INTRODUCTION:
In 1998, a major research study into Catholic schools in Queensland to be conducted by the Queensland Catholic Education Commission was launched by the Queensland Catholic Bishop’s Conference.
The guiding question for the research study was:
“What are to be the defining features of Catholic schools in the context of the Church’ evolving mission in the world?” (QCEC, 2001;ii)
The study, extending over three years (1998-2000), generated important data and directions for the future development and provision of Queensland Catholic education in the 21st century.
Data from the study affirmed that Catholic schools continue to be one of the most significant ways in which the Church is encountered in Queensland. Catholic schools in Queensland form a community made up of the families of 103,200 students enrolled throughout 280 Catholic schools with a teaching staff of around 7,200. [1]
The majority of parents and family members of these students reported that the Catholic school was the only Church community to which they belonged and the data from the research project strongly attested to a high level of satisfaction with the school as both an ecclesial and education community.
One third of the families associated with Catholic schools were involved with a parish or Diocesan Church community, for the remaining two thirds, the Catholic school was the face and place of the Church (QCEC, 2001; 3)
There was no evidence in the research data of a rejection of Catholicity as an expression of the teachings of Christ. There was however little support for or commitment to some Church traditions identified as not relevant to the life experiences of people, particularly young adults, in the 21st Century. [2]
The Report to the Queensland Bishops - Catholic Schools for the 21st Century (from herein named the report) identified the following as defining features for the Catholic school of the 21st century in Queensland:
The Catholic school of the future will:
¨ Have a strong Catholic identity and Give witness to Christian values (herein referred to as authenticity)
¨ Be open and accessible to those who seek its values (herein referred to as inclusiveness)
¨ Offer a holistic curriculum
¨ Be a community of care and right relationships
¨ Be staffed by qualified, competent people who give witness to gospel values (QCEC, 2001:7)
In the report, the Bishops wrote:
“While the Defining Features represent trends already developing in our schools, the realisation of some, such as the Defining Feature of inclusiveness (Defining Feature No. 2) have significant pastoral, ecumenical, practical and even political and national implications that need to be subject of analysis and dialogue.” (QCEC, 2001: (i))
The Bishops in effect were signalling an exploration as to how the defining feature of inclusiveness might be pursued while maintaining the authentic nature of Catholic schools.
The aim of this paper is to contribute to such an exploration.
The paper is organised under four sections:
* Section1: The critical contexts in which inclusiveness and authenticity need to be judged
* Section 2: An assessment of the current state of inclusiveness and authenticity in Catholic Schools in Queensland
* Section 3: The Report’s understanding of inclusiveness and authenticity
* Section 4: Key implications of the report and a way forward
SECTION 1
THE CRITICAL CONTEXTS IN WHICH NOTIONS OF AUTHENTICITY AND INCLUSIVENESS NEED TO BE JUDGED.
1.1 Recent revisions to Canon law and implications for the Catholic identity of a Catholic school
Canon law of the Catholic Church has long identified the purpose of a Catholic school as servicing the Church and its parent community in the education of Catholic children for a faithful life within the Church and a productive life within society. Such a juridical imperative played a significant part in ensuring that the great project of Catholic education in Australia over the last one hundred and fifty years was delivered with urgency and commitment [3] . (Codex Iuris Canonicus (CIC), 1951: 1374)
The presence of such a large and vibrant Catholic school system in Australia today is a result of the Australian Church’s desire and obligation to assist Catholic parents meet their obligation and right to provide a Catholic education for their children.
Recent major revisions to Canon law (Code of Canon Law, 1983) have provided a more expansive rationale for Catholic schools particularly in regard to what makes a school Catholic. As well as clearly supporting the parental right and obligation to provide a Catholic education for their children, the exercise of such a right is now, no longer solely limited to sending their children to a Catholic school. [4]
Two of the revised canons in particular address the issue of Catholic identity. A Catholic school is recognised as Catholic if it has been so deemed by the appropriate ecclesiastical juridical person. [5] This canon locates a fundamental element of Catholic identity explicitly within the juridic powers of the institutional Church. A further expectation of Canon 568 is that teachers in a Catholic school “are outstanding for correct teaching and moral probity [6] . Such wording has implications for the employment of teachers in Catholic schools.
Canon 795, which derives from the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Christian Education states:
“Since a true education must strive for the integral formation of the human person, a formation that looks towards the person’s final end, and at the same time toward the common good of societies, children and young people are to be so reared that they develop harmoniously their physical, moral and intellectual talents, that they acquire a more perfect sense of responsibility, a correct use of freedom, and that they be educated for active participation in social life.” (CCL, 1983: 795)
Brian Kelty (2002: 2) suggests that this Canon points to a number of dimensions through which the Catholic identity of a Catholic school can be explored; namely that Catholic schools have particular views of persons, knowledge, human purpose and transformation of the world that are integral to a philosophy of education.
The revised Canons thus provide a wider context in which the authenticity of a Catholic school can be judged.
