Nobody can compare with Joseph Ratzinger, both as cardinal and pope, for his hawk-like surveillance of and attention towards formation of the laity in our time. Even many involved in the world of catechesis do not know the extent of his writings on the subject, nor of how pertinent they always were to the current situation. He held a conference in 1983 on the “Crisis of Catechesis”, after which followed the extraordinary Synod of 1985 which called for a new catechism.
For Pope Benedict XVI the great endeavour was for unity of the faith and, as he said to his priests in 2012, “unity cannot develop without knowledge”. Part of the crisis in catechesis for him was religious illiteracy: “With such illiteracy we cannot grow … Therefore, we must re-appropriate the contents of the faith, not as a packet of dogmas and commandments, but as a unique reality revealed in all its profoundness and beauty. We must do everything possible for catechetical renewal in order for the faith to be known, God to be known, Christ to be known, the truth to be known, and for unity in the truth to grow.”
