Fostering a faith that grows with our children

Faith lies at the very heart of Catholic education, yet fostering faith in the face of a culture

obsessed with superficial materialism, the cult of ‘me’, and the here and now – not the

values that enrich our world and bring true happiness – is an ever increasing challenge.

Paul Sharkey, Director of Catholic Identity at

Catholic Education Melbourne, talks about the

challenge of what he calls ‘somethingism’;

the ‘I know there’s something out there but I’m not

sure what it is’ view of religion so many Australians

now hold.

How can parents and teachers strengthen belief and

enable children to develop a mature faith as they

become young adults in a society where the word of

the gospels is just one of a myriad of messages our

children are bombarded by each day?

That’s where the Enhancing Catholic School Identity

project – ECSI – comes in.

For over a decade Catholic Education Melbourne

has been working with academics at the Catholic

University of Leuven in Belgium and the Australian

Catholic University to develop religious education

programs that truly speak to young people and place

their values in a specifically Catholic context.

‘Our Catholic education system seeks to serve and

reach out to an increasingly diverse community here

in Victoria,’ Dr Sharkey says. ‘Young people today

are immersed in a globalising world and exposed

to a multiplicity of cultures, world views and beliefs

through the media, pop culture and their own

personal experiences. Our schools need to work

with parents and parishes to respond to this in

what they teach.’

Enhancing Catholic identity is about more than

teaching and theology. The ECSI project has

developed tools to allow Catholic Education

Melbourne and individual schools gather information

about how Catholic identity is perceived in their own

communities. This creates the starting point for a

process that allows schools to shape and deepen

the faith of students.

‘One of the most important lessons the enhancing

Catholic identity process has taught us is that

students will reject religion if they feel their real

questions or viewpoints are disrespected or not

addressed authentically in the religious education

process. We need to take students seriously, and

we also need to place what they have to say into a

Catholic context.’

In the first years of education, most Catholic

school students have a strong, simple, literal faith.

But as they grow and begin to wrestle with the

big questions of life themselves, many simply find it

easier to disengage with their religion and succumb

to ‘somethingism’. They choose the comfortable

cop-out, instead of Christ’s challenge. ECSI seeks

to keep these students engaged.

Excerpt Taken from Catholic Education Today

Paul Sharkey

‘One of the things we value with our students at St John Vianneys is to have

a go, to ask questions in every curriculum area, so it should be with Religious Education as well.

We use our ESCI data annually to analyse and evaluate our teaching and learning/RE program so that we provide optimum processes for our students to consider the 'big ideas' and moral questions of their world seeking to make their faith relevant.

Julie Cooke

Teaching and Learning Leader

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