The Catholic School -Awakening a sense of the sacred in the lives of Essay

The Catholic School -Awakening a sense of the sacred in the lives of young people today - Essay Example Thus the spiritual formation must be attributed though continual sustenance of the distinctive characteristics of the catholic school under the Irish education system. Thus, the identity of the next generation of Catholics is under continuous surmise and survey. They may either have a strong sense of their Catholic identity, or will they may grow on to reflect a more generic Christian identity, without the distinctiveness associated with Catholicism. And this is where an appropriate catholic school is of great importance that can awaken in them a pure catholic system of values. A number of social commentators such as Dean R. Hoge and James J. Davidson suggest that the Catholic identity of young Catholics is quite troubled2, since faced by a secular and postmodern culture they are disillusioned by such confusing variety. Hoge3 calls it a â€Å"culture of choice† where religious affiliations or church memberships are strictly voluntary and to be chosen on the basis of personal p reference, people are drifting away from understanding the intrinsic values of spiritual life. Furthermore, many younger Catholics are quite unfamiliar with their religious tradition. And with no idea of their own scriptures, they know little of the history or doctrine of their church, and few would be able to tell the stories of the saints. In his book, Catholicism, Richard McBrien identifies two characteristic foci of the Catholic tradition—one philosophical, the other theological.4 Both the pursuit of Catholicism is in reality pluralistic in its approach to truth. Catholic identity traditionally has included for Catholics a sense for the historical uniqueness of their Church; they understand it as a worldwide, visible community, now almost two thousand years old, with roots stretching back to the church of the apostles. Youths of this generation are not given much encouragement to learn