The reformulated edition content

The 1964 reformulated edition has a Presentation² developed by Friar Carmelo Surian (1923-2008), a Franciscan, born in São José do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, Brazil, who worked at Editora Vozes between 1963 and 1968. On it, he justifies changes and permanencies and explain ways to use the new version. Among the reasons to maintain the traditional text, we highlight:

Why did we maintain almost the entire old text:

a) Because it is the text approved and recommended by the Brazilian Plenary Council.

b) Because the edition of 200,000 issues a year proves its value and efficiency.

c) Because after a period of abandonment or almost abandonment of the memorization process, a return to it is increasing.

d) Because the text formulation is of notable theological fidelity. We admit that there are difficult texts. However, we believe that it is easier and safer to clarify a correct formulation in the future, not assimilated as a whole, than to correct an assimilated, but flawed, formulation.

e) Because we aim to offer a complete text and as attractive as possible, but cheap, for the pockets of most vicars and followers. (Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã, 1964, p.4, original highlight).

Some elements should be highlighted in this excerpt, considering the aim of this article. The main arguments to maintain the text without substantial changes are supported by the fact that the formula seemed to be working, considering the high number of issues reached by the Catechism. At the same time, it answered the guidelines of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Perhaps anticipating possible criticisms, Surian defends the idea that memorization, after a period of abandonment or near abandonment, was once again valued. The author was probably referring to the intense debates that preceded the formulation of the National Education Guidelines (LDB) from 1961 (Brasil, 1961) in which, on one hand, the Catholics and private schools took the lead to defend certain ideas associated to traditional education and, on the other, the Escola Nova followers that affirmed, in a new Manifest (^{Azevedo et al., 2010}), some political and pedagogical positions in favor of laic public education and active learning methods (^{Cury, 1988}; ^{Cunha, 2024}).

Surian’s defense to keep the traditional format of questions and answers, with some format innovations, regarding the text itself and its materiality, is coherent with the reading Catholic model. As Anne-Marie Chartier states: “For the Catholic Church, reading is not a value in itself, because what is important is the message of the text. The model of good reading is the one forged around the reading of sacred texts, reading of a spiritual mediation that patiently seeks to take from the divine word something that enlightens one’s intelligence, fortifies the will, enlarges the heart.” (Chartier, 2003, p.39). Hence, the Church aimed to form a reader that, through memorization and intensive reading, would always return to the same texts, so as not to lose oneself amidst the proliferation of new printed materials, including didactical ones. It is a concept of education different from that proposed by Escola Nova, which, as one of its bases, emphasized extensive reading and free interpretation of texts (^{Vidal, 2001}).

In this same direction, when recognizing that there were difficult texts, Surian anticipates, for the readers that changes had been conducted in the Catechism, without losing its "theological fidelity", making it more accessible and attractive, as much as possible, considering the educational objectives and its reading audience: vicars and followers that had limited "pockets", financially wise. We observe here several strategies used by the editors, already identified in several studies conducted within the scope of Cultural History to expand the reading audience of certain written materials. In a classic study about the books from Bibliothèque Bleue,^{Chartier (1990}) identifies a series of interventions used by Troyes’ printers to turn them into “large circulation”³, such as reducing editing costs, making them more accessible to potential readers, and simplifying difficult texts.

When analyzed from the content viewpoint, some of these interventions can be identified in the reformulated edition, providing evidence that the reading audience to be educated by the printed material should be broadened. As it is a catechism focused on beginning readers, the edition maintained the first part with the main prayers, commandments, sacraments and acts, gestures and signs that establish themselves as elementary practices of the Christian doctrine and a mark of Catholic belonging. In the various editions analyzed, the initial questions are retained with minor alterations to the graphic aspects, which will be further detailed in the next section. The language used in the answers remains essentially unchanged, with only minor content adjustments. These slight modifications, however, point out the objectives of the reformulated edition to be more accessible to the reading audience and educate the largest number of followers. Some language simplifications are observed, referring to the strategy of “reductive transformations”, studied by ^{Chartier (1990}, p.175), with the “modernization of old or difficult formulas”. While in previous editions, for example, they had already changed in the title of the lesson the verb “Cross oneself” to the expression “The sign of the Cross”, in the reformulated edition the word “Cross” is substitute by “Salvation”, signaling the Catholic Church’s attempt to approximate to a contemporary and everyday language, used by the target audience composed mainly by beginners and neophytes in the doctrines. These aspects can be observed in the pages presented below:

