Roles and Responsibilities

a) The Bishop

In each Diocese the Bishop is responsible for the content of Religious Education. As the principal catechist in communion with the Pope and his brother bishops, each local bishop is mandated to ensure that the core elements of the Christian faith are made accessible to young people in a planned and coherent way.

These core elements of faith relate to the ways in which God the Father reveals to us His love and invites us to respond. The principal sources of God’s self-revelation are contained in Sacred Scripture, Church teachings, Sacred Liturgy and in the witness of those who both today and throughout the history of the Church have lived out Christian values in their everyday experience.

It is the Bishop’s responsibility to ensure that Religious Education programmes (at all levels - both parish and school) make adequate and appropriate reference to Sacred Scripture, Church teachings, Sacred Liturgy and lived witness to Christian faith. In determining what is adequate and appropriate, consideration is given to the social and cultural environment in which students are growing up and to their age and emotional and psychological development. This is particularly important in Catholic Religious Education which is not simply a matter of passing on facts about Catholic faith, but about communicating to students in a relevant and stimulating way Jesus’ message of “Good News” and inviting them to respond in faith.