Growing with the youth

In the development of a “renewed European citizenship” also “the theme of teaching religion, and more in general, the relationship between civil society and religion, takes on greater importance every day”. It is the belief of Fr Vincenzo Annicchiarico, at the lead of the national Service for the Teaching of Catholic Religion within the Italian Bishops’ Conference, conveyed in the speech delivered at the international symposium “Educating good Christians and honest citizens” organized in Lublin (Poland) past November 18-19 by the John Paul II Catholic University.Full citizenship. In his contribution, “Edifying European culture at the service of man”, Fr Annicchiarico presented the reflection which the National Service he chairs has been conducting over recent years within academic environments and at experiential level, in the framework of the research promoted by the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) on the teaching of religion in Europe, implemented in almost all EU countries. The prelate highlighted “the commitment of the Church at the service of schools and of pupils”, in the belief “of contributing, with this teaching, to the building of the new Europe and to the development of full European citizenship”. This citizenship, he pointed out, “is accomplished also thanks to the knowledge of the traditions and identities that have marked our Continent and that are ever more intertwined with other identities and traditions, in the framework of a plural, multicultural and multi-religious Europe”. The landscape that emerges from the survey is not “monolithic” but rather “plural and dynamic”. There is not “a winning model”. However, underlines the CEI representative, “the experience of religious education” occupies “a central place in Europe’s multifaceted reality” and “it has all the necessary requisites to be viewed as a founding, significant path for the present and for the future”.Educational and anthropological question. The “delicate educational question” which is now “under everyone’s eyes to see”, cautions Fr Annicchiarico, regards not only young people and children, “but more radically it also involves adult educators”, the protagonists “of a new pedagogical action that deserves being further developed”, and which involves “society as a whole, and therefore also the teaching of Catholic religion”. It requires a “shared vision” which is inscribed within the anthropological question, namely, within the notion of human person and human life, the “true grounds for encounter”, since “science, which today is being ascribed the task of solving all human questions”, is marked by “a ‘restricted’ understanding of life, that consists in pure and simple biological life”. In referring to the Pope’s reflection on the question of God within Europe’s cultural and educational horizon, the director of the CEI office pointed out that religious teaching could offer “a disciplinary response” to the questions “on God, on the interpretation of the world, on the significance and the value of life, on the norms of human action”.Formation of the human person. But the relationship of Catholicism with other Christian confessions and with other religions, “while identifying different understandings of the world, of mankind, and its ideologies”, could also promote “the understanding and openness towards the other person’s choices”, and thus contribute “to responsible action within the Church and society”. For Fr Annicchiarico “explicit exposure to the religious dimension of human experience” certainly plays “an irreplaceable role for the full formation of the human person, since it promotes the acquisition and the appropriate use of cultural tools, which bring to the utmost development the process of symbolization that the school stimulates and promotes in all disciplines, enabling communication also on otherwise unutterable and unknowable realms”.A fundamental role for civil coexistence. “Erecting a school at the service of the human person – continued the CEI delegate – is the purpose of culture and education. For this, the school is truly at the service of man if it leads to the creative appropriation of one’s very own tradition”. And since “the religious dimension is part and parcel of the human being” then it must be also the school’s responsibility”. For the believers who study the teaching of Catholic religion as a school subject, underlined Fr Annicchiarico, “the understanding of religion and of Christianity is referred to the proposals and to the answers, to the meaning and the relevance that religion has for them, to the repercussion on personal and social questions. For those who do not believe, understanding religion may also mean understanding the ‘human’ aspect of the individuals that practice it, in view of civil coexistence within the framework of a pluralist society”. To the teachers of Catholic religion the priest recommends “educational inspiration for the youth” along with “anthropologic, Biblical-theological-historical and dialogical” formation, “didactic and planning skills” and ongoing learning.