Source: Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã (1957, p.10)

Figure 1 Photo of the page with the first lesson of Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã - 1957 edition 

Source: Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã (1964, p.11-12)

Figure 2 Photo of the page with the first lesson of Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã 1964 edition 

Another aspect to be highlighted is the number of lessons and pages analyzed in the focused editions. In the remodeled edition, we can see an investment in the detail of the lesson themes, resulting in 22 lessons with a total of 199 questions and answers presented between pages 11 and 80. Most of the lessons have three pages, and only three lessons have four pages. The traditional editions of the Catechism presented 11 thematic lessons in 39 pages with 173 questions and answers (Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã, 1957). Thus, we notice that the significant increase in the number of pages and lessons in the remodeled edition was not followed by a substantial increase in the number of questions. An example of question-and-answer reorganization is the content of the lesson about the church in the 1954 edition, Lesson VI, entitled “About the holy Catholic Church" (p. 19), which is presented on a page and a half with seven questions. In the 1964 remodeled edition, the theme is approached in Lesson 21, with the title "Jesus loves us through the Church" (p.74), with three pages and 11 questions. The content itself was not increased, but there was an addition of graphic resources, the letter is larger, and the questions were dismembered to ease understanding; only the content about the Second Vatican Council appears as a novelty. This strategy, mobilized in the reformulated edition, was also found in ^{Chartier's (1990}, p.175) studies about the Bibliothèque Bleue. The multiplication of chapters and the increase in the number of paragraphs, “ though this division does not result in any narrative or logic need", makes, according to the author, "less dense the text distribution on the page," augmenting its reach to readers who are less used to the world of written culture. Therefore, we observe that the reformulated edition of the Catechism, when making the text more palatable and its presentation on the page more attractive, seeks to educate the highest number of readers as possible.

The change in the content and the way of approaching the themes that stand out the most in the reformulated version of the Primeiro Catecismo (1964) is the insertion of four topics called “In the liturgy”, “Prayer”, “Mission to be accomplished” and “Should keep for life”. These four topics, mainly the last two, explain the appeal of the mission to become an example and convince people around to also act and behave according to the Christian principles. These topics are closely connected to the Catholic reform proposed by the Second Vatican Council that called up the establishment of a catechism with a liturgic emphasis, also affecting the production of catechisms that should present not only a synthetic presentation of the content in questions and answers, but also to be an adaptation to the how the Church used to transmit the doctrine, employing modern means and attending the needs of the present. When analyzing the collection from Priest Álvaro Negromonte that distinguished itself in content and the graphical-editorial project of catechisms circulating in Brazil in the first half of the 20^th century, ^{Orlando (2013}, p.171) stresses the criticism towards the “hardship of the texts and the lack of interest they caused in the students made many priests and laic people to rethink the materials used in catechism teaching” and the influence in the catechism movement of Munich that inspired debates on the renovation of catechism and the “catechist pedagogy, opening up to new themes, new approaches, other directions about methodological and didactic questions, the evaluation of manuals used in the catechism classes, and the catechist formation". Thus, we notice that the reformulation was, to a certain degree, seeking to incorporate elements present in the internal debate of the Catholic Church and the pedagogical concepts associated with the active methods, making students more participative and active in their communities.

In the reformatted edition of the Primeiro Catecismo (1964), the maintenance of the method of ready questions and answers, as in the original 1904 text, reinforces the notion of single knowledge, a doctrine and dogmas to be memorized and externalized in the ways of acting, as previously discussed. The questions and answers aim to familiarize the reader with the fundamental principles that underpin the doctrine of the Catholic Church, which is based on sacred history, dogmas, commandments, and sacraments. In turn, the four topics at the end of the lessons reveal two other main general principles: act and convince. The analysis of questions and answers and the excerpts of the topics added to the reformulated editions enabled the grouping that shows that the printed material sought to form/educate the reader based on these three principles: 1) know the dogma and doctrine of Catholicism;; 2) act/incorporate, in its everyday life, the knowledge acquired, through their actions, understood as a testimony; 3) convince people with whom they socialize that the Catholic doctrine should be known and incorporated by the whole community.

