ABSTRACT
This investigation began by problematizing critical thinking in confessional Catholic religious education in the Philippines. While ‘careful rigour in the study of culture and the development of a critical sense’ are listed as among the primary goals of Catholic education (CCE, 1988, §101), I argued that given the tensions inherent in the Catholic school’s mission of education and evangelization resulting from its dual nature as an academic and ecclesial institution, the promotion of critical thinking cannot be presumed feasible especially when the de facto goal of the program is partially catechetical, as in the case of confessional religious education in Philippine Catholic schools.
