An important issue addressed in the presented article is the competencies of the RE teacher/ catechist. Two main problems are posed, summarized in the following questions: What competencies should a teacher of religion/catechist have? What qualities, according to secondary school pupils, should have an RE teacher? An attempt to answer such questions was made on the basis of an analysis of the literature on the subject and the results of a nationwide quantitative and qualitative study of secondary school pupils in Poland. The basic concepts of competence are discussed, groups of competencies relevant to the profession of religion teacher are characterized. Also presented are the results of research on the opinions of secondary school pupils regarding the person of a religion teacher/catechist.
