Letters

Catholic education

Allan Choveaux

Contents - Feb 2015 - Buy a copy now Editorial: A request for your assistance - Peter Westmore Consistory: Pope Francis names twenty new Cardinals - AD2000 Report News: The Church Around the World The survival of the Church - Fr John O'Neill PP Vatican report lays bare problems in US religious life - AD2000 Report Martyrdom: Would I have had their courage? - Cardinal George Pell The Pope and the Holocaust: why did Pius XII not speak out? - Robert A. Graham SJ The family and the Church in 2015 - Archbishop Mark Coleridge Brisbane: powerhouse of Catholic young adult ministry - Br Barry Coldrey The Eighteen Benedictions of Judaism ... and Christianity - Andrew Sholl What Pope Francis really said to the Roman Curia - AD2000 Report Letters: Catholic education - Allan Choveaux Letters: Smartphone apps 'very suspect' - Elizabeth Afribo Letters: A rejoinder to Anne Lastman - Charles M. Shann Letters: Mary in St John's Gospel - Dr Frank Mobbs Letters: The Church in China - Paul Simmons Letters: Homosexuality - Anne Lastman Books: AUSTRALIANS AND THE CHRISTIAN GOD: An historical study, by Hugh Jackson - Michael E. Daniel (reviewer) Books: MY BATTLE AGAINST HITLER, by Dietrich von Hildebrand - Kate Veik (reviewer) Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Reflection: Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy - Anne Lastman

The overall decline in Holy Mass attendance in Australia is accentuated by the fact that the average age of those attending is increasing.

AD2000 (April, 2004) reported: "Data obtained by ACU [Australian Catholic University] researchers in Sydney found that 97 per cent of young Catholics abandoned the practice of their faith within 12 months of completing high school".

It is not surprising therefore that this same journal also reported on the "recent research of Professor Denis McLaughlin of Australian Catholic University (McAuley Campus, Brisbane), who found that most ACU students (including student teachers) did not accept Church teaching on such areas as abortion, contraception, the Eucharist and women's ordination."

Regarding Catholic teachers, AD2000 quoted Professor McLaughlin's belief that "the vast majority ... have reservations about the contemporary Catholic Church, their employer."

As well, The Age newspaper (Melbourne, 23 September 2013) published a graph which showed that in 1947, 63% of Catholics regularly attended Mass as compared with 12.2% in 2011.

Now, of course, one may not therefore claim that the current condition of Catholic education is the problem behind the dramatic loss of practising Catholics, but one must recognise that Catholic education must accept at least some of the responsibility.

It is the opinion of many that the Catholic education system's religion programs do not fully teach children the truths of the Catholic faith and hence any improvement in this area would most likely result in more students embracing the teachings and practices of the Catholic Church.

Accordingly, the following petition has been organised through CitizenGo:

Please return the Catholic character to Catholic education i.e., adoration of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, devotion to Mary, Mother of God, obedience to the Pope.

Please sign this petition at: http://www.citizengo.org/en/13363-return-catholic-character-catholic-education

ALLAN CHOVEAUX
Flaxton, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 28 No 1 (February 2015), p. 15