Religion lessons but should be transmitted convincingly

POPE: TEACHERS ON RELIGION MUST USE CATECHISM AS BASE(AGI) - Vatican City, Nov 10 - The teaching programmes for religion in schools "must be geared towards the Catholic Church's Catechism, so as to transmit the entirety of the Church's faith and life throughout the scholastic course," the Pope said to German bishops today on his visit ad limina. According to Benedict XVI, in Germany, "in the past the content of the catechesis has been pushed into second place in favour of didactic methods." Because of this, the Pope wished to recommend that Bishops follow strict criteria in the approval of textbooks. "The ability of making the faith accessible is an important aspect for the approval of textbooks for teaching religion," he explained. "Just as important is also teachers' adherence to the Church's faith and their participation to liturgical and pastoral life in the parishes or ecclesiastical communities near the place they work at."

According to the Pope "it is fundamental that the introduction of the Catholic vision of the world and religious practices, as well as the unitary formation of personality are no transmitted only during religion lessons but should be transmitted convincingly throughout the school day in Catholic schools. Similar importance is reserved for the many institutions and activities carried out in higher education." According to Ratzinger, "in this field, special attention should go to the choice of topics and rapporteurs, so that the central contents of the faith and the Christian way of life do not slip into the background in favour of marginal or contemporary matters."

The Pope then entrusted German bishops the Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt with some concern. "Here Catholic Germany has an eminent site where disputes with spiritual movements or high-level academic problems can be carried out in the light of the Catholic faith and a spiritual elite can be trained capable of keep abreast with the challenges of the present and the future in the spirit of the Bible. The economic security of the only Catholic University in Germany should be recognised as a joint effort from all German dioceses, because the support to the institute cannot be shouldered only by Bavarian dioceses, which nonetheless have special responsibility towards the Univeristy." (AGI) . 101744 NOV 06