The 1st meeting of teachers of Catholic religion (TCR) was held in Rome in early October, on the initiative of the Service for the Teaching of Catholic Religion of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. Attended by over 700 participants representing over 20,000 TCR throughout Italy, its title was: “TRC: a cultural contribution to the education of the person”. The main focal points of the debate were the upcoming National Ecclesial Conference in Verona in 2006, the school reform and the role of teachers of religion in schools. “This year it was pointed out a large proportion of teachers of religion were enrolled in the permanent staff in schools, for indeterminate periods; ever since the revision of the Concordat (1984) and the first Agreement (1985) TCR had in fact been waiting to emerge from a situation of precariousness that had been unduly prolonged. The school reform now underway attributes to all subjects on the curriculum convergence on the global growth of pupils; from this point of view a discipline like the teaching of Catholic religion can make a decisive contribution”. The results of the Third Survey on TCR, published with the title “An evolving discipline”, were presented during the meeting.