These principles reveal the elements that enable reflection on the ritualistic dimension of recreating the sacred time, rooted in the archetype of God and the hero. According to ^{Eliade (1992}), the God of the Jewish people, "reveals its will through the events is retaken and developed by Christianity, mainly, regarding the history of Jesus - the Mesias that suffers” (p.119). The focus in sacred history and the principle of knowing is anchored in God's interventions in history, and primarily in the incarnation in the historical person of Jesus Christ, whose aim is to save humanity (Eliade, 1992). Also according to Eliade (1992), “The Christian liturgic year is based in a periodical and real repetition of Jesus’s birth, passion, and death, with all that this mystic drama implies for the Christian; it is the personal and cosmic regeneration through the concrete re-actualization of the Savior’s birth, death, and resurrection” (p.144). The intended personal regeneration - and that should manifest itself in gestures/ways of being and acting and in the proselytism of the Catholic action - was in synch with the internal disputes in the Catholic Church and the educational and political context in the years before the 1964 civil-military coup (^{Cunha, 2014}). When quantifying and analyzing all the phrases, questions, answers, and excerpts of the Catechism, we perceive that the majority of the lessons’ content focuses on the knowing principle, approximately 69.34% of the total. After, the acting principles, identified in the topics “In the liturgy” and “Prayer”, and convincing, identified in the topics “Mission to be accomplished” and “Should keep for life”, correspond to 15.33% of the lessons’ content, as can be seen in the table below:

Based on the analysis of the lessons that comprise the Primeiro Catecismo (1964), we consider that there is an effort to make the student aware of and develop the apostolic action, practice the Church's doctrine, and form an interior consciousness, a way to be identified as Catholic. We highlight examples of this guidance in each lesson in the topic “Mission to be accomplished” that indicates the actions to be undertaken by the reader regarding the extension of their learning to the people around, such as “Pray, sacrifice oneself, and work to help missionaries to baptize the highest number of pagans as possible” (p.22), “ look with relatives and friends the excerpts of Jesus’s teachings” (p.26), “work to introduce the cross at the homes” (p.29), “make an effort for the family to pray together” (p.32), “Invite friends and relatives for the Sunday mass” (p.35), among others. The title of the lesson 13 “Jesus makes us soldiers” (p.47) is in synch with the “Mission to be accomplished” by the reader to convince other people to introduce the Christian doctrine in their lives, acting as an apostle to the laic people, calling upon a vocation as “soldier” to accomplish their mission to increase the “mystic body” of the Catholic Church, mainly, through the influence of the Second Vatican Council (Compêndio do Vaticano II, 1968-1986, p. 584). Thus, it is possible to understand the formative proposal of the catechism better and see if the addition of new topics did not alter the more conservative nature of its contents. The changes, mainly in its structure, seem to have been influenced by internal Church movements, the educational debate, and the editorial market of the time.

The reformulated edition of the graphic-editorial project

As we aimed to demonstrate in the previous topic, the text of the Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã, throughout the various editions analyzed, including the 1964 edition, was published without major variations, with interventions that primarily sought to expand the reading audience and form more engaged followers in the Church’s apostolic action. We cannot say the same thing about its materiality, which, as we will show, had several modifications in the reformulated edition.

The first notable difference between the various versions of the Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã is its size. Most editions published by Editora Vozes until 1964 had a format of 13cm x 8.5 cm. However, the 1964 edition has a 17.7cm x 12cm format, which is significantly different from traditional catechisms. The increase in the size of the material could also be observed during the same period regarding didactic books (^{Soares, 2001}; ^{Orlando, 2013}). Thus, we might infer that it sought an approximation with the new products, focusing on the children and schooled audience available in the editorial market. As ^{Chartier (1990}) states, the option to publish the same texts in other materialities is evidence of the editors' need to adapt the works to the expectations or abilities of the new target audience. In an increasingly more fragmented editorial market regarding the audience, the books for children and young adults became, at that time in Brazilian history, increasingly more different than those for adults. Similarly, the didactic genre started to have its own configuration. In this context, when opting to print the 1974 Catechism in a larger format, in consonance with the new demands of the book industry, the editors implicitly informed that it was a work primarily targeting children and young people and that had the characteristics of a didactic manual.

