Catechesis in the Church's Dialogue with the World

The Church is fulfilling her salvific mission in the world entrusted to her by Christ. She is sent to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, man's only Saviour. Through her presence in the world, the Church enters into dialogue with it. The Second Vatican Council stressed the need for the Church's dialogical presence in the world. The main issue of this article is the search for an answer to whether catechesis itself has a dialogical structure and whether it is a place of dialogue between the Church and the world. The study first shows the dialogue of salvation as a relationship between God and man. Then it presents the Church's relationship with the world, which is a relationship of dialogue. Since catechesis is at the service of God's dialogue of salvation and is an ecclesial ministry, it is therefore also dialogical and can, in a sense, be a place for the Church's dialogue with the world. There is, however, a particular specificity of this dialogue, which is based on the spirituality of dialogue. The vision of catechesis is contained in the new Vatican Directory for Catechesis, which describes it as a ,laboratory for dialogue'.