ESSAYS ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
by
Gerard Rummery

1970-1980:

The Decade of the Directories

    I THINK it is possible and indeed legitimate to talk about the post?war "catechetical movement" provided that certain specifications are made with regard to the meaning of the expression. It is possible, for example, to see the influence of certain catechetical writers such as Jungmann in the development of the so?called German Catechism of the 1950s. even though Jungmann's seminal thesis on the "kerygma" was developed in the pre?war period. The English?speaking world was largely "catechised" towards a kerygmatic catechesis by the work and writings of Hofinger. The first critical or at least cautionary writings about the possible dangers of too much concentration on a uni­formly kerygmatic catechesis were the work of Nebreda in "Kerygma in Crisis".1 In the French?speaking world. the monumental work of Joseph Colomb helped to change the direction of catechetics in France even though he him­self, and later Coudreau and others. were strongly attacked and denounced at Rome for advocating directions we would now consider normal. There is evidence of a "movement" of ideas which transcended borders of nation and language and tended to spread more widely through the Church. Much of this movement of ideas was facilitated by the post?war catechetical institutes begun in Paris. Brussels, Nijmegen and Munich. The students attending these centres were not necessarily from the host country, but frequently and increasingly came from all over the world. To this movement of ideas through people, there should be added the important growth of catechetical journals in the same period. Sometimes, such journals were associated with a particular catechetical centre (e.g.. Lumen Vitae from Brussels, Verbum from Nijmegen, etc.), but the influence of such writings, often in translation. was much more widespread.' There was a certain uniformity also in the history of some of these catechetical centres which came gradually under suspicion for what was allegedly taught (or not taught) and for the less formal liturgical celebrations which were developed in the communal life of the student body, usually comprising priests and religious of a certain age and experience. These instances, I suggest, deserve the name of a "movement" because the similarities of experiences of growth, contestation, acrimonious debate and censure, and, in most cases, the threat of closure of such institutions or the suspension from teaching of some of the lecturers. was indicative of something very different happening on the formerly tranquil catechetical scene.4

It is evident even from the summary view given above that there were two levels of this movement. The setting up of catechetical institutes and magazines was usually the initiative of local hierarchies responding to the particular needs of the Church in their local area. What could not have been predicted was the result of bringing together, in the immediate post-war years, catechists in the very broad sense of that term, who were experiencing the acute pastoral problems of a war-weary but largely "dechristianised" Europe for which the former solutions were patently inadequate. It was frequently at this level of personal experience that there began to be expressed an impatience with older practices and an eagerness to find ways of coping with the new situations already experienced. Almost inevitably. there was tension between people at these different levels and later, more direct conflict.

I think it is important to try to see why this catechetical movement has been, and continues in many places to be, a source of tension within the local Church. Especially, this is so because catechesis by its very nature is the point of articulation, as Jacques Audinet expresses it, between theology in the broadest sense and that manner of transmitting the tradition which we call education. Audinet expresses the difficulty as follows:

"(Catechesis) is, at a given point of time, in a given society, the act by which the Church community attempts to give the message she bears, with the help of the very means which the culture of that society offers. The work of catechesis then seems like the work of the Church community here and now, attempting to articulate the language symbols, values. customs of a period or a group by means of the Word which she bears".

Our contention is that it is this articulation which is today in question. The manner in which it has been carried out in recent centuries and which we have inherited is challenged by the changes which have occurred during the present time: whereas the attention to the Word of God (as the Council attests), "continually questions the work of this very linking of traditions and culture which Christians have undertaken in the Church. generation after generation".5

Transmitting the cultural forms of the faith, then, became for many catechists almost diametrically opposed to that view of catechesis which Audinet expresses as "the task of the Church building the Church within a given culture". The increasing rapidity of change in the past thirty years which has seen the creation of an almost universal youth culture manifested in dress, in pop music and pop art, has only increased the distance between different generations and has confronted us with a cultural pluralism inside as well as outside the Church.

