Religion at school, a right

“Religious knowledge cannot be confined at the margins of social structures and educational processes. It is our belief there should be room for the religious element in the public and educational arena in a condition of equality. You, fathers and mothers, have the right and the responsibility of demanding that your offspring receive religious education according to your religious beliefs”. The statement was pronounced by the bishops of Galicia, Julián Barrio Barrio, archbishop of Santiago, Manuel Sánchez Monge, bishop of Mondoñedo-Ferrol, Alfonso Carrasco Rouco, bishop of Lugo, Luis Quinteiro Fiuza, bishop of Tui-Vigo, Leonardo Lemos Montanet, bishop of Orense, Jesús Fernández González, auxiliary bishop of Santiago and José Dieguez Reboredo, bishop Emeritus of Tui-Vigo, in a joint pastoral letter, released on the occasion of the celebration of the inter-diocesan Day of Catholic teaching in schools. It’s not a privilege. “We hereby recall that the teaching of religion is a need – and not a privilege – of a school system that should provide education to pupils addressing the entire spectrum of their personal dimensions, thus helping them address their cultural needs with clarity, from the fundamental standpoint of Christian roots, preparing them for mature, constructive integration, viewing society with a critical eye, and proposing them the Christian answer to the ultimate meaning of life with all of its ethical, moral and social implications”, the prelates remarked. In their letter, the bishops of the five dioceses in Galicia assured that “religious teaching in schools should be comparable with the other subjects in the presentation of educational goals, underlining the scientific rigor of its content, the formative trait of its methods along with its educational value in the framework of school programs”. The inter-diocesan Day on the teaching of religion in schools is an initiative aimed at raising the awareness of families, and of the educational community alike, on the importance of the presence of religion as a school subject within the education process. Some doubts. In their pastoral letter the prelates underline that “the new educational law, Lomce, introduces religion within school curricula and provides a true alternative defined “Social and civic values’ in primary education and ‘Ethical Values’ in secondary education, for those pupils who do not opt for the teaching of religion. Both subjects are valued as an extra school subject during the corresponding educational stage. However, as regards high-schools the regulation fails to ensure mandatory adoption of the subject, nor that parents, or over-18 pupils, may opt for it”. Shared responsibility. The bishops of Galicia call for a “sharing of responsibilities to ensure that the teaching of religion may become a compulsory option for schools and a voluntary choice for students and that receiving or not receiving this form of education does not constitute academic discrimination within educational activities. It is a question of exerting a right related to the integral formation of every person, of each one of your children”. The prelates welcome the fact that “most families continue opting for the teaching of religion, that professors are well-integrated within the teachers college and students appreciate the subject matter and the teachers”. “Everyone, teachers and students alike, each one with their own role – they conclude – must be committed for quality education to develop the potentials of the individual in full, including the humanizing and transcendent value of religion understood as the horizon of meaning, truth, hope, freedom and fulfilment”. In Santiago. Finally, the diocesan Secretariat for Catechesis in the archdiocese of Santiago planned its traditional Diocesan Pastoral Day for next June 7. The theme will be: “the transmission of faith today”, a topic that coincides with one of the programs already launched in the diocesan synod. The Day will be celebrated in the minor Seminary of Belvis with speeches by Juan Carlos Carvajal, Professor at the St. Damasus University in Madrid.