Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 88 No. 3, 2018.
Review article
The Cooperation between Religious Education Teachers and Parish Priests Faced with the Challenge of Evangelisation in the Contemporary Culture
Valentina Mandarić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The article is divided into three parts. In the introductory part the author compares/ confronts two contexts of activity that are related to the mission of religious education teachers and parish priests. These refer to the school and the parish. Both of these contexts are undergoing changes that are in deep correlation with changes in the society. In the first part the author analyses the cooperation between religious education teachers and parish priests in the context of evangelisation, especially the evangelisation of culture. The author discusses this relation, starting from fundamental factors in the pastoral field: parish priest, catechist (parish catechesis), and religious education teacher (religious education in school). She is especially stressing the importance of the presence of religious education teachers in public schools. The second part analyses activity of parish priests and religious education teachers, starting from changes that are taking place in the contemporary society and culture and that are reflected on religiosity and life of faith. The traditional parish is gradually changing its face and gaining new contours. The cooperation between the school and the parish is analysed through the prism of territory they share and hold in common. Although a school and a parish share the same territory, in the pastoral perspective, one could see the school as a place at the »existential periphery« that Pope Francis talks about. The parish priest (parish) and the religious education teacher (school) are called to meet all those who are a part of such peripheries. In the third part the author concisely sketches the contribution of school religious education in the evangelisation of culture by relying on the magisterium of the last three popes (John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis). At the end of the article she presents a reflection on the cooperation between the parish priest and the religious education teacher from the perspective of a parish priest.
Keywords
parish priest; religious education teacher; parish, school; cooperation; evangelisation (of culture); religious education; existential peripheries.
Hrčak ID:
207873
URI
Publication date:
8.11.2018.
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