Three crucial problems

In Europe religious education (RE) in state schools has to come to terms with “three crucial problems”: the current cultural climate, which is unfavourable to religion but which, at the same time, discloses a new interest in it”; its attempted definition as a “scientific discipline”; and its role and modes of implementation “within a pluralist and multi-religious society”. Its function in our time is explained to SIR by Monsignor ALDO GIORDANO , general secretary of the CCEE (Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe), in Rome for the Symposium on religious education in the schools of the continent, which ends today. The meeting was held at the conclusion of a research project begun by the CCEE in 2005 and promoted by the Catholic Religious Education Service of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. A VARIEGATED PANORAMA. A “variegated panorama emerges” from the survey – continues the CCEE secretary – due to the plurality of religious experiences in the continent (countries with a Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox or Muslim majority or with two equal confessions, or those that declare their allegiance to none), and due to the various normative situations of RE, regulated by concordats, accords and conventions with the Holy See or with the Bishops’ Conferences, or by the Constitution or by state legislation on education. Depending on country, RE may be, in various degrees, compulsory or optional”. By way of example, and in a necessarily schematic way that does not take account of the various nuances, RE is compulsory in Austria, Cyprus and Germany, though with the possibility of dispensation; in Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland it is an option among the compulsory subjects on the syllabus; in Italy, Ireland and Hungary it is purely optional. RE, comments Giordano, “is considered important and is given scope in most state schools, even if a culture unfavourable to religion and suspicious of it is making headway in Europe: a culture that considers religion as a private matter that ought to have no right to any institutional place in public education. And yet its teaching is indispensable to understand the identity, history and culture of a people. Religion, moreover, responds to the crucial questions about our vision of man, the meaning of life, and co-existence among peoples. For many it remains a vital object of study and source of interest”. SCIENCE OF RELIGION . According the Monsignor Giordano, RE has the “scientific basis” of other disciplines on the school syllabus. “It’s not – he explains – an itinerary of faith or a catechesis; rather, it’s a science that studies the religious event” and, as such, “requires expert teachers, but, at the same time, must be personally incorporated in an experience of faith”. It is right therefore “that it should be the Church that grants qualification to teachers of RE, that vets their eligibility and that gives them their missio canonica“. The following countries recognize a state role to teachers of RE: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy and Sweden. “The need to come to terms with our pluralist and multi-faith society – observes Giordano – also poses the question whether preference should be given to a form of confessional teaching according to the majority confession of each country, or, instead, to a form of RE that is differentiated according to the various confessions – and where each faith be able to offer its own teaching within the same country – or, alternatively, to a teaching of purely ethical and neutral type that would be suitable for all pupils”. “We are convinced – declares the CCEE secretary – that the best way is that of confessional teaching according to the majority confession of each individual country. This is the form of RE that has impacted most significantly on the formation of the culture and identity of the country itself”. According to Msgr. Giordano, moreover, “at the methodological level the analysis in depth of a particular aspect by a scientific discipline seems more serious and interesting than the provision of general information”. But, he insists, “assuming the point of view of a specific confession also implies reference to and open-mindedness towards other confessions and religions, the ethical dimension, and the position of non-believers”. A COMMON ACTION. From the 29 national reports received (out of the 35 requested) in response to the survey, sums up the project coordinator, ALBERTO CAMPOLEONI, “a picture emerges of the many different characteristics that religious education assumes in the schools of Europe and, more especially, the many different sensibilities at work in it”. Today, he continues, “a final document will be approved by the delegates of the Churches of Europe. It will sum up the general themes, the concerns shared by the Churches and the prospects that emerge from the survey: a final synthesis to be ‘returned’, together with the reports and studies of the experts who participated in it, to the Commission for schools of the CCEE, so that it may evaluate its findings, and to the Bishops’ Conferences”. The dossier “represents the first step in further analysis and study with a view to the common action of the Churches in the field of RE”.