Source: Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã, 1964 and 1954 editions, respectively.

Figure 3 Dimensions and layout of the covers from Editions 1964 and 1954 of Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã 

Another important transformation refers to the use of illustrations and colors. As can be seen in the images below, the covers of the traditional editions do not have illustrations but are decorated with vignettes and use only black. In turn, the cover of the remodeled Catechism features a colored illustration that encompasses the cover, spine, and back cover.

Source: Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã, 1964 and 1954 editions, respectively.

Figure 4 Cover of the 1951 and 1954 editions of the Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã 

Source: Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã, 1964 edition.

Figure 5 Illustration and colors in the cover, spine, and back cover of the 1964 edition of the Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã 

As we can see, the illustration on the cover of the reformulated edition is in color and has children on it, which gives one more evidence that the modifications undertaken area related to the need to make the material more attractive, adapting it and targeting it to a broader audience, mainly to children that, as it seems, is the one that should be educated first. On it, we can also see complementary graphic elements, as the phrase “This is my beloved son….Listen to him!” (Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã, 1964, cover), what induces the reader to interpret the illustration and also the content of the Catechism itself- the focus in the presence of the "Son", in relation to the "father", highlighted in the lessons. The need of “typographic” changes to make the catechism more attractive to the audience, especially children, had already been defended by Álvaro Negromonte to whom it was noticeable “the lack of prestige of a tiny book, small, with no illustrations, compared to the clear and varied text amidst the figures that speak much louder than the letters” (Negromonte, 1942 apud^{Orlando, 2013}, p.172).

^{Chartier’s (1990}) works also help to understand the role of images in large-circulation printed materials. In some cases, as it seems to be the case of the cover of the reformulated edition of the Catechism, the image “allows fixating and crystallizing, around a single representation, what was an interspersed and very fragmented reading” (p.180). The child or the catechist, when daily facing the colored images of Jesus leaving the waters of the River Jordan, after baptized together with John Baptist in a praying position and other people, including children, fixates/crystalizes a series of feelings and rituals from the Christian doctrine, providing “the memory and the moral of the text” (Chartier, 1990, p.180). It is also a strategy used in didactic manuals, mainly those for readers who are not yet fluent in reading, a "pedagogy of literacy that uses visuality”, as stated by ^{Frade (2012}, p.173), as the image anticipates and favors the construction and stabilization of the text’s meaning, easing its understanding.

The illustrations are also present throughout the text of the reformulated editions, which differ in this aspect from the traditional editions. Following a consistent logic, all lessons begin with an illustration in black, white, and green, accompanied by phrases related to the theme, as shown in the images of Figure 2, previously presented. According to ^{Chartier (1990}, p. 180), the use of images increases the “seduction” of the text, also making it "more explicitly and decipherable its contours”. In this direction, besides other interventions in the materiality of the 1964 Catechism, such as the increase in the size of the letters and the presence of images, reveals, once more, the expansion of the target audience, which is implicitly considered as less used to the logic of written culture.

Another significant change in the 1964 edition is the reference to the Roteiro Catequético I [Catechism Path I]: a teacher book for the Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã, written by Friar Carmelo Surian. It is a manual for catechists to use with class plans on each theme of the Catechism, describing the materials to be used, the class time, the age range of the students, and incentives to encourage students to record their favorable and unfavorable reactions. The image below is an example of how the work is organized with the presentation of model class plans and forms of recording them:

Source: ^{Surian (1964}, p. 10).

