Catholic religious education was reintroduced into Croatian schools in the early 1990s. With the reintroduction of religious education into the school system, there was a need to train professional staff who were able to organize and conduct religious education, and thus the number of religious teachers grew. The need for training of religious teachers in higher educational institutions encouraged the organization of the training of students for religious education services and the ongoing formation of religious teachers. Formal letters where written to local bishops to speak about the need to organize catechetical schools, so that the challenge to overcome insufficiently formed religious teachers would be resolved. Thus, the basic formation was gradually systematized from the signing of the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Education and Culture between the Republic of Croatia and the Holy See in 1996 until today.Since religious education is part of the Croatian school system, the aim is too achieve its own educational goals, but also the educational goals of the school. From the school year 2019/2020. implementation of experimental program School for Life was introduced. This program includes Catholic religious education, and the affects of initial formation of religious teachers, at least in terms of rethinking the goals and competencies that a individual acquires upon completion of studies. A key part of this paper is related to the relationship of competencies that a person acquires after completing an integrated philosophical-theological course, theological-catechetical or study of theological-religious sciences and student competencies whose development is provided in the Catholic religion curriculum adopted within the School for Life.