Abstract
This article presents the results of a survey conducted in 2010 of over 3,300 administrators and teachers in Catholic elementary and secondary schools nationally about their understanding of the meaning of the term “Catholic identity.” The survey was conducted in the fall of 2010 in anticipation of a national conference on the Catholic identity of Catholic elementary and secondary schools at The Catholic University of America, October 2-4, 2011. The vast majority of respondents viewed the school’s culture or faith community as the most important component of its Catholic identity. The longer the teacher or administrator worked in Catholic schools, the higher the rating they gave to the essential nature of the school’s faith community to its Catholic identity. Other aspects of Catholic identity that received high ratings were prayer, the content of the religion course, who taught religion, liturgical celebrations, and participation in service. The respondents viewed the percentage of Catholic students as the least important aspect of Catholic identity.
Highlights
Why was the question arising in the context of this meeting? Was it that the pastor really didn’t know? Was he testing me? Was he trying to clarify the term so that all at the meeting would be on the same page and could discuss the topic with some understanding? While I never pursued his reasons for asking, I had assumed for years that the concept of Catholic identity was so ingrained in those involved with Catholic schools that I could freely use the term and it would be clear what I meant
The respondents were informed that the survey was intended to find out what they and other Catholic school educators understand by the term “Catholic identity” and not how they assessed the extent of Catholic identity in their schools, but rather what meaning they associated with the term
The teachers and administrators gave high priority to the content of the religion course, who taught religion and other aspects of the school’s environment, prayer at the beginning of the day, periodic liturgical celebrations, and students participating in Christian service
Summary
This article presents the results of a survey conducted in 2010 of over 3,300 administrators and teachers in Catholic elementary and secondary schools nationally about their understanding of the meaning of the term “Catholic identity.”. When I was growing up in Philadelphia in the 1940s and 1950s, the Catholic identity of the parish elementary school and Catholic high school that I attended was not really given a second thought. They were schools with a strong Catholic identity. I was asked, “What do you mean by Catholic identity?” I was taken aback a bit, not by the question itself, but rather by the questioner, a prominent pastor of a parish with a Catholic school. Its proper function is to create for the school community a special atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity, to help youth grow according to the new creatures they were made through baptism as they develop their own personalities, and to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith. (#8)
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