Context, challenge and professional wisdom - stories of contemporary school chaplaincy

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of the chaplain in Catholic schools in England and some of the contemporary challenges. There is a focus on two issues in particular: the celebration of liturgy and the participation of non-Catholic children and the inclusion of LGBTQ+ children in the Catholic school. This article draws out some of the tensions between the pastoral sensitivities around participation in liturgy and the directives of the Prayer and Liturgy Directory and the complexity of the legal and pastoral inclusion of LGBTQ+ children.

KEYWORDS:

• Chaplaincy
• Catholic schools
• liturgy
• LGBTQ+

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Catholic Education Service, Digest of 2016 Census Data for Schools, 18.

² Congregation for Catholic Education, Consecrated Persons and their Mission in Schools, 51; and The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue, 27–28.

³ Catholic Education Service, Digest of 2022 Census Data for Schools, 15.

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Ibid., 35.

⁶ Catholic Education Service, Digest of 2016 Census Data for Schools, 40.

⁷ M. Glackin, Presence in Pilgrimage, 282.

⁸ Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales Pastoral Letter on Catholic Schools, September 2007.

⁹ Congregation for Catholic Education, Consecrated Persons and their Mission in Schools, introduction.

¹⁰ D. N., O.M.I. Power, Gifts that Differ Lay Ministries Established, 102.

¹¹ Catholic Education Service, To Love you more Dearly., 3.

¹² Ibid., 6.

¹³ Ibid., 16.

¹⁴ Ibid., 21.

¹⁵ Ibid., 20.

¹⁶ Ibid., 22.

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ Ibid., 24.

¹⁹ Ibid., 23.

²⁰ J. Martos, The Catholic Sacraments, 209.

²¹ Second Vatican Council, Declaration on Christian Education, 3.

²² L. Moss and J. Parry, ‘Teachers walk tightropes in face of no trans guidance’, BBC News, May 19, 2023, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65473198 (accessed January 22, 2024).

²³ FE News, December 19, 2023, ‘Sector Reaction to Transgender Guidance for Schools and Colleges’.

²⁴ Department for Education, The Equality Act 2010 and Schools, 3.3.

²⁵ Ibid., 3.6.

²⁶ Cardinal Mueller, cited in D. Boos, ‘Cardinal Müller Condemns LGBT Ideology as Creating a “Persecuting Minority’, European Conservative, March 30, 2022,

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/cardinal-muller-condemns-lgbt-ideology-as-creating-a-persecuting-minority/ (accessed January 22, 2024).

²⁷ See M. Davison, ‘Fr. James Martin on LGBT Ministry: Love the “Most Important” Church Teaching’, NCR Online, June 16, 2021, https://www.ncronline.org/culture/fr-james-martin-lgbt-ministry-love-most-important-church-teaching (accessed January 21, 2024).

²⁸ Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, A Statement on Gender from the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, 2018, https://www.cbcew.org.uk/a-statement-on-gender-from-the-catholic-bishops-of-england-and-wales/ (accessed January 22, 2024).

²⁹ See C. Wooden, ‘Pope Francis says he has accompanied gay and transgender people through pastoral care’, America Magazine, October 2, 2016, https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/francis-has-accompanied-gay-transgender-people-even-pope (accessed January 22, 2024).

³⁰ United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Instrumentum Laboris For the First Session October 2023, n.28.

³¹ Ibid.

³² D. N., O.M.I. Power, Gifts that Differ Lay Ministries Established, 50.

³³ P.S.S. Chirico, ‘Pastoral Ministry of the Church in the Light of the Critical Priest Shortage’, in The Clergy Review, ed. Richards, Michael, vol. LXIX, 3 (1984), 83.

³⁴ Yves O. P. Congar, Lay People in the Church a Study for a Theology of Laity, 324.

³⁵ See Benedict XVI, Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to Catholic Educators.

³⁶ United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Instrumentum Laboris For the First Session.

³⁷ Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating to Intercultural Dialogue in Catholic Schools, conclusion.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maureen Glackin

Maureen Glackin is the General Secretary of the Catholic Independent Schools’ Conference in the United Kingdom. She has most recently published chapters in Vatican II and New Thinking about Catholic Education: The impact and legacy of Gravissimum Educationis (Routledge, 2017); Researching Catholic Education: Contemporary Perspectives (Springer, 2018) and Catholicism, Culture, Education (L’Harmattan, 2018). Her own research interests focus on teacher identity and the disposition of the teacher, teacher well-being, the distinctive nature of the Catholic teacher, Religious Education, Catholic school leadership formation and recruitment and retention to the profession. She will continue to develop and explore these and other related research areas within CISC schools and across the sector more broadly. In 2020, Maureen, in collaboration with Reed Brand communications, published her report Learning to Live and Love Like Jesus, Catholic Independent Schools and the Common Good.