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Secularization poses serious challenges for religiously affiliated schools. Catholic schools in the Netherlands find themselves embarrassed regarding their educational endeavor because they are unable or lack the inspiration to talk about this subject in religious terms. This article aims to explore new ways of overcoming this embarrassment. Firstly, an overview is presented of the current situa­tion and of the embarrassment of Catholic schools, in terms of their problematic choice of actions. Based on a critical-dialogical convergence of theological and pedagogical considerations, a Catholic vi­sion on the educational endeavor is subsequently developed that is understood in terms of interrup­tion, the other, and transcendence. From this vision of the educational endeavor, new strategies are presented – at the community level of Catholic schools, and at the individual level of teachers, school leaders, and governors – to promote an openness to receiving new, unexpected insights and possibili­ties. The receipt of these insights and possibilities is closely related to an awareness of transcendence, in both a secular and a religious sense. The initial findings of recent empirical research on the impact of these strategies are presented.

In the interwar period of the 20th century, the formation of the national education system took place in Lithuania. The Catholic Church sought to actively participate in the creation of this system in order to consolidate the principles of the organization of its educational system. The political regimes in interwar Lithuania sought to create a unified national education system, and the Catholic Church sought to make the educational system in line with its principles in the field of education. The article reviews how the Catholic Church and political regimes competed for dominant influence in the field of education in Lithuania during the interwar period (1918–1940). It is said that the struggle for influence in youth education was most clearly manifested in the field of secondary education (higher than primary education), because the position of the Catholic Church in this field was the strongest: Catholic educational societies had created a network of private schools. The Catholic Church and the Christian Democrats defending its position held the view that only a confessional school that nurtures the Christian spirit is suitable for Catholic children. Therefore, the state is required to finance private Catholic schools that meet the educational ideals of Catholic society. Catholic public figures and Christian Democrat politicians proposed to implement the principle of cultural autonomy in the country’s education system, which would guarantee the financing of private Catholic schools. During the period of Lithuanian parliamentarism (before the coup d’état of December 17, 1926), the position of the Catholic Church in the field of education clashed most strongly with the viewpoint of left-wing political forces. The leftist political forces sought to entrust the state with the right to determine educational ideals. The idea of a denominational school was alien to the left wing – they considered it an internal concern of the religious community itself, and the introduction of compulsory religious education in schools contradicted the fundamental values of the left-wing activists. After December 17, 1926 the nationalist political regime, established during the coup d’état, was guided by the rule that the monopoly of education must be in the hands of the state – only it has the exclusive right to educate its citizens. These attitudes were reflected in the education reform carried out in the mid-forties, which not only unified the educational chain up to high school, but also demonstrated the government’s unwavering political course towards the monopolization of the educational system. The monopolization of education by the state brought the nationalist government into conflict with the Catholic Church, which, defending its rights in the education system, demanded the implementation of the principle of cultural autonomy. The government sought to monopolize education and ended this process in 1938, the year the new Constitution of Lithuania was adopted.

The traditional school system has not met the needs of students for many years. Parents, in order to allow their children to move away from the rigid class-subject-hour system, established schools. The founders of alternative schools can be citizens, parents and teachers, religious communities as well as other legal entities. These are the so-called free schools, civic educational initiatives, reform pedagogical attempts, educational boarding schools, etc. The aim of this paper is to present the pedagogical concepts and ideas of schools in the Republic of Croatia whose founders are parents. The paper presents the basic pedagogical principles and aspects of teaching Waldorf and Montessori pedagogy based on educational pluralism, a brief overview of partnership between parents and schools in Croatia and the educational model of primary Catholic schools “Ružičnjak” and “Lotrščak”. The observed schools are located in Zagreb and have only one goal - to adapt the school to the child. An effort is made to provide each student with an individual approach. The starting points are the child’s needs and interests. These are the schools where students have freedom of choice. The goal of upbringing and education is the holistic development of the child. The emphasis is on active learning methods and abandoning didactic scenarios in which the child is only a passive observer.

Philip Phenix’s (1964) book Realms of meaning: A philosophy of the curriculum for general education started the ever growing movement concerned with how school education might help young people in their search for meaning, purpose and values in times of rapid cultural change. Today, in globalised, digital, secularised culture, the importance and urgency of this role have never been greater. Religious Education, with core curriculum status in Catholic schools, has both credentials and precedents for studying directly the contemporary human quest for meaning to help resource the spirituality of young people, no matter what their religious disposition. But a ‘course correction’ is needed for the discourse of Catholic Religious Education which has ‘drifted’ almost so exclusively into ecclesiastical terminology that its educational credibility as a valuable spiritual/moral school subject has been eroded, creating an ever widening discontinuity with the realities of the classroom and young people’s spirituality. A more outward-looking and less Catholic-centric emphasis would help, without neglecting commitment to the faith tradition. While concerned with the Australian Catholic sector, the article may well have relevance to other countries and contexts.

The proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, which was welcomed enthusiastically in many sectors, ushered in a period of social progress and change. Nevertheless, conservative Catholic sectors of society were wary of the secularizing spirit of Republican legislation, especially those that affected the field of education, such as the dissolution of the Society of Jesus or the Law of Religious Confessions and Congregations, which had traditionally been dominated by religious orders. In this paper we will analyze the influence exerted by the new drafting of the constitution and an emerging republican culture on Catholic private schools in the city of Valladolid through its effect on religious practices and direct impact on the emergence of a spirit of resistance to the republican government that manifested itself in a number of ways.

The Catholic schools for Europe in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Every possible project of formation to Fraternity is included in the Right to Education, understood as acceptance, dialogue, respect and encounter with the other. This article explores the experience of Catholic Schools for Europe in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which has always been a place of multi-ethnic and interreligious encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study presents briefly the main economic problems the Diocese of Iasi, which was founded on June 27, 1884, had been facing. At the end of the nineteenth century, the rapid increase of the number of Catholics led the diocese leaders to build new larger churches and enlarge the old ones. In this sense, the second bishop of Iaşi, Mons. Dominic Jaquet, a Swiss native, has sought funding in various Western countries. This bishop also took close care of the good progress of the Catholic schools within the diocese of Iaşi (the diocesan and Franciscan seminary, the Cipariu Institute, the Primary School of Iaşi, etc.). In order to cover all these expenses, Bishop Jaquet asked for financial help from both his church superiors and civil authorities. Thus, if the main financial support came from the superiors of the Congregation De Propaganda Fide in Rome, other aid for Catholics in Moldova came from France, through the Association Propagation de la Foi, which had its headquarters in Lyon. Also, the help of the Catholics from the diocese of Iaşi came both from the Romanian government and the one from Vienna.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to attempt at building a bridge between education and situated learning. The etymology of the word education outlines the two major ways of envisioning education. The meaning which we give to the term ‘education’ surely influences the ways in which the process of education unfolds and is actually conducted. The Constructivist Approach which is being used in education today is characterised by its student­ centeredness rather than teacher ­centeredness. The adoption of Communities of Practice from the industrial sphere to the realm of Catholic schools is a way in which education as bringing forth from the student ( e ‑ducere ) and the constructivist approach developed earlier can be put into practice in Catholic Schools. Communities of practice create the right condition for situated learning in Catholic schools today. It is here that legitimate peripheral participation can be put into practice, thus fulfilling the Church’s mission of evangelisation in our contemporary culture by drawing students from the periphery of the educational endeavour, making them active participants at the core.

There have been claims that contemporary Catholic schools in Scotland are related to sectarianism by the Church of Scotland, academics, the secular lobby, the press and media and public figures, at various points in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These individuals and groups have all highlighted the anomaly of state funded educational institutions being allegedly related to a serious social problem - sectarianism. This article presents a close examination of these claims and argues that there is very little empirical evidence to substantiate the alleged relation between contemporary Catholic schools and sectarianism.

Pope John Paul II, following in the steps of his predecessors, strongly advocated the critical appraisal of the influence of culture on people’s spirituality. This article responds to his directive by seeking to develop an interpretation of how and why contemporary spirituality has changed that will better inform the work of religious educators in Catholic schools. A number of constructs like secularisation, privatisation of religion etc. have been used to describe the significant change in spirituality of many of the young people in Australian Catholic schools over the last 50 years from a more traditional religious spirituality to something that is more secular, eclectic and individualistic. To some extent, this change has been acknowledged; but the religion curricula in Catholic schools still give the impression that all of the students are, or should be, regular church goers – as if Sunday mass attendance was to be the end point of their education in spirituality. An interpretation of change in spirituality in terms of change in cultural meanings has been developed for the purpose of understanding contemporary spiritualities in other than a deficit model. Such an interpretation may be more persuasive in getting Catholic education authorities and religious educators firstly to accept, rather than condemn or ignore, the significant change in contemporary spiritualty; and then secondly, to take steps to address this change positively and constructively in the Catholic school religion curriculum. This article is concerned with the first step – understanding contemporary spirituality; it is intended that the second question will be considered in a follow up article.