Catechization of Children and Youth during the First Czechoslovak Republic

Despite the disconsolate situation in the first Czechoslovak Republic the Church continued the catechization mainly of children and youth, especially in state schools. Thanks to significant catechetical personalities among priests (V. Kubíček, F. Tomášek, J. Hronek) it was enriched by valuable impulses from other European countries (Munich method of teaching religion, elements of so-called active school, etc.). On the other side, as it was traditionally concentrated in the school environment, it recognized its limits of influence. Simplified religious truths, adapted to the comprehension of children, were not later developed closely with their personal experience, particularly, in the critical period of adolescence. According to the historian Z. Boháč, the obligatory attendance of services and the participation in spiritual life often end with the conclusion of the compulsory school attendance. This was frequently the evidence of a persisting formal approach. The Church started to be aware of the fact that a natural and organic environment for catechization is created by a whole parish community and in a special way by a family. It was already possible to perceive in that time that during the catechization we do not face the children who believe, but rather children who are asking, doubting and seeking. A catechist does not stay in front of them as a master of knowledge, but he is rather the one who thinks together with them and guides their search. The organization of meetings where children came together with an extracurricular catechetical program was a concrete manifestation of this new extended understanding.

Keywords: Family catechesis; religious education; religious instruction in schools; extracurricular catechesis