The Second Vatican Council's declaration on Christian education explicitly emphasizes that catechetical instruction is its primary focus, although the document goes on to discuss religious instruction in schools to a greater or lesser extent. We ourselves start from the assumption that the development of catechesis in the post-conciliar period was influenced by almost all of its documents, which emphasized the pastoral approach of the Church. The call for the Church to enter into contemporary society placed Christocentricity and anthropological orientation at the forefront, as the Council Fathers used these as the fundamental hermeneutical key to interpreting the signs of the times and as a guide for approaching contemporary man. The anthropological perspective leads to education with a more inductive approach, which stems from the actual situation of man, with all his concerns and questions. Catechesis should bring the light of faith into this, so that man may live more fully in the power of Christ's salvation in the community of the Church. In Slovenia, due to the official and actual exclusion of religious instruction from schools before the Council, this approach to concrete human beings and concrete society began earlier. In addition to the formal renewal of catechesis, individuals also tried to respond to the needs of specific children and young people. Nevertheless, tensions arose between advocates of the classical, more catechism-based approach, reflected in the so-called Pogačnik textbooks, and those who wanted to keep pace with the contemporary paradigm of religious education, gathered around the Interdiocesan Catechetical Committee (Slov. Medškofijski katehetski odbor). The latest echoes of the Council's call for pastoral orientation are found in the kerygmatic orientation of the latest regulations for catechesis. The kerygmatic call and the responsibility of the entire Church community for catechesis is most evident in our country in the first comprehensive and officially approved catechetical plan several decades after the Council.
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