DAY 1: February 21, 2026

 

Most Rev. Rex Andrew C. Alarcon, DD

 


I. Keynote Address - 10:00 to 10:50 AM

 

Affirming Jesus as Lord in Catechesis and Religious Education

Most Rev. Rex Andrew C. Alarcon, DD

 

This keynote explores the heart of catechesis and religious education: the confession of faith in Jesus as Lord. Rooted in the Nicene Creed and inspired by the vision of PCP II, the session invites educators to rediscover how this central belief can shape transformative teaching and witness. Participants will gain deeper theological insight and practical inspiration for communicating the lordship of Jesus in ways that resonate with today’s learners and Filipino cultural contexts.


*Plenary Discussion follows from 10:50 to 11:20 AM.

 

II. Bayanihan sa Pagkatuto - 11:30 to 12:20 NN

 

Proclaiming Jesus Christ in the Classrooms

This breakout session provides an opportunity for participants to engage in meaningful dialogue, reflecting on the challenges of teaching about Jesus in today’s context. Through shared experiences and pedagogical insights, educators will explore creative and faith-filled approaches to make Christ’s presence more tangible in the classroom and in the lives of their learners.

Salu-salo sa Pananghalian: 12: 30 to 1: 30 NN

III. Pagpapanday ng Kaalaman at Kasanayán

These sessions, led by teacher-scholars from the Ateneo de Manila University Department of Theology, help participants deepen their understanding of Jesus Christ through the areas of Scripture, Doctrine, Morals, and Worship. Each session integrates theological reflection with practical teaching methods, enabling educators to meaningfully connect faith and culture in their classrooms.

Please note: Each participant may attend only one session per set, the one assigned to them based on their choices during the registration.

Set 1. 1:30 to 3:00 PM

Scripture

Bilib Ka Ba Sa Kwenta Ng Kwento Natin Kay Hesus?: Biblical Interpretation for Pin@ys Today - S1A

Ma. Maricel S. Ibita, PhD, STD

 

This workshop session seeks to equip religious educators and catechists with the skills to teach the received text of the Bible within the enhanced pastoral cycle of See-Judge-Act-Evaluate-Celebrate/Ritualize and rooted in today's global and local (glocal) contexts. The workshop employs the practical applications of some of the suggested ways discussed in The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church document issued by the Pontifical Biblical Commission in 1993, especially narrative and contextual (liberation and feminist) criticisms. These criticisms are complemented by more contemporary biblical hermeneutical methods that confront our socio-economic-political-ecological contexts. Together, these integrated methods recognize both the human and divine character of the Scriptures.

 

Output: An interpretative analysis of Matthew 14:13–21 demonstrating the integration of narrative, contextual, and contemporary hermeneutical approaches in reading Scripture.

 

Iisang Panginoon? Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ of Faith in the Synoptic Gospels - S1B

John Paul A. Bolano, PhD

 

The Scriptures, together with Church teaching and human experience, form the main sources of catechesis and religious education, with the Scriptures occupying a central place as the written Word of God. Catechesis aims to bring people into intimacy with Jesus Christ (CT 5); therefore, reading and interpreting the Scriptures, especially the Gospels, is indispensable in helping learners encounter, know, and love Him. The Gospels, as privileged witnesses to the life and person of Jesus, serve as vital tools for this mission.

 

This presentation argues that catechists and religious educators, while not professional exegetes, must still learn to read, interpret, and teach the Scriptures faithfully and well. Rather than using the Gospels merely as proof texts for doctrine, they should approach them through literary methods of biblical interpretation, complemented by critical reflection on doctrinal assertions about Jesus. Through this approach, catechists can facilitate a deeper and more transformative encounter with Christ. Participants will apply these literary methods to selected parallel Synoptic narratives and connect them with relevant conciliar and catechetical teachings about Jesus.

 

Output: An exegetical reflection on selected parallel narratives across the Synoptic Gospels, highlighting how literary methods and doctrinal assertions can lead to an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ.


Doctrine

Batang-bata Ka Rin: Reimagining the Call of the Child Jesus and Children’s Agency in Religious Education - S1C

Raphael Agustine L. Yabut, PhD

 

The infant/child Jesus is a central image in Filipino Christology, demonstrated by the very popular devotion to the Santo Niño and the festivities during Christmas in the Philippines. CFC 467 highlights the “innocence, simplicity, and childlike wonder of Christ” in this image. However, there is more to this image than innocence and simplicity. The child Jesus also has agency and radical vulnerability, calling us into the demands of discipleship. This session invites participants to reflect on a deeper and more complex image of the child Jesus in the context of the realities of children and students today. How can we deepen our theological imagination about the infancy and childhood of Jesus? How are we called to teach as we recognize the agency and rights of children? How is the child Jesus calling us into discipleship?