I would like to consider some aspects of the continuing catechetical movement in the light of these tensions and try to discern just where it is and what are its emphases as we begin the decade of the 1980s. To do this, I think it is important to glance back at the decade 1960-1970 (with a little stretching at either end to accommodate the Eichstatt Congress of 1959 and the International Catechetical Congress in Rome in 1971) as the decade obviously of the Second Vatican Council but also the decade of the catechetical congresses. The perspective I would like to offertowards the congresses highlights the rapidity of change as well as the diversity of situations: "A broad sweep over the Congresses takes us from Eichstatt, with its clear support of the kerygmatic movement, to Bangkok (1962) where the certainty of Eichstatt was somewhat blunted by the reluctance of the- Asian delegates to proceed by a method of history quite foreign to mentality of the peoples they knew and where the problems of preevangelisation were emphasised; to Katigondo (1964) where, at first tentatively and then with more confidence, it was affirmed that the traditional African attitudes to religion should be retained in the catechesis of these peoples; to Manila (1966) which was faced by the 'kerygma in crisis' and pre-catechesis discussions initiated by Nebreda; to Medellin (1968), dominated by the idea of human development as an ideal in itself and not simply as a means to catechesis; and then back to Europe (1971) where in Rome the whole course of the congress attested to the acceptance of pluralism in catechesis".6

It was not only the number or frequency of congresses which proved important. There was, as well. an enlargement of vision for those well-known catechetical writers and lecturers who experienced at first hand the different cultures of their former students whom they had encountered previously only in a European context. In this sense, the word inculturation began to take on an increasing importance for all the local church activities and not simply for catechesis. The encounter with the living Church, incarnated in different cultures, brought into question any emphasis which continued to stress the insights or theological language of western Europe as essential for transmission of the essential core of the gospel message.

The decade we are now just concluding seems to me to be marked catechetically as the decade of the Directories. If we except the French Directoire de la pastorale catechetique of 1964, the principal catechetical task achieved by many national episcopal conferences since 1970 has been the production of some set of national pastoral guidelines for the elaboration of catechetical programmes and materials. If we take into account only those appearing in English which have been fairly widely circulated, we have the following list:

1970 -The Italian Episcopal Conference's 11 rinnovamento della catechesi published in February was translated into English by the Australian Episcopal Conference and issued to accompany what turned out to be a somewhat controversial course for 16-year-olds. The Australian translation was entitled The Renewal of the Education of Faith." 

1971 - Directorium Catechisticum Generate or General Catechetical Directory, published by the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, was circulated to the delegates of the International Catechetical Congress of August of that year.'

1972 - To Teach as Jesus Did. A Pastoral Message on Catholic Education, was issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States in November.

1973 -Basic Teachings for Catholic Religious Education was prepared by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops "in consultation with the Holy See" for January.

1973-The Bishops' Conference of England and Wales under the title Teaching the Faith "the New Way", published the Australian translation of the 1970 Italian document, prefaced by nine pages describing the particular conditions of England and Wales to be considered in reading the document.9 

1974-The New Zealand hierarchy issued the final version of a basic catechetical document called We Live and Teach Christ Jesus.

1977 - The Education Committee of the Australian Episcopal Conference, although failing to gain approval by a majority of the Bishops, published We Preach Jesus Christ as Lord as a document of their committee, though not of the Episcopal Conference."

1978 -Cornerstone by Mgr Kevin Nichols. subtitled "Guidelines for Religious Education", was issued by the authority of the Bishops' Conference for England and Wales as the first of a proposed series of nine books."

1979 -Sharing the Light of Faith, the final version of the National Catechetical Directory, issued with the authority of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States and with the formal approval of the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, was published.

Not all of the above publications merit the title of "directory" in the strict sense in which the term is employed, for example, by the General Catechetical Directory or by the United States National Catechetical Directory. But the chronology provides a summary view of the directions taken over a decade and the history of each resolution. For example, the Italian document of 1970 was the final stage of a team project of research and investigation conducted under the leadership of James Medica. The Australian translation, however, changes the title from the literal "The Renewal of Catechesis" to "The Renewal of the Education of Faith". As I have noted elsewhere "the description of catechesis as 'the education of faith' . . . arose out of the French catechetical movement '1'education de la foi', an expression which safeguards better than its English translation both the personal and the communitarian dimensions of faith . . ."." As always, the search for a new language is an important pointer to a changed view of the situation. The same document commended by the Bishops of England and Wales was entitled "Teach the Faith 'the New Way' ", a title which is more simple and more direct but one which introduces the more magisterial word "teaching" in preference to the word "education". Secondly, the Italian document was to be the basic document providing the principles on which five books or courses were to be developed for different age-groups from young children to adults, a task now completed. At least one of these books was translated into English.' Even though both the Australian Episcopal Conference and the Bishops of England and Wales' offered their own prefaces to their use of the translated Italian document. I have remarked elsewhere on the great differences between traditional Italian Catholicism and the Catholicism of a minority group in pluralist societies such as England and Australia." It needs to be said as well that the delegates to the International Catechetical Congress in Rome in 1971 gave only a guarded acceptance to the General Catechetical Directory, welcoming it as a service document but insisting both on the regret that there was not a wider consultation sought in its preparation and the necessity for local people to take into account the particular culture and background of their countries.

