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To what extent do catechists and pastors working in adult religious education aim at learning to handle religious pluralism within their own religion and among religions? The authors distinguish three types of religion: canonical, critical-liberal and global. These types may be distinguished on the basis of two characteristics: their source of authority (autonomous, confirmative and transformative) and the way they deal with pluralism (within religions and among religions). The result of our empirical-theological research shows that religious educators within the Catholic Church in the Netherlands have a preference for a transformative goal orientation which gives much attention to pluralism within and among religions, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, a confirmative goal orientation which pays attention only to the Catholic interpretation of Christianity. Within a transformative goal orientation, adult believers receive information about different religious traditions in order to make their own choice. Religions are studied in a critical way in juxtaposition to each other. Each religion has its own internal perspective on human dignity, but can also be regarded from the perspective of another religion’s understanding of human dignity (i.e. an external perspective). The research shows that adult religious educators who follow the confirmative goal orientations have an opposite religious profile (in the sense of the image of the church, attitude to the authority of bishops, spirituality, interest in other religions and new religious movements) to that of educators who hold a transformative goal orientation. The article raises some questions with regard to the policy of the Church towards the various groups of catechists, in view of the fact that the Catholic Church clearly favours a confirmative goal orientation.