Faithful Catholic Colleges ‘Vitally Important,’ says Senior Director at Word on Fire

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Sean Lee

A leader in an apostolate that is reaching millions of Catholics and drawing them into—or back into—the Catholic faith believes that faithful Catholic colleges are “vitally important” in forming strong Catholics.

Sean Lee, senior director of operations at Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, explains that “College is a crucial time for students to form strong friendships, learn how to engage with ideas and to deepen their relationship with Christ. Faithful Catholic colleges are the best place to do that.”

The Cardinal Newman Society recently asked Lee about his experience at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Fla., which is recognized in The Newman Guide, and how it prepared him for the work he does today.

CNS: Can you tell us about your experience at Ave Maria University?

Sean Lee: My experience was tremendous. I am a cradle Catholic and went through the public school system prior to attending Ave Maria. By the time I was ready for college, I was drifting away from my faith, and so Ave Maria served as a very important pivot moment in my life. It was at Ave Maria where I met some of my closest friends, friends who showed me what a relationship with Christ looks like. I was taught by an incredible faculty who really cared about forming us in the intellectual tradition of the Church. I was afforded the opportunity to play sports and study abroad in Rome, two experiences that really shaped me in profound ways. In short, Ave Maria changed my life, it gave me life-long friendships, it provided me with a strong foundation for my future work and it allowed me to encounter and deepen my relationship with Christ. I’m forever grateful.

CNS: How did your education at Ave Maria help prepare you for the work you do at Word on Fire?

Sean Lee: It was critical. The liberal arts education Ave Maria provided has been a bedrock for so much that I have done and do at Word on Fire. Being able to think critically about ideas and issues has been very important in my work.

CNS: Word on Fire is about drawing people into or back into the Catholic faith. What are some exciting projects underway at Word on Fire?

Sean Lee: Where to start! We continue to work on the Word on Fire Bible and will soon be launching volume three of seven. Plans are underway for our second Wonder Conference which focuses on the intersection of Faith and Science, a topic that’s so important with an increasingly secularized culture. Bishop Barron, of course, will continue so many of his evangelical initiatives, all the while modeling a way for Catholics to engage with the culture. There are a lot of exciting talks, shows, and videos we are planning for Bishop Barron that I’m really excited about. As important as it is to form our young students in the faith, it’s just as important to provide opportunities to adults with faith formation. In that vein, I’m excited about the future of the Word on Fire Institute, where we plan to transform it into an engaging community that equips individuals through its courses to become modern day evangelists. Those are just a few of so many projects we’re working on.

CNS: What role do you see faithful Catholic colleges playing in forming strong Catholics?

Sean Lee: They are vitally important, especially in this increasingly secular world. College is a crucial time for students to form strong friendships, learn how to engage with ideas, and deepen their relationship with Christ. Faithful Catholic colleges are the best place to do that. Many of our staff members come from Newman schools, and we’re very blessed to have them. They are well educated and very motivated by the missionary work of Word on Fire. We need more of them!

Newman Guide Colleges Can Help Students Find ‘Holy Spouses,’ Says Author

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A Catholic author who studied how saints met their spouses believes that attending a Newman Guide college can “increase one’s odds to find a holy spouse.”

Patrick O’Hearn just released a book titled, Courtship of the Saints: How the Saints Met their Spouses. O’Hearn earned his Master of Science in Education at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, and served as acquisitions editor at TAN Books for the last two years.

The Cardinal Newman Society asked O’Hearn how his book can inspire young Catholics today, and the value he sees in students attending a college recognized in The Newman Guide.

CNS: Can you tell us about your new book, Courtship of the Saints: How the Saints Met their Spouses?

Patrick O’Hearn

Patrick O’Hearn: Courtship of the Saints is a book filled with some of the most fascinating stories of how various saintly couples met their spouses. In this work, I was able to interview St. Gianna’s daughter, reveal details in English for the first time concerning Pope St. John Paul II’s parents (now on the path to sainthood), and countless other beautiful couples.

Before I share these couples’ stories, I define what courtship is through the clear teachings of Venerable Fulton Sheen and Father Chad Ripperger. At the end of the book, I include wisdom for those discerning marriage, those already married, and a plethora of beautiful prayers.  This is not just a book for those discerning marriage, but even those married will see that the saints were the greatest lovers in the history of the world.

CNS: How can the 25 saintly couples that you feature in your book inspire young Catholics today?

Patrick O’Hearn: We need to set the bar on courtship and marriage, especially in a time of moral confusion. God calls some men and women to Himself. These souls will spend years preparing for the priesthood and final vows in religious life, and yet, many preparing for marriage spend little time striving for their vocation.  How one prepares for their marriage can likely influence how one lives out his or her marriage.

Furthermore, these 25 couples offer a glimpse into God’s love for His Spouse, the Church. In these stories, we see a love that is passionate and sacrificial.  For that reason, these stories are better than any romantic novel, for they return to the source of love itself, God.

CNS: The college years are often so critical in determining much of the faith and future of a young person’s life. What value do you see in attending a Newman Guide college, not only to prepare for a career, but also for students who are called to the married life?

Patrick O’Hearn: Our first vocation is to be holy. How we live out that vocation (as a priest, consecrated religious, or married) is our second most important calling. Often, young people are so focused on pursuing their occupation rather than their vocation. Our occupation is always at the service of our vocation. The key is to let God reveal our vocation by being open to His will, but also putting ourselves in the best possible places to hear His will. Just as there is the near occasion of sin, there is something on the flip side. The near occasion of grace. That being said, attending a Newman Guide college with its promotion of the sacramental life, faithfulness to the Magisterium, and flowering of Catholic culture increases grace in one’s soul, but also increases one’s odds to find a holy spouse. You are more likely to find a holy spouse at daily Mass than you will at a bar. You are more likely to find a holy spouse sitting in a theology class than sitting in a class on LGBT studies.

CNS: How did your time at Franciscan University of Steubenville earning your master’s degree help prepare you for both writing this book, and your work at TAN books?

Patrick O’Hearn: My time as a graduate student at Franciscan University of Steubenville opened my eyes to the longing on every heart for love. Having served as a resident assistant at Franciscan, I saw so many men who were afraid to pursue women, and so many women who wanted to be pursued. Through my own sufferings, rejections, and disappointments, I believe God prepared me to write this book to give hope to so many people that our God is the “Greatest Matchmaker.” His Divine Providence works mysteriously, but powerfully. We do not know the road ahead of us, but Our Lord and Our Lady walk with us each step of the way.

CNS: Anything else you’d like to add?

Patrick O’Hearn: I would like to say “trust” in God.  I spent so many years worrying about my future vocation. Now more than ever, I realize the Father is carrying us in His arms. He longs for our love. He wants to bless us, and this blessing might come in the way of sufferings and trials. But through these challenges, God is perfecting us. Trust Him… whether it is attending an authentic Catholic school that might hurt the budget, or trust Him when you are worried about meeting your spouse. God is faithful.

The Call to Lead: Church Guidance for Catholic Educational Leaders

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Click here for PDF
 
 
PowerPoint overview of The Call to Lead
 

The Call to Lead

Church Guidance for Catholic Educational Leaders

Denise L. Donohue, Ed.D., and Daniel P. Guernsey, Ed.D.

 

About The Call to Lead

The original version of The Call to Lead was co-written in 2018 by Dr. Denise Donohue, vice president for educator resources and evaluation at The Cardinal Newman Society, and Dr. Daniel Guernsey, senior fellow and education policy editor at The Cardinal Newman Society, with input from Dr. Jamie F. Arthur. This significantly revised version was written by Drs. Guernsey and Donohue. This edition adds quotes from the most recent documents from the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education and sets of reflective questions. A facilitator guide and PowerPoint slides are available at cardinalnewmansociety.org

 

Summary: The Church encourages her educational leaders to view their executive position as a mission-focused vocation in service to Christ and to families. This vocation requires spiritual and professional formation anchored in personal witness to a life of faith. This booklet presents selections from Church documents to offer guidance and encouragement to educational leaders, in a readily accessible format. The selections are organized around five themes: Answering the Call, Fulfilling the Mission, Spiritual Formation, Professional Formation, and Personal Witness.

 

Introduction

The Call to Lead considers key aspects of leadership in Catholic education drawn from Church documents focused primarily on the role of Catholic school principal or headmaster. This guidance, however, will also aid other academic and program leaders, higher education leaders, directors and trustees, and diocesan officials who oversee Catholic education.

Throughout much of the history of America’s Catholic schools, diocesan priests and various men’s and women’s religious congregations guided a school’s culture, identity, and mission. Clergy and religious held most full-time administrative and faculty positions and integrated religious education and practices to ensure strong Catholic identity.

In the years following the Second Vatican Council, American Catholic education experienced a steady transition to lay teachers and leaders. By 2016, less than 3 percent of full-time professional staff were clergy and religious. The new challenge of properly forming lay teachers and leaders has made it necessary for the Church to discern and prescribe school leadership qualities previously assumed by clergy and religious. Within the last 60 years, the Church has issued several documents explaining how the school leader upholds and advances the mission of Catholic education.

Nevertheless, many school leaders today are unaware of this guidance, and its implementation is inconsistent across dioceses in the U.S. Increasing awareness of the Church’s vision for Catholic education is one of the goals of The Cardinal Newman Society.

The role of the Catholic principal as faith leader was highlighted in Sharing the Light of Faith (USCCB, 1977). The bishops elaborated on the relationship among Catholic identity, administrative leadership, and ways for realizing the Church’s mission for Catholic education.

Documents in the late 1980s began to highlight the ecclesial, spiritual, and pastoral dimensions of school leadership required of the laity who were now more involved in executive roles within Catholic schools:

The lay Catholic educator is a person who exercises a specific mission within the Church by living, in faith, a secular vocation in the communitarian structure of the school: with the best possible professional qualifications, with an apostolic intention inspired by faith, for the integral formation of the human person, in a communication of culture, in an exercise of that pedagogy which will give emphasis to direct and personal contact with students, giving spiritual inspiration to the educational community of which he or she is a member, as well as to all the different persons related to the educational community. To this lay person, as a member of this community, the family and the Church entrust the school’s educational endeavor. (Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, n. 24)

The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School (1988) elaborated on guidelines for Catholic education, acknowledged the movement of laity into leadership positions, and encouraged the development of formation programs necessary to ensure that administrators obtain training comparable to religious. Research highlighted the urgent need for programs to prepare Catholic school administrators and the shortage of educational leaders who understood the concepts of theological and spiritual leadership.

From the late 1990s, Church documents emphasized the relationship between faithful Catholic leadership and Catholic identity, expressed the need for preparation and formation, and linked those who served in these positions to the long-term viability of Catholic education. It had become clear that Catholic educational leaders needed to be experienced in the professional dimension. Still, even more critically, they needed to have an understanding and commitment to the Church’s expectations for Catholic education.

At the turn of the century, the Congregation for Catholic Education acknowledged the critical role of lay administrators in evangelization, building Christian community, and pastoral care in the document The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium. And eight years later, referring to a “crisis in education,” the Congregation expressed the need to prepare Catholic educational leaders in Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium (2005):

The preparation and ongoing formation of new administrators and teachers is vital if our schools are to remain truly Catholic in all aspects of school life. Catholic school personnel should be grounded in a faith-based Catholic culture, have strong bonds to Christ and the Church, and be witnesses to the faith in both their words and actions. (p. 9)

This was repeated in Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 address to Catholic educators in the United States:

Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual, or spiritual.

In 2015, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops identified leadership as a priority for the future of Catholic education:

Clarity of vision and strong leaders formed in the faith are critical to establishing a rich Catholic culture in the Catholic school. Being academically excellent is critical and necessary, but not sufficient. The schools, whether primary and secondary or colleges and universities, must be fully Catholic. Formation of this kind would include pastors, administrators, teachers, and all those serving in the Catholic schools. Faith formation that includes individual formation in prayer, sacramental life, Scripture, doctrine, and knowledge of the nature and purpose of Catholic education would appear to be component parts of the formation of future leaders and teachers.

Some dioceses have established foundations that pay for formation of leaders and teachers during the school year. Other dioceses have partnerships with diocesan programs, associations, academic institutes, and Catholic higher education to offer formation and education to teachers and staff. Bishops and pastors should be actively engaged in identifying and forming present and future leaders in the schools.

Some dioceses have established certificate and degree programs for future administrators and superintendents. Creating interest and incentive in education for the future is critical to long-term viability and success of the colleges, universities, and schools. In addition to programs of training, there should be an intentional and particular emphasis on the sacramental and spiritual lives of the future leaders. (USCCB Response to Educating Today and Tomorrow, n. III., B., a.)

In 2019, the Congregation for Catholic Education issued ‘Male and Female He Created Them’: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education to guide school leaders in confronting gender ideology, which holds that gender can be separated from biological sex. This document makes explicit the responsibility of all individuals working in Catholic education, not just teachers, to advance the mission and Christian principles, especially as evidenced by personal witness:

School managers, teaching staff, and personnel all share the responsibility of both guaranteeing delivery of a high-quality service coherent with the Christian principles that lie at the heart of their educational project, as well as interpreting the challenges of their time while giving the daily witness of their understanding, objectivity, and prudence. (48)

The importance of Catholic educational leaders, especially in close collaboration with their schools’ pastors, is highlighted in the 2020 release of The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue. In this document, school leaders and teachers are identified as having an ecclesiastical munus (or “office,” a Canon law term) (45) – something not seen before from the Congregation. This document conveys a tightening of the relationship between those who work in Catholic schools and their bishops.

Catholic leaders must be adept not only in operations, curriculum, and management but also strengthening Catholic identity by building a Catholic culture and community, fostering faith development, and integrating the Church’s traditions and doctrinal practices into all aspects of school life. Without this intense spiritual dimension, Catholic education would only mirror secular private education and fall short of fulfilling its divine mission of evangelization and sanctification.

Most of the Vatican’s documents on Catholic education focus primarily on teachers, but they still have relevance to educational leaders. Therefore, we also recommend our companion document, The Call to Teach: Church Guidance to Catholic Teachers, which can help any Catholic educator grow in understanding and appreciation of the great work before them.

 

I

Answering the Call

Overview

Leaders in Catholic education, called by God and led by the spirit of the Gospel, work for the sanctification of the world.[1] Their work is not just a profession, but a vocation, a calling to the apostolate of Catholic education.[2] Each leader must be fully aware of the importance and the responsibility of this vocation and fully respond to its demands, secure in the knowledge that their response is vital for the construction and ongoing renewal of the earthly city and the evangelization of the world.[3]

This vocational aspect requires each leader to live in faith within the communal nature of the school. As educational leaders who serve the Church, they operate in a type of ministerial function under the direction of the hierarchy[4] and participate in the threefold ministry of Christ: to teach doctrine, to build community, and to serve. This is the most effective means available to the Church for the education of children and young people.[5]

Catholic school leaders should exercise an apostolic intention inspired by faith to pursue the integral formation of the human person.[6] Through faith, they will find an unfailing source of the humility, hope, and charity needed to persevere in their work. Catholic school leaders make Christ known to others: students, teachers, families, and all those associated with the school.[7] This vocation to Catholic education demands special qualities of mind and heart, careful preparation, and continued readiness to renew and to adapt.[8]

Citations

Gravissimum Educationis (1965)

Beautiful indeed and of great importance is the vocation of all those who aid parents in fulfilling their duties and who, as representatives of the human community, undertake the task of education in schools. This vocation demands special qualities of mind and heart, very careful preparation, and continuing readiness to renew and to adapt. (n. 5)

Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982)

This call to personal holiness and to apostolic mission is common to all believers; but there are many cases in which the life of a lay person takes on specific characteristics which transform this life into a specific “wonderful” vocation within the Church. The laity “seeks the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God.” They live in the midst of the world’s activities and professions, and in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life; and there they are called by God so that by exercising their proper function and being led by the spirit of the Gospel they can work for the sanctification of the world from within, in the manner of leaven. In this way they can make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope, and charity. (n. 7)

One specific characteristic of the educational profession assumes its most profound significance in the Catholic educator: the communication of truth. For the Catholic educator, whatever is true is a participation in Him who is the Truth; the communication of truth, therefore, as a professional activity, is thus fundamentally transformed into a unique participation in the prophetic mission of Christ, carried on through one’s teaching. (n. 16)

And if there is no trace of Catholic identity in the education, the educator can hardly be called a Catholic educator. Some of the aspects of this living out of one’s identity are common and essential; they must be present no matter what the school is in which the lay educator exercises his or her vocation. (n. 25)

A Vocation, rather than a Profession: The work of a lay educator has an undeniably professional aspect; but it cannot be reduced to professionalism alone. Professionalism is marked by, and raised to, a super-natural Christian vocation. The life of the Catholic teacher must be marked by the exercise of a personal vocation in the Church, and not simply by the exercise of a profession. In a lay vocation, detachment and generosity are joined to legitimate defense of personal rights; but it is still a vocation, with the fullness of life and the personal commitment that the word implies. It offers ample opportunity for a life filled with enthusiasm. It is, therefore, very desirable that every lay Catholic educator become fully aware of the importance, the richness, and the responsibility of this vocation. They should fully respond to all of its demands, secure in the knowledge that their response is vital for the construction and ongoing renewal of the earthly city, and for the evangelization of the world. (n. 37)

… laity should participate authentically in the responsibility for the school; this assumes that they have the ability that is needed in all areas, and are sincerely committed to the educational objectives which characterize a Catholic school. And the school should use every means possible to encourage this kind of commitment; without it, the objectives of the school can never be fully realized. It must never be forgotten that the school itself is always in the process of being created, due to the labour brought to fruition by all those who have a role to play in it, and most especially by those who are teachers. (n. 78)

Above all else, lay Catholics will find support in their own faith. Faith is the unfailing source of the humility, the hope, and the charity needed for perseverance in their vocation. (nos. 72-79)

Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful (2007)

Just as a consecrated person is called to testify his or her specific vocation to a life of communion in love so as to be in the scholastic community a sign, a memorial, and a prophecy of the values of the Gospel, so too a lay educator is required to exercise a specific mission within the Church by living, in faith, a secular vocation in the communitarian structure of the school. (n. 15)

Organized according to the diversities of persons and vocations, but vivified by the same spirit of communion, the educational community of the Catholic school aims at creating increasingly deeper relationships of communion that are in themselves educational. Precisely in this, it expresses the variety and beauty of the various vocations and the fruitfulness at educational and pedagogical levels that this contributes to the life of the school. (n. 37)

USCCB Response to Instrumentum Laboris: Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2015)

Amidst the persistent call for ongoing formation, there was an emerging sense of the vocation of Catholic school leaders, almost an awakening of the apostolate for administrators, teachers, board members, and pastors. Catholic education is not just a job, it is a vocation. A school’s Catholic identity depends on effective leader formation. Competent and capable leaders are able to address other needs like finance, governance, and recruitment. Faith filled Catholic leaders keep Catholic identity strong, set a positive tone, and bring the community together. Catholic school leaders need to see themselves as part of the mission and respond to the call for co-responsibility and collaboration. These men and women need to take their own faith journey seriously. (p. 11)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. What is the nature of the call to Catholic educational
    leadership? What is being asked?
  2. How is Catholic educational leadership “a vocation,
    rather than a profession”?