Another tension of the decade can be seen in the appearance within three months of each other of To Teach as Jesus Did and Basic Teachings for Catholic Religious Education in the United States. Following this, there was the extraordinary enterprise of beginning the preparation of a National Directory by a massive consultation of the faithful through the questionnaires and draft copies which preceded the final edition of Sharing the Light of Faith. On a much smaller scale, the New Zealand Episcopal Conference's We Live and Teach Christ Jesus was the result of the work of a number of study groups throughout the country under a co-ordinating team. The final product, entrusted to one person so as to ensure a certain unity of thought and style, is an excellent document strongly reflecting the particular situation of Catholics in New Zealand. It is in no way to minimise what was achieved to remark, however, that some who had worked on the stages of the document found it difficult to recognise their own contributions under the basic unity of form and language given by the theologian who had been asked to make the synthesis. This is simply to point up again Audinet's remark about catechesis as the articulation of theology and education. It was probably this difficulty. as well as differences over some current theological views on topics such as revelation and church, which led the Australian Episcopal Conference's Education Committee to go ahead with the publication of We Preach Jesus Christ as Lord even though the Conference failed to accord the document a majority vote. As I remarked in reviewing the document, "the fact that the document has received only a limited approval from the Episcopal Conference is in itself a faithful indicator of the very different positions taken by individual members of the Episcopal Conference with regard to Catechetics in their respective dioceses . . " " What was important for those who had prepared the statement was that the Conference had promised such a document. In issuing it, the members of the Education Committee kept faith with those who had requested such a document. This document does not pretend to be a directory but it may be an important step towards the production of one.

It seems to me to be important at this stage to look back to see the origins of this movement towards the preparation of directories before attempting to reflect on the particular tasks for catechesis occasioned by them. In the Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church (Christus Dominos, October 28, 1965), §44 reads as follows:

"A special directory should be compiled . . . and also a directory for the catechetical instruction of the Christian people in which the fundamental principles of this instruction and its organisation will be dealt with and the preparation of books relating to it. In the preparation of these directories due consideration should be given to the views expressed both by the commissions and by the Conciliar Fathers".18

In the Apostolic letter Ecclesiae Sanctae of August 6, 1966, on the implementation of the decree on Bishops, Priests and Religious, Pope Paul VI notes in §43:

"Regarding pastoral directories, patriarchal synods and episcopal conferences are requested to undertake without delay a study of these questions to be treated in the directories, both general and special ones, and communicate their views and requests to the Apostolic See as soon as possible".17

The preparation and publication of directories, therefore, is integrally connected with the implementation of the thought and spirit of the Second Vatican Council in the local Church.

The formal request for directories recognises the importance of the situation of the local Church in the task of handing on the faith. At the same time, it envisages a continuing dialogue between the local Church and the competent authority of a Roman congregation (the Congregation for the Clergy) in the preparation of an official document such as a directory. The difficulties of such a situation are that, in the final resort, some kind of authority must decide in situations in which a deadlock has been reached. For example, the process followed in the preparation of the United States National Directory was one which worked towards the establishment of a consensus. There is probably no other instance in the history of the Catholic Church where so many years, so much processing by computer, so many attempts at reconciling different viewpoints were all used to come to a final form acceptable to a wide range of opinion." It was, then, for some people a particularly delicate issue when the Congregation for the Clergy required certain changes in the final text. One key area was the following:

