Is There Something Missing - in Our Catholic Education and Faith Formation?

The question posed in the title is not being asked only, or even primarily, of our Catholic schools, because Catholic formation comes out of a partnership between Catholic homes, Catholic schools and Catholic parishes. In that partnership, the schools are extensions of the homes, and focal points of the parishes. The responsibility belongs to all. In New Zealand schools Religious Education (RE) is now in every sense a school subject. Its link with New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) reinforces this status. In addition to the RE programme, Catholic schools provide a Catholic environment and Catholic 'character'. In the early stages of a person's formation, this helps to strengthen their sense of Catholic identity - for the sake of taking that identity out into a pluralist and often indifferent society. A strong sense of Catholic identity at home does the same for Catholic students at State schools. The RE programme is one component of a Catholic environment but this programme is missing something, in spite of its excellent teaching method and presentation. That 'something else' has to do with the difference between learning about Jesus and meeting him.