Prince of Peace Parish

London, England, Oct 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A leading English Catholic religious education teacher has criticized the removal of a bursary for those training to become religious education teachers, warning that the cuts will affect both the mission and leadership of Catholic schools. 

Currently a person training to become a religious education teacher receives a bursary of 10,000 pounds (just over $13,000), but the U.K. government announced on Oct. 7 that the figure would be reduced to zero for the year 2026-2027.

Religious education teacher and author Andy Lewis, assistant principal at St. Bonaventure Catholic Secondary School in London, told CNA he believes the move will have a “huge” impact on the ability of Catholic schools to recruit specialist religious education (RE) teachers.

“There is huge concern about the impact of this decision,” Lewis said. “It now requires an even greater commitment to decide to train as an RE teacher — and for some, that will be a step too far financially. For Catholic RE, it further compounds the current issue that schools have: a lack of specialists in Catholic RE.”

In the Catholic schools of England and Wales, religious education is prioritized by the Catholic Education Service (CES) as “the core of the core curriculum,” and at least 10% of the curriculum is dedicated to the subject. The CES represents the national education policy of the bishops of England and Wales for the 2,169 Catholic schools, colleges, academies, and universities in England and Wales.

However, despite the high standards of teaching religious education, there are still some Catholic schools whose RE departments are not fully staffed and where the subject is taught by non-RE specialists.

Lewis, who has authored religious education textbooks and helped develop a new religious education qualification with support from the CES, told CNA that “a lack of bursary when recruitment challenges remain significant is detrimental to the RE community as a whole.”

“We are struggling to attract people into the teaching profession in general, and while there are real shortages in science and maths teachers, such disparity is a source of great frustration,” he said.

The cuts are also expected to affect both the mission and the leadership of Catholic schools. 

CES has proposed a vision for students in Catholic educational environments “to flourish,” stating in November 2024: “It is an understanding that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, gifted with an inherent dignity, and graced with a transcendent purpose to realize God’s love on earth. In the daily life of a school, this dignity and purpose is manifest in a pedagogical approach which seeks to engender a holistic formation of the person so we may realize life in all its fullness in mind, body, and spirit.”

Lewis believes the bursary cuts will affect this mission. “This makes the job of delivering the Religious Education Directory (RED) and meeting standards of the Catholic School Inspectorate (CSI) even tougher — while just attempting to fulfill our mission as Catholic schools and ensuring every student gets an authentic and high quality standard of RE.”

Meanwhile, Paul Barber, director of the Catholic Education Service, who blasted the government for its “failure to meet religious education teacher recruitment targets for most of the past decade” in an Oct. 10 statement, said he believes the cuts will harm leadership vacancies in Catholic schools. 

“Many Catholic school headteachers will have also begun their careers as RE teachers. Any national shortage of teachers, which would of course include in RE, therefore has a corresponding impact on the number of applicants for Catholic school leadership vacancies,” Barber said, adding: “This is a disheartening decision when there is a clear need for more RE teachers.”

Looking forward, Lewis called upon the entire “Catholic community” to work together to explore ways of finding more RE teachers. “It does feel there needs real action in this area,” he said. “But it is clear there just isn’t the funding. It is a question for the Catholic community: How do we seek those who are able to teach Catholic RE and encourage them to come and work in our schools?”

The CES is currently working to increase the number of religious education specialists by introducing a new postgraduate certificate in religious education — a collaboration between the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, London.

The Holy See Press Office holds a briefing to present the Fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements, scheduled to take place in Rome from 21 to 24 October, followed by a Jubilee Pilgrimage. Participants will be received in audience by Pope Leo XIV, and participate in a Jubilee Mass at the conclusion of their meeting.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 15, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Ávila in Spain reported on Aug. 28, 2024, that the body of St. Teresa of Ávila, a doctor of the Church, was still incorrupt after her death on Oct. 4, 1582 — almost five centuries ago.

“Today the tomb of St. Teresa was opened and we have verified that it is in the same condition as when it was last opened in 1914,” said the postulator general of the Discalced Carmelite order, Father Marco Chiesa of the Carmelite Monastery of Alba de Tormes, where the remains of the revered Spanish saint rest.