1.2 A God-centred rather than Church centred theology of mission
In the decades since Vatican II there have been major developments in the understanding of mission within the Church. Mission is no longer predominantly seen as the work of the Church alone, exercised and directed through the powers and structures of the Church, but rather, mission is first and foremost, the work of the Holy Spirit calling forth all of creation.
Peter Phan (2002:2) offers a helpful framework for viewing recent developments in the theology of mission within the Church.
Phan argues that prior to Vatican II, the theology of mission within the Church was characterised by four priorities namely, Church, proclamation, mission and the reign of God. Phan stresses that the ordering of these priorities, indicated something about the way the Church went about focusing its missionary efforts; its overriding intent being on the ‘saving of souls and Church extension’. (Phan, 2002; 3)
Phan (2002; 3) argues that the centre and heart of missionary work was “ the Church, and Church understood primarily in the institutional model.” The Church in its missionary endeavours regarded itself as ‘ unique, exclusive, superior, definitive, normative and absolute’ (Knitter, 1991: 475). In such a context inclusiveness was understood specifically in terms of those who were baptised, and thus were within the Church. Those outside of the Church, the unbaptised were predisposed to damnation. [7]
The Second Vatican Council describes the Church using very different images. It refers to the Church as a mysterious presence within the unfolding reign of God; its role is to live out and proclaim God’s reign. (Gallagher et al, in Tinsey, W., 2002) supports this when he notes, that in a context of mystery, there are many ways in which God’s reign can be lived out; no one individual or group experience can encapsulate or embody the entirety of the mystery of Church. The Church can at best be a pointer to the way that God acts in the world (Bosch, 1991: 2) and mission can rightly be viewed as a contribution toward the humanisation of society as much as an extension of Church.
This change in orientation towards mission as that of God’s work saw a theology of mission emerge that according to Phan now names the same priorities but in a different order and with differing emphases. The order is now the reign of God, mission, proclamation and Church. Such a view seems to be in accord with John Paul II in Redemptoris Missio (RM, 1990:13) in which he states the proclamation and establishment of God’s kingdom are the purposes of his (Jesus) mission.
It is the reign of God, the centrality of God’s view for the world, of Jesus fundamental beliefs and values, which is now the driving force for a theology of mission. The call is to share in the proclaiming and the bringing to fruition of God’s reign and as such inclusiveness takes on a new appreciation and a higher priority.
Given that in the past, the motive for mission was primarily the creation and maintenance of Church then the identity of a Catholic school as an ecclesial agency was clearly circumscribed; a school’s identity would reflect the membership, norms, and liturgical practices of baptised, fully practicing Catholics. It is in such a context that the traditional role of a Catholic school still finds strong advocacy as a place for catechesis within a community of faith.
However, if the focus of mission is on evangelisation, the proclaiming of God’s reign, the living out of the reign of God and the good news of Jesus Christ then the identity of a Catholic school might:
reflect more generous, open and inclusive understandings of Church; in such a place a Catholic school is the primary place students and families encounter Jesus and his teaching (Mulligan, 1994: 76).
In such a school not all students might proclaim and worship Jesus as Lord.
1.3 A movement from Religious to lay leadership in Catholic Schools
The Queensland Bishops’ report notes: One third of those associated with Catholic schools are involved with the parish or Diocesan Church, for the remaining two thirds, the Catholic school is the ‘face and place of the Church.’ [8]
This ‘face and place of the Church’, the ecclesial identity of a Catholic school, continues to be of intense interest and debate within the Church. From 1970-1985 in particular, as laypersons progressively took over administration and teaching roles in Catholic schools, there was initial concern as to whether Catholic schools were going to remain authentic in light of such significant leadership change.
Prior to this time, a school’s identity as Catholic was synonymous with it being staffed and led by members of Religious Institutes. As an example, in 1965, 69% of teachers in NSW were members of Religious Institutes. By 1997, this group represented only 2.3 % of all teachers with the remaining being lay. In the same period the teaching population in Catholic schools in NSW had increased by 283% [9] .
It was indicative of the confidence of parents in Catholic schools in Australia that in this period student numbers in Catholic schools increased on a par with increases in state schools. Today, judgement as to whether a Catholic school is indeed “Catholic” and whether it displays Christian values is no longer predominantly made on the basis of whether Religious are running the schools.
More recently, the proportion of teachers in a Catholic school who were non-Catholic and to a lesser extent, the proportion of students who were non-Catholic were the subject of vigorous debate. Both indices have been used by some educational authorities as benchmarks for the Catholic ethos and identity of a school.
1.4 Growth in Religious Pluralism and Ecumenism
In the late 19th and the majority of the 20th Century in Australia Catholic schools operated within a highly charged context of secular and protestant antipathy. Over the last thirty years, bi-partisan support for the funding of non-government schools, increased enrolments in low fee non-government schools (many of non-Christian faiths), large increases in migrants from Asia, the rise of a bi-partisan multi-cultural policy, as well as various ecumenical initiatives in schooling have significantly altered the religious and social context in which Catholic schools operate.
