The Year 11 Religion and Life Course presents many opportunities for students to engage with the College’s Vision for Learning. Flexibility and engagement have been present in the newly revised Year 11 General Program.
Last year the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared a new blessed: the Italian Catholic youth and computer programmer Carlo Acutis. The Catholic youth was a unique young man due to is devotion for the sacrament of the Eucharist, particularly Eucharistic miracles.
The students had focused on holy people and saints in previous years but no one as young as Carlo Acutis who died as a fifteen-year-old in 2006. Moreover, he is being called the ‘saint of the internet’ and the ‘saint of the millennium’. I had also noticed from teaching the previous year that students were intrigued by the mystical experiences of the Church: such as the messages of our Lady of Fatima or the Divine Mercy to St Faustina. Through showing students a teenager like Carlo Acutis I could connect with their youth and love of Catholic mysticism.
In keeping with this College’ s Vision to engage students in their learning, the Religion team have created a module surrounding the study of the ritual of the Eucharist by examining Carlo Acutis and his website on Eucharistic miracles.
The website was created by Carlo when he was less than 15 years old to showcase the various Eucharistic miracles around the world. These are moments when a consecrated Eucharist by a priest has been physically revealed to have been turned into human cells miraculously. The lessons have been presented in PowerPoint format keeping with the similar structure of the year 10 lessons in 2021.
Many tasks have been created to generate classroom questioning and discussion. Students explored Carlo’s website, watched a documentary concerning the Eucharistic miracle of Buenos Aires which Pope Francis witnessed when Archbishop and dived into the Catholic Teaching surrounding the Eucharist.
Students really enjoyed the module and look forward to the next two modules on World Religions and the Catholic Church’s response to the English Reformation.
