Students will be introduced to the life and work of St. John Baptist de la Salle, the founder of the Brothers of Christian Schools. Students will explore Lasallian spirituality, the role of Providence, the core principles of a Lasallian school and the global Lasallian community. This will serve as the foundation of their Cathedral experience. Students will also begin to study and explore the Sacred Scriptures and how they apply to our lives today. Students will examine scripture as divine revelation, understand the formation of the Bible, explore how the Catholic Church integrates and interprets the Bible into its teachings, and understand how the Jewish Scriptures lead to the revelation of Jesus of Nazareth in the Christian Scriptures. Students will be introduced to the teachings and accounts of Jesus Christ in the New Testament along with the accounts and letters written by his followers in the early Church. In this portion students will explore the teachings of Christ, compare the New Testament teachings with those in the Old Testament, analyze the context of the New Testament and observe how it is influenced by the Old Testament.
The first semester of this course will present Jesus as the source of our salvation in the Paschal Mysteries of Incarnation and Redemption and the teachings and actions of Jesus in the Gospels. The course will include the Luminous Mysteries of the public life of Christ and cover the fundamental Doctrines and Dogmas about Christ and His Holy Catholic Church. The second semester will cover Catholic Church history. The course will cover a historical survey of the Church from its primitive beginnings with St. Peter the first Pope in Jerusalem to the current Pontificate of Pope Francis. The course will trace the providence of God in the major events, ideas, and Saints that went into the shaping of Christ’s Church. The course will also counter major revisionist concepts of the Catholic Church erroneously promulgated recently in anti- Catholic literature.
Junior religion is focused on studying the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the study of Church Morality with a focus on the Beatitudes and the Ten Commandments.
The first semester will focus on the study of world religions from a Catholic point of view. The course is designed for the students to understand the religions of the world to create a deeper world view and to cultivate a respectful solidarity with other people of faith. The second semester will go into a wide range of internal and external social justice issues that face Catholics today. This course will teach what is moral for man and society according to the teachings of Jesus Christ within his Holy Catholic Church.