SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION: A LITURGICAL CATECHESIS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH IN AFRICA

Abstract

The Sacrament of Reconciliation has suffered more than any other Sacrament in the Catholic Church because of many factors. The significant fact of the Sacrament of Reconciliation today and much ever is the need for the weak, the sinner and the broken hearted to be strengthened and healed of their sins (Pennock, 1981).In our daily encounter and experience the young people seems to be marked as alienated being in our Churches. Many of them seem to live in a fragmented lifestyle and as a result they seem to lose the mission of the Church with regards to the Sacrament of Reconciliation with God, with others, with self and with nature. How is it possible that the Church can reach out to these young people yearning and longing to encounter this compassionate and merciful God? This work aims at stimulating the young people and all the Christian faithful to take effective action in reclaiming their experience of God’s love and mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is an attempt at finding a way to make the Sacrament of Reconciliation better understood, more meaningful and relevant to young people in in the Church in Africa as well as the whole Catholic world. And therefore this work deals and touches those elements of the need for catechesis and its relevance by proposing a liturgical catechesis for the young people as well as other faithful – giving catechesis on the Rite of Penance in the area of the words used in celebrating the Sacrament, the role of the minister and the penitent, the Sacramental environment, signs and symbols and other elements relevant to the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.