“The Holy
See’s Teaching On Catholic Schools”
Keynote Address by
Archbishop J. Michael Miller, C.S.B.
Secretary for the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic
Education
Sept. 14, 2005
ON CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
Solidarity Association,
Washington 14
September 2005
Dear
Friends:
Introduction
Thank you very much for your kind invitation, extended
through Frank Hanna and Alejandro Bermudez, to address you this afternoon on a
subject of such vital importance to the future of the Church and the
nation. It is a pleasure to be with a
group so dedicated to the cause of Catholic education, and, especially in
making Catholic schools available to those whose economic means might otherwise
deprive them of one of the Church’s most valuable resources for building up the
Body of Christ.
Right from the days of their first appearance in
Europe, Catholic schools have generously served the needs of the “socially and
economically disadvantaged” and have given “special attention to those who are
weakest.”[1] The vision set out by the Second Vatican
Council confirmed this age-old commitment: the Church offers her educational
service in the first place, the Fathers affirmed, to “those who are poor in the
goods of this world or who are deprived of the assistance and affection of a
family or who are strangers to the gift of faith.”[2] The Solidarity Association, with its
providential name which embodies the heritage of our beloved Pope John Paul II,
is inserted in the long tradition of St. Angela Merici, St. Joseph of Calasanz,
St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, St. John Bosco and so many other Religious and
lay people who generously dedicated themselves to Christ’s love for the poor,
the humble and the marginalized in their educational apostolate.
My intervention’s theme, “the Holy See’s teaching on
Catholic education,” is vast, far too vast to be summarized in one brief
lecture. Even so, I will try to
introduce into the conversation the major concerns that can be found in the
Vatican documents published since Vatican II’s landmark Decree on Christian
education Gravissimum Educationis.
In this talk I shall draw on the conciliar document, the 1983 Code of
Canon Law in its section on schools, and the five major documents published
by the Congregation for Catholic Education: The Catholic School (1977); Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982); The Religious Dimension
of Education in a Catholic School (1988); The Catholic School on the
Threshold of the Third Millennium (1997); and Consecrated Persons and
their Mission in Schools: Reflections and Guidelines (2002). Among these documents, in particular I would
like to recommend for your study The Catholic School and The
Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School. First I will say something about parental
and government rights, followed by some remarks on the school as an instrument
of evangelization, and then describe the five components which must be present
if a school is to have a genuinely Catholic identity.
I. Parental and State Responsibilities
It is the clear teaching of the Church, constantly
reiterated by the Holy See, that parents are the first educators of their
children. Parents have the original, primary
and inalienable right to educate them in conformity with the family’s moral and
religious convictions.[3] They are educators precisely because they
are parents. At the same time, the vast
majority of parents share their educational responsibilities with other
individuals and/or institutions, primarily the school.
Elementary education is, then, “an extension of
parental education; it is extended and cooperative home schooling.”[4] In a real sense schools are extensions of
the home. Parents, not schools, not the
State, and not the Church, have the primary moral responsibility of educating
children to adulthood. The principle of
subsidiarity must always govern relations between families and the Church and
State in this regard. As Pope John Paul
II wrote in his 1994 Letter to Families:
Subsidiarity thus complements paternal and maternal
love and confirms its fundamental nature, inasmuch as all other participants in
the process of education are only able to carry out their responsibilities in
the name of the parents, with their consent and, to a certain degree, with
their authorization.[5]
For subsidiarity to be effective families and those to
whom they entrust a share in their educational responsibilities must enjoy true
liberty about how their children are to be educated. This means that “in principle, a State monopoly of education is
not permissible, and that only a pluralism of school systems will respect the
fundamental right and the freedom of individuals–although the exercise of this
right may be conditioned by a multiplicity of factors, according to the social
realities of each country.”[6]
Thus, the Catholic Church upholds “the principle of a
plurality of school systems in order to safeguard her objectives.”[7] Moreover, “the public power, which has the
obligation to protect and defend the rights of citizens, must see to it, in its
concern for distributive justice, that public subsidies are paid out in such a
way that parents are truly free to choose according to their conscience the
schools they want for their children.”[8] This obligation of the State to provide
public subsidies also arises because of the contribution which Catholic schools
make to society.[9]
Indeed, most countries with substantial Christian
majorities provide such assistance: Australia, Canada, England, Belgium, the
Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, just to name a
few. The United States, Mexico, and
Italy are exceptions in not providing any assistance. In summary fashion the recently published Compendium of the
Social Doctrine of the Church (2005) states laconically that “the refusal
to provide public economic support to non-public schools that need assistance
and that render a service to civil society is to be considered an injustice.”[10]
II. The Church, Evangelization and Education
What role does the Church play in assisting Catholic
families in education? By her very
nature the Church has the right and the obligation to proclaim the Gospel to
all nations (cf. Mt 28:20). In the
words of Gravissimum Educationis:
To fulfill the mandate she has received from her
divine founder of proclaiming the mystery of salvation to all men and of
restoring all things in Christ, Holy Mother the Church must be concerned with
the whole of man’s life, even the secular part of it insofar as it has a
bearing on his heavenly calling. Therefore, she has a role in the progress and
development of education.[11]
In a
special way, the duty of educating is an ecclesial responsibility: “The Church
is bound as a mother to give to these children of hers an education by which
their whole life can be imbued with the spirit of Christ.”[12] Note, however, that parents do not surrender
their children to the Church but share a common undertaking.
