Catechesis and Religious Education: One Brother’s Journey

Gerard Rummery, FSC, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

The author describes how his personal story, several cultural and political movements in societies world-wide, and events within the Roman Catholic Church, converged during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to anchor his scholarly interest in relationships between catechesis and religious education. The essay bears witness to the enduring importance of inquiry and pedagogical improvement as staff and students engage in applying these constructs within contemporary Lasallian educational settings.

A widely-known and regarded scholar of Lasallian spirituality and pedagogy, the author’s story is presented similarly to that of John Baptist de La Salle, who founded the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (also known as De La Salle Christian Brothers) in seventeenth-century-France to provide a human and Christian education to the children of artisans and the poor. The heritage of the Institute is rooted in what is referred to as “the Founding story”, a complex nexus of factors in the personal life of the Founder, cultural movements, and realities of the Church of the time. These led the Founder and the first Brothers to conceive of the “brother-teacher”, an educator who was of necessity responsible for catechesis in their schools. Not unlike the twenty-first century, many beginning teachers and students typically had little experience with religious education or catechesis

KEYWORDS

De La Salle; Lasallian Spirituality; Lasallian Pedagogy;

FULL TEXT

Catechesis and Religious Education: One Brother’s Journey