Increasing religious pluralism has had a significant public dimension. Social commentators have spoken of an increasing tolerance and patience, a willingness to listen thoughtfully and attentively by religious groups (Burbules, N., 1993: 42). Such tolerance can prove to be very fragile. Most recently, political and media reactions to perceived links between Islam and terrorist atrocities worldwide have increased intolerance and anxiety in the community. Amidst the present inter-religious dialogue, concern is still apparent within the Church as to the right balance between proclamation and dialogue with non-Christian faiths in the context of evangelisation. [10]
There is a growing question for Catholic schools as to how best to engage other religious traditions while being authentic to proclaiming the Catholic tradition. The recent accreditation of formal religious studies in different state education certification processes has encouraged the study of major world religions by more students. Comparative approaches within such studies have helped students in Catholic schools step outside their own tradition and look inwards. Fredericks (Boy’s, C. 2002) supports such an approach as providing “ a deeper understanding of ones own religious tradition”. Halperin (Boy’s C :2002) also agrees reminding us that “We not only need the other to understand the other…we need the other to understand ourselves”.
How the Church and more particularly a Catholic school maintains openness to God’s revelation outside the Church remains problematical in terms of interpreting the differing emphases of magisterial teaching. [11]
Further, a commitment to ecumenism by the Brisbane Archdiocese provides a context whereby openness to other Christian traditions and fidelity and authenticity to one’s own are recognised as equally indispensable. The Archdiocese has gone a way down the road in regard to exploring ecumenical arrangements and endorsed collaboration by the Brisbane Catholic education office with other Christian Churches in the setting up and administration of ecumenical schools. In such schools various Christian religious traditions are represented and there is a commitment in such schools to both fidelity to each tradition and within that, to all that is common in each tradition.
Within such religious pluralism and ecumenism, further questions arise as to how a Catholic school can be authentic to Catholicism yet open to God’s revelation outside the Church’s tradition.
SECTION 2
AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT STATE OF INCLUSIVENESS AND AUTHENTICITY IN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IN QUEENSLAND
There is evidence to support the Bishops’ view that “that the defining features represent trends already developing in our schools.” (QCEC 2001 (i)) These trends are however not uniform both within and across various states and dioceses of Australia. It should be noted less than half of all Catholic students are presently educated in Australian Catholic schools.
2.1 Inclusiveness - Openness to Catholic enrolments
As discussed earlier, Catholic schools were established to provide a Catholic education to those students who were Catholic. It is an obligation of the Church to assist parents avail themselves of a Catholic education for their children. However available figures indicate less than half of Catholic students attend Catholic schools. Why is this?
Reasons advanced for Catholic children not attending Catholic schools generally include:
(i) The fees to attend Catholic schools can be prohibitive for some families although most Catholic schools indicate that a genuine inability to meet the fees should not be a barrier to enrolment.
(ii) The inconvenience of accessing a distant Catholic school with a government school close by
(iii) The high demand for limited places in some Catholic schools sees various criteria such as ‘committed Catholics’ being applied to regulate enrolments.
(iv) A view that state schools provide better facilities and more opportunities in education than some Catholic schools
It is apparent that Catholic education is not as inclusive with Catholic students as it should be in terms of the intent of canon law. This issue has significant political and funding ramifications. It has not been fully addressed in the report
2.2 Inclusiveness - Openness to non-Catholic students
In order to provide viable Catholic education, particularly in rural and regional areas, it has been a growing practice to enrol non-Catholic students and by this, achieve a level of enrolments necessary to allow Catholic schools to be built, developed and maintained.
It can be argued that in the past, the ‘openness’ of Catholic schools in Queensland to non-Catholics who sought the values of Catholic education was primarily driven by financial considerations. Prior to the Bishop’s report, there appeared little public discourse about the need or desire to share Catholic identity and Christian values with non-Catholics through Catholic schooling.
Presently, Catholic schools in Queensland provide for a significant number of non-Catholic enrolments. In the Brisbane Archdiocese, which accounts for over 60% of total Catholic school enrolments in Queensland, close to 20% of primary students and 23% of secondary enrolments describe themselves as non-Catholic. [12]
In NSW, non-Catholic students account for around 14.3% of enrolments. This figure has increased significantly from 1973 when such enrolments were just 1.3%.
It should also be noted that enrolment figures on an individual school basis can vary substantially from the above figures. There are a handful of the 156 schools in the Archdiocese of Brisbane with more non-Catholics than Catholic and a quite a number of schools where enrolments are much less than 10% non-Catholic. In a few of these latter schools, minimal enrolment allocations to non-Catholics are maintained even perhaps when an increase in enrolments might be beneficial to the school.
In the majority of schools, enrolments of non-Catholic students are accepted where parents indicate a willingness to support the Catholic values and philosophy of the school. In some schools as indicated non-Catholic enrolment can be in the order of 50% or more of enrolments (rural areas, boarding schools etc). The establishment of new Catholic schools in growth areas often needs substantial non-Catholic enrolments to provide the level of enrolments required for the commitment of Commonwealth funds to the infrastructure of a new school.