Certainly the Church was involved in education before
she established schools. Nonetheless,
today the principal, but not only, help which the Church offers families is by
establishing Catholic schools which ensure the integral formation of children.[13]
Catholic schools participate in the Church’s
evangelizing mission, of bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth. More particularly, they are places of
evangelization for the young. As truly
ecclesial institutions, they are “the privileged environment in which Christian
education is carried out.”[14] Catholic schools also have a missionary
thrust, by means of which they make a significant contribution “to the
evangelizing mission of the Church throughout the world, including those areas
in which no other form of pastoral work is possible.”[15]
Precisely because of this evangelizing mission, our
schools, if they are to be genuinely ecclesial–and they must be that if they
are to be authentically Catholic–must be integrated within the organic pastoral
activity of the parish, diocesan and universal Church.[16]
“Unfortunately, there are instances in which the Catholic school is not
perceived as an integral part of organic pastoral work, at times it is
considered alien, or very nearly so, to the community. It is urgent, therefore, to sensitize
parochial and diocesan communities to the necessity of their devoting special
care to education and schools.”[17]
The Catholic school, therefore, should play a vital
role in the pastoral activity of the diocese.[18] It is a pastoral instrument of the Church
for her mission of evangelization. The
bishop’s leadership is pivotal in lending support and guidance to Catholic
schools: “only the bishop can set the tone, ensure the priority and effectively
present the importance of the cause to the Catholic people.”[19]
III. Five Essential “Marks” of Catholic Schools
Now let’s turn to a discussion of the question to
which the Holy See addresses its most serious attention. Its documents repeatedly emphasize that
certain characteristics must be present if a school is to be considered
Catholic. Like the “marks” of the
Church proclaimed in the Creed, so, too, does it identity the principal
features of a school qua Catholic.
For the purpose of this talk I will expand the four ecclesial marks to
five scholastic ones!
As the Holy Father reminded a group of American
bishops on their most recent ad limina visit: “It is of utmost
importance, therefore, that the Church’s institutions be genuinely Catholic:
Catholic in their self-understanding and Catholic in their identity. All those who share in the apostolates of
such institutions, including those who are not of the faith, should show a
sincere and respectful appreciation of that mission which is their inspiration
and ultimate raison d’être.”[20] It is precisely because of its Catholic
identity, which is anything but sectarian, that a school derives the
originality enabling it to be a genuine instrument of the Church’s apostolic
mission.[21] Let’s, then,
look at these five non-negotiables of Catholic identity, the lofty ideals
proposed by the Holy See which inspire the Church’s enormous investment in
schooling.
1. Inspired by a Supernatural Vision
The enduring foundation on which the Church builds her
educational philosophy is the conviction that it is a process which forms the
whole child, especially with his or her eyes fixed on the vision of God.[22] The specific purpose of a Catholic education
is the formation of boys and girls who will be good citizens of this world,
enriching society with the leaven of the Gospel, but who will also be citizens
of the world to come.[23] Catholic schools have a straightforward
goal: to foster the growth of good Catholic human beings who love God and neighbor
and thus fulfill their destiny of becoming saints.
