New Vatican Document on Catholic Education: Be Faithful to Catholic Identity

The Vatican has issued a call to Catholic schools to actually BE Catholic. Will the administrators of many 'Catholic' schools read it and heed it?

From Everyday For Life Canada

A new Catholic document was recently released by the Congregation for Catholic Education in Instruction. It's called,  The Identity of a Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue, and a reminder that education which calls itself Catholic should be Catholic. No Catholic institution should engage in false advertising. Schools that promote themselves as Catholic ought to be Catholic. Having said that, the guideline is also too long, wordy and not specific enough for practical implementation.

The document does make clear that Church teaching views parents as as the primary educators of their children. This point is stated in other Church documents. This latest guide also adds the vague terms of dialogue and identity. 

The publication may be a sign that the Vatican has begun to see that Catholic education is failing to do what it claims to do. Does the document suggest practical ways to address the problem? The answer is yes and no. There is a recognition that without a sound faith formation a strong Catholic identity both in Church and schools will not result. As to how to correct the problem, little is offered.

In Ontario, parents who send their children to Catholic schools have no guarantee that they will get a Catholic education.Why? Because most of the curriculum in separate schools is the same as public schools. What can parents do when the curriculum contradicts the faith? What can parents do when teachers publicly object to fully teaching the religious program? What can schools do when students refuse to take religious programs and advocate for a radical sex-curriculum?

The document's answer: “it is necessary for every educational apostolate of Christian inspiration to obtain concrete recognition on the part of the competent ecclesiastical authority. In this way, the faithful are guaranteed that the school of their choice provides a Catholic education.” Good. But what happens when "ecclesiastical authority" remain silent in the face of violations against the Catholic faith? The document has no response to the question. And this what faithful parents, teachers and students need an answer to. 

Will the bishops of Ontario call out the separate schools or boards which are not adhering to a faithful Catholic identity? The document does say that the bishops have this responsibility to guard and protect Catholic education but in practise this seldom happens. Parents who do push back are too often left to make the case on their own. If the document was truly serious about protecting Catholic identity, it would clearly instruct the bishops, not only to intervene, but when to do so, as well as spell out some of the consequences.

We conclude with this example. In 1897, Manitoba passed legislation to integrate Catholic instruction with public schools. Pope Leo XIII, at the time responded to what has become known as the Manitoba School Question, with these strong words:

The question at issue is assuredly one of the highest and most serious importance. The decisions arrived at seven years ago on the school question by the Parliament of the province of Manitoba must be remembered. The Act of Union of the Confederation had secured to Catholics the right to be educated in the public schools according to their consciences; and yet this right the Parliament of Manitoba abolished by a contrary law. This is a noxious law. For our children cannot go for instruction to schools which either ignore or of set purpose combat the Catholic religion, or in which its teachings are despised and its fundamental principles repudiated. Wherever the Church has allowed this to be done, it has only been with pain and through necessity, at the same time surrounding her children with many safeguards which, nevertheless it has been too often recognized have been insufficient to cope successfully with the danger attending it.

Would this happen today? This is the Pope defending Catholic education in Canada and the world. And he did so by writing an encyclical titled, Affari Vos, to the government and the bishops. The entire encyclical is worth reading. Every Catholic in Canada should read it. 

The Pope's main point: "For our children cannot go for instruction to schools which either ignore or of set purpose combat the Catholic religion, or in which its teachings are despised and its fundamental principles repudiated" is just as valid in today. So the question remains, how Catholic are the separate schools? Care to share your thoughts?