Thus in some cases the very existence of a Catholic school depends on substantial numbers of non-Catholics being enrolled.
Figures from other Queensland dioceses confirm a similar pattern of significant numbers of non-Catholic enrolments.
2.3 Inclusiveness – Inclusive Practices
There is another dimension in which inclusiveness might be considered; namely the degree to which the marginalised and the needy (eg students with special needs) are catered for in Catholic schools. Such a dimension is raised in the report but not explored in great detail. [13] .
The incorporation of an inclusive approach to educating all students of varying needs in Catholic schools is based on principles of personal dignity and justice as reflected in Church, educational and legal imperatives.
Schools adopting inclusive practices welcome accommodate and celebrate diversity, uniqueness and individuality.
In the past, a number of Catholic schools turned away some students with special educational needs who desired a Catholic education, because they did not have the human or physical resources to assist them. In the last decade in particular, Catholic schools have worked diligently with governments to access more funds in order to provide equitable access to the curriculum, offer maximum learning opportunities and work towards meeting the educational and social needs of all students.
Over last two decades, the proportion of student enrolments in Archdiocesan Brisbane Catholic schools with high level support needs has risen significantly to approximate government school participation rates. Such figures indicate a growing commitment to address the needs of the marginalised in this area.
2.4 Evidence of Catholic Education Authority’ policies and procedures that relate to the maintenance and enhancement of a strong Catholic identity and witness to Christian values
Increasingly, the alignment and transparency of the vision and values of a Catholic school with its rituals and ways in which it operates (policies, procedures and practices) is regarded as critical to a school being recognisably Catholic. [14]
Catholic education authorities over the last twenty years have identified quality assurance frameworks that establish clear indicators for Catholicity. Student participation in accredited religious education programs, regular student and staff participation in prayer and liturgical rituals as well as educational programs based on Catholic anthropological and philosophical principles are some elements of such frameworks.
Additionally Catholic educational authorities have explicit faith education requirements for applicants to senior leadership positions in Catholic schools. Contracts for employment of teaching staff also require staff to accept and support Catholic educational philosophy, policy and practices. Staff are also required to strive by their service, performance of duties and personal example to support those whose task it is to inculcate in students an appreciation and acceptance of Christian teaching and values.
Some Catholic educational authorities have enrolment guidelines that set benchmarks on non-Catholic enrolments on the assumption that too high a number of non-Catholic students in a school will jeopardise the Catholic character of the school.
SECTION 3
THE REPORT’S UNDERSTANDINGS OF AUTHENTICITY AND INCLUSIVENESS
The wording of each of the defining features in the Bishops’ report is an attempt to capture a consensus of meaning from across the five separate diocesan reports. (See Appendix 1). No diocesan report addresses authenticity or inclusiveness in the same way.
3.1 Authenticity
The discussion on authenticity in the diocesan reports ranges from predominantly sacramental and Church views (signs, symbols, rituals and patterns of action express the Christian faith within a Catholic tradition - Rockhampton Report, 2001) to proclamation views (teaching, witnessing, worshipping and caring - Toowoomba Report 2001) and extend into notions of celebrating and identifying the unfolding mysterious presence of the reign of God. (Celebrate God’s abundant and abiding presence in all creation-Cairns report) Each diocesan report has a specific emphasis on evangelisation as a central component of authenticity.
There has been a tendency in judging authenticity to focus on the signs, symbols and practices of the Catholic tradition in a Catholic school as sufficient to ensure authenticity. Such a view parallels Phan’s analysis of the priorities of the Church in relation to a theology of mission prior to Vatican II
Bernard van Eyk’s (2002:34) notes the difficulties apparent in narrowing discussions of the authenticity of a Catholic school to traditional practices of the Church alone:
“How can we refocus a Catholic school ethos (identity) that has been traditionally aligned to Church traditions among students who are largely unchurched”?
It is right to consider the report’s discussion of authenticity within present literature addressing Catholic identity for Catholic schools in an increasing secular society. [15]
Thomas Groome (1996:107) is a typical advocate of a broad yet intrinsically Catholic approach to judging a Catholic identity. He sees the identity of a Catholic school framed squarely within the characteristics of Catholicism itself. He states that:
“the distinctiveness of Catholic education (and by implication a Catholic school) is prompted by the distinctive characteristics of Catholicism itself and these characteristics should be reflected in the whole curriculum of the school”
He cites the following five theological characteristics for a Catholic school:
¨ A positive anthropology of the human person
¨ Its sacramentality of life
¨ Its communal emphasis regarding human and Christian existence
¨ Its commitment to tradition as source and story of its Vision
¨ Its appreciation of rationality and learning epitomised in its commitment to education
Such a framework supports the revisions to the code of Canon law concerning Catholic education noted in Section 1 and provides a richer and wider canvas on which authenticity might be explored and enhanced.
3.2 Inclusiveness
The defining feature of inclusiveness is interpreted in a number of different ways across the diocesan reports. The Bishops’ report offers a fairly progressive view of the theology of mission, one that would sit comfortably within Phan’s framework discussed earlier. However, it should be noted, that such a view of inclusiveness is somewhat at odds with some current Church practice and certain, though not all, perspectives within magisterial teaching. The notion of servicing the common good noted in the report appears to sit equally beside a mission for evangelisation rather than flowing directly from it.
