  The Bethe--Salpeter equation for the pion in chiral symmetric models is
studied with a special care to consistency with low-energy relations. We
propose a reduction of the rainbow Schwinger--Dyson and the ladder
Bethe--Salpeter equations with a dressed gluon propagator. We prove that the
reduction preserves the Ward--Takahashi identity for the axial-vector current
and the PCAC relation.