If we fail to keep in mind this high supernatural
vision, all our talk about Catholic schools will be no more than “a gong
booming or a cymbal clashing” (I Cor 13:1).
2. Founded on a Christian Anthropology
Emphasis on the supernatural destiny of students, on
their holiness, brings with it a profound appreciation of the need to perfect
children in all their dimensions as images of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27). As we know, grace builds on nature. Because of this complementarity of the
natural and supernatural, it is especially important that all those involved in
Catholic education have a sound understanding of the human person. Especially those who establish, teach in and
direct a Catholic school must draw on a
sound anthropology that addresses the requirements of both natural and
supernatural perfection.[24]
For Catholic schools to achieve their goal of forming
children, all those involved–parents, teachers, staff, administrators and
trustees–must clearly understand who the human person is. Again and again the Holy See’s documents
repeat the need for an educational philosophy built on the solid foundation of
sound Christian anthropology. How do
they describe such an anthropological vision? In Lay Catholics in Schools:
Witnesses to Faith the Vatican proposes a response:
In today’s pluralistic world, the Catholic educator
must consciously inspire his or her activity with the Christian concept of the
person, in communion with the Magisterium of the Church. It is a concept which includes a defense of
human rights, but also attributes to the human person the dignity of a child of
God; it attributes the fullest liberty, freed from sin itself by Christ, the
most exalted destiny, which is the definitive and total possession of God
himself, through love. It establishes
the strictest possible relationship of solidarity among all persons; through
mutual love and an ecclesial community. It calls for the fullest development of
all that is human, because we have been made masters of the world by its
Creator. Finally, it proposes Christ,
Incarnate Son of God and perfect Man, as both model and means; to imitate him,
is, for all men and women, the inexhaustible source of personal and communal
perfection.[25]
All
this says nothing more than the words from Gaudium et Spes so often
quoted by Pope John Paul II: “it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh
that the mystery of man truly becomes clear.”[26]
The Holy See’s documents insist that, to be worthy of
its name, a Catholic school must be founded on Jesus Christ the Redeemer who,
through his Incarnation, is united with each student. Christ is not an after-thought or an add-on to Catholic
educational philosophy but the center and fulcrum of the entire enterprise, the
light enlightening every pupil who comes into our schools (cf. Jn 1:9). In its document The Catholic School, the
Congregation stated:
The Catholic school is committed thus to the development
of the whole man, since in Christ, the perfect man, all human values find their
fulfilment and unity. Herein lies the
specifically Catholic character of the school.
Its duty to cultivate human values in their own legitimate right in
accordance with its particular mission to serve all men has its origin in the
figure of Christ. He is the one who
ennobles man, gives meaning to human life, and is the model which the Catholic
school offers to its pupils.[27]
The
Gospel of Christ and his very person are, therefore, to inspire and guide the
Catholic school in its every dimension: its philosophy of education, its
curriculum, community life, its selection of teachers, and even its physical
environment. As John Paul II wrote in
his 1979 Message to the National Catholic Educational Association of the United
States: “Catholic education is above all a question of communicating Christ, of
helping to form Christ in the lives of others.”[28]
That Christ is the “one foundation” of Catholic
schools is surely not news to anyone here.
Nevertheless, this conviction, in its very simplicity, can sometimes be
overlooked. Having a sound,
anthropology enables Catholic educators to recognize Christ as the standard and
measure of a school’s catholicity, “the foundation of the whole educational
enterprise in a Catholic school,”[29]
and the principles of the Gospel as guiding educational norms.
3. Animated by Communion and Community
A third important teaching on Catholic schools that has
emerged in the Holy See’s documents in recent years is its emphasis on the
community aspect of the Catholic school, a dimension rooted both in the social
nature of the human person and the reality the Church as a “the home and the
school of communion.”[30] That the Catholic school is an educational community
“is one of the most enriching developments for the contemporary school.”[31] The Congregation’s Religious Dimension of
Education in a Catholic School sums up this new emphasis:
The declaration Gravissimum Educationis notes
an important advance in the way a Catholic school is thought of: the transition
from the school as an institution to the school as a community. This community
dimension is, perhaps, one result of the new awareness of the Church’s nature
as developed by the Council. In the
Council texts, the community dimension is primarily a theological concept
rather than a sociological category.[32]
Ever
more Vatican statements emphasize that the school is a community of persons
and, even more to the point, “a genuine community of faith.”[33]
I would like to mention three particular ways in which
the Holy See would like to see the development of the school as a community:
the teamwork or collaboration among all those involved; the interaction of
students with teachers and the school’s physical environment.
