Education for Catholic Eco-pedagogy with Special Focus on Religious Education of Secondary School Students in the Republic of Croatia Education System

Abstract

With the constant development of modern society man has
been increasingly concerned about the progress and improvement of
various technical, technological and other disciplines without taking
into account the exhaustion of natural resources, destroying nature
and polluting environment. Through her eco-pedagogy the Catholic
Church has been trying for decades, in various ways, to develop ecological
awareness of all her faithful, especially the secondary school
students, to become aware through religious education of the dangers
that might befall us because of irresponsible behaviour toward
nature, which is the basic and only habitat of human race. In the
paper the author presents the possibilities of ecological awareness
of secondary school students through theological and pedagogical
aspect of religious education teaching. Referring to the Religious
Education Syllabus for the four-year secondary schools, the author,
studying the content of religious education, considers the opportunities
and impacts of religious education teaching in developing the
sensitivity of secondary school students to ecological topics and their
responsible attitude towards nature conservation, its resources and
environmental cleanliness.