Abstract:
This paper aims studying the relation between religiosity and social participation on the
work with adolescents and young people in school pastoral. For such a aim, it was make
a case study at the college Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora, from Rio Pardo City, Rio Grande
do Sul State. As the analysis done has, as its background, the school pastoral of a
confessional Catholic school, the concept and the directions on youth and education
present in the ecclesial documents including the Projeto Educativo das Irmãs do
Imaculado Coração de Maria, which support the college Auxiliadora de Rio Pardo
constitute the first part of this dissertation. Influenced by a pastoral comprehension, with
principles on the Theology of Liberation and on the care with the marginalized people,
many Latin American ecclesial documents including the one from the Irmãs do
Imaculado Coração de Maria has a social and educational youth comprehension, and
a concrete spirituality. Over time, this liberating comprehension starts giving attention to
a more moderate position, which fragments into parts the human being, separating
religiosity and political dimension. However, the preferential option for the youth and the
poor in Latin America continued being affirmed by various bodies of the Church, which
includes schools. The last chapter of this paper and its final considerations portray
research on this options by the Catholic Church in a specific community: the college
Auxiliadora de Rio Pardo. Eight youth students and theirs parents were interviewed. The
aim here was investigating how the school pastoral service helps in the relation between
religiosity and social participation. It was realized that the relation between these human
dimensions, de facto, exist in the students life and that their faces and relations are
diversified. It was seen that, among others elements, the existence of a vibrating,
dynamic, friendly and enchanting faith, that is part of the daily life of the students, and
that school is also a community where they do develop their faith.
