Catholic Social Education: Models and Evolution 1870-1945
Catholic Social Education and Women’s Roles
(2.2) Women: These *Obrtas* arise in a climate of confrontation with the secular, as opposed to the feminist movement’s response to women’s work outside the home and the dire consequences for the preservation of the family model that this situation causes. For social Catholicism, the growing incorporation of women into factories calls for special protective legislation that preserves the priority roles of women as mothers and wives. Therefore, they prefer to work at home, and if the woman wants to return home, they try to preserve her morality at work (separation of sexes) and protect the mother. The work of preservation and protection of women workers in a movement of “Christian feminism” on one side reaffirms the traditional model of women in their roles as mothers and wives, but on the other, recognizes the new social and economic reality, trying to best prepare them for the dual role of mothers and workers. Catholic initiatives also arise for the education and training of women in general, especially the middle classes. The Institute of Popular Culture Library for Women was created in Barcelona in 1909.
(2.3) Workers: In both labor circles and in the unions, evening classes, values, education, savings, and pension can be considered generic tools of popular education, a Catholic initiative, parallel and alternative to the initiative founded by liberals or socialists. In the context of the works of “university extension,” “Catholic Adult Education” and the like also emerged. Moreover, there was a tendency to train labor activists and propagandists to create institutions to prepare the elite Catholic Workers, Social Workers, and the Institute.
Evolution of Catholic Social Education: 1870-1945
(4) The general trajectory of Catholic social education between 1870 and 1945 revolves around three models corresponding to three coexisting phases: the Foundation, the Study Circle, and active pedagogy.
Paternalistic Model: Catholic Workers’ Circle
(4.1) The paternalistic model of Catholic social education par excellence is the Catholic Workers’ Circle, a multipurpose type of association that integrated instructional, educational, religious, moral, welfare, and recreational materials. To meet the instructional purposes, it offered a day school for the children of members and a night school for members. But besides the educational function, it was exercised through other services and activities (conferences, parties, etc.). The offer of Catholic education and popular culture was also made through parochial schools, Sunday schools, and instructional centers for workers or professional schools created from the second half of the nineteenth century. The objective of the Board was the attraction of a mass, drawing them away by offering sports and recreation to provide moral and religious influence. It was particularly aimed at gathering young people from 14 to 16 years old, following on from parish catechesis, and the room used to take up to 20.
Study Circle: Fostering Active Participation
(4.2) In the evolution of the Catholic movement, the need soon arose to organize associations of propagandists and activists, especially at the youth level, to counteract the activity of the secular and socialist enemy movements. The first “Catholic Youth” groups emerged among the urban bourgeoisie and the nobility, alongside the Catholic Associations. Their ideal was “Piety, Study, Action.” It was a novel approach compared to traditional classes and lectures because it involved the active participation of youth in acquiring knowledge and doctrinal criteria. The Study Circle was the method of work and training in various European Catholic Youth groups of the first decades of the twentieth century.
Active Pedagogy: See, Judge, and Act
(4.3) The Circle of studies involved the participation of youth in the debate, but the survey or review of Life (See, Judge, and Act), used by the JOC, represented a significant change in the training process. Now it was based on “facts of life,” the reality experienced by young people directly. By inductive analysis, they were to discover the reality of Christian values (judge) and engage in the transformation of that reality. This method was widespread in the 1930s as an ideal method for training young farmers and students. In Spain, it became widespread as a method in the 1960s.