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PARAPPULLY Jose, New Delhi says,

``CATHOLIC`` IDENTITY OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL. Holding Up to the Light - 6
By Jose Parappully

360° VIEW

New Delhi, Aug. 8. This evening I read an interesting article in The Tablet [8 August, 2009, Electronic version], the Catholic Weekly from England. This lead article was written by Nicolas Kennedy and entitled ``For whom the Bell Tolls``.

The article was describing the developing situation in Catholic schools in England and its challenge for the Catholic identity of these schools. In many towns in England, the white majority is rapidly dwindling and is replaced by the immigrants, especially from South Asia, most of whom adhere to faiths other than Catholic. The article cited as example one school in Blackburn where more than 90 percent of students are Muslims. This area had been populated by the Irish Catholics, whose numbers have rapidly come down. Catholic parents who remained and have children in the school feel that the school with such a large number of Muslims is no longer ``Catholic`` and are pulling out their children.

This made me reflect on our situation here in India. In most of our ``Catholic`` schools the vast majority of students, and often also teachers, are not Catholic. So, what makes these schools Catholic? We Salesians run so many schools. In our own understanding what are the characteristics that make these schools ``Catholic``? Are our schools Catholic because the management is Catholic? Are our schools Catholic because we teach Bible or Moral values to the students?

Interestingly, the author of the article, himself chairman of the governors for nine years of the primary school in Blackburn mentioned in the article, concludes the article making ``a plea to the decision makers in Catholic education to allow some schools to adopt the missionary school approach to education, focusing on influencing the community rather than educating Catholics. This would mean that Catholics could avoid being required, or perceived, to regard educating non-Catholics as an inferior task.``

In his understanding, ``the missionary school approach to education`` which would characterise our Catholic schools in India, is influencing the community rather than educating Catholics. The question and the challenge is: How are our schools influencing the community?

I`d be glad if this ``Speak Up`` initiates some debate/discussion on the issue.

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PARAPPULLY Jose(New Delhi) sumedhacentre@gmail.com

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