Today’s Guest Blogger is Carmen Garcia from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Her topic is the Church Document “Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School” podcast on the Catholic School Matters podcast.
How blessed was I in November to go eight days to the Holy Land and three in Rome. Lots of time on the plane to read, so I finished The Benedict Option (2017) by Rod Dreher and then somehow had Dangerous (2017) by Milo Yiannopoulos on the Kindle (wow, thanks husband for keeping us so current). I was the passenger hurtling over the Atlantic clutching her pearls and heart saying, “Oh my, Oh MY!”, well, ok, no pearls but you get the idea.
Today, having just listened to the Catholic School Matters podcast on the church document The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School (1988), I immediately reflected how all 3 of these diverse writings share a recurring theme on the importance of CULTURE in the lives of our children.
Dreher posits we have simply lost the cultural wars and need to live purposefully in Christian community, protecting our youth from the world. Yiannopoulos shouts that only those who engage youth in a relevant and dynamic manner will win political followers. The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School reminds us that our youth live in a radically changing world and need loving guidance and authentic witness to be formed within the Catholic community of the Catholic school into people with a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Like all good church documents, this one is at turns a slog and then Holy Spirit ZAP (check out paragraphs 17, 29, 2nd paragraph of 44, 48, 50 {who even knew that “supernatural grace is given” through the religious dimension of school?? ,66, 71, 104, 108)). Everyone wants to capture the hearts and souls of our youth, but what does The Church say? Tim Uhl and John Galvan do an admirable job in walking the listener through the salient points of this document and tying it in to our real jobs in the 2017 Catholic school world. Plus, I get so excited when Tim points out to us at the beginning of these podcasts that the church is speaking to us at our Catholic Schools and that God continues to reveal Himself to us: His plans, thoughts and ideas through these inspired church documents. Therefore, it is crucial that we familiarize ourselves with these gems sent by the Holy Spirit.
Through a series of 14 podcasts, Catholic educators will familiarize themselves with various Church documents by placing them together and using the podcast format to share the learning. Learn more about the series.
