Living and teaching the Faith

Personal Profile

University can be a challenging time for a young person, especially those who move out and are tasked with taking responsibility for practicing their faith without as much support or encouragement as they might have been used to from home.

Being bombarded with so many ideologies and viewpoints, it can be tough to hold strong to beliefs, but experienced RE teacher Una Burns says that throughout her life Faith has always played a pivotal role in her development.

Raised in Enniskillen in Fermanagh, Ms Burns’ parents brought up their three daughters and son with “a very strong Christian faith”.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic she says: “They led by example a lot of the time and that has influenced me.”

But this wasn’t the end of the religious role models in her life, Ms Burns went to two Enniskillen schools that had a strong Catholic ethos.

“They were both very big on the Catholic ethos and that inspired me, my religious teacher was brilliant and really gave me awareness of religion, not just as a subject, but religion as part of somebody’s life, and the importance of it and how it can help you in difficult situations,” she says.

“I think for me it became more relevant when I went to university because it was the first time I was really responsible for my own faith. It was up to me to really take a lead in it.”

Studying in St Mary’s University in Belfast Ms Burns said it was “surprisingly difficult” despite it being a Catholic university. Taking matters into her own hands she started a liturgy group that provided a space to engage with other young people on a level that helped her continue forming her faith.

She says: “Just being with like-minded people allowed me to see that this actually is something that people do practice, and it can be a lot of fun and you can learn and gain a lot from it. I found it so rewarding.

“It gave me an avenue to meet other people who were of a similar mind-set, yet I could still have my social groups who maybe didn’t have those same values.”

Having taught in several schools Ms Burns is now based in St Mary’s Grammar School in Magherafelt, Co. Derry. Catholic schools are hugely important, she says, as for many students it might be the only genuine faith experience a young person receives throughout their lives.

Social
 media

In an age of social media young people are increasingly dealing with mental health issues regarding their self-image, particularly after they see so many people looking a certain way, posting pictures that only show the positive side of their reality. This is exacerbated by the long hours young people spend on the internet with readily available access on, quite often, several mediums.

Ms Burns says this is making it hard for young people to live or accept certain Catholic beliefs, especially when they see a lot of criticism of the Church online.

“I think it’s very difficult for students sometimes to harness a strong faith, and particularly if they’re from a difficult background and had a tough upbringing, that just multiplies it,” she added.

While so many outside influences can make young people question their faith, or even denounce religion altogether, Ms Burns says to properly equip young people for the world, they need a grounding in religion.

“I think it’s imperative that students are given some form of religious education. I think it’s becoming more important given the society that our young people are growing up in now,” she says.

Even having the knowledge to understand why people act in a certain way, not to offend someone or not believing everything they hear and see in the media or from their peers, she says, is integral to education.

With 70 students studying RE at GCSE level there seems to be a lot of interest in the subject in St Mary’s. Class discussion range from Donald Trump, Brexit – regarding what it means to be a good leader – to gay and civil marriages and what the Church teaches about them.

Opinions

Ms Burns said: “We would teach about topics such as divorce, gay marriage and abortion, things like that are always going to be controversial because you will have students possibly in that class who have actually been affected in some way by one of those issues and will have opinions on that.

“As an RE teacher if your well-equipped you can deal with that, and it needs to be dealt with effectively so that there isn’t an ignorance in society…” she added.