Elementary schools “should try to create a community
school climate that reproduces, as far as possible, the warm and intimate
atmosphere of family life. Those
responsible for these schools will, therefore, do everything they can to
promote a common spirit of trust and spontaneity.”[34] This means that all involved should develop
a real willingness to collaborate among themselves. Teachers, Religious and lay, together with parents and trustees,
should work together as a team for the school’s common good and their right to
be involved in its responsibilities.[35] The Holy See is ever careful to foster the
appropriate involvement of parents in Catholic schools.[36] Indeed, more than in the past, teachers and
administrators must often encourage parental participation. Theirs is a partnership directed not just to
dealing with academic problems but to planning and evaluating the effectiveness
of the school’s mission.
A Catholic philosophy of education has always paid
special attention to the interpersonal relations within the educational
community of the school, especially those between teachers and students.
“During childhood and adolescence a student needs to experience personal
relations with outstanding educators, and what is taught has greater influence
on the student’s formation when placed in a context of personal involvement,
genuine reciprocity, coherence of attitudes, lifestyle and day to day
behavior.”[37] Direct and personal contact between teachers
and students is a hallmark of Catholic schools. A learning atmosphere which encourages the befriending of
students is far removed from the caricature of the remote disciplinarian so
cherished by the media. In measured
terms the Congregation’s document Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to
Faith describes the student-teaching relationship:
A personal relationship is always a dialogue rather
than a monologue, and the teacher must be convinced that the enrichment in the
relationship is mutual. But the mission
must never be lost sight of: the educator can never forget that students need a
companion and guide during their period of growth; they need help from others
in order to overcome doubts and disorientation. Also, rapport with the students ought to be a prudent combination
of familiarity and distance; and this must be adapted to the need of each
individual student. Familiarity will
make a personal relationship easier, but a certain distance is also needed:
students need to learn how to express their own personality without being
pre-conditioned; they need to be freed from inhibitions in the responsible
exercise of their freedom.”[38]
Catholic
schools, then, safeguard the priority of the person, both student and teacher;
they foster the proper friendship between them since “an authentic formative
process can only be initiated through a personal relationship.”[39]
A brief word on the school’s physical environment is
in order to complete this discussion on the school community. Since the school is rightly considered an
extension of the home, it ought to have “some of the amenities which can create
a pleasant and family atmosphere.”[40] This includes an adequate physical plant
and equipment. It is especially
important that this “school-home” be immediately recognizable as Catholic.
The Incarnation, which emphasizes the bodily
coming of God’s Son into the world, leaves its seal on every aspect of
Christian life. The very fact of the
Incarnation tells us that the created world is the means chosen by God through
which he communicates his life to us.
What is human and visible can bear the divine. If Catholic schools are to be true to their identity, they should
try to suffuse their environment with this delight in the sacramental. Therefore they should express physically and
visibly the external signs of Catholic culture through images, signs, symbols,
icons and other objects of traditional devotion. A chapel, classroom crucifixes and statues, signage, celebrations
and other sacramental reminders of Catholic ecclesial life, including good art
which is not explicitly religious in its subject matter, should be evident.
4. Imbued with a Catholic Worldview
A fourth distinctive characteristic of Catholic
schools, which always finds a place in the Holy See’s teaching is this. Catholicism should permeate not just the
class period of catechism or religious education, or the school’s pastoral
activities, but the entire curriculum.
The Vatican documents speak of “an integral education, an education
which responds to all the needs of the human person.”[41] This is why
the Church establishes schools: because they are a privileged place
which fosters the formation of the whole person.[42] An integral education aims to develop
gradually every capability of every student: their intellectual, physical,
psychological, moral and religious dimensions.
It is “intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person.”[43]
To be integral or “whole,” Catholic schooling must be
constantly inspired and guided by the Gospel.
