An analysis of the changes in the teaching of religion in Victorian Catholic primary schools, 1960-1974

© 1981 Anthony Carroll SmithSweeping changes occurred in both the content and methodology in the area of religious education in Victorian Catholic Primary schools between 1960 and 1974. To a large extent Victoria had lagged well behind developments in Europe but with the production of the kerygma-based texts of the early sixties, change was swift and the latter half of the sixties and early seventies saw development beyond the salvation history emphasis of the kerygmatic materials towards an approach largely based on a study of the contemporary environment and life-situations as a source of divine revelation. Overseas developments played a crucial role in determining this development: the writings of theologians and educationalists like Jungmann, Hofinger, Van Caster and Moran were important, but the major sources of influence were the fundamental changes of emphases brought by the second Vatican Council, and the visits to Victoria of experts in catechetics, at strategic times providing impetus and direction to events. Whilst overseas influences are important, they need to be viewed in conjunction with local developments, at times initiating change but at other times merely reinforcing or providing a theological justification for what had already occurred as a result of pragmatics or intuition. In Victoria, the development of the Y.C.W. spirituality and methodology, the quest across the whole curriculum for more interesting methods and more appropriate and relevant material, the increase in the number of catholic children needing religious education at the same time as the numbers in religious orders were declining, the willingness of religious nuns to read, study and up-date their understanding of theology and catechetical theory, and the ability of Monsignor J.F. Kelly to see the needs of Australian, and Victorian, Catholic children and educators, at the same time as he was able to absorb and integrate the important developments in Europe, have all contributed to the kind of thinking that lay behind the production of new texts and resources in the period under study. In the latter part of this period, strong and bitter criticism from supporters of the traditional model helped to temper and modify the nature and the speed of change