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This paper begins with a typological discussion of students at Catholic colleges and universities. It focuses on those students who express a strong Catholic identity, recognizing that such students are a minority. The discussion describes this group as a manifestation of a more evangelical Catholicism and traces this development to changes in the wider culture. Such changes include a break down in religious socialization and the notion of the religious consumer in a culture of choice. A renewed missionary sense within Catholicism is also raised as an explanatory factor. Catholic colleges and universities can respond to some the challenges posed by committed, evangelical students by considering a number of pastoral and academic options. The paper argues that Catholic colleges and universities should seek to better engage such evangelical Catholic students in the life of the institution.

This article sets out to discuss the impact that urban living has had on the lives of young Indigenous people. It will seek to discover some of the problems that occur when there is a meeting of two cultures, in this case the Indigenous culture of Australian Aboriginal people and the mainstream culture that has been derived largely from west European traditions which, in turn, was born out of Western Christian perspectives. As well, it will explore the challenges faced by minority groups who live in pluralist contexts when they attempt to hand on their ways to their young people, in particular, the difficulties faced by urban Indigenous Australians who try to ensure that their young people will develop knowledge about their cultural and spiritual heritage. Finally it will examine how the rights of young Indigenous people need to be protected so that they can continue to develop their particular identity and at the same time take their place with pride and integrity in the pluralist social context that defines Australia today. "Many Australians understand that Aboriginal people have a special respect for nature. The identity we have with the land is sacred and unique. Many people are beginning to understand this more. Also there are many Australians who appreciate that Aboriginal people have a very strong sense of community. All persons matter. All of us belong and there are many more Australians who understand that we are people who celebrate together. What I want you to know about is another special quality of my people. I believe it is most important. It is our most unique gift. It is perhaps the greatest gift we can give to our fellow Australians. In our language it is the quality called "dadirri". It is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness. "Dadirri" recognizes the deep spring inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call 'contemplation'". (Ungunmerr, 2003)

Why do adolescents and young adults lack a full and coherent understanding of a religion? This is a phenomenon of wide-ranging proportions. Using a cultural, theological, and philosophical analysis, the author argues that one important reason behind the lack of religious content knowledge is the reluctance of teachers to move beyond the experiential world of students. The explicit teaching of the content and practices of a religion is proposed. Without focused teaching, student learning is hampered and often becomes confused.

Religious communities have an obvious interest in passing on their beliefs and practices to future generations. Many traditional churches, however, report major difficulties in retaining the interest and involvement of adolescents. This paper seeks to explore some of the beliefs and values of Australian core Catholic youth (14- to 15-years-old). Fifty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with adolescents with a pre-existing connection with parish communities. Most adolescents interviewed expressed either strong or weak familial pattern of church attendance and predicted a likely decrease in their future participation. The experience of older siblings, reported religious beliefs and a lack of supportive social networks either at school or in the wider community will be commented on. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper reports on research on the attitudes of a differentiated sample of students to Catholic schools in general and religious education in particular. Core Catholic youth are described, following Fulton "et al." (2000: "Young Catholics at the New Millennium", Dublin, University College Press), as individuals who have an existing connection with the parish community. Some results that emerge from 58 in-depth interviews with 14- and 15-year-old core Catholics are that they value their time in Catholic schools, feel that they are in a safe environment and are not well networked with others of a similar background. Attitudes to religious education by core Catholic youth are described as weak positive. Religious education is not unpopular but is not seen as a discipline that helps resolve some of the difficulties that they experience as young Catholics. These difficulties relate to trying to reconcile what they see as the conflict between the scientific and religious view of creation and many supernatural religious claims.

Religious communities have an obvious interest in passing on their beliefs and practices to future generations. Many traditional churches, however, report major difficulties in retaining the interest and involvement of adolescents. This study seeks to explore attitudes to a key indicator of traditional practice, church attendance, amongst Australian core Catholic youth (14-15 years of age). Fifty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with adolescents with a pre-existing connection with parish communities. Most adolescents interviewed expressed either strong or weak familial pattern of church attendance and predicted a likely decrease in their future participation. This, coupled with the experience of older siblings' reported views about the significance of the Eucharist and a lack of supportive social networks either at school or in the wider community, suggests that many core Catholic adolescents are likely to become less involved in church life in the future.

In 2002 a paper entitled "Writing Church-sponsored Religious Education Textbooks" by Engebretson was published in the "British Journal of Religious Education". This paper reported on and analysed some aspects of the development, by the Catholic Archdiocese in Melbourne, Victoria, of a series of religious education textbooks to be used in all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese. The paper contextualised the series, entitled "To Know, Worship and Love", in the field of literature on textbooks in the classroom. It discussed some local issues that had led to the decision to produce religious education textbooks, explained and justified the choice of content for the middle secondary books, and discussed the presentation of the books. In the final section of the paper, it was indicated that future papers would report on the evaluation of the series and its implementation, as a three-stage research project was completed. The first stage of the research project collected responses from teachers and Religious Education Co-ordinators (RECs) to the Years 7 and 9 books, that is those books written for students of 12 and 14 years respectively. This paper discusses a significant finding that emerged from this stage of the research, that is the relationship between textbook use and level of qualifications and experience in the teaching of religious education. This major finding is of interest in relation to a range of educational issues in religious education, including the role and use of resources, the mandation of resources by Church hierarchies, creativity and flexibility in teaching religious education, teacher confidence and experience and the important issue of content knowledge. Further papers will explore evaluations of the Years 8 and 10 books, and overall issues that have emerged from this Archdiocesan curriculum project.