As we have seen, the Catholic school would betray its purpose if it
failed to take as its touchstone the person of Christ and his Gospel: “It
derives all the energy necessary for its educational work from him.”[44]
Because of the Gospel’s vital and guiding role in a
Catholic school, we might be tempted to think that the identity and
distinctiveness of Catholic education lies in the quality of its religious
instruction, catechesis and pastoral activities. Nothing is further from the position of the Holy See. Rather, the Catholic school is Catholic even
apart from such programs and projects.
It is Catholic because it undertakes to educate the whole person,
addressing the requirements of his or her natural and supernatural
perfection. It is integral and Catholic
because it provides an education in the intellectual and moral virtues,[45]
because it prepares for a fully human life at the service of others and for the
life of the world to come.
Thus, instruction should be authentically Catholic in
content and methodology across the entire program of studies.
Catholicism has a particular “take” on reality that
should animate its schools. It is a
“comprehensive way of life”[46]
to be enshrined in the school’s curriculum.
One would comb in vain Vatican documents on schools to find anything
about lesson planning, the order of teaching the various subjects, or the
relative merit of different didactic methodologies. On the other hand, the Holy See does provide certain principles
and guidelines which inspire the content of the curriculum if it is to deliver
on its promise of offering students an integral education. Let’s look at two of these: the principle of
truth and the integration of faith, culture and life.
4.1 Search for Wisdom and Truth
In an age of information overload, Catholic schools
must be especially attentive to the delicate balance between human experience
and understanding. In the words of T.S.
Eliot, we do not want our students to say: “We had the experience but missed
the meaning.”[47]
On the other hand, knowledge and understanding are far
more than the accumulation of information.
Again T.S. Eliot puts it just right: “Where is the wisdom we have lost
in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we
have lost in information?”[48] Catholic schools do far more than convey
information to passive students. They
aspire to teach wisdom, habituating their students “to desire learning so much
that he or she will delight in becoming a self-learner.”[49]
Intrinsically related to the search for wisdom is
another idea frequently repeated in Vatican teaching: the confidence expressed
that the human, however limited its powers, has the capacity to come to the
knowledge of truth. This conviction
about the nature of truth is too important to be confused about in Catholic
schooling. Unlike skeptics and
relativists, Catholic teachers share a specific conviction about truth: that
they can pursue, and, to a limited but real extent, attain and communicate it
to others. Catholic schools take up the
daunting task of freeing boys and girls from the insidious consequences of what
Benedict XVI recently called the “dictatorship of relativism”–a dictatorship
which cripples all genuine education.
Catholic educators are to have in themselves and develop in others a
passion for truth which defeats moral and cultural relativism. They are to Educate “in the truth.”
In an ad limina address to a group of American
bishops, Pope John Paul II pinpointed the importance of a correct grasp of
truth if the Church’s educational efforts are to bear fruit:
The greatest challenge to Catholic education in the
United States today, and the greatest contribution that authentically Catholic
education can make to American culture, is to restore to that culture the
conviction that human beings can grasp the truth of things, and in grasping
that truth can know their duties to God, to themselves and their
neighbors. In meeting that challenge,
the Catholic educator will hear an echo of Christ’s words: “If you continue in
my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth
will make you free” (Jn 8:32). The
contemporary world urgently needs the service of educational institutions which
uphold and teach that truth is “that fundamental value without which freedom,
justice and human dignity are extinguished” (Veritatis Splendor, 4).[50]
Closely following papal teaching, the Holy See’s
documents on schools insist on the principle that education is about
discovering truth both in its natural and supernatural dimensions: “The school
considers human knowledge as a truth to be discovered. In the measure in which subjects rare taught
by someone who knowingly and without restraint seeks the truth, they are to
that extent Christian. Discovery and
awareness of truth leads man to the discovery of Truth itself.”[51]
For the most part, Catholic schools conform to
required curricula, but they implement
their programs within an overall religious perspective. This perspective includes criteria such as
“confidence in our ability to attain truth, at least in a limited way - a
confidence based not on feeling but on faith . . . [and] the ability to make
judgments about what is true and what is false.”[52] Convictions about truth are at home in
authentically Catholic schools.
4.2 Faith, Culture and Life
A second principle governing all Catholic education
from the apostolic age down to the present is the notion that the faithful
should be engaged in transforming culture in light of the Gospel. Schools prepare students to relate the
Catholic faith to their particular culture and to live that faith in practice.
