EARLY AUSTRALIA:
In early Australia the state was responsible for basic schooling and general religious teaching. The clergy were responsible for specific religious teaching. The Irish Scripture Readers were commonly used as a text for Catholic students.

Following the establishment of the catholic school system religious instruction of Catholics declined. The bishops directed that no catholic parents should have their children educated in state schools. In general, priests were not allowed by the bishops to take advantage of the period allocated to visiting clergy, though as time went on a growing number of departures were made from the rule.

CONFRATERNITY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE:
In 1905 Pius X decreed, in the Encyclical Letter Acerbo nimis, that the society know as the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine be canonically established in each and every parish. This injunction was later incorporated into the 1917 Code of Canon Law.


SYDNEY CONFRATERNITY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE (CCD):
In 1958, at a meeting of the Sydney Education Council at St Mary's Cathedral, Cardinal Gilroy was 'shocked' to find that 18,000 catholic children in state schools. He yielded to pressure to reverse the policy of prohibition against religious education in state schools in a tentative way, asking Fr Kevin McGovern to do something.

In November 1959 Auxiliary Bishop James Freeman called a meeting of the priests and announced that the Confraternity was to be revived with Dr Duffy as Director and Fr R Davey as Secretary.


DIOCESE OF MAITLAND-NEWCASTLE:
For many years, in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, each parish priest was responsible for religious education of children in the parish. The parish priest usually was responsible for the pastoral care of children in the Catholic school.

The teaching of Catholic children in the state schools was usually assigned to the curates. In country areas, often they spent the day travelling from school to school. Monsignor Simms reflected: "In this diocese, Religious taught in the Catholic school, and were not encouraged to go to the state schools in case people thought 'the nuns go to state schools' and would end up not sending their children to Catholic schools. Parents, who did not have a good reason for not sending their children to Catholic Schools, were not allowed to receive the sacraments."

In the mid 60's, Fr Driscoll began classes for lay people to train them as catechists. Many of these people were in the Legion of Mary. The Legion of Mary also sometimes ran classes for children in the state school after Mass - especially for preparation of the sacraments.


CITY SCHOOLS APOSTOLATE:
In 1970, Monsignor Cotter saw the need for parishes in the Newcastle inner city area to work together in state school SRE. "The clergy and their faithful band of helpers went to the schools each week; each parish doing the best they could", he reflected.

Monsignor Cotter decided to call interested parishes to meet together and work out how best to share resources and support. Parishes from Newcastle , Merewether, Merewether Beach , Broadmeadow, Mayfield, Mayfield West, Hamilton , and Tighes Hill agreed to work together and share resources. Sister Joseph Mary was appointed as the first catechist coordinator. Sr Mary Joseph was given a room at the Junction and each parish contributed towards her stipend and resources and the City Schools Apostolate was born. Sr Joseph Mary was a pioneer in the development and coordination of lay ministry in the state schools.

In the mid 80's Fr Paul Mulconry and Sr Rita Petherbridge had oversight of the state school apostolate as part of their role in the Catholic Schools Office. Mgr Phil Wilson interviewed Sr Rita in 1979 regarding working in Religious Education.

In 1983 Rita went to a Joint Denominational 'train the trainers' program in Sydney and became involved with JDEAG (Joint Denominational Education Advisory Group) and eventually represented the Diocese on the local ICCOREIS (Inter Church Commission on Religious Education in Schools) Committee.

Sr Rita became actively involved in the organisation of joint-denominational training of SRE teachers. Fr Paul helped run courses in faith development for Catholic SRE teachers. Sr Rita represented the diocese as a member of the ICCOREIS committee and Fr Paul as a member of CCRESS.

In 1996 Bishop Michael Malone, concerned that SRE teachers in this diocese did not have the support of a diocesan structure, engaged Sr Pauline Burg to conduct a survey into religious education of catholic children in state schools. In 1997 he appointed a diocesan director to Special Religious Education.


CCRESS: Catholic Conference for Religious Education in State Schools established in July 1987 is a state support group sharing ideas, resources and programs as well as dealing with issues of concern. CCRESS meets twice a year in a different city or country diocese. CCRESS has three members on the state ICCOREIS committee.


NATIONAL CCD ASSOCIATION (NCCDA): NCCDA is a national Catholic support body.

Content on the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle came from the reflections of Mons Cotter, Mons Simms and Sr Rita Petherbridge RSM.