An exploration of a contemporary youth spirituality among senior students in three Catholic schools

The theory and practice of Catholic schooling, particularly with respect to religious education, have the purpose of promoting the spiritual and moral development of young people. This includes a special emphasis on acquainting them with the religious traditions and spirituality of the Catholic Church. Because Catholic schooling has always endeavoured to meet the religious and personal needs of students, there has been an ongoing interest in monitoring the spirituality of youth to inform the development and planning of a relevant and effective religious education. Hence, there has long been an interest within the Catholic education sector in research on youth spirituality. A significant volume of research has been conducted on the spirituality of contemporary youth within the last decade. This has included a number of major studies in Australia (Crawford and Rossiter, 2006; Flynn and Mok, 2002; Hughes, 2007; Mason et. al. 2005, 2007) and in North America, Smith & Denton (2004). This project reports on an empirical investigation of the views of senior school students in three metropolitan Catholic schools in Australia.