Discussion

  1. What are the “special qualities of mind and heart”
    required of a Catholic school leader?
  2. What are some challenges to accepting the call to the
    vocation of a Catholic educational leader?

Application

  1. When and how did I hear the call to Catholic leadership?
  2. How can I more fully integrate my spiritual life into my daily work?

 

II

Fulfilling the Mission

Overview

The ultimate goal of Catholic education is transmitting clearly and fully the message of salvation, which elicits the response of faith.[9] By enriching students’ lives with the fullness of Christ’s message and inviting them to Christ, educators promote most effectively the students’ integral human development and build a community of truth, faith, hope, and love.[10]

 Leaders must be committed to Catholic identity and mission. All who are responsible for Catholic education must keep sight of the mission and apostolic value of their work so that schools enjoy the conditions in which to accomplish their mission of pursuing the individual good of the student (specifically their salvation) and service to the common good.

Leaders in Catholic education, filled with deep conviction, joy, and a spirit of sacrifice,[11] share in this mission. They constitute an element of great hope for the Church, for they are entrusted with the “integral human formation and the faith education of young people… who will determine whether the world of tomorrow is more closely or more loosely bound to Christ.”[12] As members of the People of God, united to Christ through Baptism, they work not for a mere employer, but for the Body of Christ, carrying out the mission of the Redeemer.[13]

Their role is to imbue their students with the spirit of Christ, striving to excel in pedagogy and the pursuit of knowledge in such a way that they advance the internal renewal of the Church and preserve and enhance its influence upon the modern world.[14] By accepting and developing a legacy of Catholic thought and educational experience, they take their place as full partners in the Church’s mission of educating the whole person and of transmitting the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ to successive generations.[15]

Citations

Gravissimum Educationis (1965)

The sacred synod earnestly entreats young people themselves to become aware of the importance of the work of education and to prepare themselves to take it up, especially where because of a shortage of teachers the education of youth is in jeopardy. This same sacred synod, while professing its gratitude to priests, religious men and women, and the laity who by their evangelical self-dedication are devoted to the noble work of education and of schools of every type and level, exhorts them to persevere generously in the work they have undertaken and, imbuing their students with the spirit of Christ, to strive to excel in pedagogy and the pursuit of knowledge in such a way that they not merely advance the internal renewal of the Church but preserve and enhance its beneficent influence upon today’s world, especially the intellectual world. (Conclusion)

The Catholic School (1977)

If all who are responsible for the Catholic school would never lose sight of their mission and the apostolic value of their teaching, the school would enjoy better conditions in which to function in the present and would faithfully hand on its mission to future generations. They themselves, moreover, would most surely be filled with a deep conviction, joy, and spirit of sacrifice in the knowledge that they are offering innumerable young people the opportunity of growing in faith, of accepting and living its precious principles of truth, charity, and hope. (n. 87)

Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982)

The lay Catholic working in a school is, along with every Christian, a member of the People of God. As such, united to Christ through Baptism, he or she shares in the basic dignity that is common to all members. For, “they share a common dignity from their rebirth in Christ. They have the same filial grace and the same vocation to perfection. They possess in common one salvation, one hope, and one undivided charity.” Although it is true that, in the Church, “by the will of Christ, some are made teachers, dispensers of mysteries and shepherds on behalf of others, yet all share a true equality with regard to the dignity and to the activity common to all the faithful for the building up of the Body of Christ.” Every Christian, and therefore also every lay person, has been made a sharer in “the priestly, prophetic, and kingly functions of Christ,” and their apostolate “is a participation in the saving mission of the Church itself… All are commissioned to that apostolate by the Lord Himself.” (n. 6)

There are times in which the Bishops will take advantage of the availability of competent lay persons who wish to give clear Christian witness in the field of education, and will entrust them with complete direction of Catholic schools, thus incorporating them more closely into the apostolic mission of the Church. (n. 46)

Lay Catholic educators in schools, whether teachers, directors, administrators, or auxiliary staff, must never have any doubts about the fact that they constitute an element of great hope for the Church. The Church puts its trust in them entrusting them with the task of gradually bringing about an integration of temporal reality with the Gospel, so that the Gospel can thus reach into the lives of all men and women. More particularly, it has entrusted them with the integral human formation and the faith education of young people. These young people are the ones who will determine whether the world of tomorrow is more closely or more loosely bound to Christ. (n. 81)

When [the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education] considers the tremendous evangelical resource embodied in the millions of lay Catholics who devote their lives to schools, it recalls the words with which the Second Vatican Council ended its Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, and “earnestly entreats in the Lord that all lay persons give a glad, generous, and prompt response to the voice of Christ, who is giving them an especially urgent invitation at this moment; …they should respond to it eagerly and magnanimously… and, recognizing that what is His is also their own (Phil 2, 5), to associate themselves with Him in His saving mission… Thus they can show that they are His co-workers in the various forms and methods of the Church’s one apostolate, which must be constantly adapted to the new needs of the times. May they always abound in the works of God, knowing that they will not labour in vain when their labour is for Him (cf. I Cor 15, 58).” (n. 82)

American Apostolic Journey to the United States of American and Canada, Meeting with the Representatives of Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools and Leaders in Religious Education, Address of His Holiness John Paul II (1987)

In recent years, thousands of lay people have come forward as administrators and teachers in the Church’s schools and educational programs. By accepting and developing the legacy of Catholic thought and educational experience which they have inherited, they take their place as full partners in the Church’s mission of educating the whole person and of transmitting the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ to successive generations of young Americans. Even if they do not “teach religion,” their service in a Catholic school or educational program is part of the Church’s unceasing endeavor to lead all to profess the truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head (Eph. 4, 15). (n. 4)

For a Catholic educator, the Church should not be looked upon merely as an employer. The Church is the Body of Christ, carrying on the mission of the Redeemer throughout history. It is our privilege to share in that mission, to which we are called by the grace of God and in which we are engaged together. (n. 4)

The ultimate goal of all Catholic education is salvation in Jesus Christ. Catholic educators effectively work for the coming of Christ’s Kingdom; this work includes transmitting clearly and in full the message of salvation, which elicits the response of faith. In faith we know God, and the hidden purpose of his will (Cfr. Eph. 1, 9). In faith we truly come to know ourselves. By sharing our faith, we communicate a complete vision of the whole of reality and a commitment to truth and goodness. This vision and this commitment draw the strands of life into a purposeful pattern. By enriching your student’s lives with the fullness of Christ’s message and by inviting them to accept with all their hearts Christ’s work, which is the Church, you promote most effectively their integral human development and you help them to build a community of faith, hope and love. (n. 8)

Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium (2013)

I want to emphasize that what I am trying to express here has a programmatic significance and important consequences. I hope that all communities will devote the necessary effort to advancing along the path of pastoral and missionary conversion which cannot leave things as they presently are. ‘Mere administration’ can no longer be enough. Throughout the world, let us be ‘permanently in a state of mission.’ (par. 25)

Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2014)

School heads must be leaders who make sure that education is a shared and living mission, who support and organize teachers, who promote mutual encouragement and assistance. (n. III., 1. b.)

USCCB Response to Instrumentum Laboris: Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2015)

We need Catholic educators that are strong leaders committed to Catholic identity and mission. They were described as truly Catholic, well-formed in faith and morals, active in the faith, and involved in parish life. (p. 11)

Hiring for mission is essential to the future success of Catholic schools. School administrators, teachers, coaches, and staff need to be thoroughly evangelized and living vibrant Christian lives. This atmosphere begins with formation of leaders in school; principals need encouragement in personal faith formation and in encouraging faculty and staff in their faith formation. Catholic education is about making sure we do everything we can to form and educate the future leaders in our Church and society. Training for teachers in an integrated curriculum is part of Catholic identity in the schools. (p. 13)

The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue (2022)

The educational role of teachers is associated with that of school leaders. ‘School leaders are more than just managers of an organization. They are true educational leaders when they are the first to take on this responsibility, which is also an ecclesial and pastoral mission rooted in a relationship with the Church’s pastors.’ (49)

A further responsibility of the school leadership is the promotion and protection of its ties with the Catholic community, which is realized through communion with the Church hierarchy. Indeed, the ‘ecclesial nature of Catholic schools, which is inscribed in the very heart of their identity as schools, is the reason for the institutional link they keep with the Church hierarchy, which guarantees that the instruction and education be grounded in the principles of the Catholic faith and imparted by teachers of right doctrine and probity of life” (cf. Can. 803 CIC; Can. 632 and 639 CCEO). (50)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. What are some of the roles and responsibilities of a
    Catholic school leader who works to fulfill the mission of Catholic education?
  2. What is the school leader’s relationship to the ecclesial body of the Church?

Discussion

  1. Why is hiring for mission important, and how well does your school do this?
  2. How might you respond to the challenges that “‘Mere administration’ can no longer be enough” and “Throughout the world, let us be ‘permanently in a state of mission’”? What does being “in a state of mission” look like?

Application

  1. How can I ensure that “education is a shared and living
    mission” in my school?
  2. How effective am I at creating an environment that
    transmits clearly and fully the message of salvation, which elicits the response of faith and enriches “students’ lives with the fullness of Christ’s message and …invit[es] them to accept with all their hearts Christ’s work”?

 

III

Spiritual Formation

Overview

Catholic education depends on strong leaders, well-formed in the faith,[16] who are committed to the Church’s vision for Catholic education. Through prayer, sacramental life, Scripture, doctrine, and knowledge of the nature and purpose of Catholic education, they cultivate their own spiritual formation and develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. These encounters awaken leaders’ love and open their spirits to others so that their educational commitment becomes a consequence of their faith, a faith that becomes active through love.

School leaders assume responsibility for the ecclesial and pastoral mission of Catholic education. As practicing Catholics in good standing, they understand and accept the teachings of the Church and the moral demands of the Gospel.[17] Their calling guides and shapes their commitment to the Church and the faith they profess. They participate simply and actively in the liturgical and sacramental life of the school and provide an example to others who find in them nourishment for Christian living.[18]

The Catholic educational leader provides spiritual inspiration for the school, the academic and cultural organizations with which the school comes in contact, the local Church, and the wider community.[19] Such inspiration will manifest itself in different forms of evangelization.[20]

Citations

Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982)

This calling, says the Second Vatican Council, speaking about educators, requires “extremely careful preparation” … The need for an adequate formation is often felt most acutely in religious and spiritual areas; all too frequently, lay Catholics have not had a religious formation that is equal to their general, cultural, and, most especially, professional formation. (n. 60)

The need for religious formation is related to this specific awareness that is being asked of lay Catholics; religious formation must be broadened and be kept up to date, on the same level as, and in harmony with, human formation as a whole. Lay Catholics need to be keenly aware of the need for this kind of religious formation; it is not only the exercise of an apostolate that depends on it, but even an appropriate professional competence, especially when the competence is in the field of education. (n. 62)

For the Catholic educator, religious formation does not come to an end with the completion of basic education; it must be a part of and a complement to one’s professional formation, and so be proportionate to adult faith, human culture, and the specific lay vocation. This means that religious formation must be oriented toward both personal sanctification and apostolic mission, for these are two inseparable elements in a Christian vocation. “Formation for apostolic mission means a certain human and well-rounded formation, adapted to the natural abilities and circumstances of each person” and requires “in addition to spiritual formation… solid doctrinal instruction… in theology, ethics and philosophy.” Nor can we forget, in the case of an educator, adequate formation in the social teachings of the Church, which are “an integral part of the Christian concept of life” and help to keep intensely alive the kind of social sensitivity that is needed. (n. 65)

The communitarian structure of the school brings the Catholic educator into contact with a wide and rich assortment of people; not only the students, who are the reason why the school and the teaching profession exist, but also with one’s colleagues in the work of education, with parents, with other personnel in the school, with the school directors. The Catholic educator must be a source of spiritual inspiration for each of these groups, as well as for each of the scholastic and cultural organizations that the school comes in contact with, for the local Church and the parishes, for the entire human ambience in which he or she is inserted and, in a variety of ways, should have an effect on. In this way, the Catholic educator is called to display that kind of spiritual inspiration which will manifest different forms of evangelization. (n. 23)

As a visible manifestation of the faith they profess and the life witness they are supposed to manifest, it is important that lay Catholics who work in a Catholic school participate simply and actively in the liturgical and sacramental life of the school. Students will share in this life more readily when they have concrete examples: when they see the importance that this life has for believers. In today’s secularized world, students will see many lay people who call themselves Catholics, but who never take part in liturgy or sacraments. It is very important that they also have the example of lay adults who take such things seriously, who find in them a source and nourishment for Christian living. (n. 40)

USCCB, Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord (2005)

Today in parishes, schools, Church institutions, and diocesan agencies, laity serve in various “ministries, offices and roles” that do not require sacramental ordination but rather “find their foundation in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, indeed, for a good many of them, in the Sacrament of Matrimony.” (p. 9)

The term “lay ecclesial minister” is generic. It is meant to encompass and describe several possible roles. In parish life—to cite only one sphere of involvement—the pastoral associate, parish catechetical leader, youth ministry leader, school principal, and director of liturgy or pastoral music are examples of such roles. (p. 11)

The ministry is ecclesial because it has a place within the community of the Church, whose communion and mission it serves, and because it is submitted to the discernment, authorization, and supervision of the hierarchy. Finally, it is ministry because it is a participation in the threefold ministry of Christ, who is priest, prophet, and king. ‘In this original sense the term ministry (servitium) expresses only the work by which the Church’s members continue the mission and ministry of Christ within her and the whole world.’ We apply the term ‘ministry’ to certain works undertaken by the lay faithful by making constant reference to one source, the ministry of Christ. (p. 11)

Their functions of collaboration with the ordained require of lay ecclesial ministers a special level of professional competence and presence to the community. Their position often involves coordinating and directing others in the community… For these reasons, their roles often require academic preparation, certification, credentialing, and a formation that integrates personal, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral dimensions. These lay ecclesial ministers often express a sense of being called. This sense motivates what they are doing, guiding and shaping a major life choice and commitment to Church ministry. (p. 12)

National Directory for Catechesis (2005)

Principals

The Catholic school is a center for evangelization; this, its catechetical program, is essential to its distinctly Catholic identity and character. It is “an active apostolate.” Therefore, the principal of a Catholic school must be a practicing Catholic in good standing who understands and accepts the teachings of the Church and moral demands of the Gospel. As a catechetical leader in the Catholic school, the principal is called to:

  • Recognize that all members of the faculty and staff “are an integral part of the process of religious education”;
  • Recruit teachers who are practicing Catholics, who can understand and accept the teachings of the Catholic Church and the moral demands of the Gospel, and who can contribute to the achievement of the school’s Catholic identity and apostolic goals;
  • Supervise, through observation and evaluation, the performance of each religion teacher;
  • Provide opportunities for ongoing catechesis of faculty members;
  • Design a curriculum that supports the school’s catechetical goals and, if the school is associated with a parish, the parish’s catechetical goals;
  • Develop goals for the implementation of an overall catechetical plan for the school, and periodically evaluate progress toward these goals;
  • Foster a distinctively Christian community among the faculty, students, and parents;
  • Provide, alongside the pastor, for the spiritual growth of the faculty;
  • Collaborate with parish, area, and diocesan personnel in planning and implementing programs of total parish catechesis. (n. 231)

Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful (2007)

For this reason, Catholic educators need a “formation of the heart”: they need to be led to that encounter with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their spirits to others, so that their educational commitment becomes a consequence deriving from their faith, a faith which becomes active through love (cf. Gal 5:6). In fact, even care for instruction means loving (Wis 6:17). It is only in this way that they can make their teaching a school of faith, that is to say, a transmission of the Gospel, as required by the educational project of the Catholic school. (n. 25)

The transmission of the Christian message through teaching implies a mastery of the knowledge of the truths of the faith and of the principles of spiritual life that require constant improvement. This is why both consecrated and lay educators of the Catholic school need to follow an opportune formational theological itinerary. Such an itinerary makes it easier to combine the understanding of faith with professional commitment and Christian action. Apart from their theological formation, educators need also to cultivate their spiritual formation in order to develop their relationship with Jesus Christ and become a Master like Him. In this sense, the formational journey of both lay and consecrated educators must be combined with the molding of the person towards greater conformity with Christ (cf. Rm 8:29) and of the educational community around Christ the Master. Moreover, the Catholic school is well aware that the community that it forms must be constantly nourished and compared with the sources from which the reason for its existence derives: the saving word of God in Sacred Scripture, in Tradition, above all liturgical and sacramental Tradition, enlightened by the Magisterium of the Church. (n. 26)

In the perspective of formation, by sharing their life of prayer and opportune forms of community life, the lay faithful and consecrated persons will nourish their reflection, their sense of fraternity, and generous dedication. In this common catechetical-theological and spiritual formational journey, we can see the face of a Church that presents that of Christ, praying, listening, learning, and teaching in fraternal communion. (n. 33)

It is also through their formational journey that educators are called on to build relationships at professional, personal, and spiritual levels, according to the logic of communion. For each one this involves being open, welcoming, disposed to a deep exchange of ideas, convivial and living a fraternal life within the educational community itself. (n. 35)

Circular Letter to the Presidents of Bishops’ Conferences on Religious Education in Schools (2009)

A form of education that ignores or marginalises the moral and religious dimension of the person is a hindrance to full education, because “children and young people have a right to be motivated to appraise moral values with a right conscience, to embrace them with a personal adherence, together with a deeper knowledge and love of God.” That is why the Second Vatican Council asked and recommended “all those who hold a position of public authority or who are in charge of education to see to it that youth is never deprived of this sacred right.” (n. 1)

Educating in Intercultural Dialogue in the Catholic school: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love (2013)

For those who occupy positions of leadership, there can be a strong temptation to consider the school like a company or business. However, schools that aim to be educating communities need those who govern them to be able to invoke the school’s reference values; they must then direct all the school’s professional and human resources in this direction. School leaders are more than just managers of an organization. They are true educational leaders when they are the first to take on this responsibility, which is also an ecclesial and pastoral mission rooted in a relationship with the Church’s pastors. (n. 85)

Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2014)

Spiritual poverty and declining cultural levels are starting to produce their dismal effects, even within Catholic schools. Often times, authoritativeness is being undermined. It is really not a matter of discipline—parents greatly appreciate Catholic schools because of their discipline—but do some Catholic school heads still have anything to say to students and their families? Is their authority based on formal rules or on the authoritativeness of their testimony? If we want to avert a gradual impoverishment, Catholic schools must be run by individuals and teams who are inspired by the Gospel, who have been formed in Christian pedagogy, in tune with Catholic schools’ educational project, and not by people who are prone to being seduced by fashionability, or by what can become an easier sell, to put it bluntly. (n. III.,1., a.)

USCCB Response to Instrumentum Laboris: Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2015)

Clarity of vision and strong leaders formed in the faith are critical to establishing a rich Catholic culture in the Catholic school. Being academically excellent is critical and necessary but not sufficient. The schools, whether primary and secondary, or colleges and universities, must be fully Catholic. Formation of this kind would include pastors, administrators, teachers, and all those serving in the Catholic school. Faith formation that includes individual formation in prayer, sacramental life, Scripture, doctrine, and knowledge of the nature and purpose of Catholic education would appear to be component parts of the formation of future leaders and teachers. (n. III., B., a.)

