What type of study is this?

This is a Literature Review study.

October 3, 2025Open Access

Conversion in the Catholic School

Key Points

Religious education in Catholic schools now includes non-Catholic pupils, facilitating dialogue and understanding across denominations.
The framework proposed is based on Bernard Lonergan's reflections, aiming to balance Catholic identity with inclusivity in education.
Post-Vatican II changes allowed Catholic schools to accept students from various faiths, reshaping traditional conversion goals.
The document presents a new approach to religious education that acknowledges the coexistence of multiple faiths within a Catholic context.

Abstract

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.

Read Full Paperexternally

KI fragen

Bookmark

View Full Paper