Catholic School Religious Education in Chile: Transforming the subject of religion in a context of religious pluralism (1975-2023)

Abstract

Throughout Chile's history, the Catholic Church has had a great influence on governmental and regulatory issues in the country. An example of this occurs in the educational field, where school religious education aims to promote the encounter with Jesus Christ and inculcate Christian values to solve the crisis of meaning experienced by young people. However, the question arises as to whether it is capable of fulfilling this role in the face of the new spiritual demands of students as a result of the socio-cultural transformations of society. In this context, the aim of this article is to analyze the impact of religious pluralism on the change of paradigm of Catholic school religious education (1975-2023). For this purpose, variables such as the historical permanence of the subject of religion in the Chilean educational system; the tensions and expressions of religious pluralism at present; and the influence of this phenomenon on the contents and methodologies developed in religious education were studied. Therefore, we worked with primary and secondary sources related to the subject, in addition to conducting a case study, through semi-structured interviews and focus groups at the Liceo Politécnico Sara Blinder Dargoltz in the commune of Santiago Centro, which belongs to the Red Educacional Santo Tomás de Aquino, whose foundation has been providing Catholic religious education in our country since 1870.