching for a textbook for catechesis, without realising what adiagnosis of a disabled person means to the catechist. The second mistake is related to the inexplicable decision to reduce the content of the Christian message. The third mistake is the lack of knowledge or understanding of Pope Benedict XVI’s Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. The Magisterium of  the Church continues to grow and we should skilfully combine the new documents with the old ones, also in the understanding of the canon law. Catechesis does not stop at what was agreed upon in the past. It constantly renews itself as well as its theological and pedagogical foundations by searching for appropriate language and new methods of catechizing, and by creating a modern concept of specialized catechesis. Looking for new ways of  reaching people, catechesis is trying to eliminateold habits, individualism and routine, which lead, on the one hand, to apathy, in difference, and other kinds of obstacles, and on the other hand,to reckless improvisation, which brings confusion to the souls ofthe catechized, children and their parents, and becomes the cause of all types of mistakes, too little controlin the classroom, and eventually a complete destruction of unity. The Church, as shedid in the past, is constantly looking for new approaches to catechesis and introduces new rules intothe catechetical process, but is always guided by wisdom, courage and fidelity to the Gospel.