Should Catholic students be marked on religion?

Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board students may soon see another mark on their report cards.

The board is investigating what it would take to give its students a mark for religion.

Trustee Kathleen Rosilius raised the issue at a meeting tonight, saying other boards are doing it and Huron-Superior should look into it too.

"We have a religion class every day in our system, so the kids are learning their religion, doing tasks and they're studying and doing homework, but there's no mark," Rosilius said after the meeting.

She said that report cards issued before the boards in this district amalgamated 10 years ago included a mark for religion and many would like to see it return.

The Catholic religion is at least as important as math, science and English, Rosilius said, but not giving a mark for it gives the impression that religion isn't as important as academics.

And it isn't about marking students on how they live their lives, she said.

"We teach them certain skills, knowledge of and history of the Catholic faith that they should learn," Rosilius said.

Marking students on their knowledge of the Catholic faith could also increase accountability and make sure it is being taught faithfully in Catholic schools.

It could also help protect Catholicism in Catholic schools, Rosilius said.

At tonight's meeting, Rosilius also talked about the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a sort of modern manual for Catholic living.

Rosilius said she found a place where they could get copies of it for less than $20 each, and that 23 of 25 schools she contacted don't have a copy of it in their libraries.

She offered to put together a proposal with pricing to see what it would take to get copies of the book to every Catholic school library in the district.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or CCC, was first published in 1992 by the authority of Pope John Paul II and was written first in French.

It has since been translated into many other languages, including English and Latin.

The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was published in 2005, and both books can be viewed or searched at the Vatican website in any of eight languages.