Joseph of Nazareth has a high profile among Catholics globally. His name adorns a multitude of schools, Catholic agencies, cities and towns and he is the patron of numerous causes in the Catholic tradition. This elevated position contrasts markedly with his profile in the Bible, where he is consistently silent when he appears in the narratives,…

Catholic schools, in order to be Catholic, lay claim to a particular sense of what these schools are and what they are not; that is, they claim Catholic school identity. Organizations such as Catholic schools have a strong identity if these claims are central to their core mission, distinct from the claims of other organizations, and consistent…

It is still surprisingly common to hear advocates of Catholic education refer to 'Catholic' Religious Education. This article will identify the issues bound up with the concept of 'Catholic Religious Education'. It will be argued that at the very least using this concept is akin to a category mistake, and at worst it skews our understanding of…

This article presents an analysis of why advocates of RE in English Catholic schools have managed to avoid seriously engaging with confessional Religious Education. The arguments presented here are set against the context of curriculum change in RE with the impending introduction of the "Religious Education Directory" in England and…

The Irish religious landscape is changing. Census data reveal that the percentage of those who identify as Catholic is in steady decline, while the proportion of those with no religion continues to rise. Christian religious practice in Ireland is also decreasing, especially among young people. Catholic schools, once the dominant provider of second…

This is an initial appraisal of the Religious Education Directory (RED) which will stipulate the content of Religious Education (RE) in all English Catholic schools from 2025. It will be explained that there is much to commend in the RED. It will certainly be welcomed by many RE teachers and advocates of Catholic education. This is because the RED…

The assassination of Ignacio Ellacuría and seven others at the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeon Cañas (UCA) in San Salvador in 1989 has had a deep and profound impact on the world-wide Jesuit community and the Catholic Church. His philosophy and theology of liberation have been carefully studied, as has his vision and operation of the UCA…

The Commission on Religious Education's Final Report, "Religion and Worldviews: The Way Forward, a national plan for RE" (https://www.commissiononre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Final-Report-of-the-Commission-on-RE.pdf, 2018), has been given a mixed reception by advocates and leaders of Catholic education in England and Wales. The…

The absence of young people in Catholic churches in many parts of the world, especially in the more economically advanced countries, is a cause for great anxiety within Catholic communities. This is expressed in relevant research literature and the three recent synodal syntheses of England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland. This article explores the…

This article presents an initial analysis of the "Prayer and Liturgy Directory," which was published by the "Catholic Education Service" of England and Wales in 2023. It is argued that this document has many positive features, and provides a helpful guidance document for those involved with planning liturgies in a Catholic…

Eight Catholic school communities across Australia nominated teacher identity characteristics aligned with an understanding of Catholic school mission from a local community perspective. A data mining process (Leximancer Manual in https://www.leximancer.com. Version 2.23, 2017) of the collated narratives from focus groups (n = 73) highlighted the…

Pope Francis met representatives of the Indigenous peoples of Canada in Rome in April 2022 and in Canada in July 2022. At these meetings he offered sincere apologies for the ways in which the Catholic Church had colluded with the strategy of cultural assimilation of the Indigenous people in Canada. This was especially abhorrent in the residential…

This article overviews the contemporary context for teaching Religious Education (RE) in Ireland and profiles changing religious demographics in an increasingly secular context. It presents the findings of a two-year mixed-methods study undertaken in two third-level Catholic colleges in Ireland, investigating four hundred third-level Initial…

This paper discusses educational insights drawn from a mixed-methods study in Religious Education (RE). The study involved 238 teachers and school leaders, working in 65 Catholic schools in Western Australia (WA). The focus of the study was the educators' perceptions of a large-scale, standardised assessment (LSA) called "The Bishops'…

Conciliar and post-conciliar documents provide a consistent stream of inspirational and informative directions for Catholic Education. This study explores the thematic constants within and across these releases, specifically in relation to the mission of the Catholic school. A series of Leximancer analyses, digital data mining processes of…