In discussing inclusiveness, the diocesan reports range in their views; from the more cautious wording of- Be open to those who support its values (Brisbane Report 2001) to - Be open and accessible to all those who seek their values” (Rockhampton Report 2001) to - be welcoming to all who seek to share their life- (Cairns report 2001)
Post-Vatican II documents on Catholic education have few explicit references to notions of inclusiveness. In contrast, an exclusive approach is more likely. The Catholic School (1977) notes the “saving mission of the Church, especially for the education in faith” and further on the use of the description “her children” in the document suggests an exclusive rather than inclusive approach to enrolment in Catholic schools.
Further exclusive perspectives are located in the document Lay Catholics in schools: witness to the faith (1982). The Catholic school:
“fully enters into the salvific mission of the Church, especially in the need for education in the faith (35) and involves a sincere adherence to the Magisterium of the Church, a presentation of Christ as the supreme model of the human person, and a special care for the quality of religious education in the school.”
Within the document there is strong argument for the employment of committed Catholic teachers and the Catholic school is certainly not open to all teachers:
“Lay teachers must be profoundly convinced that they share in the sanctifying, and therefore educational mission of the Church; they cannot regard themselves as cut off from the ecclesial complex.” (24)
Similarly, the most recent Church document of relevance to the Church in Australia- Ecclesia in Oceania (2001) does not embrace inclusiveness in addressing the employment of teachers in stating: - “ those responsible for hiring teachers and administrators in our Catholic schools take into account the faith life of those they are hiring”. (117)
The document Catholic schools on the threshold of the third millennium (CSTTM 1997) by contrast adopts a much more inclusive perspective. It is to this document that the report refers to almost exclusively. It speaks of the mission of Catholic schools as being towards “those who both seek (their) values and need (their) special source of inspiration” and of “going towards men and women wherever they are so they may receive the gift of salvation”.
It also addresses the question of non-Catholic student enrolments directly. The statement suggests that no one, Catholic and non-Catholic students alike, can be turned away if they wish to access a Catholic education. The Catholic school is…” not reserved to Catholics only, but is open to all those who appreciate and share its qualified educational project. (16)
SECTION 4
KEY ISSUES ARISING AND A WAY FORWARD
Concerns by the Queensland Bishops about what inclusiveness might mean for the authenticity of Catholic schools seems well justified given the increasing secular context in which Catholic schools exist today. It is a culture of secularism with its ideologies of consumerism and materialism that a Catholic educational philosophy stands squarely against. It is the contention of this paper that any move to inclusiveness in a Catholic school must be sourced from and sustained by that “special source of inspiration” which is the reason for its very existence. (CSTTM, 1998:18) Unless Catholic schools continue to demonstrate clear and accountable ways in which they can ensure their authenticity then moves to greater inclusiveness are fraught with difficulty. Clearly, there is a continuing and vital need for each Catholic school to be authentic to the life and teachings of Christ.
Without strong authenticity, inclusiveness by itself will be insufficient to sustain the prophetic voice necessary for a Catholic school to proclaim a reign of God. A Catholic school as it becomes more authentic will want to invite and sustain welcome and outreach to the wider community and encourage the pursuit of that truth which lies at the heart but ultimately beyond the reach of each school.
Thus there is an inherent yet ultimately fruitful tension between inclusiveness and authenticity. Each needs the other in order to be fully realised.
Without inclusiveness, authenticity looks inwards and tends to speak only to itself, inclines to institutionalism, focuses on maintenance and asks predominantly of itself- obedience, responsibility and order.
On the other hand, inclusiveness without authenticity has a tendency to dissolve into a self-revolving consensus, a democracy that can, as it searches for increasing openness, lose sight of the very truth that attracted the community together in the first place.
Authenticity and inclusiveness together call forth the prophetic voice in a community whereby co-creation and transformation of the community and the world together can take place. Such engagement requires that the community be creative, empathic and transcendent. (See Appendix 2 for a diagram exposition of this view)
Where such a fruitful tension is pursued, there will be problematical issues that need to be monitored and carefully managed. It is suggested that there are at present three that require careful attention.
4.1- Ensuring the authenticity of Catholic schools
The majority of Catholic students who attend Catholic schools do not gain an adequate knowledge and understanding of Catholic beliefs and values from their limited (if any) participation in a parish community at worship and service. The Catholic school is the face and place of the Church for most students. Hence it is critical that the school not only be authentic but also learns to dialogue authentically with students and their families on behalf of the Church.
The capacity of Catholic school to be inclusive is directly related to the school’s capacity to authentically proclaim the reign of God from within the Catholic Christian tradition.
Given the profile of Catholic students noted above and the increasing enrolments of non-Catholic students in Catholic schools what should Catholic schools and Catholic employing authorities, do in order to maintain the authentic nature of their schools?