"It would seem to be less opened to misunderstanding if the word 'revelation' standing alone. without modifiers. quotation marks or italics, were to signify public, divine revelation in the strict sense. and that other expressions be chosen to indicate other modes by which God manifests himself to man".19

Gabriel Moran, author of the highly important Theology of Revelation, commented:

"This innocent-looking sentence asking that the directory be 'less opened to misunderstanding' reverses the direction given to the directory by thousands of religion teachers. Early directory treatment of revelation reflected the Catholic Church's attempt to face educational and ecumenical questions. The congregation's suggested change undercuts the directory's significance and the process producing it",20

Moran goes on to remark that the bishops realised the significance of the proposed change and devoted part of their November conference to a debate on the nature of revelation. He continues, "Ironically, the congregation's statement reads well up to the code words `in the strict sense'. That is, revelation without qualifiers or quotation marks should refer to the public presence of God in the world. The catch is the peculiar and illogical way such Church documents use the word 'public'. A public revelation is not one made to the public or one publicly available".21

This ironical last sentence leads Moran to further analysis of the restrictive aspects of the congregation's statement. He concludes,

"To admit that the Catholic Church does not have exclusive rights to 'public, divine revelation' is threatening, but the only possible route after Vatican II. Catholic positions need restatement in a world where God's presence is acknowledged in other religions and in every individual's private and public life . . . What neither the Catholic Church nor other religions can claim is that their documents are 'the public, divine revelation'. Religion teachers daily face this issue with any student capable of turning on a TV series like 'The Long Search’”22

I have cited this one instance at some length because it highlights again the continuing tension between the catechists, the theologians and the decisions of an episcopal conference and a Roman congregation. In this particular instance, I suggest there are very special circumstances touching the nature of religious pluralism in the United States, the contributions of christian theologians other than those of the Catholic Church as well as of those who are not christian, and, in the final analysis, the locus of authority. There are also the kind of questions which arise when it is realised that the major emphasis of the United States directory is towards the continuing catechesis of adults and not simply about what is to be taught to children.

The "temporary" status of the United States directory is one of the important qualifications expressed in the document itself:

" . the treatment of such matters as stages of human development, methodology, catechetical roles and training. organisation and structures, resources, etc., is subject to change in light of new knowledge or different circumstances.

"Because the methods and cultural context of catechesis are very likely to change and new Church documents on the subject will be published, this document will be reviewed periodically for updating and improvement. Approximately five years after its approval by the Holy See, it will be submitted to an extensive evaluation, in a manner to be determined by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops".23

Among the powerful incentives to change in this decade of the directories, two Church events have a special importance viz., the document of Pope Paul VI Evangelii Nuntiandi and the event of the 1977 Synod on The Catechesis o f Children and Young People. The marked continuity between the 1974 Synod and that of 1977 gives a special importance to directories of the past four years because I do not think it is being too dramatic to suggest that the direction of the catechetical movement has been turned towards a much more outward looking perspective. If the post-war catechetical movement can be summed up initially in the slogan "from catechism to catechesis", then I think the new emphasis might well be "from catechesis to evangelisation". I should like to offer some considerations on this interpretation.

First, the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi is itself an important illustration of the principle of collegiality operating in the post-Vatican II Church. The Synod fathers, nominated by the Pope, meet every three years to discuss a specific topic on which there has been a great deal of preliminary work through working papers. In the 1974 Synod, Pope Paul responded by promising the Church his reflections, as Pope on the matters discussed. 

There is, therefore, a two-way flow of ideas, from the Church to the Pope and from the Pope to the Church, and in between, the very important process of discussion, clarification and the new syntheses which has marked the last two Synods.