Figure 6 Class plan at Roteiro Catequético I: a teacher book for the Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã 

The time management, according to the planning and methods to be used, is described in details:

To present the theme as a lecture and the use of pedagogical means, such as the reading of the Bible, the memorization of Catechism, and the praying moments, you need 15 to 20 minutes, because the Catechism Script considers the format of half an hour for the religion class and indicates for the second half a class of 10 to 15 minutes for activities about the class theme (^{Surian, 1964}, p. 10).

Besides planning the time of each class, the manual also proposes that the catechist distribute the themes to be approached during the catechism period:

II - UNIT SCALE

1) Classes every Sunday and holy days

- Sundays 52 classes

- Holy days 9 classes

- discount 16 classes = 45 classes

2) Unit distribution:

I - At the cross, a summary of the faith....... 1 class

II - Notion of God (Lessons 2 and 3) ................. 3 classes

III - The original sin and the promise ............ 3 classes

IV - The salvation (Lessons 5 to 11) .................... 14 classes

V - The sacraments (Lessons 12 to 20) .......... 20 classes

VI - The Church, family of God ....................... 2 classes

VII - Our answer .................................. 2 classes

NOTE: Use the remaining classes for activities and recapitulation, encompassing the general view of the topic. (^{Surian, 1964}, p.158 - italics in the original)

The gestures to be performed in each class are also detailed. The order and control of the body is something that constitutes the history of the Catholic Church itself (^{Gélis, 2008}). In the example below, the prayer Our Father is followed by guidelines related to the body posture to be followed/taught by the catechist, this aspect can be observed in the prescription that ^{Surian (1964}) called “Prayer as a pedagogical means":

Our Father, who art in heaven................................ (Standing, the catechist makes gestures, inviting students

hallowed be thy name, to imitate him/her)

thy kingdom come................................................ (raised hands)

thy will be done.................................................... ” “

on earth as it is in heaven. ………………………………. (hands on chest, half bow)

Give us this day our daily bread............................ (indicate the sky with the right hand,

and forgive us our trespasses, .............................. and the land with the left one)

as we forgive those who trespass against us....... . (petition gesture)

And lead us not into temptation............................ (hit the chest, inclined)

but deliver us from evil. Amen. ............................ (large hugging gesture) (folded hands, looking up)

(defense gesture, pushing) (^{Surian, 1964}, n/p)

Once more, like the process taking place at the time in the editorial market of didactic book, which assumed a teacher that was ill-prepared to school children and young people in an autonomous and competent way (^{Soares, 2001}), the Catholic Church also perceive the need to form the educator - catechist when faced by the increasing presence and work of laic leaders. Therefore, we see that, besides the children's public, the printed material aimed to also educate the adults in charge of teaching the content. In this aspect, the model readers (^{Eco, 1979}) also seemed unfamiliar with the logic of the written world as they needed to find, in the pages of the material, a content materialized in an attractive graphic project that was understandable and replicable.

Therefore, the manuals for educators should also become a new artifact of formation for them, the now "countless” subjects, as explained by Friar Carmelo Surian when stressing the book’s objective:

Serve, in the best way possible, the countless catechists who use the traditional Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã. Thus, it does not intend to present any novelty in the catechism field. It is not a new method. It only offers abundant material to facilitate the use for the Brazilian catechists of the new illustrated text of the Primeiro Catecismo da Doutrina Cristã (^{Surian, 1964}, p. 5).

The approximations between the school market and the religious printed materials were not, however, something new at the time. ^{Orlando’s studies (2008}; 2013) about the catechisms of Priest Álvaro Negromonte, which circulated between the 1930s and 1960s, for example, show that the disputes to maintain religious education in schools, the dissemination of Escola Nova ideals, and the movement of catechist renovation enabled the increase in catechism production for the school curriculum. According to the author, Negromonte produced materials for the formation of catechist teachers and Christian families, connected to "Catholic Action", which sought to expand the formation in Christian doctrine for lay people. Thus, the catechisms developed by him had the style of a didactic book and also focused not only on schools and catechism classes but also on different spaces that were "were closer to the school universe" (Orlando, 2013, p. 20). The author's studies, as analyzed here, demonstrate the constant need for renovation in the Catholic Church, similar to what occurs in other religious institutions when faced with new educational, editorial, economic, and social demands.