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Catholic professors discuss challenges plurality online

In an online international seminar, featuring the dean of education at Glasgow University, professors are debating the challenges faced by Catholic universities in a culturally and religiously pluralistic world.

The event is the fifth forum of the International Catholic Association of Institutions of Educational Sciences (ACISE), which will end March 3. The seminar is entitled "Intercultural Dialogue in Education: Practical Experiences and Theoretical Points of View."

Bart McGettrick, a participant and former chairman of ACISE, said that the online international congress is important because it "is useful for professors in Catholic universities to be in communication." He said that there are "both common issues and values across the Catholic communities, as well as very different ways in which these are reflected in practice."

The former principal of St. Andrew's College of Scotland, and dean of education at Glasgow University, added: "The social, cultural, political and economic environments of each country offer opportunities to show how Christian values have a relevance to modern society and thought.

"It is a duty of educators to be open to these ideas and to share experiences both for ourselves and for others." According to McGettrick: "The Church does have a duty to have an 'intellectual voice.' This should be heard by the wider public as part of contemporary thinking.

"If the Church does not do this the ideas and values of the marketplace become dominant and loud. "We need to live in times when we can grow from out roots and reach to a world that currently lacks strong leadership."

He continued: "All around there is confusion, weakness and lack of ethical courage. "University professors have a duty to provide some of that leadership and this seminar should provide some confidence in doing so."

Full story at Zenit News Agency.