Second, the emphases of Evangelii Nuntiandi have a new urgency about them: "we must devote all our resources and all our efforts to the sedulous evangelisation of human culture, or rather of the various human cultures (19); . . . evangelisation . . . is the special grace and vocation of the Church. It is her essential function (14). Accordingly, the Church begins her work of evangelisation by evangelising herself . . . the Church must evangelise herself by a constant conversion and renewal if she is convincingly to evangelise the world (15). While this first proclamation will be directed primarily towards those who have never heard the good news of Jesus or to children, it will always be needed nevertheless on account of the extent of dechristianisation today (52); . . . it is evident that the circumstances of our times make it ever more urgent to provide catechetical instruction under some form of catechumenate for the many adolescents who, under the firm influence of grace, are gradually discerning the countenance of Christ . . . (44) ; . . . to administer the sacraments without any firm basis of catechesis on the sacraments themselves, or of general catechesis, is to stultify their purpose and to a great extent deprive them of their efficacy (47) . . . the man who has been evangelised becomes himself an evangelises (24)".24

Now none of these quotations, or others that could have been chosen, deny or lessen the importance of catechesis for all groups within the Church. But the vision is more outward looking. The Church's task is to try to find ways of offering the Gospel to all. The "family" sense of catechesis viz., the activity of believers on behalf of those who are already initiated into the faith of the Church, has depended so strongly on cultural supports in the past that we have to question seriously whether such systems continue to do anything more than offer a cultural introduction to Christ and his Gospel. The security of being a Christian and of being on the road to personal salvation are not enough. The gift is not to be hidden in the field but used to be shared with all men." . . . the promulgation of the Gospel message is not something which the Church may undertake or neglect at her discretion; it is rather the function and duty imposed on her by our Lord Jesus Christ so that all may believe and achieve salvation" (4).25

The emphases of this document are strongly reflected in the three later documents of the decade viz., the Australian We Preach Jesus Christ as Lord, the English Cornerstone and the United States Sharing the Light of Faith. What will be important. I think, will be to see how these principles are translated into practical projects in the particular circumstances of each culture and even in the unique circumstances of each local church. The point may have to be sharpened on particular issues to see whether maintenance or mission is receiving preference. For example, a local church may have to ask whether the maintenance of a local Catholic school which may take the greater part of parish/diocesan finances allows sufficient finance to give that priority to continuing an adult catechesis so stressed in the Directories. Indeed, from a quantitative point of view, it is this move towards continuing and adult catechesis which distinguishes the growth of the Directories over the decade.

The event of the 1977 Synod Catechetics in Our Time gives some insights into the strengths and difficulties of the catechetical movement towards the end of the decade. Despite suggestions that "Catechetics …especially for Young People" was not the correct priority for the Church at that time, Pope Paul VI insisted on the continuity of this Synod with that on Evangelisation. I imagine, also, that attentive reading of many Catholic papers and journals during the decade would show the recurring theme of controversy about the content, style and materials being used in catechetical work. It is not surprising, therefore, that a large number of the initial prepared interventions reflected something of the catechetical controversies. For example, Archbishop Winning of Glasgow concentrated on the lay person's role as teacher of religion, remarking: "The teacher of religion, the catechist has been made to feel very unsure and insecure and inadequate as new methods and approaches were imposed on them by the bishop without adequate consultation and the provision of means for adaptation and updating; for example, in the introduction of the new text books; and untried programmes of catechesis; the experimentation on First Confession and First Communion which was discontinued so abruptly without the teachers being properly consulted and their lack of understanding of the good reasons underlying the constant process of renewal .26

Archbishop Ryan of Dublin raised the hoary questions of memorisation and catechisms. " . . . It must be conceded that many pedagogical errors were committed by excessive insistence on committing catechism answers to memory. As a reaction to these mistakes, there is far less insistence on learning by heart formulae of doctrine or of prayer. This change is characteristic of education in general to such an extent that pupils are rarely enough asked to commit texts to memory . . . It would be too much to expect the Synod to produce a catechism which would be short, containing the essentials, and revised in the light of Vatican II and the subsequent documents of the Magisterium. Perhaps the time is not ripe for beginning such a work . . .".27

Cardinal Hume spoke on the content of catechesis, remarking: "Our experience in England and Wales shows the need for a careful balance to be kept between the attention to be paid for the role of doctrine in catechetics and the formation to be given to live a truly christian life".27

Archbishop Worlock, speaking on the role of the Catholic school. emphasised "the need to relate its work to the community as a whole". Having elaborated on this principle, he concluded by saying that "our experience in my country is that the Catholic school is alive and well. We are committed to its continued existence and development".29

