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Catechism books for “melting pot”

Revised texts will enable all ethnic groups to understand Christ's message
Catechism books for “melting pot”
The new book (photo: Lissy Maruthanakuzhy)
Published: January 19, 2012 10:06 AM GMT
Updated: January 19, 2012 10:09 AM GMT

The Church today launched a set of catechism books in the country’s northeast to explain Christ’s message in a region considered a melting pot of diverse ethnic groups. The books will help the region’s schoolchildren to “easily apply Church doctrines in their daily experiences,” said Father R R Graviour Augustine, secretary of the North East India Regional Commission for Catechetics. Northeast India has around 400 culturally and socially divergent ethnic groups and it was a herculean task to explain the Catholic faith in a way they could all understand, the priest said after the launch of the texts in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya state. Retired Bishop Jose Mukala of Kohima and the commission’s former chair presided over the launch. The region has more than one million Catholics in 15 dioceses spread over seven Indian states. The Catholic Church first came to the region more than 160 years ago. The catechism books are a revised version of the Grow-in-Faith Series the Church used in the region for more than two decades. “We may not be able to satisfy all ethnic groups, but this is an attempt to reach out to them,” Fr Augustine said. He said the new books have incorporated the directives given in the Directory for Catechesis the Vatican released in 1997. The revision began in 2004 and involved scores of priests, nuns and lay leaders. The drafting team also sought help from different tribes to adapt the stories and morals in the books. Artists from the Khasi tribe in Meghalaya drew the pictures for the books up to the fifth grade. They presented Jesus dressed in their ethnic attire. Fr Augustine said the catechism classes will start using the books in the next academic year starting in June.   Related links: Nun has the recipe to spice up catechism  

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