BANGKOK (UCAN) — A sense that religiosity is declining at Catholic schools and religious teaching is not being translated into lived values was a fundamental concern Catholic educators shared at a recent FABC meeting.

“The sacredness is lost in Catholic schools,” Father Roderick Salazar said in presenting the situation in the Philippines during the consultation on Eucharist and Education in Asia, held May 25-30 outside Bangkok.

The president of San Carlos University, which his Divine Word society runs in Cebu City, the Philippines, maintains that appreciating the sacredness of the Eucharist requires understanding and preparation, but he finds these lacking. “I can be holy in church but, as a student, cheating in exams,” he said by way of explanation.

Even being in a so-called Catholic country like the Philippines does not mean things go “the Catholic way,” the priest said on May 26 in front of more than 30 bishops, laypeople, priests and Religious involved in Catholic education. He cited some Catholic universities in the southern Philippines where Muslims form the majority of students. Some time ago his counterparts there removed crucifixes from classroom walls to avoid offending the clientele, he reported.

“I do not know how I would have reacted in the same situation,” Father Salazar later admitted to UCA News on the sidelines of the consultation. The Office of Education and Faith Formation (OEFF) of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) arranged the meeting at the Suvarnabhumi campus of Assumption University.

At San Carlos, he explained, all students must take certain compulsory subjects, “religious education” among them. The students, whether or not they are Christians, “have to know us, have to accept us, though not necessarily what we believe,” he insisted.

The Eucharist is celebrated regularly, “with the high liturgy that one can expect during high feasts,” but this is not enough, Father Salazar acknowledged. The most important question, he said, concerns what happens when Mass ends: “How does this exercise affect the daily work?”

Salesian Father Kuriala Chittattukulam had much the same question in mind when he told participants it would be difficult to say that celebrating Mass at Indian Catholic schools influences students’ actions in daily life.

“It should deepen their relationship with others, but it does not,” the executive secretary of the Indian bishops’ Commission for Education and Culture said when he presented the situation in his country.

The communitarian aspect of the Eucharist has not been taught in the schools, he stressed, so students “are not aware that the teachings of Jesus involve the social issues of the people.”

Additionally, the school community is seldom involved in the environmental issues or interfaith dialogue, the priest continued. He suggested that the schools do not have chapels because the academic community has no deep understanding of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.

On the other hand, he reported much is being done to inculturate the Mass. He pointed to entrance dances, washing of the celebrants’ hands and arti, a common rite derived from Hinduism of offering light from lamps, which is offered to the chief celebrant before the Mass and later to the Eucharist. Father Chittattukulam expects this will make Mass more meaningful to young Catholics over time.7

In Taiwan, the local Church sees its Catholic schools and especially its higher college and two universities as places where young people grow in appreciation of the Eucharist, Father Lucas Wang Wen-lin said in another of the situation reports given May 26 and 27. The chaplain of Fu Jen Catholic University, outside Taipei, explained that attending Mass with their peers enables young people to find special relevance in the Eucharist.

Dominican Father Vicente Cajilig from the Philippines told UCA News on May 28 that Catholic schools must strive to be places where the mind is informed, the heart is formed and the whole person undergoes integral development. “In countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and others the Catholic institutions are prime choices. This is the honor that we enjoy for reasons the population knows very well,” the OEFF executive secretary said.

In other parts of Asia including Malaysia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, the local Church has little or no freedom to run schools.