How does the Religion class look like in the LOMLOE?Gregorio LuriThere is a catastrophic impulse, a pre-apocalypse atmosphere".The new Religion curriculum, a concession to progressivism?Madrid will host, next May 6, 7 and 8, 2022, the I Iberoamerican Meeting of Religion Teachers. An initiative of the Siena Educación group aimed at the more than half a million Religion teachers in Ibero-America and Spain.
During three days, a wide and ambitious panel of keynote lectures, innovative teaching dynamics, presentation of the Religion Teaching Lab, colloquiums and cultural activities will be held.
The meeting, which will be held in hybridis open to teachers of Religion in public, private and charter schools, as he points out in this interview with Omnes, José María de Moya, general manager of Siena Education.
Its objective? To vindicate the importance of the teaching of Religion in the full education of children and young people, especially in the face of the challenge of the existential void that increasingly arises at an early age due to the lack of attention to this area.
The First Ibero-American Meeting of Religion Teachers will bring together teachers of this subject from very different environments and countries. Why did you choose this diversity?
-From the very beginning, we wanted to take this meeting out of the problem of the subject of Religion in Spain. We did not want the meeting to focus on the legal and political problems that surround this subject in Spain.
Above all, we want to vindicate the importance of the teaching of Religion. That is why we have proposed it in a broader, Ibero-American format, because there are many approaches to the subject. We find the more catechetical approach to the subject of Religion, which is found in some Latin American countries where the Religion teacher, and therefore the subject, is closely linked to the village parish.
We also find the approach we have in Spain and other Latin American countries: the subject is confessional but not catechetical - that is, it is not necessary to have faith to attend classes - but clearly confessional.
There are also some countries that have a more sociological approach, the study of the religious fact or history of religions, where the subject is not confessional, although it is certainly not widespread. To these we can even add another option that we do find in countries such as Argentina where Religion is not taught in public schools; Religion, as a subject, is only taught in religious schools. Therefore, we have this whole panorama of models and all are welcome to this meeting which, although it is committed to a confessional approach to the subject, we want it to be transversal, so that everyone can learn.
Objectives of the meeting
Why a specific meeting on the subject of Religion, what are its objectives?
-In effect, and in fact, with the Encounter we want to highlight the pride of being teachers of Religion and of the subject itself. The teacher of Religion should be proud to be a teacher of the subject of Religion, not because of a marketing strategy but because of conviction.
The first objective of this meeting is to vindicate the importance of a full education of the student, which also includes the spiritual dimension, not only the intellectual and human dimension. Of course with freedom. Those families who only want their children to be bilingual or know a lot of mathematics have no reason to enroll them in Religion, but there are many families who want an integral, full education.
For us, education is a three-legged stool: human, intellectual and spiritual, and it cannot be supported by only two legs.
The idea of the meeting arises from this conception. There are many psycho-pedagogues, educators, or even psychiatrists who have exposed or pointed out to us how, more and more, young people come to our consultations or tutorials, academically brilliant, good people, who know how to work in a team and so on..., but who experience a great existential void in their lives and this leads to self-esteem problems, suicidal thoughts... etc.
The second objective is to highlight the importance of knowledge of religions to understand the world we live in: the heritage or history...
And of course, we want to highlight the work and innovation that many Religion teachers are doing and that is very unknown.
Education is a three-legged stool: human, intellectual and spiritual, and it cannot be supported by only two legs.
José María de Moya. General Manager of Siena Education
How do you see Religion teachers today?
-The May meeting is 'by' teachers 'for' teachers - the bulk of the congress is about teaching dynamics that take place mainly in public schools - and we have met some fantastic people.
The 35,000 teachers of Religion in Spain, the ones we know best, are great people. People who are trained, who work very hard. Each one with his own style and sensitivities.
They are very committed, very self-sacrificing and, in addition, they are resilient, because they get a lot of work.
Now the teachers of Religion are very questioned, indeed, especially the public school teacher, both the subject and they themselves.
In a religious school or one linked to a Catholic institution, the Religion teacher is more involved with the pastoral or the ideology of the center, the congregation, etc.
The public school religion teacher is a hero. And many times they represent the "ideology" of the public school. I mean, a public school does not have an ideology, but the Religion teacher is usually the one who animates initiatives of values, acts of solidarity, campaigns... This type of initiatives that embody the "best values" of the public school are coordinated by the Religion teachers.
Family and school
Education has two keys: family and school. In the case of the teaching of Religion, is everything sometimes left to the school? How far should the teaching of Religion in school go?
-This theme is related to the last of the four objectives of the Congress, which focuses on vindicating the right of families to educate their children according to their moral and religious convictions.
The school and the family have to be in tune with each other because, otherwise, a kind of "schizophrenia" is produced in the student's life. With good harmony and communication between the school and the family this does not happen.
Families must have the freedom to choose one school or another and, in the case of public schools, the right to talk to the teacher and express their convictions.
One of the current realities we face is that Catholics are not coming out of Catholic schools. Where is the problem?
-I am not an expert on this subject. I dare say little. I think it is a global problem. It would be necessary to go back to the causes of the process of secularization of society, so it goes beyond what could be a problem of the school or the family. I also think that we run the risk and, perhaps on occasions, we have fallen into assimilating the teaching of Religion with a teaching of values and "of murals" as the philosopher Quintana Paz points out.
It seems to me that the Church, as Pope Francis said, is not an NGO and religion does not come only to solve social problems.
The subject of Religion has to open students to transcendence, without catechesis, because it is for any person. It has to make them reflect, ask themselves questions and also see the answers of the Catholic religion. It is to go a step further.
Secularization and indifference
Does this environmental secularization affect only Catholics?
-At the meeting we have an interreligious dialogue table. When I have spoken with the speakers, they all recognize that the problem of secularization is universal, it is not a "Catholic issue". It affects the whole transcendent vision of man, which is being undermined by a relativistic, liquid culture. An immanent vision versus a transcendent vision. All this fed by materialism, the consumer society. In this sense, the representative of the Jewish religion who is speaking from Peru was telling me that the number of practicing Jews has dropped a lot and that they are noticing this secularization. I think this colloquium will be very interesting because not only Catholics, but also Evangelicals, Islamics and Jews will be present. I also think that the philosophers' colloquium will be very interesting. This is a civil meeting, and we believe in fact that philosophy has a lot to claim and to say on the issue of religious education and we are going to have top level philosophers such as Miguel García BaróGregorio Luri or José María Torralba.
The problem of secularization is universal, it is not a "Catholic issue". It affects the whole transcendent vision of man, which is being undermined by a relativistic, liquid culture.
José María de Moya. General Manager of Siena Education
In fact, recently in Gregorio Luri spoke in Omnes how the scant consideration of education in the political sphere has led to a certain indifference on the part of teachers, does this happen to a greater or lesser extent with religion teachers?
-Yes, there are many people who are discouraged, but that's why we have this meeting. As in all groups, there are all kinds. Among the Religion teachers there are those who can feel very lonely and, moreover, when one finds oneself in this state, everything seems to be against...
With this congress they can see that this is not so, that there are many people doing things, defending the same ideas, many associative movements, etc., who are clear that we have to defend the spiritual dimension in education because in offering these answers to young people we are playing for the future.
