Catholic Identity through the Lens of the School’s Official Website

Abstract

Catholic identity is a mark that separates Catholic schools from secular ones. One important tool for communicating this marker is through the school’s website. The aim of the study was to look into the official websites of Catholic schools in the Philippines and to find out how they explicate their Catholic identity. Using the document Ex Corde Ecclesiae, seven markers were used. It employed descriptive research design replicating the methods used by Gambescia and Paolucci in 2011. The result revealed that the Lead Academic Statement is present in 73 out of 75 schools. This is followed by Affiliation with Sponsoring Catholic Entity, 71; Catholic Heritage, 55; Catholic Service, 45; Catholic Worship, 37; Catholic on Homepage, 16; and Human Resource Page, 0. Overall, 297 markers were counted out of the expected 525. Thus, the schools in the Philippines have explicated Catholic identity especially on the first three markers, but much attention should be focused on the bottom four. The study should also investigate the presence of these markers but should not judge the totality of a particular level of Catholicity. However, the school website should not be underestimated in its role to explicate Catholic identity. Keywords - Social Sciences, Religion, Catholic identity, schools’ official website, descriptive design, Philippines