According to the National Bicentennial Survey UC 2022, a downward trend of Catholicism in Chile is shown. Adherence decreases from 70 % in 2006 to 48 % in 2022. And where do the people leaving the Church go? Evangelicals, those who do not profess religion, the belief in the karma or in the energies located in physical things.
As the desert advances, how do we win over our students so that they will be able to would like to learn about the Catholic faith?
"Sometimes it makes you want to work on something else."said a tired teacher to me. But, for God's sake, if St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony of Padua could get the attention even of fish, how can we not be able to capture the interest of our students?
Instead of winding up worry, we could rethink the way we teach. This is what the book addresses Educating for life. Experiences in the teaching of Religioncoordinated by Ronald Bown and published by Eunsa. In the book, teachers from different schools in Chile and Spain share practical ideas to improve their classes. It is a project that will be useful for teachers of all school levels, also for those who have students with special educational needs.
To cite a few examples: Carolina Martinez offers a Bible reading guide. Santiago Baraona has seen many students awaken to the big questions by reading books such as Man in search of meaningby Viktor Frankl, the essay To be freeby José Ramón Ayllón, or Mere Christianityby C.S. Lewis.
There are also ideas for the little ones. Francisca Ruiz and Bernardita Domínguez teach their pre-school students that the sign of the cross is the sign of the cross. "the password of the friends of Jesus". Great. And something even better: to teach that each of us is a treasure for God, they say: "We place a mirror inside a pretty box lined with some shiny paper (...) One by one, each child is invited to see what is inside the box. When they open it and see their reflection, the child gets excited and smiles. It is a very special moment in the awareness of God's love for each one of us". (p. 196).
There are people who have made religion an interesting subject even for the inhabitants of the sea. And we, how are we going to reinvent ourselves, how can we infuse prestige into the Religion class, to make it the most attractive subject in the curriculum?
Lawyer from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Licentiate in Theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome) and Doctorate in Theology from the University of Navarra (Spain).