 

Output: An essay reflecting on the topic of the session in the participant’s own context.

 


The Parables of Jesus and the Pedagogy of the Kingdom - S1D

Justin Joseph G. Badion, PhD


 This session explores how Jesus’ public ministry communicated the Kingdom of God through parables—earthy stories drawn from his Jewish culture and Palestinian environment, designed to surprise, disorient, and invite action. Rooted in the Jewish mashal tradition, Jesus’ parables destabilized familiar narratives and opened radical reimaginings of God’s reign. We will examine the characteristics of his parables—earthiness, surprise, disorientation, resistance to titles, and occasional hyperbole—and their pedagogical implications for catechesis today. Participants will then be guided to craft their own “parables of the Kingdom” in a contemporary Filipino context, applying these same narrative strategies to their teaching.


Output: An original short parable of the Kingdom of God, rooted in Filipino cultural imagery, accompanied by a brief explanation of its catechetical or instructional application.

 

Morals

The Saving Virtue of Enough: Forming Filipino Youth in an Age of Overconsumption - S1E

Maria Elisa A. Borja, PhD


 This session offers an inculturated moral catechesis that speaks to the lived reality of Filipino youth shaped by overconsumption—from digital overload and binge culture to social pressure and the relentless drive for more. It introduces the “virtue of enough,” a fresh expression of the classical virtue of temperance, as a freeing and joyful alternative to the vice of gluttony.

Rooted in the Creed’s profession of “one Lord, Jesus Christ,” the talk affirms that Jesus is the source of all virtue, and that His saving power is made visible when we cooperate with Him in the exercise of virtue.


Output: A Virtue Teaching Integration Plan, applying the session’s insights to their catechetical or classroom contexts in a culturally relevant way.

 

Worship

From Creed to Culture: Proclaiming Christ in Our Liturgy and Life - S1F

Tinnah dela Rosa, M.A.


 This session reflects on the Creed’s profession, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,” as it comes alive in the liturgy and is embodied in Philippine culture. It will offer theological insight, practical catechetical tools, and culturally resonant examples to help religious educators lead communities to encounter, profess, and live the One Lord in worship and daily life.


Output: A Liturgy-to-Life Plan outlining a concrete idea for making Jesus Christ come alive in a chosen liturgical celebration through songs, visuals, catechesis, or related activities.

 

Munting Salu-salo sa Hápon: 3:00 to 3:30 PM

Set 2: 3:30 to 5:00 PM

Scripture

Stories Matter: Lessons from Biblical Narratives - S2A

Annelle Sabanal, PhD


 Stories in the Bible are usually treated by readers as sources of historical information about the people and their relationship and interaction with God. While this may be partly true, the nature of these stories suggests a more nuanced function. They are formulated as expressions of identities, aspirations, longings, frustrations, and even resistance of the communities that produced them. This workshop aims to showcase this nuanced function of biblical narratives by inviting participants to a close reading of two sample stories: Ehud in Judges 4 and Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. By emphasizing the nature of stories in the Bible, the workshop also aims to encourage Filipino teachers of the Bible to capitalize on our intrinsic cultural character as storytellers by making use of kwento and kwentuhan as ways of understanding and teaching the biblical text.


Output: A teaching activity design using kwento and kwentuhan as pedagogical tools for interpreting and communicating biblical narratives, illustrated through the stories of Ehud and Jesus.

 

Doctrine

Nanaog sa Kinaroroonan ng mga Yumao: Teaching Students to Find Faith in the Dead Christ - S2B

Edwin B. Odulio, PhD


 This session explores the Filipino people’s profound devotion to the Dead Christ, often expressed through images such as the Santo Entierro and Good Friday rituals. It invites participants to reflect on how this faith experience reveals the Filipino encounter with suffering, compassion, and hope. Educators will be guided on how to help students express and deepen this faith in classroom settings through creative and reflective activities that connect devotion to discipleship and lived experience.

 

Output: A creative expression of faith in the Dead Christ through a Pasyon that illustrates empathy, solidarity, and renewed discipleship.

