Teaching Religion in a classroom?

I am a student teacher and I am being placed in a religion classroom in a Catholic school because there is a shortage of other subjects and people generally don’t want to teach religion (i.e. this is a publicly funded Catholic system but I don’t want to give out too many details because I am worried about anonymity).

I feel dumb, honestly, saying ‘jesus loves you’ or preaching things from the Bible to teenagers who are beginning their journeys to critical thinking. I see it as more of a formative experience and getting kids to be in touch with their spiritual and moral selves. However, I do not know how this will go through with my actual role as a religion teacher.

Has anyone who isn’t paricularly ‘preachy’ ever taught religion? is it safe to kind of encourage individual and independent thought for kids?