(i) Schools must ensure that their mission, shared beliefs and core values align with the person of Christ and their proclamation of the reign of God.
Schools and Catholic educational authorities need transparent processes for identifying, clarifying, articulating, communicating and embedding a vision, mission and values, consonant with Gospel and Church teaching; one able to dialogue with the particular community in which the Catholic school operates. Leadership and support are crucial to ensure that core values are not lost or diminished over time.
Each Catholic school needs to explicitly set out a vision, mission and values acceptable to the Bishop and local authorities that will suitably guide, sustain, challenge and assist the local community to renew and develop the reign of God within and beyond its community. Catholic education authorities should engage in processes to identify and communicate such values and teachings.
(ii) Commitment and support for mission, values and shared beliefs of the school is a touchstone for enrolment and continuing participation.
It is acknowledged that prospective enrolling families will be from across a wide spectrum in their faith and life journeys, and unlikely to have either a full understanding of or commitment to the school’s stated values. A disposition and a willingness to engage with the school’s values and teachings will be therefore the starting point for the school’s educational, spiritual and pastoral work. It is critical therefore that ways and means be found as to how that disposition might be explored and confirmed through enrolment and induction processes.
(iii) Schools will need to be clear about the way they cater for the faith diversity of students.
It needs to be more than a hope that children from Christian (non-Catholic) and other faith traditions will grow in their own faith life tradition through exposure to the values and teachings of the Catholic school. There need to be special arrangements that assist them to grow in their own particular faith. Such special arrangements are often problematical for administration but such arrangements should not be discounted because of this.
(iv) Implications for the Teaching of Religious Education
Catholic Employing authorities have an expectation that Catholic schools will offer and teach a Religious Education program to all students. It is an expectation based partly on a view that the Catholic school is an evangelising agent of the Church and also that schools will assist parents in their canonical obligation and right to provide a Catholic education to their children. In the vast majority of Catholic schools it is a requirement of enrolment that all students participate in the Religious Education program of the school.
The increase in enrolments of non-Catholic and non-Christian students who seek the values of a Catholic school needs to be examined in regard to the impact on the above expectations. In particular, the degree to which the Religious Education program acknowledges and caters for the various religious beliefs and practices of these students and how this impacts with the evangelising role of the school is of importance.
In regard to Christian but non-Catholic students the Directory on Ecumenism # 141 states:
“In Catholic schools and institutions every effort should be made to respect the faith and conscience of students or teachers who belong to other churches or ecclesial communities”
(v) Implications for liturgical celebrations with students
Similarly, the participation of significant numbers of non- Catholic and non-Christian students in the liturgical life of a Catholic school needs to be considered. In particular, the participation of such students in Eucharistic celebrations needs to be further explored and clarified. There is an understandable dilemma with the celebration of the Eucharist in school settings. Eucharist is meant to be a sign and instrument of unity so circumstances whereby students maybe included or excluded should be carefully assessed.
(vi) Teaching and administrative practice cannot be separated from values and shared belief.
Holistic approaches to formation of all members of the school community will be needed to ensure alignment between teachings and values and how these relate to lived experience. As noted earlier, Catholic beliefs about the nature of persons, their ultimate destiny, and of the integrity of mind, body and spirit spell out clear implications for the way in which teaching and learning is carried out in a Catholic school. It is often this counter cultural aspect of the reign of God that can lead to divisions between the parents and the school or amongst staff if the philosophy of Catholic education is not fully explained at the point of employment or enrolment
4.2: Employment of appropriate staff and continuing professional formation of existing staff in Catholic schools
It is in the role of evangeliser that the Catholic school earns legitimacy as an essential expression of the Church’s mission to proclaim God’s kingdom and salvation as the core of Christ’s message (Cairns Diocesan Report 2001). As the report goes on to ask:
“To what extent and in what ways is this evangelical force capable of genuinely transforming the people of our time”
Further on the report notes that ‘unless these story tellers (teachers) are nurtured, encouraged and valued the story may cease to be told.”
(i) It cannot be solely about a demand for Catholic education.
The manner in which demand for Catholic education is identified particularly in relation to the development of a new Catholic school needs to be carefully assessed. Increasingly, new Catholic schools in developing areas are not being built around established Catholic communities or parishes but often parallel the growth and development of a Catholic community. The capacity of such infant Catholic communities to sustain an authentic presence in a new school is certainly a key point of consideration.
A counterpoint to the demand for catholic schooling is the capacity to deliver an authentic expression of Catholic education, its values and beliefs. Professional authentic leadership will be increasingly important to ensure the capacity to build an appropriate ecclesial community is present. [16]
In the development of Catholic schools in Australia, religious institutes started schools when and where they were able to provide sufficient religious to staff a venture.
(ii) Those with responsibilities for recruitment will require sensitive appraisal of ‘faith life’ criteria.
The faith-life criteria for leadership positions and employment as a teacher in a Catholic school poses the problem as to how such requirements are judged in recruitment and selection procedures. How does a teacher who is non-Catholic but meritorious in the witness to Christian values and proclamation of the reign of God compare with a person who is Catholic but can show no evidence of affiliation or practice with a parish or appropriate lifestyle and witness.
