Catholic schools and the Catholic Social Teaching: a contribution to social life in the Netherlands.
Main points
At first glance the relation between catholic schools and the catholic church is only superficial. Their decreasing engagement seems to provide evidence for the theory of the decline of religion in social life. On second thoughts however, catholic schools truly are connected with the catholic religious tradition.
The first point the proposed paper will make is to argue that the Catholic Social Teaching plays a huge role in several dimensions of school life. This Teaching however, is not so much important for religious education lessons. The meaning of this Teaching lies in catholic school life as a whole, since the main themes of this Teaching are put into practise in every day schoollife.
The second point of the proposed paper is that in this embodied way, catholic schools and religious education offer a comprehensive contribution to social life. The paper concludes that catholic education as such delivers a valid argument for governments to stimulate religious education in primary and secundary schools.
Methodology
These points are elaborated as follows.
1. The first paragraph is literature-based and describes the development of catholic schools. During the pillarisation the catholic school was aimed at the roman catholic children and intertwined not only with family life but also with church life. School, parents and parish together gave shape to a catholic educational triangle. Catholic schools were an important place of public presence and influence of the Roman Catholic church and also an instrument in the social emancipation of the Dutch Roman Catholics. Catholic schools taught pupils about the catholic Faith and church and led them towards a recognizable catholic way of life. After the pillarisation and according to the Directorium for Catechesis, religious education is seen as a schoolsubject that has to be distinguished from catechesis lessons. Furthermore Catholic schools have to deal with the situation that the religious diversity in the society, which used to be part of the school’s environment, has become part of the school community itself: pupils, teachers, parents and schoolboards no longer originate from just the catholic population. The increasing distance between school and church leads to the question in what way these schools can still be identified as catholic schools.
2. The second paragraph builds on a qualitative research into the religious identity of Dutch protestant primary schools by Anneke de Wolff (Typisch Christelijk. Een onderzoek naar de identiteit van een christelijke school en haar vormgeving”, 2000) Her study distinguishes four domains that express religious identity: the domain of the religious in a strict sense, of the pedagogical, the educational and the organisational domain.
commune. In fact this fifth domain can be regarded as a comprehensive framework and a background against which the other four domains get their meaning.
3. Against the background of the presumption that catholic schools with their openness towards society are no longer tied together with the catholic curch, this paragraph argues the contrary. This openness is truly connected with the catholic tradition. A comparison with a explorative quantitative PdD thesis about the development of religiosity in catholic family life (summarized in T. Elshof (2012), The Development of Religiosity and Religious Socialisation over three Generations of Roman Catholic Family Life ) clarifies that catholic school life has also to deal with the two important results of that investigation: a) the emphasis of the domestic religiosity on the social life and ethical practices, and b) the ecclesiastical bonding of this embodied religiosity. Like religiosity in family life bares traces of the church view (for instance on marriage, sexuality, upbringing and social commitment), this is also the case in catholic school life. In the important role given to the social domain, the main issues of the Catholic Social Teaching appear. Catholic schools are connected with the catholic church, not by teaching into the catholic religion or by being an instrument and an extension of the parish life, but by being a location where the main themes of the Social Teaching of the Church are put into practise: in the personalised, relational view on mankind and the vision that education serves the child, in the attention for the bonum commune and the influence of values as justice, solidarity and subsidiarity. Catholicity is embodied in a religious foundend value structure.
This paragraph accomplishes this focus by emphasising how religious education that teaches about and from religion, can be justified in a context of religious pluralism and growing intolerance towards foreigners. Such religious education can be related to the Catholic Social Teaching because it stimulates and fosters the ability of youngsters to understand religiosity, religious similarities and religious differences. In this way, catholic schools provide a service to society with regard to the religious pluralism. This is also the matter when catholic schools have an open religious view and atmosphere. These schools are a breeding ground for
religious tolerance and dialogue itself. The preference of the Catholic Faith does not imply that the school does not accept and promote the freedom of religion and World view. That this is not a contradiction goes back to the confidence of the Catholic tradition in the reasonableness of faith and in the importance of searching for truth in freedom. Three primary sources grounding this paper
- Anneke de Wolff (2000). Typisch Christelijk. Een onderzoek naar de identiteit van een christelijke school en haar vormgeving. Kok: Kampen
- Toke Elshof. The Development of Religiosity and Religious Socialisation over three Generations of Roman Catholic Family Life. In: D. Owetschkin (Hg). Tradierungsprocesse im Wandel der Moderne. Religion und Familie im Spannungsfeld von Konfessionalität und Pluralisierung. Klartext Verlag Essen, pp. 165-180
- Toke Elshof. (2013) De katholieke school: tussen kerk en wereld. In Communio.