In its 1997 document, the Congregation for Catholic Education commented:
From the nature of the Catholic school also stems one
of the most significant elements of its educational project: the synthesis
culture and faith. The endeavor to interweave
reason and faith, which has become the heart of individual subjects, makes for
unity, articulation and coordination, bringing forth within what is learnt in a
school a Christian vision of the world, of life, of culture and of history.[53]
Schools form students within their own culture for
which they teach an appreciation of its positive elements and strive to help
them foster the further inculturation of the Gospel in their own
situation. Yet they must also, when
appropriate according to the students’ age, be critical and evaluative. It is the Catholic faith which provides
Catholic educators with the essential principles for critique and evaluation.[54] Faith and culture are intimately related,
and students should be led, in ways suitable to their level of intellectual
development, to grasp the importance of this relationship. “We must always remember that, while faith
is not to be identified with any one culture and is independent of all
cultures, it must inspire every culture.”[55]
The educational philosophy guiding a Catholic school
also seeks to be a place where “faith, culture and life are brought into
harmony.”[56] Central to the Catholic school is its
mission of holiness, of saint making.
Mindful of redemption in Christ, the Catholic school aims at forming in
its pupils those particular virtues that will enable them to live a new life in
Christ and help them to play faithfully their part in building up the kingdom
of God. It strives to develop virtue
“by the integration of culture with faith and of faith with living.”[57] Taking the risk of being blunt, the
Congregation for Catholic Education has written that “the Catholic school tries
to create within its walls a climate in which the pupil’s faith will gradually
mature and enable him to assume the responsibility placed on him by Baptism.”[58]
A primary, but hardly only, way of guiding students to
becoming committed Catholics, as we have discussed in emphasizing the
importance of an integrated curriculum, is providing solid religious
instruction. To be sure, “education in
the faith is a part of the finality of a Catholic school.”[59] For young Catholics, such instruction
embraces both knowledge of the faith and fostering its practice.[60] Still, we must always take special care to
avoid thinking that a Catholic school’s distinctiveness rests solely on the
shoulders of its religious education program.
Such a position fosters the misunderstanding that faith and life are
divorced, that religion is a merely private affair with neither a specific
content nor moral obligations.
5. Sustained by the Witness of Teaching
Lastly I would like to close with a few observations
about the vital role teachers play in ensuring a school’s Catholic identity. With them lies the primary responsibility for
creating a unique Christian school climate, as individuals and as a community.[61] Indeed, “it depends chiefly on them whether
the Catholic school achieves its purpose.”[62] Consequently the Holy See’s documents pay
considerable attention to the vocation of teachers and their specific
participation in the Church’s mission.
Theirs is a calling and not simply the exercise of a profession.[63]
In a word, those involved in Catholic schools, with
very few exceptions, should be practising Catholics committed to the Church and
living her sacramental life. Despite
the difficulties involved–which you know all too well–it is, I believe, a
serious mistake to be anything other than “rigorists” about the personnel
hired. The Catholic school system in
Ontario, Canada, where I was raised, when pressured by public authorities for
what they regarded as reasonable accommodations, relaxed this requirement for a
time. The result was disastrous. With the influx of non-Catholic teachers,
many schools ended up by seriously compromising their Catholic identity. Children absorbed, even if they were not
taught, a soft indifferentism which sustained neither their practice of the
faith nor their ability to imbue society with authentically Christian
values. Principals, pastors, trustees
and parents share, therefore, in the serious duty of hiring teachers who meet
the standards of doctrine and integrity of life essential to maintaining and
advancing a school’s Catholic identity.
We need teachers with a clear and precise
understanding of the specific nature and role of Catholic education. The careful hiring of men and women who
enthusiastically endorse a Catholic ethos is, I would maintain, the primary way
to foster a school’s catholicity. The
reason for such concern about teachers is straightforward. Catholic education is strengthened by its
“martyrs.” Like the early Church, it is
built up through the shedding of their blood.
Those of us who are, or have been, teachers know all about that. But I am speaking here about “martyrs” in
the original sense of “witnesses.”
As well as fostering a Catholic view across throughout
the curriculum, even in so-called secular subjects, “if students in Catholic
schools are to gain a genuine experience of the Church, the example of teachers
and others responsible for their formation is crucial: the witness of adults in
the school community is a vital part of the school’s identity.”[64] Children will pick up far more by example
than by masterful pedagogical techniques, especially in the practice of
Christian virtues.
