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Empathy, as an important moral value, makes each person aware of the importance of the presence of the others. Interaction with other person gives meaning and creates space to develop various aspects of human life. In dialog a respectful interpersonal communication is required. A culture of dialogue is a willingness to prioritizes in listening to each other, respecting, and understanding different views in finding mutual understanding and solutions. This culture of dialogue is an effective educational method because it provides a space for open discussion and exchange of information between educators, parents and among students. The success of education depends on the cooperation of teachers, parents and students. In addition, the culture of dialog is also influential in broadening the horizons and understanding of different views, which in turn can shape the character and identity of students. Catholic schools have a distinctive feature in guiding students, namely, character building. Character building is the spirit in educating people. The purpose of this study is to explore what kind of efforts Catholic Education has made to form student character through a Culture of Dialogue. This research uses the document "The Identity of the Catholic School for a Dialogue" (2022) from Congregation of Catholic Education as theoretical basis. The subjects of this research are catholic schools managed by the sisters of the Carolus Borromeus (CB) and Ordo Sancti Francisci (OSF). The data collection technique is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method. The results of this study showed that Catholic schools in Yogyakarta managed by CB and OSF sisters already have several endeavors to strengthen the culture of dialogue in building student character.

Empathy, moral value, culture, dialogue, Catholic Education