A new religious education programme, showing the compatibility of faith and reason, has been launched.

Bishop Brendan Leahy, Chair of the Bishops’ Council for Catechetics, unveiled “Credible Catholic”, as part of Catholic Schools Week 2022.

The programme aims to “stimulate dialogue, encourage reflection and critical reasoning, foster religious literacy, build community, and nurture faith, and in doing all of these things, to promote student wellbeing”. It is an optional resource for teachers of religious education.

Commenting ahead of the launch Bishop Brendan Leahy said, “Pope Francis often reminds us that education involves learning three languages – the language of the mind, of the heart and of our hands. Credible Catholic is a wonderful programme that quenches the thirst of the mind, expands the outreach of the heart and points in the direction of doing many good actions. I think teachers and students alike will value this programme that responds to Jesus’ call to love not just with our heart but also with our mind.”

An earlier version of Credible Catholic was written and produced by Fr Robert Spitzer SJ and the Magis Centre, based in California, in 2018 and has been almost entirely re-developed for the Irish context, in line with feedback from RE teachers and theological advisors in Ireland.

The programme is free and the multi-media materials can be downloaded from a dedicated website.