… In addition to programs of training, there should be an intentional and particular emphasis on the sacramental and spiritual lives of the future leaders. (p. 5)

The Congregation for Catholic Education has stated that, “Catholic schools are at the heart of the Church.” They are a vital aspect of the Church’s mission to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as such are important to the future and vitality of the Church in the United States. Because they are vital and important, it is critical to support new efforts to develop and form strong faith-filled leaders and teachers at the elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels of Catholic education. Faith formation for all involved in the mission of Catholic education is part of the New Evangelization. (p. 8)

Catholic schools depend on clarity of vision and strong leaders well formed in the faith, who are capable of establishing a rich Catholic culture in the schools. Consequently, training, both professional and spiritual, was lifted up as vitally important. Our schools need professionally prepared, competent leaders who can lead and inspire. (p. 10)

As principals, teachers, and administrators, they must know and live Catholic principles and morality. Their formation should be rooted in the vision of missionary discipleship as articulated by the Holy Father in Evangelii Gaudium. The bishops noted the significance of witness statements for Catholic teachers and administrators. It was Pope Paul VI that noted young people listen more to witnesses than to teachers, and if they listen to teachers, it is because they are also witnesses. In service to the New Evangelization the formation of school leaders and teachers must equip them to create an evangelizing culture. The schools should be centers for evangelization and catechesis. The formation of school leaders is foundational for a Catholic school. The bishops spoke most frequently of principals, pastors, and teachers. A common term used was school leader, which encompasses a broad range of people related to the school: principals, pastors, teachers, coaches, administrators, board members, and parents, Latinos and Anglos, men and women, religious and lay. Through their formation, these leaders work to integrate faith into every facet of school life. Across the country, bishops call for catechetical formation for all school leaders. (p. 11)

‘Male and Female He Created Them’: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (2019)

The authority of an educator is therefore built upon the concrete combination ‘of a general formation, founded on a positive and professional constructive concept of life, and of constant effort in realizing it. Such a formation goes beyond the purely necessary professional training and addresses the more intimate aspects of the personality, including the religious and the spiritual.’ (48)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. What two things must a leader’s religious formation be oriented toward?
  2. What does a “formation of the heart” entail?

Discussion

  1. One of the documents asserts: “Spiritual poverty and declining cultural levels are starting to produce their dismal effects, even within Catholic schools.” Is that evident in your experience? How? What does this look like? How should your efforts and your institution’s efforts be
    adjusted and targeted in response to this threat to Catholic education?
  2. Review the selection from the National Directory for Catechesis (2005), p. 231, and rank the top three and the bottom three duties in terms of your strengths and weaknesses and then your school’s strengths and weaknesses.

Application

  1. How can I better form my heart for Catholic leadership?
  2. How do I provide for my ongoing theological growth as a leader? Why is this critical?

 

IV

Professional Formation

Overview

Professional competence unleashes educational potential. Those who oversee Catholic education must have the ability to create and manage learning environments that provide plentiful opportunities for students and teachers to flourish. Leaders respect individual differences and guide others toward significant and profound learning.[21] Leaders accompany their students and teachers toward lofty and challenging goals, establish high expectations for them, and connect them to each other and the world.[22] A solid professional formation in cultural, psychological, and pedagogical areas will aid toward this end.[23]

The purpose of education is the development of man from within, freeing him from that conditioning which would prevent him from becoming a fully integrated human being.[24] Every school and every educator in the school should strive to form strong and responsible individuals, who are grounded in Gospel values, capable of making free and correct choices, have a clear idea of the meaning of life, are open more and more to reality, and are ready to take their place in society.[25]

It is therefore important that leaders know how to create communities of formation and study to explore knowledge in the light of the Gospel and where individuals can make their own essential contribution to society.[26]

Catholic leaders facilitate growth in knowledge and growth in humanity.[27] They support and organize teacher collaboration and community by providing encouragement and assistance so they, too, can share in the living mission of evangelization and formation.[28]

Leaders have a duty to ensure that all personnel, including themselves, receive adequate preparation to serve effectively.[29] Formational needs for Catholic school leaders and teachers extend beyond that of teachers in government-run schools, since the purpose and ends of education are different. Therefore, formational programs for teachers and school leaders focusing on Christian cultural and pedagogical approaches must also be developed and provided.[30]

Citations: Professional Formation

The Catholic School (1977)

It must never be forgotten that the purpose of instruction at school is education, that is, the development of man from within, freeing him from that conditioning which would prevent him from becoming a fully integrated human being. The school must begin from the principle that its educational programme is intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person. (n. 29)

The Catholic school must be alert at all times to developments in the fields of child psychology, pedagogy, and particularly catechetics, and should especially keep abreast of directives from competent ecclesiastical authorities. The school must do everything in its power to aid the Church to fulfill its catechetical mission and so must have the best possible qualified teachers of religion. (n. 52)

Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982) 

Faced with this reality [of extraordinary growth in science and technology], which lay people are the first to experience, the Catholic educator has an obvious and constant need for updating: in personal attitudes, in the content of the subjects, that are taught, in the pedagogical methods that are used. Recall that the vocation of an educator requires “a constant readiness to begin anew and to adapt.” If the need for updating is constant, then the formation must be permanent. This need is not limited to professional formation; it includes religious formation and, in general, the enrichment of the whole person. In this way, the Church will constantly adapt its pastoral mission to the circumstances of the men and women of each age, so that the message of Jesus Christ can be brought to them in a way that is understandable and adapted to their condition.

Permanent formation involves a wide variety of different elements; a constant search for ways to bring it about is therefore required of both individuals and the community. Among the variety of means for permanent formation, some have become ordinary and      virtually indispensable instruments: reading periodicals and pertinent books, attending conferences and seminars, participating in workshops, assemblies, and congresses, making appropriate use of periods of free time for formation. All lay Catholics who work in schools should make these a habitual part of their own human, professional, and religious life.

No one can deny that permanent formation, as the name itself suggests, is a difficult task; not everyone succeeds in doing it. This becomes especially true in the face of the growing complexity of contemporary life and the difficult nature of the educational mission, combined with the economic insecurity that so often accompanies it. But in spite of all these factors, no lay Catholic who works in a school can ignore this present-day need. To do so would be to remain locked up in outdated knowledge, criteria, and attitudes. To reject a formation that is permanent and that involves the whole person—human, professional, and religious—is to isolate oneself from that very world that has to be brought closer to the Gospel. (nos. 68-70)

Every person who contributes to integral human formation is an educator; but teachers have made integral human formation their very profession. When, then, we discuss the school, teachers deserve special consideration: because of their number, but also because of the institutional purpose of the school. But everyone who has a share in this formation is also to be included in the discussion: especially those who are responsible for the direction of the school, or are counsellors, tutors or coordinators; also those who complement and complete the educational activities of the teacher or help in administrative and auxiliary positions. (n. 15)

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.” (n. 17)

Each type of education, moreover, is influenced by a particular concept of what it means to be a human person. 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. Thus, Catholic educators can be certain that they make human beings more human. Moreover, the special task of those educators who are lay persons is to offer to their students a concrete example of the fact that people deeply immersed in the world, living fully the same secular life as the vast majority of the human family, possess this same exalted dignity. (n. 18)

The vocation of every Catholic educator includes the work of ongoing social development: to form men and women who will be ready to take their place in society, preparing them in such a way that they will make the kind of social commitment which will enable them to work for the improvement of social structures, making these structures more conformed to the principles of the Gospel. Thus, they will form human beings who will make human society more peaceful, fraternal, and communitarian… The Catholic educator, in other words, must be committed to the task of forming men and women who will make the “civilization of love” a reality. But lay educators must bring the experience of their own lives to this social development and social awareness, so that students can be prepared to take their place in society with an appreciation of the specific role of the lay person—for this is the life that nearly all of the students will be called to live. (n. 19)

A school uses its own specific means for the integral formation of the human person: the communication of culture. It is extremely important, then, that the Catholic educator reflect on the profound relationship that exists between culture and the Church…

For this reason, if the communication of culture is to be a genuine educational activity, it must not only be organic, but also critical and evaluative, historical and dynamic. Faith will provide Catholic educators with some essential principles for critique and evaluation; faith will help them to see all of human history as a history of salvation which culminates in the fullness of the Kingdom. This puts culture into a creative context, constantly being perfected. (n. 20)

To summarize: The Lay Catholic educator is a person who exercises a specific mission within the Church by living, in faith, a secular vocation in the communitarian structure of the school: with the best possible professional qualifications, with an apostolic intention inspired by faith, for the integral formation of the human person, in a communication of culture, in an exercise of that pedagogy which will give emphasis to direct and personal contact with students, giving spiritual inspiration to the educational community of which he or she is a member, as well as to all the different persons related to the educational community. To this lay person, as a member of this community, the family and the Church entrust the school’s educational endeavor. Lay teachers must be profoundly convinced that they share in the sanctifying, and therefore educational, mission of the Church; they cannot regard themselves as cut off from the ecclesial complex. (n. 24)

Professionalism is one of the most important characteristics in the identity of every lay Catholic. The first requirement, then, for a lay educator who wishes to live out his or her ecclesial vocation, is the acquisition of a solid professional formation. In the case of an educator, this includes competency in a wide range of cultural, psychological, and pedagogical areas. However, it is not enough that the initial training be at a good level; this must be maintained and deepened, always bringing it up to date. (n. 27)

New horizons will be opened to students through the responses that Christian revelation brings to questions about the ultimate meaning of the human person, of human life, of history, and of the world. These must be offered to the students as responses which flow out of the profound faith of the educator, but at the same time with the greatest sensitive respect for the conscience of each student. (n. 28)

Faced with this reality [of the expansion of science and technology; an age of change], which lay people are the first to experience, the Catholic educator has an obvious and constant need for updating: in personal attitudes, in the content of the subjects, that are taught, in the pedagogical methods that are used. Recall that the vocation of an educator requires “a constant readiness to begin anew and to adapt.” (nos. 68-70)

If the directors of the school and the lay people who work in the school are to live according to the same ideals, two things are essential. First, lay people must receive an adequate salary, guaranteed by a well-defined contract, for the work they do in the school: a salary that will permit them to live in dignity, without excessive work or a need for additional employment that will interfere with the duties of an educator. This may not be immediately possible without putting an enormous financial burden on the families, or making the school so expensive that it becomes a school for a small elite group; but so long as a truly adequate salary is not being paid, the laity should see in the school directors a genuine preoccupation to find the resources necessary to achieve this end. Secondly, laity should participate authentically in the responsibility for the school; this assumes that they have the ability that is needed in all areas and are sincerely committed to the educational objectives which characterize a Catholic school. (n. 78)

As a part of its mission, an element proper to the school is solicitous care for the permanent professional and religious formation of its lay members. Lay people should be able to look to the school for the orientation and the assistance that they need, including the willingness to make time available when this is needed. Formation is indispensable; without it, the school will wander further and further away from its objectives. Often enough, if it will join forces with other educational centers and with Catholic professional organizations, a Catholic school will not find it too difficult to organize conferences, seminars, and other meetings which will provide the needed formation. According to circumstances, these could be expanded to include other lay Catholic educators who do not work in Catholic schools; these people would thus be offered an opportunity they are frequently in need of, and do not easily find elsewhere. (n. 79)

The Religious Dimension in a Catholic School (1988)

Recent Church teaching has added an essential note: “The basic principle which must guide us in our commitment to this sensitive area of pastoral activity is that religious instruction and catechesis are at the same time distinct and complementary. A school has as its purpose the students’ integral formation. Religious instruction, therefore, should be integrated into the objectives and criteria which characterize a modern school.” School directors should keep this directive of the Magisterium in mind, and they should respect the distinctive characteristics of religious instruction. (n. 70)

Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful (2007)

Professional formation: One of the fundamental requirements for an educator in a Catholic school is his or her possession of a solid professional formation. Poor quality teaching, due to insufficient professional preparation or inadequate pedagogical methods, unavoidably undermines the effectiveness of the overall formation of the student and of the cultural witness that the educator must offer. (n. 21)

The professional formation of the educator implies a vast range of cultural, psychological, and pedagogical skills, characterized by autonomy, planning and evaluation capacity, creativity, openness to innovation, aptitude for updating, research, and experimentation. It also demands the ability to synthesize professional skills with educational motivations, giving particular attention to the relational situation required today by the increasingly collegial exercise of the teaching profession. Moreover, in the eyes and expectations of students and their families, the educator is seen and desired as a welcoming and prepared interlocutor, able to motivate the young to a complete formation, to encourage and direct their greatest energy and skills towards a positive construction of themselves and their lives, and to be a serious and credible witness of the responsibility and hope which the school owes to society. (n. 22)

It is not sufficient simply to care about professional updating in the strict sense. The synthesis between faith, culture, and life that educators of the Catholic school are called to achieve is, in fact, reached “by integrating all the different aspects of human knowledge through the subjects taught, in the light of the Gospel [… and] in the growth of the virtues characteristic of the Christian.” This means that Catholic educators must attain a special sensitivity with regard to the person to be educated in order to grasp not only the request for growth in knowledge and skills, but also the need for growth in humanity. Thus, educators must dedicate themselves “to others with heartfelt concern, enabling them to experience the richness of their humanity.” (n. 24)

Educating in Intercultural Dialogue in the Catholic School: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love (2013)

The formation of teachers and administrators is of crucial importance. In most countries, the state provides the initial formation of school personnel. Good though this may be, it cannot be considered sufficient. In fact, Catholic schools bring something extra, particular to them, that must always be recognized and developed. Therefore, while the obligatory formation needs to consider those disciplinary and professional matters typical of teaching and administrating, it must also consider the cultural and pedagogical fundamentals that make up Catholic schools’ identity.

The time spent in formation must be used for reinforcing the idea of Catholic schools as being communities of fraternal relationships and places of research, dedicated to deepening and communicating truth in the various scholarly disciplines. Those who have leadership positions are duty-bound to guarantee that all personnel receive adequate preparation to serve effectively. Moreover, they must serve in coherence with the faith they profess, and be able to interpret society’s demands in the actual situation of its current configuration. This also favors the school’s collaboration with parents in education, respecting their responsibility as first and natural educators. (nos.76-77)

Hence, it is important that schools know how to be communities of formation and of study, where relationships among individuals color relationships among academic disciplines. Knowledge is enhanced from within by this reclaimed unity, in the light of the Gospel and Christian doctrine, and so can make its own essential contribution to the integral growth of both individuals and the evermore heralded global society. (n. 80)

Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2014)

The importance of schools’ and universities’ educational tasks explains how crucial training is for teachers, managers, and the entire staff that has educational responsibilities. Professional competence is the necessary condition for openness to unleash its educational potential. A lot is being required of teachers and managers: they should have the ability to create, invent, and manage learning environments that provide plentiful opportunities; they should be able to respect students’ different intelligences and guide them towards significant and profound learning; they should be able to accompany their students towards lofty and challenging goals, cherish high expectations for them, involve and connect students to each other and the world. Teachers must be able to pursue different goals simultaneously and face problem situations that require a high level of professionalism and preparation. To fulfil such expectations, these tasks should not be left to individual responsibility and adequate support should be provided at institutional level, with competent leaders showing the way, rather than bureaucrats. (n. II., 7)

USCCB Response to Instrumentum Laboris: Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2015)

Catholic schools depend on clarity of vision and strong leaders well formed in the faith, who are capable of establishing a rich Catholic culture in the schools. Consequently, training, both professional and spiritual, was lifted up as vitally important. Our schools need professionally prepared, competent leaders who can lead and inspire. These leaders need to be well-formed and able to teach, govern, recruit, and set the tone. They need to engage and invite minorities while making a clear case for the value of Catholic schools. (pp. 10-11)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. What facets of professional development are school
    leaders required to provide Catholic teachers?
  2. What is integral formation?

Discussion

  1. How might the notion of integral formation result in a greater need for broader professional development among the faculty?
  2. How do you understand and seek to further the notion, “It must never be forgotten that the purpose of instruction at school is education, that is the development of man from within, freeing him from that conditioning which would prevent him from becoming a fully
    integrated human being. The school must begin from the principle that its educational programme is intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person” (The Catholic School, 1977, 29)? What professional development might be helpful toward this end?
  3. A recent Church document cited in this section states: “Each type of education, moreover, is influenced by a particular concept of what it means to be a human
    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.” What Catholic concepts of the human person are most controversial or rejected by the current common culture? How can you assist students in negotiating these troubled waters?

Application

  1. What are my strengths and weaknesses in providing
    professional development for teachers?
  2. How well do I account for my own professional and
    spiritual formation?

 

V

Personal Witness

Overview

Living out a vocation as rich and profound as that of a Catholic educational leader requires a mature spiritual life expressed in a profoundly lived Christian witness.[31] Leaders are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative so she might become the salt of the earth.[32] Catholic leaders must proclaim the Gospel message through their words and witness.[33] Helping to bring about the cooperation of all, as a witness to Christ, is the cornerstone of the community. The Catholic leader becomes a living example of one inspired by the Gospel.[34]

Conduct is even more important than speech in the formation of students.[35] Integrity of lived witness requires modeling Christianity in all aspects of the school’s life and both inside and outside the classroom.[36] The more completely the leader gives concrete witness to the model of Christ, the more the leader will be trusted and imitated.[37]

The project of the Catholic school is effective and convincing only if carried out by people who are deeply motivated to give witness to a living encounter with Christ, in who alone the mystery of man truly becomes clear.[38] Authentic witness to the school’s values creates a community climate permeated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and love.[39]

Citations

The Catholic School (1977)

By their witness and their behavior teachers are of the first importance to impart a distinctive character to Catholic schools. It is, therefore, indispensable to ensure their continuing formation through some form of suitable pastoral provision. This must aim to animate them as witnesses of Christ in the classroom and tackle the problems of their particular apostolate, especially regarding a Christian vision of the world and of education, problems also connected with the art of teaching in accordance with the principles of the Gospel. (n. 78)

Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982)

It seems necessary to begin by trying to delineate the identity of the lay Catholics who work in a school; the way in which they bear witness to the faith will depend on this specific identity, in the Church and in this particular field of labour. In trying to contribute to the investigation, it is the intention of this Sacred Congregation to offer a service to lay Catholics who work in schools (and who should have a clear idea of the specific character of their vocation), and also to the People of God (who need to have a true picture of the laity as an active element, accomplishing an important task for the entire Church through their labour. (n. 5)

Therefore, “the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can she become the salt of the earth.” In order to achieve this presence of the whole Church, and of the Savior whom she proclaims, lay people must be ready to proclaim the message through their words and witness to it in what they do. (n. 9)

Conduct is always much more important than speech; this fact becomes especially important in the formation period of students. The more completely an educator can give concrete witness to the model of the ideal person that is being presented to the students, the more this ideal will be believed and imitated… Without this witness, living in such an atmosphere, they may begin to regard Christian behavior as an impossible ideal. It must never be forgotten that, in the crises “which have their greatest effect on the younger generations,” the most important element in the educational endeavor is “always the individual person: the person, and the moral dignity of that person which is the result of his or her principles, and the conformity of actions with those principles.” (n. 32)

Professional commitment; support of truth, justice, and freedom; openness to the point of view of others, combined with a habitual attitude of service; personal commitment to the students, and fraternal solidarity with everyone; a life that is integrally moral in all its aspects. The lay Catholic who brings all of this to his or her work in a pluralist school becomes a living mirror, in whom every individual in the educational community will see reflected an image of one inspired by the Gospel. (n. 52)

The concrete living out of a vocation as rich and profound as that of the lay Catholic in a school requires an appropriate formation, both on the professional plane and on the religious plane. Most especially, it requires the educator to have a mature spiritual personality, expressed in a profound Christian life. (n. 60)

The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School (1988)

The Church, therefore, is willing to give lay people charge of the schools that it has established, and the laity themselves establish schools. The recognition of the school as a Catholic school is, however, always reserved to the competent ecclesiastical authority. When lay people do establish schools, they should be especially concerned with the creation of a community climate permeated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and love, and they should witness to this in their own lives. (n. 38)

 Apostolic Journey to the United States of America and Visit to the United Nations Organization Headquarters, Meeting with Catholic Educators, Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI (April 2008)

Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church’s Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution’s life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual, or spiritual.

Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful (2007)

The project of the Catholic school is convincing only if carried out by people who are deeply motivated, because they witness to a living encounter with Christ, in whom alone the mystery of man truly becomes clear. These persons, therefore, acknowledge a personal and communal adherence with the Lord, assumed as the basis and constant reference of the inter-personal relationship and mutual cooperation between educator and student. (n. 4)

Educating in Intercultural Dialogue in the Catholic School: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love (2013)

Catholic schools develop, in a manner wholly particular to them, the basic hypothesis that formation covers the whole arc of professional experience and is not limited to the period of initial formation or formation in the early years. Catholic schools require people not only to know how to teach or direct an organization; they also require them, using the skills of their profession, to know how to bear authentic witness to the school’s values, as well as to their own continuing efforts to live out ever more deeply, in thought and deed, the ideals that are stated publicly in words. (n. 80)

Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2014)

Hence, one of the most important challenges will be to foster a greater cultural openness amongst teachers and, at the same time, an equally greater willingness to act as witnesses, so that they are aware and careful about their school’s peculiar context in their work, without being lukewarm or extremist, teaching what they know and testifying to what they believe in. In order for teachers to interpret their profession in this way, they must be formed to engage in the dialogue between faith and cultures and between different religions; there cannot be any real dialogue if educators themselves have not been formed and helped to deepen their faith and personal beliefs. (n. III,1., i.)

‘Male and Female He Created Them’: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (2019)

School managers, teaching staff, and personnel all share the responsibility of both guaranteeing delivery of a high-quality service coherent with the Christian principles that lie at the heart of their educational project, as well as interpreting the challenges of their time while giving the daily witness of their understanding, objectivity, and prudence. (48)

The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue (2022)

Everyone has the obligation to recognize, respect, and bear witness to the Catholic identity of the school, officially set out in the educational project. This applies to the teaching staff, the non-teaching personnel, and the pupils and their families. (39)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. According to the selections provided, why is personal
    witness important in the life of a Catholic school teacher or leader?
  2. Is personal witness only required from a teacher or school leader? Who else is called to witness to the faith in a Catholic school?

Discussion

  1. Why is being a faithful witness inside and outside of school important for the Catholic school leader? Who have you seen do this well? What did it look like?
  2. How can leaders assist teachers to be better witnesses? How to motivate them? How to evaluate them? How to challenge them? How to confront them when they fall dangerously short of the goal?

Application

  1. How can I become a more effective witness?
  2. Of these five elements in this document (answering the call, fulfilling the mission, spiritual formation, professional formation, and personal witness), which am I most comfortable with? Which will require the most effort from me?

 

Conclusion

The Church’s guidance conveys the immense responsibility that Catholic school leaders assume in the ministry of Catholic education. Theirs is a special call, a vocation to the apostolate of Catholic education where it is demanded of them to live lives of Gospel witness, fully and integrally. Not only are they entrusted with the human formation and education of young people, but they are also called on to model and witness the Catholic faith on a daily basis and to edify and bolster the faith of their colleagues and peers. A school’s Catholic identity depends on effective and formed faith-filled leaders who set the tone for a vibrant, worshiping community of believers who collaborate with the Church to fulfill the mission of evangelization and sanctification of its faithful.

[1] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982) 7.

[2] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 37.

[3] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 37.

[4] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Co-workers in the Vineyard of Christ (2005) 11.

[5] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Teach Them (1976) II, par.1.

[6] Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Together in Catholic Schools: A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful (2007) 30.

[7] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 7.

[8] St. Paul VI, Gravissimum Educationis (1965) 5.

[9] St. Paul VI, 8.

[10] St. Paul VI, 8.

[11] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (1977) 87.

[12] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 81.

[13] St. John Paul II, Apostolic Journey to the United States and Canada (1987) 4.

[14] St. Paul VI, Conclusion.

[15] St. John Paul II (1987) 4.

[16] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB Response to Educating Today and Tomorrow (2015) p. 5, at https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catholic-education/k-12/upload/15-076-Final-World-Congress.pdf; Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Today and Tomorrow (2015) n. III., 1., a.

[17] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Directory for Catechesis (2005) p. 231.

[18] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 40.

[19] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 23.

[20] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 23.

[21] Congregation for Catholic Education (2015) 7.

[22] Congregation for Catholic Education (2015) 7.

[23] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 27.

[24] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1977) 29.

[25] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 17.

[26] Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating to Intercultural Dialogue in Catholic Schools: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love (2013) 80.

[27] Congregation for Catholic Education (2007) 24.

[28] Congregation for Catholic Education (2015) n. III, 1., b.

[29] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (2015) p. 10.

[30] Congregation for Catholic Education (2013) 76-77.

[31] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 60.

[32] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 9.

[33] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 9.

[34] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 52.

[35] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 32.

[36] St. John Paul II (1987) 3.

[37] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 32.

[38] Congregation for Catholic Education (2007) 4.

[39] Congregation for Catholic Education (1988) 38.

 

The Call to Teach: Church Guidance for Catholic Teachers

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The Call to Teach
Church Guidance for Catholic Teachers

Denise L. Donohue, Ed.D., and Daniel P. Guernsey, Ed.D.

 

About The Call to Teach

The original version of The Call to Teach was written in 2015 by Dr. Jamie F. Arthur. This significantly revised version was written by Dr. Daniel Guernsey, senior fellow and education policy editor at The Cardinal Newman Society, and Dr. Denise Donohue, vice president for educator resources and evaluation at The Cardinal Newman Society. This edition adds quotes from the most recent documents from the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education and sets of reflective questions. A facilitator guide and PowerPoint slides are available at cardinalnewmansociety.org.

 

Summary: The Church has always encouraged her teachers to view their teaching position as a vocation of service, and its essential role is lived as a witness to the faith in both word and deed. This booklet presents selections from Church documents to offer guidance and encouragement to educators, in a readily accessible format. The selections are organized around five themes: The Teacher and Mission of Catholic Education, The Teacher and Vocation, The Teacher and Faith Formation, The Teacher and Lived Witness, and The Teacher and Catholic Culture.

 

Introduction

In recent years, efforts to strengthen the Catholic identity of schools have focused Church guidance on the important fact that all teachers—lay, clerical, or religious—have an essential function in Catholic education as role models of the faith, in both word and deed. A review of these Church teachings provides an understanding of the importance of the Catholic teacher and the teacher’s role in fulfilling the mission of the Church—preparing students to fulfill God’s calling in this world and attaining the eternal kingdom for which they were created.

The Church has issued many important documents on Catholic education in the last 60 years. The Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum Educationis (1965), outlines the basic principles of Catholic education, acknowledging the Church’s reliance on Catholic educators and the importance of preparation in “secular and religious knowledge.”[1]  Twelve years later, the penetrating impact of social-cultural pluralism in Catholic education was addressed by the Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education in The Catholic School (1977). The Church expressed concern that teachers embrace the Catholic school’s unique identity and display “the courage to follow all the consequences of [this] uniqueness.”[2] This concern was repeated in the Congregation’s 2022 document, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue.[3]

In 1982, due to growing reliance on the laity to lead and staff Catholic schools, the Sacred Congregation focused particular attention on teachers in its document Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith. The document details the “specific character of their vocation” and presents “a true picture of the laity as an active element, accomplishing an important task for the entire Church through their labour.”[4] The Congregation expanded on the distinctive characteristics of Catholic education in 1988 in The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, restating, “Prime responsibility for creating this unique Christian school climate rests with the teachers.”[5] Fewer than ten years later, to address the “crisis of values” in contemporary society, the Congregation issued The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium (1997). The document includes the fundamental characteristics of schools necessary to be effective agents for the Church and the need to recruit “competent, convinced, and coherent educators” who serve as a reflection of the one Teacher, Jesus Christ.[6]

As America entered the twenty-first century, the bishops’ concerns over Catholic school closures and waning Catholic identity in the United States spurred the Conference of Catholic Bishops to issue Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium. Noting that ninety-five percent of those working in Catholic schools were laity, the bishops stated, “The formation of personnel will allow the Gospel message and the living presence of Jesus to permeate the entire life of the school community and thus be faithful to the evangelizing mission.”[7] The criteria they presented for personnel in a Catholic school include being grounded in a faith-based culture, being bonded to Christ and the Church, and being witnesses to the faith in both words and actions.

Catholic schools continue to struggle against secularization and moral relativism in every aspect of society. Laying out plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum Educationis, the Congregation for Catholic Education issued Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion, which describes the impact of contemporary culture as an “educational emergency.” Along with the many issues facing Catholic education—identity, limited means and resources, protection of religious freedom, and pastoral concerns—the document discusses the challenges associated with training of teachers, noting that educators need unity and a willingness to embrace and share a “specific evangelical identity” and “consistent lifestyle.”[8]

These qualifications were evident in the Congregation’s 2019 document “Male and Female He Created Them”: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education. The document states that teachers (called “formators”) who possess personal maturity and balance in addition to preparation can have a strong positive effect on students. Going beyond professional training, the document calls for knowledge in the “more intimate aspects of the personality, including the religious and the spiritual,”[9] so that teachers can accompany students who are facing the challenges associated with the culture’s insistence upon the separation between gender and biological sex. Catholic educators are also advised to be aware of current local legislation regarding this issue.

The Congregation issued The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue (2022) out of concern that some Catholic educators lack understanding of the unique identity of a Catholic school and the educator’s role in contributing to that identity. This lack of understanding can cause employment conflicts and concerns, necessitating formation regarding the Church’s moral expectations for them. Once again, the Congregation stressed that educators should see their employment as answering the call to a vocation (24).

 

I. The Teacher and Mission of Catholic Education

The mission of Catholic education is articulated by the Church and her magisterial documents. Catholic educators need to understand, appreciate, and fully support this mission, because its fulfillment depends on them. The more teachers reflect upon this mission, the more powerful protagonists they will be in leading schools to success. Catholic education is an expression of the Church’s mission of salvation and an instrument of evangelization. Through Catholic education, and especially through its teachers, students encounter God, who in Jesus Christ reveals His transforming love and truth. As a faith community, students, parents, and educators, in unity with the Church, give witness to Christ’s loving communion in the Holy Trinity. With this Christian vision, Catholic education fulfills its purpose of transmitting culture in the light of faith; integrally forming the human person by developing each student’s physical, moral, spiritual, and intellectual gifts; teaching responsibility and the right use of freedom; preparing students to fulfill God’s calling in this world; and attaining the eternal kingdom for which they were created:

Since true education must strive for complete formation of the human person that looks to his or her final end as well as to the common good of societies, children and youth are to be nurtured in such a way that they are able to develop their physical, moral, and intellectual talents harmoniously, acquire a more perfect sense of responsibility and right use of freedom, and are formed to participate actively in social life. (Code of Canon Law, #795)

Catholic teachers are on mission when they situate their efforts within Christ’s salvific plan:

Catholic education is an expression of the mission entrusted by Jesus to the Church He founded. Through education, the Church seeks to prepare its members to proclaim the Good News and to translate this proclamation into action. Since the Christian vocation is a call to transform oneself and society with God’s help, the educational efforts of the Church must encompass the twin purposes of personal sanctification and the social reform in light of Christian values. (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, To Teach as Jesus Did, 1972, #7)

Teachers are partners in the Church’s mission to form free and fully integrated students holistically:

She establishes her own schools because she considers them as a privileged means of promoting the formation of the whole man, since the school is a centre in which a specific concept of the world, of man, and of history is developed and conveyed. It is precisely in the Gospel of Christ, taking root in the minds and lives of the faithful, that the Catholic school finds its definition as it comes to terms with the cultural conditions of the times. It must never be forgotten that the purpose of instruction at school is education, that is, the development of man from within, freeing him from that conditioning which would prevent him from becoming a fully integrated human being. The school must begin with the principle that its educational program is intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977, #5-9)

Education today is a complex task, which is made more difficult by rapid social, economic, and cultural changes. Its specific mission remains the integral formation of the human person. Children and young people must be guaranteed the possibility of developing harmoniously their own physical, moral, intellectual, and spiritual gifts, and they must also be helped to develop their sense of responsibility, learn the correct use of freedom, and participate actively in social life (cf. can. #795 Code of Canon Law [CIC].; can. #629 Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches [CCEO]). A form of education that ignores or marginalizes the moral and religious dimension of the person is a hindrance to full education, because “children and young people have a right to be motivated to appraise moral values with a right conscience, to embrace them with a personal adherence, together with a deeper knowledge and love of God.” That is why the Second Vatican Council asked and recommended “all those who hold a position of public authority or who are in charge of education to see to it that youth is never deprived of this sacred right.” (Congregation for Catholic Education, Circular Letter to the Presidents of Bishops’ Conferences on Religious Education in Schools, 2009, #1)

The educator’s mission is to help students encounter God and His transforming love and truth:

Education is integral to the mission of the Church to proclaim the Good News. First and foremost every Catholic educational institution is a place to encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth (cf. Spe Salvi, #4). (Pope Benedict, XVI, Meeting with Catholic Educators, 2008, Washington, DC)

Teachers find this part of their mission in the person of Christ:

Christ is the foundation of the whole educational enterprise in a Catholic school. His revelation gives new meaning to life and helps man to direct his thought, action, and will according to the Gospel, making the beatitudes his norm of life. The fact that in their own individual ways all members of the school community share this Christian vision, makes the school “Catholic”; principles of the Gospel in this manner become the educational norms since the school then has them as its internal motivation and final goal. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977, #34)

Teachers assist in mission success by ensuring that,

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 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, 1988, #25)

Teachers enact the school mission to build an ecclesial and educational community through love and the shared values and vision of Catholic belief.

The implementation of a real educational community, built on the foundation of shared projected values, represents a serious task that must be carried out by the Catholic school… The preparation of a shared project acts as a stimulus that should force the Catholic school to be a place of ecclesial experience. Its binding force and potential for relationships derive from a set of values and a communion of life that is rooted in our common belonging to Christ. When Christians say communion, they refer to the eternal mystery, revealed in Christ, of the communion of love that is the very life of God-Trinity. At the same time, we also say that Christians share in this communion in the Body of Christ which is the Church (cf. Phil 1: 7; Rev 1: 9). Communion is, therefore, the “essence” of the Church, the foundation and source of its mission of being in the world “the home and the school of communion,” to lead all men and women to enter ever more profoundly into the mystery of Trinitarian communion and, at the same time, to extend and strengthen internal relations within the human community. (Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful, 2007, #10)

As the mission of Catholic education clearly entails teaching theology, teachers must be sound and faithful transmitters of Catholic doctrine.

The instruction and education in a Catholic school must be grounded in the principles of Catholic doctrine; teachers are to be outstanding in correct doctrine and integrity of life. (Code of Canon Law, 803, §2)

It is important for Catholic schools to be aware of the risks that arise should they lose sight of the reasons why they exist… Catholic schools are called to give dutiful witness, by their pedagogy that is clearly inspired by the Gospel… Catholic schools, being Catholic, are not limited to a vague Christian inspiration or one based on human values. They have the responsibility for offering Catholic students, over and above, a sound knowledge of religion, the possibility to grow in personal closeness to Christ in the Church. (Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating in Intercultural Dialogue in the Catholic School: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love, 2013, #56)

The mission of Catholic education involves ensuring that sound theology and thinking inspire all areas of study. Teachers further this when they ensure:

that the doctrine imparted be deep and solid, especially in sound philosophy, avoiding the muddled superficiality of those “who perhaps would have found the necessary, had they not gone in search of the superfluous.” In this connection Christian teachers should keep in mind what Leo XIII says in a pithy sentence: “Greater stress must be laid on the employment of apt and solid methods of teaching, and, what is still more important, on bringing into full conformity with the Catholic faith, what is taught in literature, in the sciences, and above all in philosophy, on which depends in great part the right orientation of the other branches of knowledge.” (Divini Illius Magistri, 1929, #87)

Evangelization and integral human development are intertwined in the Church’s educational work. In fact, the Church’s work of education “aims not only to ensure the maturity proper to the human person, but above all to ensure that the baptized, gradually initiated into the knowledge of the mystery of salvation, become ever more aware of the gift of faith.” (The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue, 2022, #13)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. From where does a Catholic school derive its mission?
  2. What are the aspects of a Catholic school’s mission?
  3. Who is involved in fulfilling the mission of Catholic
    education?

Discussion

  1. How is the mission of Catholic education different from that of public education?
  2. Which aspects of the mission do we accomplish well in our school? Which aspects can we improve upon?

Application

  1. How does the mission of Catholic education affect me, specifically as a Catholic school teacher?
  2. How can I, as a teacher, better understand, communicate, and support this mission?

Action Items:

 

II. The Teacher and Vocation

The Catholic teacher’s call to participate in the saving mission of the Church and to assist in the building of the Body of Christ is more than a profession. It’s a vocation. All teachers in Catholic education agree to work for the sanctification of the world and to pursue and communicate truth wherever it might lie. The Catholic educator possesses unique qualities of mind and heart and is led by the Spirit and the Gospel to make Christ known to others through a life filled with faith, hope, and charity.

