Teaching religion to high school students requires prophetic imagination in this competitive age of "freeze-dried" faith, said Michael Horan, Loyola Marymount University theology professor and keynote speaker at the second annual religion teachers' conference day held Dec. 2 at St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower.
Addressing 132 secondary religion teachers on the topic, "Teaching the Future Tense to the Present: Challenges of Fostering Faith in Young People Today," Horan highlighted tensions on church and campus turf as well as blessings within the vocation.
"Healthy tensions help us to grow," said Horan. "Unhealthy tensions are difficult and need to be acknowledged. Most religion teachers can make a long list of tensions."
According to Horan, "healthy" tensions affecting faith-building in the classroom include the "I'm spiritual but not religious" cultural mentality as well as the present church's sometimes "clumsy" attempts to plan for future church leadership with the ongoing priest shortage. On campus, Horan noted healthy tension also exists between discipleship and academics, where a minority of religion teachers are expected to shepherd a majority of staff and students to holiness.
Unhealthy tensions identified by Horan include "unconverted parents and [teaching] partners" as well as a "green card" approach to faith, where card-carrying, sacramentalized Catholics don't feel compelled to participate in establishing the "reign of God" in the present. "The church is called to reflect on the reign of God," said Horan. He stressed religion teachers need to engage in intellectual and theological "chiropratic" care for themselves and their students.
"The church needs to be inclusive, welcoming, committed to the margins of the church and the work of evangelization," said Horan. He said teachers need to use prophetic imagination to help students achieve the ability to be prophets in their own age group. "I'm so grateful for what you do," said Horan, adding that many LMU students tell him they were inspired by their high school religion teacher.
Acknowledging the 40th anniversary of "Nostra Aetate," Pope Paul VI's declaration on the relation of the church to non-Christian religions proclaimed on Oct. 28, 1965, an interfaith prayer service was held in the school chapel with Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Islamic representatives. "You are participating in an historical moment in the archdiocese," said Father Alexei Smith, archdiocesan director of ecumenical/interreligious affairs.
During the chapel service, Holy Faith Sister Angela Hallahan read from the "Nostra Aetate" document as part of a program incorporating readings from the Quran, the Five Books of Moses, and the Hindu Scriptures. A meditation chant was intoned by three saffron-robed Buddhists from the Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights.
Speaking after the lunch break, Father Smith urged the teachers to embrace the spirit of Nostra Aetate. "There are so many ways you can foster ecumenism," he said, offering his assistance to arrange speakers and field trips to interfaith houses of worship.
Response to the Secondary Department of Catholic Schools religion teachers' conference day facilitated by high school religion certification director Sister Hallahan was positive. "We came out of this event with a great sense of community enrichment and growing awareness and sensitivity to our brothers and sisters of different faith backgrounds," commented Anna Dickan, St. Paul High School religion department chair and one of the event organizers.
"It's so enriching for us who reach out and give in ministry to come to a place and be filled up," said Maxine Orosz, religion teacher at La Salle High School in Pasadena. "Today's interfaith experience reminded us we are not alone. We are part of a universal prayer."
Jerry Frumento, a religion teacher at Loyola High School for 19 years and member of the organizing committee, said the event fostered a sense of camaraderie among the secondary school teachers. "Students are on a spiritual search, and we have to find creative ways to make Catholicism more alive and valid for them," observed Frumento. |