“Mummy, what is that?” This is a question we often hear in the street or supermarket as we go about in our religious habit. The child is pointing at us and the mother doesn’t know what to answer. This family may come from a Catholic background, or the child may attend a Catholic school (1 in 10 in the UK). Yet children in the Western world are now generally far removed from any superficial layer of Christian culture that may have been handed down in previous generations.

Hence we face a challenge in children catechesis: can children be prepared for the Sacraments in Catholic schools and parishes when neither themselves nor their family have been evangelised? Are their dignity and freedom respected? How can catechesis integrate first proclamation?

A model of integration of first proclamation and catechesis is found in Come, follow me, a catechetical programme for children aged 7 to 11, specifically designed by members of Notre Dame de Vie Institute in France for the types of ecclesial situations we are facing.