Father Miguel Ángel González, the Carmelite prior of Alba de Tormes and Salamanca of the Diocese of Ávila, explained how the procedure was carried out: “The community of Discalced Carmelite mothers together with the postulator general of the order, the members of the ecclesiastical tribunal, and a small group of religious moved the reliquaries with stringency and solemnity to the place set up for study. We did it singing the Te Deum with our hearts full of emotion.”

The diocese explained that the event took place as part of the canonical recognition of the remains of St. Teresa of Ávila, requested from the Vatican on July 1, 2024, by the bishop of Salamanca, Luis Retana, with authorization granted by Pope Francis through the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

The process of studying the body, the heart, an arm, and a hand, the latter of which is preserved in the Spanish town of Ronda and has been taken to Alba de Tormes for research, took place Aug. 28–31, 2024.

The diocese said that, in order to get to the body of St. Teresa, the marble slab of the sepulcher was first removed. Then — in the room set up for the studies and now only in the presence of the scientific medical team and the members of the ecclesiastical court — the silver coffin was opened.

The tribunal is made up of the Carmelite provincial of the Iberian Province of St. Teresa of Jesús in Spain, Father Francisco Sánchez Oreja; González; and the superior of the Daughters of Charity of Alba de Tormes, Sister Remigia Blázquez Martín.

The silver coffin was opened with the help of the goldsmiths Ignacio Manzano Martín and Constantino Martín Jaén, who will also be present on the last day of the work.

The Diocese of Ávila also revealed that 10 keys were used to open the tomb: “The three that are kept in Alba de Tormes, the three that the Duke of Alba lent them, and the three that the father general [a Discalced Carmelite] keeps in Rome, in addition to the king’s key. Three of these keys are to open the outer grille, three are to open the marble tomb, and the other four are to open the silver coffin.”

Chiesa pointed out that the images preserved from the 1914 examination are in black and white, so “it is difficult to make a comparison,” although “the parts uncovered, which are the face and the foot, are the same as they were in 1914.”

“There is no color, there is no skin color, because the skin is mummified, but you can see it, especially the middle of the face,” he noted. “The expert doctors can see Teresa’s face almost clearly.”

3 stages of the process 

The first stage was the opening and recognition which took place up until Aug. 31, 2024. In this phase, a team led by Dr. José Antonio Ruiz de Alegría from Madrid took photos and X-rays as well as properly cleaned the reliquaries.

The second stage took place in laboratories in Italy for a few months and resulted in various scientific conclusions. Finally, as a third stage, some interventions were proposed to better preserve the remains.

Before the final closure, a time was set aside so the relics of St. Teresa could be venerated.

The 1914 opening

The previous opening of the tomb of St. Teresa of Jesús took place from Aug. 16–23, 1914. At that time the Diocese of Ávila stated that the body remained “completely incorrupt,” as occurred at the opening in 1750.

According to Carmelite Father Daniel de Pablo Maroto, the tomb was opened in 1914 because the superior general of the Discalced Carmelites, Father Clemente de los Santos, wanted to take advantage of his visit to Spain to see the bodies of the founding saints: St. John of the Cross in Segovia and St. Teresa in Alba de Tormes.

The study conducted in 2024 with the remains of St. Teresa of Ávila was similar to that carried out in 1991 with those of St. John of the Cross in Segovia on the occasion of the fourth centenary of his death.

Who was St. Teresa of Ávila?

The website of the general curia of the Discalced Carmelites explains that they recognize as their mother and founder St. Teresa of Jesús, also known as St. Teresa of Ávila, the first woman to become a doctor of the Church, who wanted to “preserve the continuity of Carmel” with the desire that “a new style of religious life would be born,” always “in fidelity to the Church.”

Born in Spain in 1515, St. Teresa of Ávila was also a mystic and writer of Jewish descent, recognized both for her contribution to Catholic spirituality and to Spanish literature.

A famous saying of hers is: “Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you. Everything passes, God does not change. Patience achieves everything. Whoever has God lacks for nothing. God alone is enough.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, and was translated, adapted, and published by CNA on Aug. 29, 2024. It has since been updated.

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