Catholic Textbooks Under Go Examination in Italy to Check Bias

Pioneer pilot studies on how Catholic religious teaching presents Judaism, Protestantism and other non-Catholic religions are already well under way in Italy and soon will be initiated in other European lands as well, a mission of 50 American Jewish Committee leaders from 20 cities in the United States was informed here today. The members of the mission were received yesterday by Pope Paul VI.

Carrying out the pilot studies is the Leonard M. Sperry Center for Intergroup Cooperation, established in Rome last year with the personal benediction and approval of Pope Paul VI. The joint Catholic-Jewish Sperry Center, at the International University for Social Studies “Pro Deo” in Rome, was set up to analyze and combat prejudice in religious teaching.

Sociologists and qualified religious advisers currently are examining some 200 texts widely used in Italian state schools at every level from elementary classes to teacher-training courses, in private Catholic institutions, and by the branches of Catholic Action in their seminars, the American Jewish Committee mission was told at the Center. Attitudes expressed toward various ethnic groups are being studied concurrently with the views set out about non-Catholic religions.

Following text investigation, Center researchers will be doing field work to learn how the texts actually are used in teaching and to see how teachers interpret them to students in class-room situations, Center officials said. Researchers are examining the Italian texts not only to see whether they incorporate negative religious and ethnic stereotypes about non-Catholic religions–like the charge that Jews are an “accursed” or a “deicide” people–but also to what extent they strive to inculcate positive inter-faith and inter-group attitudes, they declared.