 

 

An Interrogation of the Resurrection: Exploring a Nuanced Meaning through a Filipino Worldview -S2C

Kristine C. Meneses, PhD


 This session requires teachers to critically reflect on the proposed Filipino reinterpretation of the Resurrection and apply it to how they witness the life struggles of the people around them, including their students, as well as their own. It is hoped that participants will cultivate a deeper, more authentic faith rooted in their own experience and cultural heritage. This personal conviction then becomes a source from which they can cascade their learning to their pupils, making the Resurrection a living, relevant truth in the face of everyday life.


Output: A theological reflection essay on the Resurrection, grounded in personal experience and Filipino cultural understanding.

 

Morals

Using Christian Virtue Ethics in Understanding Jesus and Morality - S2D

Stephanie Ann Y. Puen, PhD

 

This session will discuss how Christian virtue ethics can help teachers address questions and issues related to theological ethics and moral theology, using the work of William Spohn in Go and Do Likewise: Jesus and Ethics. The session will provide principles grounded in Christian virtue ethics, showing how virtue ethics, when used to understand ethics and morality, can help teachers approach moral education in a way that takes seriously the contemporary Philippine context.


Output: A short essay demonstrating how one principle or concept from the workshop can be applied in teaching an ethical or moral issue.

 

Addressing Philippine Ethical Concerns Through a Consistent Ethic of Life - S2E

Anatoly Angelo R. Aseneta, PhD


 Due to a form of Catholicism inherited from Spain, Filipinos’ image of God has led to a “split-level Christianity” that separates faith from morals, limiting our moral horizons by disconnecting religious practice from moral concern. This presentation proposes Joseph Cardinal Bernardin’s Consistent Ethic of Life as a moral vision that can help address this gap by showing how Jesus cared for human life “from the womb to the tomb,” among others.


Output: A short essay illustrating how the consistent ethic of life can be incorporated into lessons on human dignity, abortion, poverty, and violence.

 

Worship

Encountering the Nazareno: Miracle and Conversion in Hope -S2F

Michael Jason Liberatore, PhD


 The devotion to the Black Nazarene of Quiapo has provided much consolation and invited greater faithfulness among devotees. Rooted in their encounter with the Lord—often experienced as a miracle (himala or milagro)—they are moved to offer their sacred vow (panata) to the Lord in thanksgiving and hope. This session will explore the dimensions of encounter, conversion, and hope as experienced by the devotees and invite participants to reflect upon their own encounters with the Lord and their panata in response to that encounter.


Output: A personal panata articulating one’s faith response to an encounter with the Nazareno and expressing renewed commitment to live out that devotion in hope.


IV. Ebalwasyon: Isang maikling aktibidad ng pagtataya at pagtatasa sa karanasan at natutunan ng mga kalahok sa unang araw ng kumperensya. - 5:00 to 5:30, Escaler Hall.


Day 2 – February 22, 2026


I: Plenary Talk - 8:30 to 9:15 AM

 

Teaching Iisang Panginoong Hesukristo in Philippine Catechesis and Religious Education

Rachel Joyce Marie O. Sanchez, PhD

 

This plenary explores the principle of inculturation as a pedagogical approach in catechesis and religious education that can be used in teaching the creedal affirmation, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,” to help Filipino youth encounter Jesus not merely as a doctrine to be memorized, but as a living presence in their cultural, personal, and social realities.


*Plenary Discussion follows from 9:15 to 9:45 AM

 

Halina’t Magkape: 9:45 - 10:15 AM

 

II. Paglinang ng Aralin at Gurò - 10:15 to 11:00 AM

In this session, participants will review one of their actual lessons to identify its inculturated and Christocentric elements, and then explore ways to enhance it further. All outputs will be submitted to the room facilitator.

Take Note: Participants are required to bring one (1) sample of their own actual lesson plan on a Christian Living Education topic that they currently teach to their students. Please print it on bond paper. This lesson plan will be used during the workshop.

III. Ebalwasyon: Isang maikling aktibidad ng pagtataya at pagtatasa sa karanasan at natutunan ng mga kalahok sa ikalawang araw ng kumperensya. - 11:00 to 11:15, Escaler Hall.


Most Rev. Marcelino Antonio M. Maralit, Jr., D.D.

*Certificates will be given electronically after the participant completion of the event evaluation and the validation of the NCRE organizers of submitted outputs for CPD points credits.