AJUST FABRICA

Like a study in pastoral theology, my method will be theoretical and practical; with pastoral and analytic dimensions. I shall also apply inductive and deductive methods by appealing to other theological disciplines for answers.

The chapter one is expository and investigative in asking the correlation of poverty, Christianity and catechesis and the status quo of these factors especially in Germany where this research is carried out. This exposition among other things shows that the phenomenon of poverty on which the decline of catechesis is always blamed, is ubiquitous. However, the difference lies in how it is managed.

In chapter two through three and four, the expository method continues mixed with analytic and descriptive methods. Chapter two is especially expository in studying the challenges of catechesis in Igbo land who are the primary target of this work. No position is taken. No party is blamed. It is just an exposition of the status quo. In Chapter three, the descriptive and analytic method is used to study Catechesi Tradendae. This is a documenta legenda a must-read document for any meaningful study in catechesis. The document was also studied with a pastoral method of finding its significance in pastoral ambient. In chapter four, the same descriptive and critical method is used in studying another important document. New Evangelization is a concept very important to this work that the study of the document on new evangelization cannot be done without maximum attention.

The chapter five that one can rightly call the acme of this research work employs all the aforementioned methods. Beside the traditional methods employed in this work, I also employed the oral questioning method for obtaining information. This field work method was necessitated in major part because, the study of this kind is not common in Igbo land yet. Thus, the dearth of literature cannot be disproved. Moreover, the catechists themselves, through this method are freer to express their feelings: positive and negative objectively without fear.

0. 5 Brief History of Christianity and Catechesis in Igbo land

The birth of Catholicism in Igboland in 1885 takes a picture of divine providence. This is because the eventual settlement of Father Lutz and his co-missionaries at Onitsha was largely fortuitous. The decision of the C.S.Sp73 to establish itself at Onitsha was not made before the pioneer team arrived at the Niger Delta.74 As recently as sixty or seventy years ago Nigeria was a comparatively unexplored country. The ports and creeks and waterways had been opened in parts from the fifteenth century onwards in the interest of commerce and imperialism. The interior had, however, been left almost untouched. It had the reputation of being primitive, and rather lawless. Quite possibly it had as much regard for law and justice as most of the exploiting powers.75 However, the first attempt of evangelization of Nigeria by the Catholic Portuguese dates back to A.D. 1485 and 1500 although it failed to last for political reasons.

Another attempt by the Catholic missionaries society was made in Southeastern Nigeria in 1885 by Society of the Holy Ghost (C.S.Sp) which eventually sowed a permanent seed of Catholicism and Catechesis in Southern Nigeria. But before then, the Propaganda Fidei in Rome had received the news concerning populous tribes which inhabited both banks of the mighty River Niger and knew no God. These reports received clarification through the initiative and enthusiasm of a young Holy Ghost missionary named Lejeune, who halted near the main mouth

73 _{It is a congregation that has its foundation in France and is founded by Father Francois-Claude Poullart des Places}

along with a Seminary consecrated to the Holy Ghost on Pentecost Sunday in the year 1703, for the training of vicars, and missionary priests and of ecclesiastics to run hospitals in poor parishes and other abandoned zones for which the Bishops could not provide personnel. Around 1848, with instructions from the Propaganda Fide in Rome, it combined its members with the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary-a new missionary congregation founded by Francis Mary Paul Libermann. (Cf. Richard Gray, “The Origins and Organisation of the Nineteenth Century Missionary Movement”, in Obi C.A etc (ed.), A Hundred Years of the Catholic Church in Eastern Nigeria 1885-1985, Onitsha: Africana FEP Publishers Ltd, Nigeria, 1985, pp. 7-8

74_{Ozigboh, Ikenga R.A, Roman Catholicism in South Eastern Nigeria 1885-1931: A Study in Colonial Evangelism,}

Onitsha: Etukokwu Publishers ,1988, p.41

of the Niger on his way to Gabon Vicariate, and succeeded in obtaining fairly definite information from an intelligent River chief.76

Now the Propaganda Fidei invited the Holy Ghost Fathers to undertake the evangelization of the Lower Niger tribe and they (Holy Ghost missionaries) out of generosity and obedience to the Vicar of Christ who assigned them to seek the welfare of the black race accepted this uphill task. It was really a difficult task indeed since both the Jesuits and the Dominicans declined the offer, probably because West Africa was then known as the White man’s grave “...where many go in but very few come out....”77

It was indeed so as Brother John Jacob died exactly two weeks after their arrival in Onitsha. Perhaps it would be more true to say that the companions who came out to help father Lutz, only one survived the regours of the climate for more than five years. Most of them died from yellow fever and sleeping sickness, two diseases against which no remedy was then known. In fact, the acceptance of the Holy Ghost missionaries to evangelize the Lower Niger should be seen as an act of generosity at the altar of their life.

On August 10, 1885, the Very Rev. Fr. Ambrose Emonet, the Superior General of the Spiritan Congregation of the Holy Ghost in Paris applied for funds up to the tune of 8, 000 Francs from the Vatican department for the propagation of the faith, to this effect: “to open up this new mission on the right bank of the River Niger and its affluent Benue. The timely provision of this financial support ushered in a new zeal that would characterize the missionary activities of the pioneer missionary team heading down the Niger for proper evangelization of the black Africans occupying the areas. The missionary chosen to open up this new area to the Gospel was Father Joseph Lutz, aged 32, a French Alsatian priest, a man of energy, unusual intuition, enterprise and intelligence, till then the Superior at Rio Ponge. He was accompanied by Father John Horne, aged 27, who had been ordained and professed barely a month before the expedition left Paris on 29th