H
hansard
Guest
Let me tell you of my experience here in a large-ish town in rural Australia (I won’t say where it is, just to be nice). See if there are any similarities with your home turf.
The school was formed from the amalgamation of two former schools, one a boys’ De La Salle Brothers school and a girls’ Sisters of Mercy school.
Many people in the town went to one or other of those schools, or, more recently, the “new” co-ed school. The new school has a good reputation in the town and is up to its second generation of students (kids of former students).
The Catholics in the general area are overwhelmingly of the Irish strain, as far as heritage goes. Irish Catholics in Australia tend to be fiercely republican (anti-monarchy—Australia is still a constitutional monarchy), have a cynical attitude to the hierarchy in Rome (anti-authoritarian, to some extent) and are generally a bit, erm, slack in their Church attendance.
We have 900 students. I would be surprised if 10% of them attended church regularly. A significant proportion are non-Catholic. Many students profess to be atheists (“I just don’t believe any of it—how can you?”). Most students are quite godless in their everyday lives, which revolve around relationships, Ipods, Facebook, body piercing, fast food, fast lives—nothing spiritual at all.
Many of the staff are non-Catholics and the pattern of church attendance among the Catholics would only be slightly better than that of the students.
We have about 5 or 6 liturgies per year, at important times, and I’m willing to bet these are the only times most students see a Eucharist or a priest in vestments (to their credit, they do manage a show of reverence—they are generally good kids). At other times we have Reconciliation ceremonies, but few students actually get out of their seats and visit the priests in their rooms. Not cool to do that. Religious education in the school is compulsory, but it is sneered at and not regarded as worthwhile by many students.
There have been no religious orders teaching at, or even involved with, the school these past ten years. When I attended the school in the 80s the brothers and nuns had a very visible presence.
And I believe that’s when the change started, about the mid-late 1980’s when kids were told “You have to decide how to live your lives” and “You’ll all be faced with decisions on contraception, marriage, sex before marriage…”
It seemed like the rigors of the past were being watered down and life was to be a post-modern blancmange where there were no rules, no authority, no absolutes.
We battle on and try to explain the importance of the Mass and its parts; we try to set positive examples; indeed, the local Catholic school is now (in my opinion) the equal partner of the Parish in providing Catholic-ness to our young people. If only the home were a third equal partner, I might not have any complaints.
I sometimes wonder about the future of the dedicated Catholic school. I wonder how to engage students in their faith, or at least encourage them to lead a slightly less vacuous childhood.
The school was formed from the amalgamation of two former schools, one a boys’ De La Salle Brothers school and a girls’ Sisters of Mercy school.
Many people in the town went to one or other of those schools, or, more recently, the “new” co-ed school. The new school has a good reputation in the town and is up to its second generation of students (kids of former students).
The Catholics in the general area are overwhelmingly of the Irish strain, as far as heritage goes. Irish Catholics in Australia tend to be fiercely republican (anti-monarchy—Australia is still a constitutional monarchy), have a cynical attitude to the hierarchy in Rome (anti-authoritarian, to some extent) and are generally a bit, erm, slack in their Church attendance.
We have 900 students. I would be surprised if 10% of them attended church regularly. A significant proportion are non-Catholic. Many students profess to be atheists (“I just don’t believe any of it—how can you?”). Most students are quite godless in their everyday lives, which revolve around relationships, Ipods, Facebook, body piercing, fast food, fast lives—nothing spiritual at all.
Many of the staff are non-Catholics and the pattern of church attendance among the Catholics would only be slightly better than that of the students.
We have about 5 or 6 liturgies per year, at important times, and I’m willing to bet these are the only times most students see a Eucharist or a priest in vestments (to their credit, they do manage a show of reverence—they are generally good kids). At other times we have Reconciliation ceremonies, but few students actually get out of their seats and visit the priests in their rooms. Not cool to do that. Religious education in the school is compulsory, but it is sneered at and not regarded as worthwhile by many students.
There have been no religious orders teaching at, or even involved with, the school these past ten years. When I attended the school in the 80s the brothers and nuns had a very visible presence.
And I believe that’s when the change started, about the mid-late 1980’s when kids were told “You have to decide how to live your lives” and “You’ll all be faced with decisions on contraception, marriage, sex before marriage…”
It seemed like the rigors of the past were being watered down and life was to be a post-modern blancmange where there were no rules, no authority, no absolutes.
We battle on and try to explain the importance of the Mass and its parts; we try to set positive examples; indeed, the local Catholic school is now (in my opinion) the equal partner of the Parish in providing Catholic-ness to our young people. If only the home were a third equal partner, I might not have any complaints.
I sometimes wonder about the future of the dedicated Catholic school. I wonder how to engage students in their faith, or at least encourage them to lead a slightly less vacuous childhood.