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CHAPTER II, ARTICLE 2: PREACHING THE GOSPEL AND

ASSEMBLING THE PEOPLE OF GOD (b)

No. 14 of Ad Gentes proclaims that the catechumenate should be the ordinary way in which

people who are not infants become members of the Church. It was Vatican II, in the

Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 64), which decreed the

restoration of the catechumenate in its full, ancient form. By doing so, it culminated a process

that had been going on for some time to order the method of entrance into the Church, give it a

liturgical place in the Church, and make it more than just an intellectual learning of the truths

of the Faith. The first sentence of no. 14 explains that the catechumenate should be an

experience similar to the novitiate in religious communities, i.e. a time to get to know the Church

and to practice its way of living.

“Those who have received from God the gift of faith in Christ, through the Church, should

be admitted with liturgical rites to the catechumenate which is not a mere exposition of

dogmatic truths and norms of morality, but a period of formation in the whole Christian

life, an apprenticeship of sufficient duration during which the disciples will be joined to

Christ their teacher.”

In restoring the catechumenate, the Council Fathers were very conscious of the missions.

They wanted the rite to be able to accept and “baptize” any elements of initiation rites found

in the missions that were not contrary to Christian teaching or morals (cf. Sacrosanctum

Concilium, nos. 38, 65). But, more than that, they saw the catechumenate as also the entrance of

the newly baptized into missionary life, i.e. by baptism the new Christians would themselves

become missionaries: “Since the life of the Church is apostolic, the catechumens must learn to

cooperate actively in the building up of the Church and in its work of evangelization, both by

the example of their lives and the profession of their faith.”

The Council Fathers also wanted the catechumenate to be clearly defined in the new Code of

Canon Law. The Code was revised after Vatican II and republished in 1983. There the

catechumenate is anchored, first of all, in the missionary activity of the Church (Book III,

Title II, Missionary Activity, Canon 788), where it is treated as one of the steps toward the

goal of missionary activity, which is to add new members to the Church. It also speaks about

the catechumenate in Book IV, Title I, Baptism (Canons 849-878), as part of the normal

preparation for baptism (Canon 851, 1°), and as one of the requirements for an adult to be

baptized (Canon 865, §1).

The Council Fathers considered the catechumens as already joined to the Church. They

quoted St. Augustine on this (Tractates on the Gospel of John, 11, 4): “Because catechumens

have the sign of the cross on their foreheads, they are already from the great house [i.e. the

Church]; but let them become sons from servants. For they are not to be thought of as nothing

who already belong to the great house.”