The Church knows that good and loving teachers are the key to an excellent Catholic education, much more so than programs or materials:

Perfect schools are the result not so much of good methods as of good teachers, teachers who are thoroughly prepared and well-grounded in the matter they have to teach; who possess the intellectual and moral qualifications required by their important office; who cherish a pure and holy love for the youths confided to them, because they love Jesus Christ and His Church, of which these are the children of predilection; and who have therefore sincerely at heart the true good of family and country. (Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri, 1929, #88)

The Church appreciates that this critical educational vocation is unique and needs constant nurture:

Beautiful indeed and of great importance is the vocation of all those who aid parents in fulfilling their duties and who, as representatives of the human community, undertake the task of education in schools. This vocation demands special qualities of mind and heart, very careful preparation, and continuing readiness to renew and to adapt. (Pope Saint Paul VI, Gravissimum Educationis, Declaration on Christian Education, 1965, #5)

For, “they share a common dignity from their rebirth in Christ. They have the same filial grace and the same vocation to perfection. They possess in common one salvation, one hope, and one undivided charity.” Although it is true that, in the Church, “by the will of Christ, some are made teachers, dispensers of mysteries, and shepherds on behalf of others, yet all share a true equality with regard to the dignity and to the activity common to all the faithful for the building up of the Body of Christ.” Every Christian, and therefore also every lay person, has been made a sharer in “the priestly, prophetic, and kingly functions of Christ,” and their apostolate “is a participation in the saving mission of the Church itself… All are commissioned to that apostolate by the Lord Himself.” (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #6)

The vocation of teaching requires a specific commitment and fidelity to Truth. Teachers must be truth seekers, truth tellers, and truth enactors no matter the personal cost. All people, but especially teachers, due to their vocation, are “bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their whole lives in accordance with the demands of truth” (CCC, #2467). For teachers, the transmission of truth is part of living their vocation:

One specific characteristic of the educational profession assumes its most profound significance in the Catholic educator: the communication of truth. For the Catholic educator, whatever is true is a participation in Him who is the Truth; the communication of truth, therefore, as a professional activity, is thus fundamentally transformed into a unique participation in the prophetic mission of Christ, carried on through one’s teaching. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #16)

Teachers must witness this lived truth in the context of faith, hope, and charity. The Church also uses the metaphor of such witness acting as a “leaven” to communicate the effect of the teaching vocation:

They live in the midst of the world’s activities and professions, and in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life; and there they are called by God so that by exercising their proper function and being led by the spirit of the Gospel they can work for the sanctification of the world from within, in the manner of leaven. In this way they can make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope, and charity. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #7)

The aim of teaching is not about acquiring affluence, but it is about generously lifting everything up: students, culture, hearts, minds, everything. Teachers are laborers of the Holy Spirit and esteemed and encouraged by the Church:

When it considers the tremendous evangelical resource embodied in the millions of lay Catholics who devote their lives to schools, it recalls the words with which the Second Vatican Council ended its Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, and “earnestly entreats in the Lord that all lay persons give a glad, generous, and prompt response to the voice of Christ, who is giving them an especially urgent invitation at this moment; …they should respond to it eagerly and magnanimously …and, recognizing that what is His is also their own (Phil 2, 5), to associate themselves with Him in His saving mission… Thus they can show that they are His co-workers in the various forms and methods of the Church’s one apostolate, which must be constantly adapted to the new needs of the times. May they always abound in the works of God, knowing that they will not labour in vain when their labour is for Him (cf. 1 Cor 15, 58).” (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #82)

Most teachers in a Catholic school are competent and professional educators. Still, they are much more—they are professionals on the path of personal sanctification through living their vocations with faith and passion.

The work of the lay Catholic educator in schools, and particularly in Catholic schools, “has an undeniably professional aspect; but it cannot be reduced to professionalism alone. Professionalism is marked by, and raised to, a super-natural Christian vocation. The life of the Catholic teacher must be marked by the exercise of a personal vocation in the Church, and not simply by the exercise of a profession. (Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue, 2022, #24)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. What is the difference between a vocation and a
    profession?
  2. What specific commitment is asked of Catholic educators and why is this important?

Discussion

  1. What are the characteristics of “possessing special
    qualities of mind and heart”?
  2. How is being a Catholic educator different from other teaching professions?

Application

  1. What does it mean to me to be a Catholic school teacher?
  2. How does teaching change when viewed not just as a
    profession, but as a vocation?

Action Items:

 

III. The Teacher and Faith Formation

The Catholic Church recognizes its dependence on teachers to fulfill the goals and programs of Catholic education. Forming students in faith is one of its most critical goals. Such formation is not a part of most teacher training programs. Therefore, it is essential for Catholic school teachers to be aware that they have this responsibility (no matter the subject or age they teach!) and to make sure they are taking professional responsibility for their faith formation and the formation of the students they teach.

In Catholic education, there is never a time when teachers are not forming their students:

In the Catholic school’s educational project there is no separation between time for learning and time for formation, between acquiring notions and growing in wisdom. The various school subjects do not present only knowledge to be attained, but also values to be acquired and truths to be discovered. All of which demands an atmosphere characterized by the search for truth, in which competent, convinced, and coherent educators, teachers of learning and of life, may be a reflection, albeit imperfect but still vivid, of the one Teacher. (The Catholic School on the Threshold of The Third Millennium, 1997, #14)

The Spiritual Dimension

One cannot give what one does not possess, so all Catholic school teachers must be striving for a personal life of faith and holiness in accord with the moral demands of the Gospel. Teachers must be “open also to spiritual and religious formation and sharing.” (Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue, 2022, #26)

Participation and active engagement in prayer and sacrament provide a visible manifestation of faith and witness for students to emulate:

As a visible manifestation of the faith they profess and the life witness they are supposed to manifest, it is important that lay Catholics who work in a Catholic school participate simply and actively in the liturgical and sacramental life of the school. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #40)

The Catholic educator’s challenge is to integrate religious truths and values into daily life, both public and private, and to personally guide and inspire students into a deeper faith and more profound levels of human knowledge.

Since the educative mission of the Catholic school is so wide, the teacher is in an excellent position to guide the pupil to a deepening of his faith and to enrich and enlighten his human knowledge with the data of the faith… The teacher can form the mind and heart of his pupils and guide them to develop a total commitment to Christ, with their whole personality enriched by human culture. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #40)

Again, the teacher’s role is to bring the whole truth of a situation, including spiritual truths, to bear:

A teacher who is full of Christian wisdom, well prepared in his own subject, does more than convey the sense of what he is teaching to his pupils. Over and above what he says, he guides his pupils beyond his mere words to the heart of total Truth. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977, #41)

The integration of religious truth and values with the rest of life is brought about in the Catholic school not only by its unique curriculum, but, more important, by the presence of teachers who express an integrated approach to learning and living in their private and professional lives. (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, To Teach as Jesus Did, 1972, #104)

As spiritual formators and teachers of the faith, educators must provide lived witness to an integrated life of faith:

Most of all, students should be able to recognize authentic human qualities in their teachers. They are teachers of the faith; however, like Christ, they must also be teachers of what it means to be human… A teacher who has a clear vision of the Christian milieu and lives in accord with it will be able to help young people develop a similar vision, and will give them the inspiration they need to put it into practice. (Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 1988, #96)

The Professional Dimension

A Catholic educator commits to making the Christian integral human formation of mind, body, and spirit the focus of all efforts. This calling is enhanced by adequate preparation in both secular and religious knowledge and pedagogical skills. Qualifications for the classroom include creativity, management skills, and the ability to design an effective learning environment where the gifts and talents of each student are nourished. Through the synthesis of faith, culture, and life, the teacher integrates Gospel values into all aspects of the curriculum to demonstrate the relationship between knowledge and truth. Professionalism is an important quality for teachers to possess in living out an “ecclesial vocation.” It includes preparation and ongoing development in knowledge and skills necessary to form students’ hearts and minds. Professionalism includes creating honest and healthy relationships of mutual trust, respect, and friendliness with parents, students, and colleagues.

Because Catholic education does more and attempts more than a secular education in the formation of students from within an authentic Catholic community, the importance of teacher preparation is even greater:

The task of a teacher goes well beyond transmission of knowledge, although that is not excluded. Therefore, if adequate professional preparation is required in order to transmit knowledge, then adequate professional preparation is even more necessary in order to fulfill the role of a genuine teacher. It is an indispensable human formation, and without it, it would be foolish to undertake any educational work. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #16)

Catholic teachers need more and different preparation than their public-school counterparts. Like all schools and teachers,

Professional competence is the necessary condition for openness to unleash its educational potential. A lot is being required of teachers and managers: they should have the ability to create, invent, and manage learning environments that provide plentiful opportunities; they should be able to respect students’ different intelligences and guide them towards significant and profound learning; they should be able to accompany their students towards lofty and challenging goals, cherish high expectations for them, involve and connect students to each other and the world. Teachers must be able to pursue different goals simultaneously and face problem situations that require a high level of professionalism and preparation. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion, 2014, #7)

A solid professional formation,

includes competency in a wide range of cultural, psychological, and pedagogical areas. However, it is not enough that the initial training be at a good level; this must be maintained and deepened, always bringing it up to date. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #27)

For the Catholic educator, the integral formation of students is key:

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, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #17)

Professional training in integral formation involves not just teaching the mind-body-spirit unity of the students but also integrating the Catholic faith into various subjects, and ultimately integrating the subjects themselves. The Church reminds her teachers that,

In teaching the various academic disciplines, teachers share and promote a methodological viewpoint in which the various branches of knowledge are dynamically correlated, in a wisdom perspective. The epistemological framework of every branch of knowledge has its own identity, both in content and methodology. However, this framework does not relate merely to “internal” questions, touching upon the correct realization of each discipline. Each discipline is not an island inhabited by a form of knowledge that is distinct and ring-fenced; rather, it is in a dynamic relationship with all other forms of knowledge, each of which expresses something about the human person and touches upon some truth. (Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating in Intercultural Dialogue in the Catholic School: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love, 2013, #64-67)

The synthesis between faith, culture, and life that educators of the Catholic school are called to achieve is, in fact, reached “by integrating all the different aspects of human knowledge through the subjects taught, in the light of the Gospel […and] in the growth of the virtues characteristic of the Christian.” This means that Catholic educators must attain a special sensitivity with regard to the person to be educated in order to grasp not only the request for growth in knowledge and skills, but also the need for growth in humanity. Thus educators must dedicate themselves “to others with heartfelt concern, enabling them to experience the richness of their humanity.” (Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful, 2007, #24)

While retaining professional expectations, the Catholic teacher always seeks a deeper human relationship with students and colleagues. It is at this level of connection that Catholic education finds much of its effect:

Teaching and learning are the two terms in a relationship that does not only involve the subject to be studied and the learning mind, but also persons: this relationship cannot be based exclusively on technical and professional relations, but must be nourished by mutual esteem, trust, respect, and friendliness. When learning takes place in a context where the subjects who are involved feel a sense of belonging, it is quite different from a situation in which learning occurs in a climate of individualism, antagonism, and mutual coldness. (Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion, 2014, #3)

Active participation in the activities of colleagues, in relationships with other members of the educational community; and especially in relationships with parents of the students, is extremely important. In this way the objectives, programs, and teaching methods of the school in which the lay Catholic is working can be gradually impregnated with the spirit of the Gospel. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #51)

In summary, the vocation of Catholic education requires more than professional qualifications from teachers. It requires a deepening of the teacher’s spiritual knowledge and commitment.

When the ‘formation of formators’ is undertaken on the basis of the Christian principles, it has as its objective not only the formation of individual teachers but the building up and consolidation of an entire educational community through a fruitful exchange between all involved, one that has both didactic and emotional dimensions. Theus dynamic relationships grow between educators, and professional development is enriched by well-rounded personal growth, so that the work of teaching is carried out at the service of humanization. (Congregation for Catholic Education, “Male and Female He Created Them”: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education, 2019, #49)

In 2005, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium stated,

“The preparation and ongoing formation of teachers is vital if our schools are to remain truly Catholic in all aspects of school life… [to] allow the Gospel message and the living presence of Jesus to permeate the entire life of the school community and thus be faithful to the school’s evangelizing mission.” (11)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. What is the importance of solid spiritual and professional development for teachers?
  2. How does the teacher provide integral formation of students?

Discussion

  1. Why is spiritual formation important for teachers?
  2. Are all professional development programs applicable to Catholic education? Are some programs better than others? How so?

Application

  1. How do I attend to my own personal spiritual formation, so that I can then help form my students?
  2. In what ways do I work at improving my professional instruction? Am I intimidated or insulted by being required to attend professional development? Why?
  3. In what ways do I engage parents in the educational process? Can I do more? Do I have any fears about parents that might keep them at a distance?

Action Items:

 

IV. The Teacher and Lived Witness

The Church relies on teachers to fulfill the mission of Catholic education and serve the complex and varied needs of students entrusted to their care. In a special way, teachers make Christ and His Church present and operative in the life of students. Most significantly by their lived witness, teachers accomplish the school’s primary religious mission and impart the distinctive character of Catholic education. They must be deeply motivated to witness to a living encounter with Christ, the unique Teacher, and then live out that encounter in word and action so that students might eventually do the same. Such teachers write on the “very spirits of human beings.” forming relationships that assume enormous importance. They give a concrete example of what it is to be faithful Christians living in a troubled and lost secular world. Living with integrity in a pluralistic society, teachers provide a “living mirror” by which others in the school community can see a reflected image of a life inspired by the Gospel. Vatican II gives teachers this prayerful encouragement:

Intimately linked in charity to one another and to their students, and endowed with an apostolic spirit, may teachers, by their life as much as by their instruction, bear witness to Christ, the unique Teacher. (Pope Saint Paul VI, Gravissimum Educationis, Declaration on Christian Education, 1965, #8)

This call to personal witness of faith, belief, and morals rings throughout several Church documents:

The project of the Catholic school is convincing only if carried out by people who are deeply motivated, because they witness to a living encounter with Christ, in whom alone “the mystery of man truly becomes clear.” These persons, therefore, acknowledge a personal and communal adherence with the Lord, assumed as the basis and constant reference of the inter-personal relationship and mutual cooperation between educator and student. (Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Together in Catholic Schools, A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful, 2007, #4)

By their witness and their behavior teachers are of the first importance to impart a distinctive character to Catholic schools… This must aim to animate them as witnesses of Christ in the classroom and tackle the problems of their particular apostolate, especially regarding a Christian vision of the world and of education, problems also connected with the art of teaching in accordance with the principles of the Gospel. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977, #78)

The extent to which the Christian message is transmitted through education depends to a very great extent on the teachers. The integration of culture and faith is mediated by the other integration of faith and life in the person of the teacher. The nobility of the task to which teachers are called demands that, in imitation of Christ, the only Teacher, they reveal the Christian message not only by word but also by every gesture of their behaviour. This is what makes the difference between a school whose education is permeated by the Christian spirit and one in which religion is only regarded as an academic subject like any other. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977, #43)

Catholic schools require people not only to know how to teach or direct an organization; they also require them, using the skills of their profession, to know how to bear authentic witness to the school’s values, as well as to their own continuing efforts to live out ever more deeply, in thought and deed, the ideals that are stated publicly in words. (Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating in Intercultural Dialogue in the Catholic School: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love, 2013, #80)

Thus, Catholic educators can be certain that they make human beings more human. Moreover, the special task of those educators who are lay persons is to offer to their students a concrete example of the fact that people deeply immersed in the world, living fully the same secular life as the vast majority of the human family, possess this same exalted dignity. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #18)

Conduct is always much more important than speech; this fact becomes especially important in the formation period of students. The more completely an educator can give concrete witness to the model of the ideal person that is being presented to the students, the more this ideal will be believed and imitated… Students should see in their teachers the Christian attitude and behaviour that is often so conspicuously absent from the secular atmosphere in which they live. Without this witness, living in such an atmosphere, they may begin to regard Christian behavior as an impossible ideal. It must never be forgotten that, in the crises “which have their greatest effect on the younger generations,” the most important element in the educational endeavor is “always the individual person: the person, and the moral dignity of that person which is the result of his or her principles, and the conformity of actions with those principles.” (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #32-33)

Professional commitment; support of truth, justice and freedom; openness to the point of view of others, combined with an habitual attitude of service; personal commitment to the students, and fraternal solidarity with everyone; a life that is integrally moral in all its aspects. The lay Catholic who brings all of this to his or her work in a pluralist school becomes a living mirror, in whom every individual in the educational community will see reflected an image of one inspired by the Gospel. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #52)

Teaching has an extraordinary moral depth and is one of man’s most excellent and creative activities, for the teacher does not write on inanimate material, but on the very spirits of human beings. The personal relations between the teacher and the students, therefore, assume an enormous importance and are not limited simply to giving and taking. Moreover, we must remember that teachers and educators fulfill a specific Christian vocation and share an equally specific participation in the mission of the Church, to the extent that “it depends chiefly on them whether the Catholic school achieves its purpose.” (Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 1997, #19)

Among all the members of the school community, teachers stand out as having a special responsibility for education. Through their teaching-pedagogical skills, as well as by bearing witness through their lives, they allow the Catholic school to realize its formative project. In a Catholic school, in fact, the service of the teacher is an ecclesiastical munus and office (cf. can. #145 [CIC] and can. #936, Sections 1 and 2 [CCEO]). (Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue, 2022, #45)

The teacher’s personal witness is not restricted to Catholics only. The Church requires that non-Catholic teachers and other employees in a Catholic school also give positive witness, especially moral witness, and assist in advancing the school’s religious mission:

Teachers and other administrative personnel who belong to other Churches, ecclesial communities, or religions, as well as those who do not profess any religious belief, have the obligation to recognize and respect the Catholic character of the school from the moment of their employment. However, it should be borne in mind that the predominant presence of a group of Catholic teachers can ensure the successful implementation of the education plan developed in keeping with the Catholic identity of the schools. (Congregation for Catholic Education, The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue, 2022, #47)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. What does the Church say about the witness of the teacher in Catholic education?
  2. Is this witness only expected during school hours? Only from Catholics?
  3. What does “the service of the teacher as an ecclesiastical munus and office” mean?

Discussion

  1. What conduct of the teacher is considered “moral
    behavior”?
  2. How does the importance of sound moral witness extend to all Catholic school employees, including coaches, counselors, librarians, and support staff?

Application

  1. Recall a time when what you did was inconsistent with what students are taught in Catholic education. How did this affect you as a teacher? How did this affect your
    students? Is there anything you would do differently, if the situation presented itself again?

Action Items:

 

V. The Teacher and Catholic Culture

The Catholic educator aims at transmitting a specifically Catholic culture that guides the student by word and example so they can see and experience a complete synthesis of culture and faith, as well as of faith and life. All subjects in Catholic education are integrated and explored in a Christian worldview and from a Christian concept of the human person. Through Catholic education, students grasp, appreciate, and assimilate the values that will guide them toward eternal realities.