Educators at every level in the Church are expected to
be models for their students by bearing transparent witness to the Gospel. If boys and girls are to experience the
splendor of the Church, the Christian example of teachers and others
responsible for their formation is crucial.
The prophetic words of Pope Paul VI ring as true today
as they did thirty years ago: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses
than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are
witnesses.”[65] What teachers do and how they act are more
significant than what they say–inside and outside the classroom. That’s how the Church evangelizes. “The more
completely an educator can give concrete witness to the model of the ideal
person [Christ] that is being presented to the students, the more this ideal
will be believed and imitated.”[66] Hypocrisy particularly turns off today’s
students. While their demands are high,
perhaps sometimes even unreasonably so, there is no avoiding the fact that if
teachers fail to model fidelity to the truth and virtuous behavior, then even
the best of curricula cannot successfully embody a Catholic school’s
distinctive ethos.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to repeat what, I hope,
has become obvious. The Holy See,
through its documents and interventions, whether of the Pope or of other
Vatican offices, sees in Catholic schools an enormous heritage and an
indispensable instrument in carrying out the Church’s mission in the third
Christian millennium. Ensuring their
genuinely Catholic identity is the Church’s greatest challenge. Complementing the irreplaceable role of
parents in ensuring the education of their children, such schools, which should
be available to all, build up the community of believers, evangelize culture
and serve the common good of society.
I would also like to commend your interest in
promoting authentically Catholic schools, especially for those of limited
economic means. Yours is a daunting
task. May the Lord who began this good
work in you bring it to completion!
ª J. Michael
Miller, CSB
Secretary
Congregation
for Catholic Education
[1] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic
School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 15.
[2] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gravissimum
Educationis , 9; cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, Consecrated
Persons and their Mission in Schools: Reflections and Guidelines, 70.
[3] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gravissimum
Educationis 3, 6; Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the
Rights of the Family (22 October 1983), nos. 1-3; cf. John Paul II, Familiaris
Consortio, ; Code of Canon Law, canon 793; Catechism of the Catholic
Church, n. 2229; John Paul II, Letter to Families, 16; Sacred
Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: , 12;
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace Compendium of the Social Doctrine
of the Church (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 2005), n. 239.
[4] Peter Redpath, “Foreword,” in Curtis L. Hancock, Recovering
a Catholic Philosophy of Elementary Education (Mount Pocono: Newman House
Press, 2005), 19.
[5] John Paul II, Letter to Families, 16.
[6] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 14; cf. Congregation for Catholic
Education, The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium,
16.
[7] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 13.
[8] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gravissimum
Educationis, 6; cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 793.2; Compendium of Social
Doctrine, n. 241.
[9] Cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 797.
[10] N. 241.
[11] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gravissimum
Educationis, intro.; cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 794.1.
[12] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gravissimum
Educationis, 3.
[13] Cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 796; cf. Sacred
Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 8.
[14] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic
School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 11; cf Sacred Congregation
for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 9; Congregation for
Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic
School , 33.
[15] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic
School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 15.
[16] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious
Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 44.
[17] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic
School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 12.
[18] Cf. The Catholic School, 72; Congregation for
Bishops, Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops (Vatican City:
Vatican Press, 2004), 133.
[19] John Paul II, Ad limina Address to American
Bishops, 28 October 1983, 7.
[20] John Paul II, Ad limina Address to Bishops of
the United States, 24 June 2004, 1.
[21] Cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 11. See also the excellent study by Doormat A.
Lane, Catholic Education and the School: Some Theological Reflections
(Dublin: Varieties Publications, 1991).
[22] Cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 29.
[23] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gravissimum
Educationis, 8: “The Catholic school, while it is open, as it must be, to
the situation of the contemporary world, leads its students to promote
efficaciously the good of the earthly city and also prepares them for service
in the spread of the Kingdom of God, so that by leading an exemplary apostolic
life they become, as it were, a saving leaven in the human community.”
