The Impact of Vatican II on Catholic Religious Secondary Education in the Province of Ontario

Abstract

This thesis examines the impact of Vatican II on secondary religious education in Ontario. In order to understand this impact, pre-Vatican II secondary religious education is analysed beginning with the role of the papacy and the eventual imposition of Neo-Thomism on Catholic schools. The conditions of reception for the reforms of Vatican II, in particular for the Declaration on Christian Education, are also examined. During the long sixties secondary religious education experienced a fundamental shift as both the pre-Vatican II approach to education and the dominant theology of Neo-Thomism were abandoned. Influenced by both the Vatican II reforms and the conditions of reception, secondary religious education shifted from an objective, content-driven approach to a subjective approach that focused on the inner transformation of the individual and the establishment of a Christian community within the school. By the late 1970s, an effort was made to establish a balance between these two approaches as Catholic schools struggled to deal with the pervasive influence of secularism and the collapse of the Catholic classicist culture. This thesis proposes a new curricular framework aimed at achieving this balance.