Conference follow-up

Teaching to Transform itself is now over, though I myself certainly hope it is just the beginning, and that new ventures and adventures in the field of Catholic Education will follow. Please send in your comments on what was good, bad or indifferent about the Conference, and what sort of follow-up you would like.

Today I am posting the text of a Paper sent by Father Pierre Grech Marguerat, which he read last Friday. It is a powerful exhortation to take time off to be with God, suitably entitled, Alone with the Alone’. More will follow…

Countdown: Teaching to Transform Conference less than four weeks away

A unique collaboration between Voluntary, State, Church and Independent Education, with contributions from Catechists and University lecturers, the Catholic Educators’ Conference is a first for Malta.

Two keynote speakers, Prof Gerald Grace from the Centre for Research in the Development of Catholic Education, and Ms Anne Kelleher from CEIST, the Catholic Schools’ Trust in Ireland, will share their views on the principles governing Catholic education today, and where we go from here, while a group of over fifty speakers from all the way up the educational system in Malta will give us the fruits of their knowledge and experience in areas from music to pastoral services.

The Conference kicks off on Thursday 24 March at Le Meridien St Julians, ending on Saturday 26 March.

Posted by Mary Camilleri

EDUCATING TOGETHER IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

CONGREGATION FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION
(of Seminaries and Educational Institutions)

EDUCATING TOGETHER IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

A SHARED MISSION BETWEEN CONSECRATED PERSONS
AND THE LAY FAITHFUL

Introduction

1. The unexpected and often contradictory evolution of our age gives rise to educational challenges that pose questions for the school world. They force us to seek appropriate answers not only as regards contents and didactic methods, but also as regards the community experience that is a mark of educational activity. The relevance of these challenges transpires from the context of the social, cultural and religious complexity in which young people are actually growing up, and significantly influences their way of living. They are widespread phenomena such as lack of interest for the fundamental truths of human life, individualism, moral relativism and utilitarianism, that permeate above all rich and developed societies. Add to that rapid structural changes, globalization and the application of new technologies in the field of information that increasingly affect daily life and the process of formation.

Caritas in Veritate – Interview with William Fahey

William Fahey: Encyclical Has Message for Catholic Universities

Interview with President of Thomas More College

MERRIMACK, New Hampshire, JULY 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI’s social encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” contains lessons for all Christians, and not just those who are directly involved in the fields of business and politics, says the president of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts.

William Fahey, who has a doctorate from the Catholic University of America, spoke with ZENIT about the Pope’s third encyclical, released last week.

Benedict XVI's Address to Catholic Educators – April 17, 2008

“Freedom Is Not an Opting out, it Is an Opting In”

WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 17, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI gave today to a meeting of more than 400 Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America.

Your Eminences,
Dear Brother Bishops,
Distinguished Professors, Teachers and Educators,

“How beautiful are the footsteps of those who bring good news” (Rom 10:15-17). With these words of Isaiah quoted by Saint Paul, I warmly greet each of you — bearers of wisdom — and through you the staff, students and families of the many and varied institutions of learning that you represent. It is my great pleasure to meet you and to share with you some thoughts regarding the nature and identity of Catholic education today. I especially wish to thank Father David O’Connell, President and Rector of the Catholic University of America. Your kind words of welcome are much appreciated. Please extend my heartfelt gratitude to the entire community – faculty, staff and students – of this University.

Theological and spiritual formation

The transmission of the Christian message through teaching implies a mastery of the knowledge of the truths of the faith and of the principles of spiritual life that require constant improvement. This is why both consecrated and lay educators of the Catholic school need to follow an opportune formational theological itinerary. Such an itinerary makes it easier to combine the understanding of faith with professional commitment and Christian action. Apart from their theological formation, educators need also to cultivate their spiritual formation in order to develop their relationship with Jesus Christ and become a Master like Him. In this sense, the formational journey of both lay and consecrated educators must be combined with the moulding of the person towards greater conformity with Christ (cf. Rm 8:29) and of the educational community around Christ the Master. Moreover, the Catholic school is well aware that the community that it forms must be constantly nourished and compared with the sources from which the reason for its existence derives: the saving word of God in Sacred Scripture, in Tradition, above all liturgical and sacramental Tradition, enlightened by the Magisterium of the Church.

Excerpt from EDUCATING TOGETHER IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS published by the CONGREGATION FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION (of Seminaries and Educational Institutions)

Theologians Ponder "Shop Till You Drop"

Conference in Rome Studies Compulsive Buying

ROME, MAY 18, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Experts call the Western world of the 21st century a “consumer society,” and scholars from a variety of disciplines have studied the phenomenon and its consequences.

Dario Viganò, president of the Pontifical Lateran University’s Redemptor Hominis Pastoral Institute, introduced with this reflection a May 5 study day on “I Consume, Therefore I Exist? An Educational, Theological and Social Perspective.”

The theme was taken from a 2008 book by Zygmunt Bauman, adding a question mark and the focus of reflecting further on the topic of consumption and, ultimately, the existential reality of the man of today.

What is Catholic Education?

Catholic education is a lifelong process of human growth and development. It is more than schooling. It begins in the home, continues in the school and matures through involvement with the Christian community in the parish.

These three dimensions of home, school and parish must work together if Catholic education is to truly attain its goal of forming mature human persons in the image and likeness of Christ.

Teens, Sexuality, and John Paul II's Teaching

Interview With Monica Ashour
By Genevieve Pollock

DALLAS, SEPT. 9, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Teenagers have a particular capacity to understand God’s plan for human sexuality through John Paul II’s teaching on the theology of the body, says Monica Ashour.

Ashour, executive director and national speaker for the Theology of the Body Evangelization Team, Inc. (TOBET), has been running retreats and giving talks throughout Texas in a ministry that is progressing toward becoming a national organization.