Weathering the storm. catholic schools facing the Church’s crisis in the last decade in Chile

Abstract

ABSTRACT Religious schools are facing cultural and social challenges at a time when secularisation processes are accelerating in Chile. This obstacle is particularly true for Catholic Schools (made up more than 90% of religious schools in the country) that, in the last decade, have had to function over an internal crisis due to sexual abuse by the clergy. Catholic education, specifically schooling, has had a long-standing importance in the country, which adds another layer of symbolic difficulties. In this article, we present the results of a study that aimed to describe the changes experienced by the Catholic school subsystem concerning the institutional affiliation of schools to the Church, their eligibility, and school enrolment in Chile from 2013-2022. Using a quantitative research design, we found no clear relationships between changes in key variables in Catholic Church-more linked schools and the crisis of this Church, except for the drop in eligibility in one of the five analysed Chile´s administrative regions. We discussed possible explanations for what we defined as an inelastic demand for Catholic schools in the country. We also propose ways to continue the research on the matter.