The "process" of the Synod was directed to a deepening of the issues under discussion and the search for a set of pastoral principles which might serve the wider Church through their adaptation in local cultures. This principle of "inculturation" spoken to by Pedro Arrupe, Superior of the Jesuits, was certainly one of the key ideas which emerged through the discussions. The decision to offer a "message" to the "people of God" was an important extension of the principle of collegiality which had brought the delegates together. The Synod offered Pope Paul and his advisers 34 points as the possible basis for a document such as Evangelii Nuntiandi. It is important to note the attention to the concepts of 'Word'. 'Witness' and 'Memory' in the central part of the synodal message on "Catechesis: manifestation of salvation in Christ". Here we can see. for example, a respecting of the positions of those who wished more emphasis on the role of memorisation, but this particular modality is expressed only in the broader anthropological concept of memory. The catechesis of "witness" develops that strong line of thought in Evangelii Nuntiandi perhaps best summarised around Pope Paul's observation: "the men of our day are more impressed by witness than by teachers. and if they listen to these it is because they also bear witness".30

Conclusion

The catechetical movement is alive and well at the beginning of the 1980s. It is. and will continue to be.by its very nature, subject to recurring tensions noted in this article, and this should prove to be an important way of preventing its lapse into complacency.
The decade of the directories does leave us. I believe, with a particular kind of pastoral problem which may be expressed thus: How do we translate the excellent principles of directories and documents into local and pastoral practices? I happen to believe, for example, that Cornerstone offers the best overview of the particular situation of England and Wales that has been produced. But the carefully argued which are a feature of the paragraph approach taken by the author, make it imperative that given to signposting people in the use of such a rich book. The medicine prescribed by the doctor will not be of much benefit if it remains untested; the forward thinking and the link with tradition which is such a feature of Cornerstone for me needs to be known and applied. And I do not think this is best done simply by reading the book. This directory, and others, may need the aid of some catechetical "brokers" or popularisers who can help others to a deeper conscientisation of its contents and the encouragement of their own creativity and pastoral experience in implementing its principles in the process of the "Church building the Church in a given culture".31

Notes

1 Loyola University Press 1965.

2 Le service de I'Evangile. Tomes 1 and 2. Desclee, Paris 1968.

3 E.g., the Australian catechetical review Our Apostolate frequently made use in the 1950s of articles translated from the review Catechistes.

4 E.g.. the history of the Corpus Christi College in London.

5 Audinet. Jacques. Catechesis: the Church building the Church within a given culture. Address to French Episcopate. Lourdes, 1975, translated and re-titled in Our Apostolate, Vol. 24 No. 3, August 1976. pp. 132-156. This quotation pp. 132-133.

6Rummery, R M.. Catechesis and Religious Education in a Pluralist Society. Dwyer. E. J., Sydney 1975: Our Sunday Visitor Press. Indiana, 1976: p. 106.

7 Dwyer, E. J., Sydney 1970.

8 Approved by Pope Paul VI. March 18, 1971. Copyright English translation by U.S. Catholic Conference, 1971.

9 St Paul Publications. Slough 1973.

10 Dwyer. E. J.. Sydney 1977.

11 St Paul Publications, Slough 1978.

12 United States Catholic Conference, Department of Education. 1979.

13 Rummery. R M., in New Movements in Religious Education, (ed.) Ninian Smart and Donald Horder. Temple Smith, London 1975, p. 154.

14 Ibid.. p. 161.

15 Our Apostolate. Vol. 25 No. 2, p. 69.

16 Vatican Council 11: The Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Decrees. (ed.) Flannery, Dominican Publications, Dublin, 1975.

17 Ibid.

18 *'The process of dialogue included three extensive consultations with the Church at large and with scholars, involving hundreds of thousands of people and resulting in tens of thousands of recommendations". §4, p. 3, "Sharing the Light of Faith".

19National Catholic Reporter, January 19, 1979, p. 16.

20,21,22, 23 Ibid.

24, "Evangelization Today", Doctrine and Life, March/April 1977.

25Ibid.

26 Supplement to Infoform, Vol. 7. No. 30 October 15, 1977, pp. 35-36. 'T Ibid., pp. 38-39.

27 Ibid

28 Supplement to Infoform, October 8, 1977, p. 5.

29Ibid.. pp. 3-4.

30Evangelii Nuntiandi (41).

31 I am preparing a book and some working strategies for generaluse in this way.

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