[24] Cf. Hancock, Recovering a Catholic Philosophy of
Education, 34. In a speech addressed to Catholic educators in New Orleans,
Pope John Paul II presented
“the pressing challenge of
clearly identifying the aims of Catholic education, and applying proper methods
in Catholic elementary and secondary education. . . . It is the challenge of fully understanding the educational
enterprise, of properly evaluating its content, and of transmitting the full
truth concerning the human person, created in God’s image and called to life in
Christ through the Holy Spirit” (Address to Catholic Educators, New
Orleans [12 September 1987], 7).
[25] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 18; cf. Congregation for Catholic
Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School,
63; Congregation for Catholic Education, Consecrated Persons and their
Mission in Schools: Reflections and Guidelines, 35.
[26] N. 22; cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 9.
[27] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 35.
[28] John Paul II, Message to the National Catholic Educational
Association of the United States (16 April 1979). Cf. “From the first moment that a student sets foot in a Catholic
school, he or she ought to have the impression of entering a new environment,
one illumined by the light of faith, and having its own unique
characteristics. The Council summed
this up by speaking of an environment permeated with the Gospel spirit of love
and freedom. In a Catholic school,
everyone should be aware of the living presence of Jesus the ‘Master’ who,
today as always, is with us in our journey through life as the one genuine
‘Teacher,’ the perfect Man in whom all human values find their fullest
perfection. The inspiration of Jesus
must be translated from the ideal into the real. The Gospel spirit should be evident in a Christian way of thought
and life which permeates all facets of the educational climate” (Congregation
for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic
School, 25).
[29] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 34.
[30] John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 43.
[31] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 22.
[32] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious
Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 31; cf. Congregation for
Catholic Education, The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third
Millennium, 18.
[33] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 41.
[34] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious
Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 40.
[35] Cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 78: “It must never be forgotten
that the school itself is always in the process of being created, due to the
labor brought to fruition by all those who have a role to play in it, and most
especially by those who are teachers.
To achieve the kind of participation that is desirable, several
conditions are indispensable: genuine esteem of the lay vocation, sharing the
information that is necessary, deep confidence, and, finally, when it should
become necessary, turning over the distinct responsibilities for teaching,
administration, and government of the school, to the laity.”
[36] Cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 42: “Close
cooperation with the family is especially important when treating sensitive
issues such as religious, moral, or sexual education, orientation toward a
profession, or a choice of one’s vocation in life. It is not a question of
convenience, but a partnership based on faith. Catholic tradition teaches that
God has bestowed on the family its own specific and unique educational mission”
(cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools:
Witnesses to Faith, 34).
[37] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic
School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 18.
[38] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 33.
[39] Congregation for Catholic Education, Consecrated
Persons and their Mission in Schools: Reflections and Guidelines, 62.
[40] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious
Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 27.
[41] Cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 17: “The integral formation of
the human person, which is the purpose of education, includes the development
of all the human faculties of the students, together with preparation for
professional life, formation of ethical and social awareness, becoming aware of
the transcendental, and religious education.
Every school, and every educator in the school, ought to be striving ‘to
form strong and responsible individuals, who are capable of making free and
correct choices,’ thus preparing young
people ‘to open themselves more and more to reality, and to form in themselves
a clear idea of the meaning of life’ (Sacred Congregation for Catholic
Education, The Catholic School, 31); cf. Sacred Congregation for
Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 3;
Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in
a Catholic School, 99.
[42] Cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 8, 26.
[43] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 29.
[44] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 55.
[45] Cf. Hancock, Recovering a Catholic Philosophy of
Elementary Education, 33-34, 100-105.
[46] R. Scott Appleby, “Catholicism as Comprehensive Way
of Life,” Origins, 32:22 (7 November 2002), 370.
[47] “Dry Salvages.”
[48] “Choruses from ‘The Rock’ 1934.”
[49] Hancock, Recovering a Catholic Philosophy of
Elementary Education, 77.
[50] John Paul II, Ad Limina Address to Bishops of
the United States (30 May 1998), 3.
[51] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 41.
[52] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious
Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 57.
[53] Cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic
School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 14.
[54] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 20.
[55] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious
Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 53.
[56] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious
Dimension of Education of a Catholic School, 34; cf. Sacred Congregation
for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 44.
[57] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 49; cf. 36.
[58] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 47; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gravissimum
Educationis, 8.
[59] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay
Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 43.
[60] Cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Catholic School, 50-51; Congregation for Catholic Education, The
Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 66-69.