The CSTTM: 1997 document notes “the importance of the teacher in creating a unique Christian school climate”. In the most recent document Ecclesia in Oceania (2001) Pope John Paul further clarifies this issue. In particular, he notes that given the ecclesial identity of the Catholic school and its evangelising mission, it is important for teachers to see their work as “being more than a profession, it is a vocation to form students, a widespread and indispensable lay service in the Church”.
For this reason it is recommended that “those responsible for hiring teachers and administrators in our Catholic schools take into account the faith life of those they are hiring”. These are some difficulties inherent in Catholic Education following through on the dual recommendations of opening a Catholic school to all and taking into account faith life in employment criteria. Since appropriate Catholic staff may not always be available, there may be a tension between the desire to hire staffs, which meet faith criteria, the need for more staff, and the professional requirements of specialist positions. This tension is already apparent in meeting staffing requirements in remote and rural areas
We might accept that people are on a faith journey and that faith criteria need to be flexibly understood so as to accommodate various levels of spiritual maturity and religious literacy. However as noted before, a school needs to display strong authenticity if it is to be inclusive. Striking an appropriate balance will require a sensitive appraisal.
(iii) The importance of induction for new staff as well as on-going faith formation and professional development.
In a more inclusive Catholic school staff will be challenged to give strong witness to Christian values and Church teachings in a more diverse and pluralistic environment. Teachers in Catholic schools will need to commit to ongoing engagement with spiritual and personal formation aligned to teaching in a Catholic school. Employing authorities will need to develop a variety of appropriate programs to meet the differing needs of teachers in respect to spiritual and faith formation.
(iv) Implications for contractual relationship between Catholic employers and employees in Catholic schools.
A Catholic school, by nature of its expressive religious orientation, is able to maintain a specific contractual relationship with its employees a requirement of which is “support” for the teachings and values of the Church.
Such a particular contractual relationship is achieved through legislative amendments to the Anti-Discrimination Act. [17] At present these amendments depend on Catholic schools being an “educational authority…… operating an educational institution wholly or mainly for students of a particular sex or religion”.
It would appear that the Anti-Discrimination legislation allows the present contractual relationship to exist only where non-Catholics and non-Christians comprise the minority enrolments. Notions of majority and minority in a legal context might need to be tested at both a school and Diocesan level. Such assessments might put legal barriers on levels of potential inclusiveness
4.3 Managing the politics of a paradigm change
Any concerted effort by Catholic education authorities to further open up existing and new Catholic schools to increased non-Catholic enrolments will have a significant impact on other non-Government and government school enrolments as well as reopen the problematic funding debate on non-government schools. At present in Queensland there is a determined push by the state sector of schooling to reclaim market share while increased school development by other Christian denominational systems has substantially increased the share of non-Government, non-Catholic enrolments particularly in the corridor between Brisbane and the Gold Coast
(i) Changing the criteria for enrolment from a student’s religious affiliation to a willingness to commit to a set of values would be problematic from the viewpoint of the state and Commonwealth governments.
At present the policy and practice of Catholic education authorities is to enrol students affiliated with the Catholic religion. The acceptance by state and Commonwealth governments in Australia of a parent’s right to educate their children within a particular religious tradition and have such education significantly funded from the public purse has been a hard won accomplishment and one that is still not fully accepted.
At present market share for the government school sector is a high strategic priority. Attempts to increase the market share of enrolments of Catholic schools by expressly marketing Catholic schools as open to all who share our values would be highly problematic to the Government and independent non-Catholic sector. Indeed it could ignite past sectarian antipathies. A political campaign to establish a broader rationale for the operation of Catholic schools and support for increased funding would be challenging. It is unlikely that at present such a campaign would receive much support from government and the non-Government sector.
(ii) Changing the student profile of Catholic schools by making them more inclusive may dissuade some Catholic parents from sending their children to Catholic schools
For the vast majority of the population, Catholic schools are seen as schools established by the Catholic Church and Religious Institutes for Catholic students. To specifically reorient not only the general population but also the Catholic population towards a broader rationale for Catholic schools would require a significant and careful marketing exercise. Perhaps the real challenge is to market Catholic schools to the significant number of Catholics who choose not to send their children to Catholic schools.
Conclusion
While the mission of the Church is to evangelise and proclaim the reign of God, the capacity of Catholic schools (the face and place of the Church for many Catholics) to do so with student and parent communities that are not primarily Catholic can be highly problematical.
This problematic is not so much to do with rationale; Catholic schools are meant to be an evangelising presence in their local community and inclusiveness as a defining feature is supported in the Queensland Bishops’ report. However, such a defining feature cannot be realised in isolation. The capacity of a Catholic school to be inclusive is directly related to a capacity to be truly authentic.
What is problematic is the nest of cultural, political and organisational factors that impact on how Catholic schools presently operate in Australia.
The right to educate within a particular religious tradition, namely a Catholic tradition with a long and well tested philosophical rationale, and the right to receive public funding for such education should never be taken for granted.
