Conversion in the Catholic School

Conversion to Catholicism has long featured as the primary aim of the Catholic school. This perspective was interwoven with a view of Graeco-Roman culture as universally normative. Following the Church’s major assembly, Vatican II (1962–1965), this changed, primarily because the Church acknowledged that other denominations and faiths could be seen as avenues of salvation. The Church subsequently opened its school to non-Catholics, not necessarily as potential converts to Catholicism. It thus faced a dilemma of how to educate non-Catholic pupils religiously. This aim necessitated a review of its former objectives. What is presented here is a framework, developed through the reflections of the philosopher-theologian Bernard Lonergan, that respects both the identity of the Catholic school and, at the same time, allows it to provide religious education to all its students.