Religious education lessons may well be the most visible presence of the Catholic Church in Maltese state schools, but dozens of religious counsellors – and many volunteers and pastoral workers – also play an active role, helping in the spiritual and personal development of students, educators and staff alike.

And their efforts are coordinated by a team of three: Fr Reuben Gauci and pastoral workers Silvana Cardona and Anne Marie Gatt, who form the Spiritual Development in Schools (SDS) team within the Archdiocese of Malta’s Vicariate of Evangelisation.

That the two aspects – religious education and spiritual developments – are considered two facets of the same coin is perhaps evident in the fact that both are governed by a 1989 agreement between Malta and the Holy See on Catholic religious education in schools.

No less than 67 religious counsellors provided their services to Malta’s 57 primary state schools in the previous scholastic year, part of their pastoral duties as parish priests or vice-parish priests. A further 21 religious counsellors were designated to serve 35 middle and secondary state schools.

But the SDS team, led by Fr Gauci as the Archdiocese’s coordinator for religious counsellors and spiritual development in schools, also coordinates and assists such efforts in any independent schools that seek or accept them. As one might expect, Church schools utilise their own resources to foster the pastoral care and spiritual development of their students and staff, assisted by the Secretariat of Catholic Education.

Reflecting on the big questions

With the SDS team having just finalised its report on its efforts in the 2022/23 scholastic year, Fr Gauci explained its mission and efforts on RTK103 current affairs programme What’s On Newsbook.

He observed that over the past years, the team has recognised the increasing importance of taking care of the spiritual development of students and schools in the widest sense. The events of recent years, including the Covid-19 pandemic, have perhaps made this need more evident.

“There is a lot of demand (for these initiatives)… in these times we have become a lot more aware of the need to care for our wellbeing, not just our own but each other’s,” Fr Gauci observed.

In this context, an initiative pursued by SDS in 2014 – the creation of prayer spaces in schools – has taken greater significance. The SDS team regularly animates prayer spaces in different schools during the scholastic year, and schools, youth groups and catechesis classes have also organised their own, with the team ready to offer its assistance if sought. It is also training educators interested in leading prayer spaces, including through a collaborative project with the Pastoral Formation Institute, thus empowering them to independently initiate and guide such events in their schools.

Fr Gauci stressed that prayer spaces are simple affairs, but this simplicity does not rob them of their significance: rather the opposite, since they prioritise the personal experience of participants in a creative and interactive setting.

“These activities may appear simple, but when you participate in them, you see a lot of people realise that they have not found the time to reflect on big questions, or to be grateful for what they have, in a very long time,” he observed.

“This aspect – the time to stop, reflect and play – is something we pursue not just for students, but also for educators and staff.”

Personal and spiritual growth

Fr Gauci stressed that the SDS team put great importance on helping educators, not least given the important role they play in the formation of the children in their care.

Students, he observed, can only benefit if their teachers and educators can grow spiritually, appreciate themselves and the world around them, make sense of their experience, and reflect on the direction they may be heading.

Though this process, he suggests, is one that is of benefit to everyone.

“Developing this awareness is an important step that we all need to feel better, even psychologically,” Fr Gauci noted.

“The more we know where we are going, the more we can address our anxiety; the more we appreciate all that is good around us, the more hope we can have, and the more we believe that good things can happen, the more things can change for the better.”

You can listen to the interview on Spotify here.

Sors: Newsbook Malta