Students in Catholic schools make up a significant sub group of the Australian population. As such, studies of this group provide valuable information about the religious beliefs and practices of some Australian youth. Many students in Catholic schools express traditional religious views and have relatively high levels of religious behaviours.…

Religious education always takes place within a cultural context. In recent decades, this context has changed significantly and Catholic schools now engage with a world that is very different from the immediate post-Vatican 2 era. This changed cultural context shapes the views, beliefs and practices of students in Catholic schools. One way of…

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…

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…