A very first step in any move to greater inclusiveness within Catholic schools might be to ensure that non-Catholic students already in Catholic schools, along with those Catholic parents whose children are not in Catholic schools, do experience the reality of today’s Queensland Catholic schools as open and accessible.
REFERENCES
Anti-Discrimination Act (1991), Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Council
Benedict XV, Codex Iuris Canonicus The Vatican, Polyglot press, 1951
Bosch, D. (1991), Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission Maryknoll, NY Orbis Books
Boy’s, C. “Educating Christians in order that strangers become neighbours” Journal of Religious Education ACU Jubilee Volume 1 Sydney 2002
Brisbane Catholic Education (2001) Administrative Index (Unpublished)
Diocesan Report: Catholic Schools for the 21st Century (Unpublished)
Catholic Education Commission (NSW) 2000 Annual Report
Cairns Diocesan Services (2001), Diocesan Report: Catholic Schools for the 21st Century (Unpublished)
Congregation for Catholic Education Lay Catholics in Schools St Paul’s Publications, Sydney (1982)
The Catholic School on the threshold of the third millennium, St Paul’s Publications, Sydney (1997)
The Catholic School, St Paul’s Publications, Sydney, (1977)
Diocese of Rockhampton, Diocesan Report: Catholic Schools for the 21st Century (Unpublished) 2001
Diocese of Townsville, Diocesan Report: Catholic Schools for the 21st Century (Unpublished) 2001
Diocese of Toowoomba, Diocesan Report: Catholic Schools for the 21st Century (Unpublished) (2001)
Groome, T. (1996)“What Makes a School Catholic” in The Contemporary Catholic School: Context, Identity and Diversity: Ed T. McLaughlin, J O’Keefe & Bernadette O’Keefe, Palmer Press. London
John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio St. Paul’s Publications Sydney 1990
Dominus Jesus, St. Paul’s Publications Sydney 2000
Ecclesia in Oceana, St. Paul’s Publications Sydney 2001
Kelty, B. (2002) “A vision for Catholic Education in the 21st Century Church” Theology http:/www.mcauley.acu.edu.au/theology/Issue2/Brian.Kelty.htm
Phan, P. (2002) “Proclamation of the Reign of God as Mission of the Church”: Theology http:/www.mcauley.acu.edu.au/theology/Issue2/Brian.Kelty.htm
Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue (1991) Dialogue and Proclamation http://vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc19051991-dialogue-and-proclamatio_en.html
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Van Eyk, B.W. (2002) “The New Ethos, -Catholic Schooling in a Post-Modern World” in Catholic School Studies Vol 75 May 2002
[1] Commonwealth Census 2001
[2] In particular the report makes reference to little commitment or support from focus groups to certain traditions and rules such as the priesthood being limited to celibate males, exclusion of ex-priests women and divorcees.
[3] Canon 1374 forbade Catholics from sending their children to anything other than a Catholic school
[4] Canon 794 (2) “Pastors of souls have the duty of making all possible arrangements so that all the faithful may avail themselves of a Catholic education”
Canon 793 (1) “Catholic parents have also the duty and the right to choose those means and institutes which in their local circumstances, can best promote the catholic education for their children”
[5] Canon 803
[6] Canon 568
[7] St Cyprian formed the view that there was no salvation outside the Church and such ecclesiology drove untold missionary efforts to convert the heathens.
[8] Report Op. Cit., p 3
[9] Catholic Education Commission- NSW, 2000 Annual Report
[10] Dialogue and Proclamation (1991) PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE provides a balanced integrative approach to both dialogue and proclamation.
[11] Note that Dialogue and Proclamation (1991) takes a somewhat more inclusive view than Dominus Jesus (2000)
[12] Commonwealth Census, 2000
[13] The report in its discussion of the defining feature of inclusiveness refers to “Jesus and his mission reached out to everyone, including the seek and the marginalised. (QCEC 2001: 10)
[14] As a consequence of the NSW Education Act 1990 Catholic system authorities in NSW became responsible for the accreditation of Catholic schools in relation to all legislative and quality assurance requirements. This development provided a system wide platform for also assuring the “Catholicity” of Catholic schools in NSW through the monitoring and auditing of various signposts of Catholicity.
[15] See for example The Contemporary Catholic School- Context, Identity and Diversity (Edited by McLaughlin, T. O’Keefe, J. and O’Keefe, B. Palmer Press 1996)
[16] Canon 803 (2) “Formation and education in a Catholic school must be based on the principles of Catholic doctrine and teachers must be outstanding in true doctrine and uprightness of life
[17] The Queensland Government recently introduced its own amendments to the Anti-Discrimination Act (November, 2002) which would lessen the capacity of Catholic schools to seek exemptions under the Act and therefore most probably weaken Catholic education authorities power to exclude teachers from employment in Catholic schools based on lifestyle issues.
Tony Harkness is presently studying for his Master of Theological Studies at Australian Catholic University, McAuley Campus. He is employed by the Brisbane Catholic Education Office.
