The Catholic Secondary School Climate: Forming a Culture of Nonviolence and Healthy Relatedness

Abstract

In The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, the Congregation for Catholic Education (1998) suggests that the foremost challenge to third millennium education is a “crisis of values” that assumes the form of moral relativism, subjectivism, and nihilism. Teen violence, disengagement with others, power games, date rape, and other forms of unhealthy sexual relationships are manifestations of this crisis. One of the characteristics of the Catholic school that enables it to respond is the climate of the educating community. The Congregation states, “The educating community, taken as a whole, is”¦called to further the objective of a school as a place of complete formation through interpersonal relations” (p. 12). Fostering healthy relationships is key to the formation of young persons in our Catholic secondary schools. This article examines three questions confronting our secondary schools: How does interpersonal violence threaten both interpersonal relations and the climate of the educating community? What approaches can be used in secondary schools to contribute to a culture of nonviolence? How are healthy interpersonal relations fostered among teens in a Catholic school? We analyze these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective which draws upon research and practice fro the fields of public health, education, and psychology and the theological tradition of Catholic education, particularly moral theology.