"PassodopoPasso" - Step after Step - was conceived by Fr Valerio Bocci, Elledici director, in June 2014, with the aim of building a path of faith for preadolescents. The topic required a major re-design and a re-think, a format suitable for today's young people today, not one created in an ivory tower.
Thus, Fr Bocci says he talked to other catechists, Fr Michele Roselli, director of the Catechistic Office of Turin, and Fr Gabriele Mecca, current director of the Catechetical Office of Cuneo. And the project was launched.
What are the strengths of the PassodopoPasso project?
Fr Gabriele Mecca replies:
The strengths and novelties of the PassodopoPasso project are four:
The core back-to-basics nature of the contents, organized with a view of first annunciation of the Gospel. The experiential layout of the path, made up of activities to be lived in groups, celebrations that accompany each stage, moments of debate and discussion and of prayer to be lived and experienced within the family, opportunities to involve the Christian community. The proposal of a faith journey for parents. The intention is to recover the indispensable role of the family in communicating the faith, helping parents to rediscover their faith or to mature in their faith in view of bearing witness to their children. In concrete terms, the project intends to help parents create an environment at home (a climate) that makes Christian values breathe. A wide range of material for the formation of catechists, to be lived in groups or personally, to internalize the contents to be mediated to the children or to be proposed to the parents.
What does the project propose as regards the celebration of the Sacraments?
It proposes a change of mentality and approach to the Sacraments, according to a scanning of clear catechumenal inspiration.
- A spiritual and biblical preparation for the celebration of the Sacrament.
- The celebration of the Sacrament possibly at Easter or after Easter (in order not to lose the bond that the Sacraments have with the Paschal mystery).
- An adequate time for mystagogical catechesis, after its celebration, to help understand, deepen and internalize the meaning and importance of the celebrated sacrament.
All this in the awareness that the Sacraments are not the end or final objective of Christian Initiation, but important and essential steps within a more global path of faith.
For more information, visit the Elledici website.
