International

earth

Vatican

Congregation for Catholic Education (for Educational Institutions)

Religious Education Association

Catholic Education Curriculum outside of Ontario

  1. Northern Ireland http://www.deni.gov.uk/index/80-curriculum-and-assessment/80-curriculum-and-assessment-religiouseducationcoresyllabus-pg.htm
  2. Ireland ECE and Primary |
  3. USA: Doctrinal Elements of a Curriculum Framework (High School) http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/upload/high-school-curriculum-framework.pdf
  4. South Africa https://www.cie.org.za/pages/religious-education-curriculum
  5. England and Wales: Diocese of Westminster  Curriculum
  6. Scotland http://sces.org.uk/curriculum-for-excellence/
  7. Australia Curriculum Framing Document 
RE in Australia

From the Diocese of Westminster, UK

What is the purpose of Religious Education in Catholic schools?

Catholic schools, with RE at their core, exist in order to “help parents, priests and teachers to hand on the Deposit of Faith in its fullness to a new generation of young people so that they may come to understand the richness of the Catholic faith, and thereby be drawn into a deeper communion with Christ in his Church.” (Religious Education Curriculum Directory pvii). With this as their primary aim, Catholic schools serve diverse populations of pupils and within this context the Religious Education Curriculum Directory (RECD) makes the aims of Religious Education explicit:

  1. To present engagingly a comprehensive content which is the basis of knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith;
  2. To enable pupils continually to deepen their religious and theological understanding and be able to communicate this effectively;
  3. To present an authentic vision of the Church’s moral and social teaching so that pupils can make a critique of the underlying trends in contemporary culture and society;
  4. To raise pupils’ awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities in order to respect and understand them;
  5. To develop the critical faculties of pupils so that they can relate their Catholic faith to daily life;
  6. To stimulate pupils’ imagination and provoke a desire for personal meaning as revealed in the truth of the Catholic faith;
  7. To enable pupils to relate the knowledge gained through Religious Education to their understanding of other subjects in the curriculum;
  8. To bring clarity to the relationship between faith and life, and between faith and culture.

The outcome of excellent Religious Education is religiously literate and engaged young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills – appropriate to their age and capacity – to reflect spiritually, and think ethically and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life (Religious Education Curriculum Directory p6).