Teachers need to teach in a way that is specifically Catholic, embracing the fullness of reality and God’s presence and plan for humanity and the world. The world and reality find their unity, perfection, and end in God:

The specific mission of the school, then, is a critical, systematic transmission of culture in the light of faith and the bringing forth of the power of Christian virtue by the integration of culture with faith and of faith with living. Consequently, the Catholic school is aware of the importance of the Gospel teaching as transmitted through the Catholic Church. It is, indeed, the fundamental element in the educative process as it helps the pupil towards his conscious choice of living a responsible and coherent way of life. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977, #49)

For the accomplishment of this vast undertaking, many different educational elements must converge; in each of them, the lay Catholic must appear as a witness to faith. An organic, critical, and value oriented communication of culture clearly includes the communication of truth and knowledge; while doing this, a Catholic teacher should always be alert for opportunities to initiate the appropriate dialogue between culture and faith—two things which are intimately related—in order to bring the interior synthesis of the student to this deeper level. It is, of course, a synthesis which should already exist in the teacher. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #29)

These premises indicate the duties and the content of the Catholic school. Its task is fundamentally a synthesis of culture and faith, and a synthesis of faith and life: the first is reached by integrating all the different aspects of human knowledge through the subjects taught, in the light of the Gospel; the second in the growth of the virtues characteristic of the Christian. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977, #37)

Throughout the ages, Catholicism has shouldered and nurtured culture. Catholic teachers should teach to and about the highest aims and impact of culture on the human experience:

The cultural heritage of mankind includes other values apart from the specific ambient of truth. When the Christian teacher helps a pupil to grasp, appreciate, and assimilate these values, he is guiding him towards eternal realities. This movement towards the Uncreated Source of all knowledge highlights the importance of teaching for the growth of faith. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977, #42)

The communication of culture in an educational context involves a methodology, whose principles and techniques are collected together into a consistent pedagogy. A variety of pedagogical theories exist; the choice of the Catholic educator, based on a Christian concept of the human person, should be the practice of a pedagogy which gives special emphasis to direct and personal contact with the students. If the teacher undertakes this contact with the conviction that students are already in possession of fundamentally positive values, the relationship will allow for an openness and a dialogue which will facilitate an understanding of the witness to faith that is revealed through the behavior of the teacher. (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #21)

Questions for Reflection

Comprehension

  1. How should we understand the task of “critical,
    systematic transmission of culture in the light of faith”?
  2. What pedagogy is appropriate to teaching culture in
    Catholic education?
  3. What is the intended effect of using this type of
    pedagogy?

Discussion

  1. What is culture? What is Catholic culture?
  2. How is culture transmitted in Catholic education?
  3. What are some critical elements of a Catholic worldview?

Application

  1. How can I better transmit culture in the light of the
    Catholic faith to my students?
  2. What is the predominate worldview of my students, and how can I successfully help them adopt a richer
    Catholic worldview?

Action Items:

 

Conclusion

The Church’s guidance to her teachers conveys the immense responsibility they assume in the ministry of Catholic education. In addition to professional qualifications, a Catholic school teacher must understand and commit to the Church and be a “living mirror” of Christ by modeling a life inspired by the Gospel. In contemporary society, the challenge is to impart a Christian vision of the world, which is often counter-cultural and requires faithful Christian role models.

Notably, the entire vocation of Catholic teachers is lived out in the context of love: love for Christ, love for the true, good, and beautiful, and love for the students. St. John Bosco reminds Catholic educators that “the youngsters should not only be loved, but that they themselves should know that they are loved.”[10] And the Church asks the same:

The teachers love their students, and they show this love in the way they interact with them. They take advantage of every opportunity to encourage and strengthen them in those areas which will help to achieve the goals of the educational process. Their words, their witness, their encouragement and help, their advice, and friendly correction are all important in achieving these goals, which must always be understood to include academic achievement, moral behaviour, and a religious dimension. When students feel loved, they will love in return. Their questioning, their trust, their critical observations, and suggestions for improvement in the classroom and the school milieu will enrich the teachers and also help to facilitate a shared commitment to the formation process. (Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 1988, #1)

 

 

The Call to Teach: Facilitator’s Guide

 

 

[1] Pope Paul VI, Gravissimum Educationis (1965), #8.

[2] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (1977), #10.

[3] Congregation for Catholic Education, 2022. The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue. Retrievable at https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccatheduc/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_20220125_istruzione-identita-scuola-cattolica_en.htm

[4] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982), #5.

[5] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School (1988), #26.

[6] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium (1997), #14.

[7] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium (2005).

[8] Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Today and Tomorrow: A Renewing Passion (2014), III,1,j.

[9] Congregation for Catholic education, “Male and Female He Created Them”: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (2019), 47.

[10] Bosco, John. Letter from Rome (1884). Eds. G Williams and P. Braido, trans. by P. Laws, accessed Dec. 9, 2013, salesianstudies.org/resources/ses-2013-resources.

Guide for the Catholic Reader: Selected Reading List, Rubric, and Rationale for Catholic Education

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Guide for the Catholic Reader

Selected Reading List, Rubric, and Rationale for Catholic Education

Denise L. Donohue, Ed.D., and Daniel P. Guernsey, Ed.D. 

 

Preface This guide is designed especially for Catholic education broadly—including parents, diocesan and school leaders, teachers, librarians, homeschool curriculum publishers, and textbook publishers—and draws upon The Cardinal Newman Society’s Policy Standards on Literature and the Arts in Catholic Education. The guide focuses first on the purpose and goals of literature in Catholic elementary and secondary education. It then provides guidance for readers on how to approach a text. This is followed by a rubric to help determine which texts are best suited for Catholic education and to ensure that selection criteria are clear, understood by all, and targeted to the integral Christian formation of students.   The final section is a limited recommended reading list, which is mostly confined to better-known, time-tested works. These have been selected for a variety of reasons including their beauty, their cultural and historical significance, their suitability for examining the human condition in light of Catholic sensibilities, their capability to inspire virtue or warn against vice, their ability to elucidate other times and cultures to better understand our own, their capacity to entertain and inspire, and their fitness to guide the moral imagination. The list is not exhaustive but represents some reading selections used by schools recognized by The Cardinal Newman Society for their exemplary Catholic identity.   There is a limited amount of time in one childhood to read literature, so selections should come from the best books. These books should be read “fruitfully,” doing more than finding the main points so as to answer computer-based or multiple- choice questions. Students should enjoy the experience of reading, understand and identify with characters, grow in virtue, and expand their imagination, empathy, and creativity.  

Rationale for the Selection of Literature in Catholic Education

Catholic education seeks to “bring human wisdom into an encounter with divine wisdom,”1 cultivate “in students the intellectual, creative, and aesthetic faculties of the human person,” prepare them for professional life and to take on the duties of society and the Church, and introduce a cultural heritage.2 Literature is an essential tool in Catholic education, helping impart “a Christian vision of the world, of life, of culture, and of history” and an ordering of “the whole of human culture to the news of salvation.”3  

Literature “strive[s] to make known the proper nature of man, his problems and his experiences in trying to know and perfect both himself and the world.”4  

Because Catholic education strives for the perfection of its students and the world, literature is a natural and important part of that mission. At its best, it invites truthful exploration of the human condition and development of the aesthetic sense of the soul.   Catholic education does not teach reading simply for reading’s sake or for its utility. Catholic educators teach reading so students can access, evaluate, and experience the knowledge, wisdom, beauty, and insights of others. Truths distilled from this information can then be applied to their individual quest for truth, holiness, and salvation and shared with others in pursuit of the common good.   Literature provides rich material for reflection on essential questions such as: “What is the meaning of life?” “What is the nature of my relationship, rights, and duties to God and to others?” “Is this a thing of beauty or value?” “Is this representative of good or evil?” In this way, literature is foundational to Catholic education’s culture and faith-based mission.  

Literature is selected to advance the mission of Catholic education through a “critical, systematic transmission of culture”5 guided by a Christian vision of reality.6  

Catholic education seeks to critically and systematically transmit culture, and so it turns to works of literature and the arts that explicitly or implicitly transmit and form culture and values. The academic community, inspired by a Catholic vision of reality, must thoughtfully and deliberately craft a complete program that provides the right literature, music, art, and drama at the developmentally right time and integrate it with the cultural and idea-shaping materials students encounter in all academic areas, moving students to see the beauty and inner harmony of all knowledge as ultimately coming from the one transcendent Truth, God Himself. Additionally, in Catholic education the critical and systematic transmission of culture occurs “in the light of faith.”7 This requirement precludes simply presenting a wide variety of literature, arts, and music based simply on individual faculty or staff training or preference. Catholic educators should not simply expose students to random popular works in hopes these might attract immature fancy or spark debate. Careful curation and guidance are needed to avoid possible confusion, error, indifference, or despair. Young people encountering weighty issues antithetical to the faith and without proper guidance may be manipulated by outside forces or their own youthful presumption, impertinence, or prejudice.   It is the role of a Catholic educator to suggest and model a response to the critical questions provoked in carefully chosen works in order to provide a coherent and consistent Catholic understanding to help youth manage their shifting viewpoints and come to a mature and freely-chosen understanding of reality and its faith-based moorings.8 The Catholic teacher is model and mentor, not an aloof and uncommitted purveyor of unevaluated content. All literature must be critically and systematically evaluated and transmitted in the light of faith.  

Because Catholic education’s mission is different from that of secular schools, its libraries and its selection and use of literature should reflect these differences and serve the higher aims of Catholic education.  

The mission of Catholic education is uniquely focused on the integral formation of students’ minds, hearts, and bodies in truth, health, and holiness. Catholic education is committed to the pursuit of truth and seeks to explore the harmony between truth and beauty. Catholic education is also concerned with the eternal salvation of its students and Christian service to promote the good.9 Catholic educators should approach literature with an eye toward the impact it has on this mission and the right ordering of the intellect, will, imagination, and spirit.   The exploration of literature in Catholic education must never work against the mission by leading students into sin, driving them to despair, or impairing their ability to understand and serve the common good. This concern is greatest in the youngest ages, while older students can be carefully assisted to make right choices and judgments through reading works that present increasingly complex and even mistaken material. Care should always be taken to avoid confusion and scandal. Catholic educators should place priority on publications of substantial quality and educational value, including Catholic spiritual formation. Great care must be exercised as older students grow in their awareness and exposure to man in his fallen state. Such knowledge can then be used to better serve the redemptive and evangelical role that Catholic education also serves.10   In Catholic education, curricular programs and school libraries ought not simply replicate their secular counterparts. Their mission is not to present uncritically all possible human thought and viewpoints, but to present the best literature critically and in the context of a Catholic worldview. Students, in a developmentally appropriate way, need to be exposed to seminal works of literature, drama, and poetry.11 Catholic educators can make use of non-Christian sources and of books which present non-Catholic understandings of critical human issues, but these should not remain unchallenged or leave students spiritually or humanly damaged in the process. Accounts of the human experience that are opposed to a Christian understanding of the world can be appropriate for older students who are well-formed and have a good foundation.

Such accounts may at times be edgy and uncomfortable but must not be extreme, they should not be left unchallenged, and they should not put a student at spiritual or emotional risk. A Christian humanism, founded in the Catholic intellectual tradition that focuses on the best in literature and the arts, can provide for a balanced approach in forming students to critically examine their contemporary experiences.   Finally, it must also be remembered that literature, and especially Western literature, is not just a tool for personal and spiritual formation but a field of study in itself. Especially at the upper high school level, works of literature need to be considered as distinct elements in particular academic fields, with its own specific logic and methodology of design, study, and evaluation. Students should learn to appreciate the works’ historical development and interactions. Great works of literature are not only tools of human formation and artifacts helpful in the development of academic knowledge but also works of artistic merit. Students should also be taught to interpret and value a work of literature on its own terms.

Checklist for the Selection of Literature

The following is a checklist that may be helpful to educators choosing literature for courses and general reading. The selection of literature in Catholic education should:

  • support the mission of Catholic education;
  • have enduring value and educational significance and be more for intellectual, moral, inspirational, and artistic weight than for entertainment, popularity, appearance on reading or award lists, or enticing students to read;
  • assist the student to a right ordering of the intellect, will, imagination, and emotions in the pursuit and understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness;
  • include evaluation of themes and events in terms of Catholic norms, values, and worldview so as to provide insight into a Catholic understanding of the human person in his redeemed and unredeemed state and in his relationship to God, family, and others;
  • be free of significant and shocking profanity;
  • be free of explicit discussion, presentation, or description of sexuality, sexual activity, or sexual fantasy;
  • not be a proximate cause of sinful thoughts or actions, or a pathway to the occult;
  • not be contrary to truth;
  • not be a temptation to despair or diminish faith; and
  • be read under the guidance of a knowledgeable and spiritually formed adult particularly when controversial, emotional, or otherwise sensitive material is If assigned for summer reading, parents are made aware of any sensitive material and agree to take on this role.

Because a student is generally not able to opt out of major literature assignments, and because there is a myriad of possible materials that can meet a Catholic school’s literature goals, there are many selections that satisfy educational objectives. If exceptions are made, they should be limited to extraordinary circumstances, with primary concern for the student’s purity and formation and with approval from top administrators.  

Addressing Possible Questions

Question: We want our library holdings to be broad and varied, not limited by Catholic sensitivities or by only weighty content. Shouldn’t we let students read and view what interests them, not what we pre-determine for them?


Response: Educators do not take this view when a school provides lunch or snacks. We give students a choice of healthy options suited to the conditions. If the goal is just to get kids to put something in their mouths, then cotton candy and soda will undoubtedly serve this end better than carrots and grapes. But if the goal is to teach them to appreciate healthy, natural food and build their physical well-being and strength, then candy and chips (which are not bad in and of themselves) may get in the way of something better like juice and crackers. In the same way, we want rich and varied literature and art which will help build the health of students’ minds, souls, and imaginations. Cynical, dark, titillating, disordered, vain, bitter, or completely frivolous fiction may get in the way of an encounter with more difficult but meaningful and formative materials, which serve a higher end. There are more good and great books and art to experience than any one student can handle, so there is no shortage of material to take the place of the mediocre, meaningless, or malformed material flooding much of the market today.

 

Question: Shouldn’t we let the English teachers decide for their classrooms and the librarian decide for the library? They are the content experts, after all.

 

Response: Curriculum and library holdings should be driven by the mission of Catholic education, not by varied teacher strengths and interests or a librarian who may or may not be intensely knowledgeable of the curriculum and mission. The curriculum transcends departments and teachers. It is a function of the whole academic community, in service to the school’s Catholic mission. The administration and faculty must work together to ensure mission integrity and the complete Catholic nature of the institution. They must also ensure that it is effectively imparting a Christian vision of the world, of life, of culture, and of history, which transcends all departments and individual disciplines. They cannot in false humility assert lack of competence or vision but must engage both the academic and faith communities in open discussion about the curriculum and library holdings in light of the Catholic mission. The administration and faculty must also ensure the necessary integration among the various academic disciplines which, because they all seek knowledge and truth, comes from God and finds perfection and truth in their unified source. As St. John Henry Newman observed, the various disciplines “have multiplied bearings one on another, and an internal sympathy, and admit, or rather demand, comparison and adjustment. They complete, correct, and balance each other.”12



Question: Shouldn’t teachers design their own courses and teach books they like and are familiar with? This will help make teaching stronger and more engaging.

 

Response: Teachers should model the “life-long learning” that is the goal of all schools. As discipline experts they are well-trained to examine and deliver new content (whether
of their choosing or not) within the discipline. This content should be set by the school as a whole in line with its Catholic mission. Most Catholic English teachers were trained in secular English departments and are most familiar with works encountered there. The Catholic school must not shy away from asking teachers to master and skillfully teach works that are outside of the purview of modern, secular English departments. They must be trained and prepared to deliver rich works from the Catholic cultural and intellectual tradition and ensure that classic works from outside that tradition are critically examined from a Catholic worldview. The Catholic intellectual tradition includes works of literature and art (e.g., The Illiad, The Aeneid, the works of Milton and C.S. Lewis) that, while not Catholic and even containing problematic elements, have been found to foster authentic cultural, spiritual, and social development for Catholics and indeed all of humanity.

 

Question: Many schools stock library books that are recommended by major library associations, have won Newberry awards, or are very popular right now according to
major publishers. Don’t the kids need to read these?

 

Response: No, they do not. Each of these sources of influence have their own agendas, viewpoints, and cultures that they are advancing—some even in direct opposition to
the Church’s goals. Especially in young adult fiction, book awards are given to works promoting abortion and homosexuality (e.g., Skim and This One Summer by Mariko
Tamaki). To advance the Catholic mission, librarians can carefully select among thousands of books. They should do so thoughtfully with mission in mind, not slavishly based on fashion, popularity, or dubious authority. Catholic librarians’ criteria are how well the holdings serve the Catholic mission, knowing that students have access to virtually all these books on their own through the internet or public library, should they be so inclined to actively seek them out. Catholic education should develop in students a Catholic sensibility, so that they can make good judgments about what is worthwhile. But it takes time and focus to do so.

Guidance in Approaching a Text

Before students begin a text, it is helpful that teachers provide a list of questions, items, or concepts to identify as they read. These might be guided by essential questions, or they might come from the Transcendental Taxonomy13 created by The Cardinal Newman Society to draw out the truth, goodness, and beauty (or their opposites) in any text or study. They might also focus on basic questions such as:  

  • Are there acts of virtue and vice presented in the text, and how does the author portray these acts throughout the text?
  • What are the assumptions or propositions the author makes about the nature of man, God, family, society, and creation?
  • What major emotions do you feel while reading certain sections of the text, especially the end?
  • How does the author approach God’s graciousness, presence, and transcendence?
  • Is there a deeper meaning the author is trying to convey here?
  • Is there anything in this text that elevates my soul to God?

Instruct the students in how to annotate the text. Have them always read with a pencil or pen in hand and liberally highlight, underline, mark, or make comments in the margins about:

  • things that delight them;
  • things they find discomforting or confusing;
  • phrases or descriptions they find striking or beautiful;
  • significant passages they believe seem to capture the main themes of the text/author; and
  • passages which might help them identify any focus concepts or essential

These highlights can help them anchor their later class discussions and writings in the text and provide points to develop deeper exploration. Other questions to consider:

  • Imagine your favorite saint just read this What would be the points of conversation between the two of you?
  • What characters attracted you/repulsed you, and why?
  • How does this measure up in terms of a Catholic worldview, values, and human redemption?
  • Sum up “the moral of the story” in one sentence from the author’s point of view, and, if different, your own.
  • Did reading the text reveal to you anything new about yourself or help you grow in any way?

 

Holistic Rubric for Selecting Literature in Catholic Education

Compare the literature selection to the description provided in each box and circle the score that most closely applies to your selection. A compelling reason must be given for a score of 2 along with supports to mitigate areas of concern. Should the selection fall in the ‘1’ category, another choice needs to be made.    

