Civic and religious education in the digital age

The Catholic Center for Studies and Media (CCSM) in Jordan has held an important conference titled, "Civic Education and Religions: Building a Culture of Citizenship and Social Peace". The conference was held under the patronage of Minister of Education Dr. Azmi Mahafzah, in cooperation with the Jordanian Center for Civic Education and the Jordan office of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, which is administered by Dr. Edmund Retka, who is concluding five years of service in Jordan, during which he has built bridges of communication with various shades of our noble Jordanian society.

 The conference was attended by a number of interested and intellectual personnel, church leaders and their representatives, Christian and Muslim clerics, religious orders, school principals, and journalist, thus forming a knowledge-based community that strives to promote a culture of peace and citizenship through education.

We marked civic education with its partner religious education, while emphasizing that there is complementarity rather than contradiction between them. They are two cornerstones in the mosaic of the advanced educational landscape in our beloved Jordan. Religious education does not nullify civic education as civic education supports religious education through directing students toward exuding love and altruism, in addition to a mindset of tolerance and a culture of encounter.

During the conference sessions, we sought to merge civic education--which focuses on human behavior within society and paving the way for a society based on democracy, pluralism, and equality--with religious education--which adheres to love as a safe path to build a society based on mutual respect.

In view of the age of digital development, we added to the title of the conference the term “the digital age”  which reflects human use of modern technologies, without implying a decline in morals. This is the balance that we always seek not merely in Jordan but in the entire world, namely for technological progress to go hand-in-hand with moral progress. Herein lies the importance of religious and civic education, as well as the ethical use of social networking sites and artificial intelligence technologies, within a framework of respect for human dignity, life, and relationships, so as  to establish a virtuous society and a better future.

In my opening address, I quoted the late Pope Francis in his final message at the beginning of this year: "We must disarm the media." I continued by quoting His Holiness Pope Leo XIV in his first public appearance: "Let us make ours an age of love and an age of bridge-building." This can only be achieved through calm dialogue among human beings  as well as through proper and ethical use of the social networking  sites which are used by our dear students in both civic and religious educatio

The conference sessions included competent speakers from Jordan and abroad,  and was associated with a praise of His Majesty King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein-- who was present at the United Nations—as well as prayers and supplications. Jordan, where the conference was held, represents an era of peaceful, calm diplomacy, an era of interfaith dialogue towards globalization, and a time for Jordan's progress through a digital age and advanced education, so that every Jordanian would be safeguarded from fanaticism and extremism.

At the end of the conference, everyone prayed  that God would continuously bless His Majesty the King and His Highness the Crown Prince,  as well as have peace prevail in Palestine, so that the sounds of weapons, destruction, and displacement would be silenced in Gaza and throughout Palestine, in addition to have civic and religious education remain the cornerstone of building a better future.

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