Score Description
    4 Excellent Choice There are multiple or significant timeless themes presented which: transcend culture and poli- tics, allow for a richer and deeper understanding of humanity, and lend themselves to profound discussion about authentic truth and reality from a Catholic worldview. The work powerfully provokes a deeper understanding of virtue (or the destructive consequences of the lack thereof) and its effects on human flourishing. The work is uniquely suited to assist the student to a right ordering of the imagination, passions, and emotions. The work has significant artistic weight and strong intellectual merit. The writing is very well crafted and can serve as a model for student emulation. The work has been read for generations. There is no profanity. There is no blasphemy. There is no description of sexual activity or sexual fantasy. The content does not diminish the student’s faith or innocence or lead the student to sin or despair. The instructor is expertly equipped to provide a Catholic perspective on content and themes.
    3 Good Choice There are themes presented which: transcend culture and politics, allow for a deeper under- standing of humanity, and lend themselves to discussion about authentic truth and reality from a Catholic worldview. The work allows for discussion of virtue (or the destructive consequences of the lack thereof) and its effects on human flourishing. The work assists the student to a right ordering of the imagination, passions, and emotions. The work has artistic merit and intellectual merit. The writing is well crafted. The work is likely to be read by future generations. There is no shocking or significant profanity. There is no blasphemy. There is no description of sexual activity or sexual fantasy. The content does not diminish the student’s faith or innocence or lead the student to sin or despair. The instructor is effectively equipped to provide a Catholic perspective on all essential content and themes.
    2 Fair Choice Themes are primarily cultural and political, somewhat limiting discussion about transcendent concerns. Discussion about authentic truth and reality from a Catholic worldview is possible but not forefront. The work allows for discussion of virtue (or the destructive consequences of the lack thereof) but its impact on human flourishing is ambiguous and/or ambivalent. Disorder in the work may somewhat confuse the student’s passions or emotions. The work is currently popular in some English or liberal arts courses but has not yet proven its staying power over time. There is no shocking or significant profanity. There is ambivalence or neutrality toward the Catholic faith. There is no excessive or explicit description of sexual activity or sexual fantasy. The content does not diminish the student’s faith or innocence or lead the student to sin or despair. The instructor is adequately equipped to provide a Catholic perspective on most content and themes.
  1 Poor Choice Themes are primarily cultural and political, limiting discussion about transcendent concerns. Discussion about authentic truth and reality from a Catholic worldview is significantly impeded by a worldview that is provocatively and enticingly anti-Christian. Virtue and vice are confused, ridiculed, or presented as inconsequential. Disorder in the work is not resolved or leads the student’s passions or emotions astray. The work is culturally popular, but rarely found in school curricula, and has not yet proven its staying power over time. There is shocking and explicit violence. There is shocking or significant profanity. The work is blasphemous. There is excessive or explicit description of sexual activity or sexual fantasy. The content may diminish the student’s faith or innocence or lead the student to sin or despair. The instructor is insufficiently equipped to provide a Catholic perspective on all content and themes.

 

See pg. 10 of PDF for evaluation form

 

Selected Reading List for Catholic K-12 Students

  This list suggests options for Catholic educators and is not intended as an exhaustive list of all possible texts. Titles with an asterisk (*) are suggested for use when using The Cardinal Newman Society/Ruah Woods Standards of Christian Anthropology. Even with a shared rationale for teaching literature, deciding which generally acceptable books are best suited to the needs and abilities of specific learners will need to be determined by those closest to them. The non-exhaustive list below demonstrates that Catholic educators have no need to risk assigning lesser or morally ambiguous reading. There are more than enough excellent works available to fill any curriculum.

Grades K-4 Fiction – General


Adapted Greek and Roman myths
Aesop’s Fables
Bible stories
Folk tales
Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes
Poetry
Selected Fairy Tales from Grimm
Selected Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen

Grades K-4 Titles


A Book of Nonsense (Lear)
A Pair of Red Clogs (Matsuno)
A Seed is Sleepy (Aston)*
Abraham Lincoln (d’Aulaire)
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Viorst)
An Egg is Quiet (Aston)*
Andy and the Circus (Daugherty)
Angus and the Ducks (Flack)
Beauty and the Beast (Lamb)
Before I Was Me (Fraser)
Blueberries for Sal (McCloskey)*
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Martin)
By the Shores of Silver Lake (Wilder)
Caps for Sale (Slobodkina)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl)
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Dahl)
Charlotte’s Web (White)
Clown of God (De Paolo)
Corduroy (Freeman)
Cranberry Thanksgiving (Devlin)
Curious George Series (Rey)
Farmer Boy (Wilder)
Favorite Uncle Remus (Harris)
Flower Fables (Alcott)
Frederick (Lionni)
Frog and Toad Series (Lobel)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (Johnson)
Heavenly Hosts: Eucharistic Miracles for Kids (Swegart)
Heidi (Spyri)
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (Numeroff)
Homer Price (McCloskey)
Just So Stories (Kipling)
Lentil (McCloskey)
Little Britches (Moody)
Little House in the Big Woods (Wilder)
Little House on the Prairie (Wilder)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (Burnett)
Madeline (Bemelmans)
Make Way for Ducklings (McCloskey)
Mama, Do You Love Me? (Joosse)
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (Burton)
Millions of Cats (Gag)
Mirette on the High Wire (McCully)
Molly McBride and the Purple Habit (Schoonover-Egolf)
Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Atwater)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH Series (O’Brien)
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters (Steptoe)*
Nate the Great Series (Sharmat)
On the Banks of Plum Creek (Wilder)
Owl Moon (Yolen)
Ox-Cart Man (Hall)
Papa Piccolo (Talley)
Peppe the Lamplighter (Barton)*
Peter Pan (Barrie)
Pinocchio (Collodi)
Pied Piper of Hamelin (Browning)
Rikki Tikki Tavi (Kipling)
Roses in the Snow: A Tale of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (Jackson and Kadar-Kallen)
Saints Chronicles Series (Milgrom and Davis)
St. Clare of Assisi: Runaway Rich Girl (Hee-ju)
St. George and the Dragon (Hodges)*
Stone Soup (Brown)
Storm in the Night (Stolz)
The Animal Hedge (Fleishman)*
The Blue Fairy Book; The Red Fairy Book (Lang)
The Bobbsey Twins (Hope)
The Borrowers (Norton)
The Boxcar Children Series (Warner)
The Children’s Book of Virtues (Bennett)
The Elves and the Shoemaker (Galdone)
The Emperor’s New Clothes (Hans Christian Andersen)
The Five Chinese Brothers (Bishop and Wiese)
The Little Engine That Could (Piper)
The Little Flower: A Parable of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (Arganbright and
Arvidson)
The Long Winter (Wilder)
The Lost World (Doyle)
The Moffats (Estes)
The Mystery at Midnight (Hendey)
The Princess and the Kiss (Bishop)
The Quiltmaker’s Gift (Brumbeau)*
The Reluctant Dragon (Grahame)
The Secret Garden (Burnett)
The Selfish Giant and Other Stories (Wilde)
The Snowy Day (Keats)
The Story About Ping (Fleck and Wiese)
The Story of Ferdinand (Leaf)
The Story of Peter Rabbit (Potter)
The Swiss Family Robinson (Wyss)
The Trumpet of the Swan (White)
The Twenty-One Balloons (Du Bois)
The Velveteen Rabbit (Williams)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle)
The Wind in the Willows (Grahame)
These Happy Golden Years (Wilder)
Through the Looking Glass (Carroll)
Treasure Box Set (Maryknoll Sisters)
Ugly Duckling (Hans Christian Andersen)
Wee Gillis (Leaf)
Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak)
Winnie the Pooh (Milne)

Grades 5-8 Titles


A Christmas Carol (Dickens)
A Story of Joan of Arc (Earnest)
A Wrinkle in Time (L’Engle)
Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints (Swaim)
Across Five Aprils (Hunt)
Across the Plains (Stevenson)
Adam of the Road (Gray)
All Creatures Great and Small (Herriott)
Amos Fortune, Free Man (Yates)
An Old Fashioned Girl (Alcott)
Anne of Green Gables (Montgomery)
Around the World in Eighty Days (Verne)
Beowulf: A New Telling (Nye)
Black Beauty (Sewell)
Black Stallion (Farley)
Beric the Briton (Henty)
Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad (Lee)
Blessed Marie of New France (Windeatt)
Bonnie Prince Charlie (Henty)
By Pike and Dyke (Henty)
Caddie Woodlawn (Brink)
Captains Courageous (Kipling)
Cricket on the Hearth (Dickens)
Cyrano de Bergerac (Rostand)
David Copperfield (Dickens)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (Cather)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson)
Facing Death (Henty)
Fingal’s Quest (Pollard)
For the Temple (Henty)
Forget Not Love: The Passion of Maximilian Kolbe (Frossad)
From the Earth to the Moon (Verne)
Gentle Ben (Morey)
Great Expectations (Dickens)
Hans Brinker (Dodge)
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life (Keller)
Hero of the Hills (Windeatt)
Holy Twins: Benedict and Scholastica (Norris)
I Am David (Holm)
I, Juan de Pareja (De Trevino)
If All the Swords in England (Willard)
In Freedom’s Cause (Henty)
In the Reign of Terror (Henty)
Jack and Jill (Alcott)
Jo’s Boys (Alcott)
Johnny Tremain (Forbes)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Verne)
Kidnapped (Stevenson)
King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (Green)
King of the Wind (Henry)
Lay Siege to Heaven (De Wohl)
Leif the Lucky (D’Aulaire)
Lilies of the Field (Barrett)
Little Men (Alcott)
Little Women (Alcott)
Log of a Cowboy (Adams)
Madeline Takes Command (Brill and Adams)
Misty of Chincoteague (Henry)
My Ántonia (Cather)
My Side of the Mountain (George)
Mysterious Island (Verne)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Douglass)
Number the Stars (Lowry)
O Pioneers (Cather)
Old Yeller (Gipson)
Oliver Twist (Dickens)
Our Town (Wilder)
Patron Saint of First Communicants (Windeatt)
Penrod and others (Tarkington)
Pied Piper of Hamelin (Browning)
Radiate: More Stories of Daring Teen Saints (Swaim)
Red Hugh Prince of Donegal (Reilly)
Redwall Series (Jacques)
Rip Van Winkle (Irving)
Robin Hood (Pyle)
Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)
Rolf and the Viking Bow (French)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor)
Saint Benedict: The Story of the Father of the Western Monks (Windeatt)
Saint Catherine of Siena (Forbes)
Saint Dominic (Windeatt)
Saint Helena and the True Cross (De Wohl)
Saint Hyacinth of Poland (Windeatt)
Saint John Masias (Windeatt)
Saint Martin de Porres (Windeatt)
Saint Monica (Forbes)
Saint Rose of Lima (Windeatt)
Saint Thomas Aquinas (Windeatt)
Sarah Plain and Tall (Patricia MacLachlan)
Son of Charlemagne (Willard)
Sounder (Armstrong)
St. Benedict, Hero of the Hills (Windeatt)
St. Joan, The Girl Soldier (De Wohl)
St. Patrick (Tompert)
St. Thomas Aquinas for Children (Maritain)
Tales of King Arthur (Talbott)
Tanglewood Tales (Hawthorne)
Tarzan Series (Burroughs)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (Green)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Black Arrow (Stevenson)
The Black Cauldron (Alexander)
The Blood Red Crescent (Garnett)
The Bronze Bow (Speare)
The Call of the Wild (London)
The Children of Fatima (Windeatt)
The Children’s Homer (Colum)
The Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis)
The Deerslayer (Cooper)
The Dragon and the Raven (Henty)
The Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
The Fledgling (Langton)
The Gift of the Magi (O. Henry)
The Hiding Place (ten Boom)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)
The Horse and His Boy (Lewis)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Doyle)
The Innocence of Father Brown [or others] (Chesterton)
Island of the Blue Dolphins (O’Dell)
The Jungle Book (Kipling)
The Knight of the White Cross (Henty)
The Last Battle (Lewis)
The Last of the Mohicans (Cooper)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Irving)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Lewis)
The Little Flower (Windeatt)
The Little Prince (Saint-Exupéry)
The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
The Miracle Worker (Gibson)
The Miraculous Medal (Windeatt)
The Oregon Trail (Parkman)
The Pearl (Steinbeck)
The Prince and the Pauper (Twain)
The Ransom of Red Chief, and Other Stories (O. Henry)
The Railway Children (Nesbit)
The Red Badge of Courage (Crane)
The Red Keep (French)
The Restless Flame (De Wohl)
The Song at the Scaffold (Von le Fort)
The Spear: A Novel of the Crucifixion (De Wohl)
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (Pyle)
The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Walsh)
The Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow (French)
The Sword and the Stone (White)
The Time Machine (Wells)
The Trumpeter of Krakow (Kelly)
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Lewis)
The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey (Sutcliffe)
The War of the Worlds (Wells)
The Weight of a Mass (Nobisso)
The White Stag (Seredy)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Speare)
The Yearling (Rawlings)
Thomas Aquinas and the Preaching Beggars (Larnen and Lomask)
Tom Sawyer (Twain)
Treasure Island (Stevenson)
Tuck Everlasting (Babbit)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Verne)
Two Years Before the Mast (Dana)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe)
Under the Lilacs (Alcott)
Westward Ho (Kingsley)
Where the Lilies Bloom (Cleaver)
Where the Red Fern Grows (Rawls)
White Fang (London)
With Wolfe in Canada (Henty)
Won by the Sword (Henty)
Work (Alcott)

Grades 9-12 Fiction Titles


A Good Man is Hard to Find (O’Connor)
A Man for All Seasons (Bolt)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce)
A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
A New Voyage Round the World (Dampier)
Aeneid [excerpts] (Virgil)
Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides (Aeschylus)
An Enemy of the People (Ibsen)
Animal Farm (Orwell)
Beowulf (trans. Tolkien)
Billy Budd, Bartleby the Scrivener, and other short stories (Melville)
Brideshead Revisited (Waugh)
Brothers Karamazov or Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)
Canterbury Tales [excerpts] (Chaucer)
Citadel of God: A Novel about St. Benedict (De Wohl)
Come Rack! Come Rope! (Benson)
Death of a Salesman (Miller)
Diary of a Country Priest (Bernanos)
Doctor Faustus (Marlow)
Doctor Zhivago (Pasternak)
Don Quixote (Cervantes)
El Cid (trans. Racine)
Emma (Austen)
Frankenstein (Shelley)
Great Expectations (Dickens)
Gulliver’s Travels (Swift)
Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
Jane Eyre (Bronte)
Joan of Arc (Twain)
Kim (Kipling)
Kristin Lavransdatter (Undset)
Lieutenant Hornblower Series (Forester)
Le Morte D’Arthur (Malory)
Les Misérables (Hugo)
Lord Jim (Conrad)
Lord of the Flies (Golding)
Man in the Iron Mask (Dumas)
Medea, The Trojan Women, The Bacchae (Euripides)
Metamorphoses [excerpts] (Ovid)
Mill on the Floss [others] (Eliot)
Moonstone [and others] (Collins)
Murder in the Cathedral (T.S. Eliot)
Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky)
Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (Sophocles)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Solzhenitsyn)
Oresteia (Aeschylus)
Paradise Lost [excerpts] (Milton)
Persuasion (Austen)
Pride and Prejudice (Austen)
Quo Vadis (Sienkiewicz)
Sense and Sensibility (Austen)
Short Stories (Poe)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Anonymous)
Stories (Chekhov)
The American (James)
The Betrothed (Manzoni)
The Blithedale Romance (Hawthorne)
The Chosen (Potock)
The Cloister and the Hearth (Reade)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
The Complete Stories (O’Conner)
The Divine Comedy [excerpts] (Dante)
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Anonymous)
The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
The Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
The House of Seven Gables (Hawthorne)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Hugo)
The Iliad [excerpts] (Homer)
The Invisible Man (Wells)
The Living Wood (De Wohl)
The Longest Day (Ryan)
The Mayor of Casterbridge (Hardy)
The Odyssey [excerpts or full] (Homer)
The Old Man and the Sea (Hemmingway)
The Open Boat (Crane)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wilde)
The Power and the Glory (Green)
The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy)
The Song of Roland (Anonymous)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)
Tom Brown’s School Days; Tom Brown at Oxford (Hughes)
Up from Slavery (Washington)
Vanity Fair (Thackeray)
Wuthering Heights (Bronte)
SHAKESPEARE
As You Like It
Hamlet,
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Richard II
Romeo and Juliet
The Merchant of Venice
The Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest

Grades 9-12 Poets


Matthew Arnold, W.H. Auden, Hilaire Belloc, William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Lord Byron, G.K. Chesterton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Richard Crashaw, Emily Dickenson, John Donne, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, A.E. Hausman, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Keats, Joyce Kilmer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Andrew Marvell, Alexander Pope, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Siegfried Sassoon, William Shakespeare, Percy Shelley, Robert Southwell, Edmund Spenser, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Dylan Thomas, Francis Thompson, William Wordsworth, William Butler Yeats

Grades 9-12 Spiritual Classics


Abandonment to Divine Providence (de Caussade)
An Introduction to the Devout Life [excerpts] (St. Francis de Sales)
Dark Night of the Soul (St. John of the Cross)
Summa Theologica [excerpts] (St. Thomas Aquinas)
The Bible
The Catechism of the Catholic Church [selections]
The Confessions [excerpts] (St. Augustine of Hippo)
The Desert Fathers [excerpts]
The Glories of Mary (St. Alphonsus Liguori)
The Imitation of Christ [excerpts] (Thomas à Kempis)
The Life of St. Francis of Assisi [excerpts] (St. Bonaventure)
The Practice of the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence)
The Rule of St. Benedict
The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, The Abolition of Man (Lewis)
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (St. Ignatius of Loyola)
The Story of a Soul (St. Thérèse of Lisieux)
True Devotion to Mary (St. Louis de Montfort)
Grades 9-12 Non-Fiction Titles
Apology, Dialogues, Euthyphro, Republic [excerpts] (Plato)
Autobiography (Franklin)
Democracy in America [selections] (De Tocqueville)
Funeral Oration (Pericles)
Harvard Address and/or Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (Solzhenitsyn)
Humanae Vitae (St. Paul VI)
I Have a Dream (King)
Letter from a Birmingham Jail (King)
Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)
Nicomachean Ethics, Book I (Aristotle)
Night (Wiesel)
Politics, Book I (Aristotle)
Self-Reliance (Emerson)
Slave Narratives (Douglass, Jacobs)
The Communist Manifesto (Marx)
The Conquest of Gaul (Caesar)
The Declaration of Independence
The Documents of Vatican II [selections]
The Federalist Papers [selections] (Hamilton, et al.)
The Gettysburg Address (Lincoln)
The Gulag Archipelago [Abridged] (Solzhenitsyn)
The Histories [selections] (Herodotus)
The Magna Carta
The Prince (Machiavelli)
The Rights of Man (Paine)
The Social Contract (Rousseau)
Treatise on Law and excerpts from other works (Aquinas)
The United States Constitution
Veritatis Splendor (St. John Paul II)

 

 

 

1 Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School (1988) 57.
2 Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Together in Catholic Schools: A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful (2007) 12.
3 Congregation for Catholic Education (1988) 53.
4 Saint Paul VI, Gaudium et Spes (1965) 62.
5 Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (1977) 49.
6 Congregation for Catholic Education (1977) 36.
7 Congregation for Catholic Education (1977) 49.

8 The general educational approach in this section is proposed by Luigi Giussani in his book The Risk of Education (Cross
road Publishing Company, 2001). See esp. pp. 55-65.
9 Code of Canon Law (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1983) 795.
10 Congregation for Catholic Education (1988) 66, 69.
11 There are many lists of literature and spirituality which might be considered part of the “Great Books” in general and the
Catholic intellectual tradition in particular.

12 St. John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1982) 75.

13 https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/Transcendental-Taxonomy.pdf

Catholic Habits of the Mind

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PowerPoint overview of Catholic Habits of the Mind:
 
 

 

By Denise Donohue, Ed.D., and Patrick Reilly

 

Catholic education integrally forms students in mind, body, and soul so they might know and love God and serve their fellow man. Because of this mission, Catholic education has a long tradition of excellence in harmoniously forming students’ intellects and characters through instruction in knowledge and formation in virtue. There are some well-known teachings on developing intellectual virtue in the Catholic intellectual tradition. In order to reinvigorate classroom teaching in Catholic schools and to assist teachers in delivering a deeper and more robust student formation, this paper advocates for the development of three Catholic “habits of mind” to elicit in students: thinking with faith, thinking philosophically, and seeking and valuing the transcendent.

Father Antonin Sertillanges, O.P., wrote substantively of the habits and behaviors of the Christian intellectual in his important work, The Intellectual Life.[1] St. John Henry Newman, in the 19th century, described education as cultivation of the “philosophical habit of mind,” developing greater understanding of both the parts and the whole of knowledge. And St. Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages reflected on the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle’s writings on habits, both moral and intellectual.

In the Catholic paradigm—and indeed in the classical terminology that has been foundational to both secular and Christian education for more than two millennia—we call good habits “virtues” and distinguish them from vices, which are consistent bad habits. The Catechism defines virtue as “a habitual and firm disposition to do the good.”[2] The development of virtue leads a student to both human flourishing and to Heaven. Sertillanges identifies “studiousness” as the key intellectual virtue, but it is a part of temperance; indeed, all the virtues that support academic and intellectual work flow from the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance and the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

In Catholic education, virtues overlap and occur throughout all levels and types of student formation. Learning a “pattern of intellectual behavior that leads to productive actions”[3] such as in the secular Habits of Mind program may have some utility in all schools, but a liberal education aims for much more, with even productive actions possessing an ethical dimension.[4] Catholic intellectual virtues help students do more than problem-solve; they help students seek and find the truth of a thing. In Catholic education, this inquiry into the truth ultimately leads to Truth Himself: God. This path is one that secular education cannot fully pursue. Our nature is designed to pursue truth through the inquiry of things, and in Catholic education, this truth is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. When illuminated by God’s grace, we understand and determine the interconnection of things, and learn something about the higher causes of things.

In Catholic education, the formation of moral virtue is not only an essential part of the written curriculum[5] but is modeled and taught through the lives and witnesses of its teachers and others who exhibit virtues such as faithfulness, docility, humility, piety, gentleness, compassion, and kindness, among others. Catholic schools are all about formation in virtue, as these dispositions are considered the means of acquiring the goods of this life and the gaining of heaven. Our Lord made explicit to us in his teaching of the beatitudes the result of acquiring specific dispositions: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied…Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:3-10).

The formation of intellectual virtues aligning with a moral formation conforms to the holistic approach of Catholic education, which seeks integral education of mind, body, and soul. Catholic education forms young people with a Catholic worldview and shows them that virtue has positive real-world consequences in this life. It teaches that virtues such as prudence are applicable to intellectual, moral, and physical challenges that may come their way. Most importantly, Catholic education teaches the virtues as the way of Christ and guides the path to sainthood.

Catholic Intellectual Virtues

The Catholic intellectual tradition—developed by St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and many others—distinguishes intellectual virtues. They focus on what one knows and how that knowledge is used, always within the framework of a moral purpose. These traditional five virtues are art, prudence, understanding, science, and wisdom. Teachers in Catholic education who employ these methods can rest assured of their soundness and heritage.

Art and prudence are considered practical virtues because they are concerned with two forms of action: making and doing. Art directs the intellect in applying certain rules or methods to make useful, practical, beautiful, and pleasing things. It is the capacity of knowing how to do something or knowing different techniques, such as knowing how to use a computer program or how to make a kite fly. Art involves applying knowledge to shape matter, whether that matter is an artistic sculpture or principles of arithmetic. Prudence directs the intellectual powers toward knowing what is best and assessing what ought to be done. It involves analyzing and evaluating the proper means of action with the direction of contributing to our long-term happiness and is the foundational intellectual virtue necessary for all the other moral virtues. According to St. Thomas, prudence is the “form” of the moral virtues, and the human passions and actions are the “matter.”[6] Thus, in any particular situation, “it is prudence that determines what the just, temperate and brave act is.”[7]

Understanding, science, and wisdom are considered speculative virtues, and these are connected by nature to man’s desire to seek and know truth. Understanding cultivates knowledge of first principles or truths that are self-evident, or that reason and logic add to our experience. This knowledge is intuitive and easily attainable, such as the law that something cannot both exist and not exist at the same time under the same conditions.[8] Science uncovers “knowledge of conclusions acquired by demonstration through causes or principles which are final in one class or other.”[9] Science, therefore, is the evident knowledge of something through demonstration. Still, it is much more. It is human reason acting upon knowledge to draw conclusions from sound premises, thereby multiplying knowledge of creation, humanity, and God. It involves the habits of careful observation, experimentation, and measurement to reach conclusions using demonstrative reasoning. Science demands evidence and properly ordered reasoning and this evidence and reasoning assist with determining a certain level of certainty about a thing. Wisdom is the knowledge of conclusions to life’s most profound questions. Its object is truth and is generally identified as the study of philosophy or metaphysics. It seeks the answers to the questions of humanity’s existence and that of the universe, such as, “Why is man the only rational creature?” and “Why are the planets ordered the way they are?” Catholic educators are called to facilitate discussion and to direct the student’s intellect toward grasping the relationship between humanity and these existential realities.

Generally, this is done through philosophical questioning and inviting students to contemplate reality in wonder and awe. Aristotle called wonder the beginning of a love of wisdom—the highest understanding of things, their first causes and principles. Wonder begins, he says, “in the first place at obvious perplexities, and then by gradual progressions raising questions about the greater matters too, e.g., about the changes of the moon and of the sun, about the stars and about the origin of the universe.”[10] Students should not stop at intellectual curiosity, which is satisfied with answers to “How” and “Why.”[11] The type of wonder desired here is a deeper, contemplative wonder that is exemplified by a full-body emotional, aesthetic, and existential response. This wonder leaves one open to the uncertainty and the mystery still evident in the experience.[12] It is at this moment that one can “step off” into the realm of faith, accepting it as a valid way of knowing, a moment in which one can revel in the first cause of all created things: God.

While there is certainly a place for wonder as curiosity in Catholic schools – in all schools –contemplative wonder does not stop with answers in the material world. As Newman says, wonder should lead reason to “ascend” above the actual fact or experience and the strictly material. It should look not only to material causes, comparisons, relationships, classification, and principles but should also evoke a sense of humility and a sense of our powerlessness and adoration before the glory of God, the author and end of all that is true, good, and beautiful. Catholic education teaches students the use and skills of reason to rise toward the transcendent. We teach students habits of reasoning that elevate thought above information and experience. Secular education leaves students hanging at the peak of ascent since it cannot jump off into the realm of religious faith. A Catholic school that teaches religion but fails to form students with skills and habits of philosophical reason is leaving students unable to contend with the issues of post-modernity, where they can quickly fall prey to ideology despite conflicts with their consciences and sense of natural law. They can have years of experiencing God’s love and mercy in Catholic education, the sacraments, and the family, but then they turn away because their inadequately formed minds cannot find God in reality, and they are lost in confusion.

St. John Henry Newman points out that while materialists can experience fascination, wonder is fully experienced when it causes us to “Rejoice with trembling”[13] and focuses not just on creation but also on the Creator. There is a depth and mystery to creation and reality and to our relationship to God, which evokes “a feeling of awe, wonder, and praise, which cannot be more suitably expressed than by the Scripture word fear; or by holy Job’s words, though he spoke in grief, and not as being possessed of a blessing. ‘Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him. Therefore, am I troubled at His presence; when I consider, I am afraid of Him’ [Job xxiii. 8, 9, 15].” [14]

A greater emphasis on these true Catholic intellectual and moral virtues and on the transcendent can help ensure the development of habits to assist in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and cultivating wisdom for human perfection in the light of faith. These are critical goals in Catholic education, which understand that human nature is oriented toward unity with God the Creator, and man’s gift of reason is intended to serve the free search for truth about God, humanity, and creation. Without an appeal to truth, man’s free will and reason lack purpose, and human dignity is not respected. Catholic intellectual virtues move beyond an emphasis on problem-solving to prepare students as useful workers and citizens. This focus is insufficient to achieve Catholic education’s goal of virtuous living and sainthood.

Additionally, Catholic educators should ensure that their curricula and course plans include but are not limited to memorization, seeking knowledge from sound testimony, identifying first principles, asking about essence, asking about causes, division, and composition of ideas, classification, analogical thinking, communicating with proper language, communicating with elegant language appropriate to the circumstances, discerning the unity of knowledge and bearing of knowledge upon other knowledge, following the methods that are proper to each academic discipline, right use of freedom in intellectual pursuits, and concern for the common good. These approaches harmonize with human nature and aid in complete human flourishing.

Catholic Habits of the Mind

Three ‘habits of mind’ are needed to build the Catholic integrity of an educational program, honor the Catholic intellectual tradition, and put students on the path of true happiness in this world and the next.

Thinking with Faith

Faith is the trust we have in something we do not see, based on the authority and credibility of the source, which is generally a person.[15] An example of human faith is to believe that Alaska exists without ever having been there based on the credibility of others and their testimony. Certitude is not personally confirmed, but the will and the intellect join to assent to the truth that Alaska is a place based on the credibility of witnesses.

Faith becomes supernatural when we are disposed to it through the sacraments and grace, and the matter is based on Divine Revelation from God Himself. Here the will and the intellect are turned toward God, the evidence being the witness of holy men and women, the prophets, the saints, the Apostles, and Jesus Christ. St. John Paul II, in his discussion of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, writes:

According to the Apostle, it was part of the original plan of the creation that reason should without difficulty reach beyond the sensory data to the origin of all things: the Creator. But because of the disobedience by which man and woman chose to set themselves in full and absolute autonomy in relation to the One who had created them, this ready access to God the Creator diminished. (Fides et Ratio, 1998, 22)

While we have not seen the eternal kingdom, we believe, with the supernatural help of grace through faith, that it exists, so we continue to journey toward that deeper, fuller understanding of God’s plan for us as imparted in Divine Revelation. In faith, the indivisible unity between the intellect and will is more easily discerned. St. Augustine is credited with saying, “believe so that you may understand.”[16] This is the goal of Catholic education: to open the door of faith for students to behold the transcendental realities through learning, discussion, experience, service, and sacraments. It is essential that students cultivate the intellectual and moral habits of being that predispose them to an encounter with faith through learning opportunities and discussions of the importance and validity of faith as a way of knowing. 

In public education, the discussion of faith is limited. The material sciences are held up as the highest and most privileged ways of knowing, and students are taught that knowledge of truth is limited to what can be physically seen, weighed, or measured. While this is a valid way of knowing, it is not the only means of knowing.

Whereas modern society and most secular education today define truth according to consensus and experience, the Catholic educator understands that truth is the conformity of the mind and reality and that all truth proceeds from God. The human intellect is intended to be ordered to truth, and reason allows the intellect to rise above consensus and experience to better know God, His ways, and His creation.

Aquinas says that both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God and work to contribute to the understanding of Divine Revelation and ultimate truth. St. John Paul II writes:

Faith therefore has no fear of reason but seeks it out and has trust in it. Just as grace builds on nature and brings it to fulfillment, so faith builds upon and perfects reason. Illumined by faith, reason is set free from the fragility and limitations deriving from the disobedience of sin and finds the strength required to rise to the knowledge of the Triune God. (Fides et Ratio, 43)

What more fitting place to champion faith as a means of knowing than in a Catholic school? Enlightened by faith, Catholic education teaches habits that form students not only for knowing but also for apprehending the transcendental realities that give ultimate meaning to this life as souls are prepared for the next.

Thinking Philosophically

Saint John Henry Newman taught that the essence of education is cultivation of the intellect for its own sake. He argued that education should cultivate a “philosophical habit of mind” that reasons upon knowledge rather than simply accumulating information from experience and creatively expressing one’s feelings and desires. Education teaches the student to “ascend” above knowledge to new levels of understanding by the right use of reason. He wrote, “…in order to have possession of truth at all, we must have the whole truth; and no one science, no two sciences, no one family of science, nay, not even all secular science, is the whole truth…” (Discourse 4). Instead, God is “a fact encompassing, closing in upon, absorbing, every other fact conceivable.”

Reason needs to be cultivated not only as a logical tool for problem-solving but also as a means of attaining truths foundational to reality and larger than experience—as in contemplation of the natural and eternal law. Collaboration to find solutions and clear communication is necessary, but a Catholic school will want to put additional emphasis on dialectic and persuasion for the purpose of reasoning toward higher truths.

Dialectic is a discussion of seemingly conflicting things that appear to be true at the same time. It is a method of dialogue that aims to arrive at truth instead of defeating or persuading an opponent. It is associated with the Socratic method and the methods of medieval scholastics, including St. Thomas Aquinas. Educators can also teach the Topics of Invention.

The Topics of Invention are a method of classical rhetoric used to examine all aspects of a subject in the context of its circumstances, attributes, and relation to other subjects. Knowledge from an authoritative source – including the Catholic Church – is also used as a valid means of seeking the truth of a thing. Adding the habit of ‘thinking philosophically’ allows for rational dialogue and “ascending” to the higher truths of God, which ought to be the outcome of an integrated Catholic education.

Valuing and Seeking the Transcendent

Catholic education should also ensure that student thinking is oriented toward assigning value and meaning to what is being considered, and students should recognize that transcendent realities are among those things. Pope Francis has noted that:

For me, the greatest crisis of education, in the Christian perspective, is being closed to transcendence. We are closed to transcendence. It is necessary to prepare hearts for the Lord to manifest Himself, but totally, namely, in the totality of humanity, which also has this dimension of transcendence.[17]

Traditionally, in Catholic education, subjects are taught not merely as vehicles for the conveyance of content knowledge and technical skills. Catholic education helps “the pupil to assimilate skills, knowledge, intellectual methods and moral and social attitudes, all of which help to develop his personality and lead him to take his place as an active member of the community of man.”[18]

In Catholic education, the Catholic faith increases students’ understanding, and moral formation increases learning. Processes and methodologies should not thwart the opportunity for students to go beyond the pragmatic, utilitarian, and material world. Church documents are filled with discussions regarding the formative value of all education. For instance:

The Catholic teacher, therefore, cannot be content simply to present Christian values as a set of abstract objectives to be admired, even if this be done positively and with imagination; they must be presented as values which generate human attitudes, and these attitudes must be encouraged in the students. Examples of such attitudes would be these: a freedom which includes respect for others; conscientious responsibility; a sincere and constant search for truth; a calm and peaceful critical spirit; a spirit of solidarity with and service toward all other persons; a sensitivity for justice; a special awareness of being called to be positive agents of change in a society that is undergoing continuous transformation. (Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, #29-30)

Catholic education focuses on the formation of the intellect, will, and soul of the student. It allows opportunities for students to ponder God’s omnipotence and love and his personal relationship with them. It is a specific charge for Catholic teachers to teach to the transcendent in a way that goes beyond abstraction, naming, listing attributes, and so forth and prepares a human soul for an encounter with real things—something secular schools cannot do.

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, [and] becoming aware of the transcendental, and religious education. (The Catholic School, #17)

The transcendentals of truth, beauty, and goodness can assist in determining value. Transcendentals are timeless and universal attributes of being. They are the properties inherent to all beings.[19]

The pursuit of truth, defined as the mind in accord with reality,[20] is a foundation of Catholic education and is a significant component of the Newman Society’s Catholic Curriculum Standards. From the Congregation for Catholic Education (1997) we read, “Various school subjects do not present only knowledge to be attained, but also values to be acquired and truths to be discovered. All of which demands an atmosphere characterized by the search for truth” (#14). Man, by his nature, is made to seek the truth.[21] For instance, the Catholic Curriculum Standards expect students to “Analyze how the pursuit of scientific knowledge, for utilitarian purposes alone or for the misguided manipulation of nature, thwarts the pursuit of authentic Truth and the greater glory of God.”

What is true is also beautiful. As a timeless and universal attribute of being, beauty helps evoke wonder, awe, and delight of the soul leading to philosophical and theological questions like, “How can something so beautiful exist?”  “Is this beauty only meaningful to me?” “Who created all of this?” and so forth. Catholic education—with its focus on the transcendentals of truth, beauty, and goodness—already teaches wonder as more than an intellectual satisfaction; it is an invitation to think beyond creation and seek the reality – and mystery – of the wisdom of God who created all that we know and experience.

Finally, in Catholic education, we know that the true and the beautiful are also related to all that is good. A thing is “good” when it exercises the powers, activities, and capacities which perfect it. In Catholic education, we also call human action good when all components of the action are noble and virtuous. Habits of Mind tends toward some of these same ends in an aspirational sort of way, but a robust Catholic education can thoughtfully and wholly fulfill the mission of intellectual formation within its own paradigm that looks to the transcendent.

Conclusion

When choosing specific approaches to Catholic education, it is important to understand the nature of the human person and use that understanding as the foundation for any education program.[22] Humanity has been gifted with faculties that work in specific ways. Education works best when it follows a natural order and engages the student’s will and emotions in the learning endeavor. As an embodied soul, it is essential that the whole person—the intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual—be ordered so that students can better understand themselves as effective and flourishing human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, and heirs to the eternal kingdom.

Catholic educators interested in cultivating habits of mind might consider incorporating the intellectual and dispositional standards from the Catholic Curriculum Standards, in addition to a Catholic school’s virtue and catechetical program. Standards such as, “Evaluate how history is not a mere chronicle of human events, but rather a moral and meta-physical drama having supreme worth in the eyes of God,” and, “Display personal self-worth and dignity as a human being and as part of God’s ultimate plan of creation,” elevate a student’s thought from the here and now to the eternal.

Catholic schools choosing to highlight the transcendental concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness, which are also embedded in the Catholic Curriculum Standards, will naturally use and develop many of the intellectual behaviors appropriate to a well-formed Catholic student. The Catholic Curriculum Standards seek to form dispositions toward:

  • demonstration of Catholic moral virtues;
  • ardent pursuit of the truth of things and the rejection of relativism;
  • value of the human body as a temple of the Holy Spirit;
  • dignity of the human person and primacy of care and concern for all stages of life;
  • care and concern for the environment as part of God’s creation;
  • appreciation of the beauty of well-crafted prose and poetry, historical artifacts and cultures, the order of creation, and the proportion, radiance, and wholeness present within mathematics; and
  • appreciation for the power of literature, the story of history, and the discoveries of science and how through interaction with them one can identify and choose the personal and collective good.

Using faithful curriculum standards, teaching the Catholic habits of mind described here, and providing a solid virtue program will help ensure a proper Catholic education program.

 

Denise Donohue, Ed.D., is Vice President of Educator Resources and Evaluation and Patrick Reilly is President and founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, which promotes and defends faithful Catholic education.

[1] A. D. Sertillanges The Intellectual Life (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1960) at  https://archive.org/details/a.d.sertillangestheintellectuallife/page/n1/mode/2up (accessed on Jan. 21, 2021).

[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993) 1803.

[3] Arthur L. Costa, “Describing the Habits of Mind,” in Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick (eds.), Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind (Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2008)16. Retrieved at http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108008/chapters/Describing-the-Habits-of-Mind.aspx (accessed on Oct. 15, 2020).

[4] St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Q. 57, Art.1 at https://www.newadvent.org/summa/2057.htm (accessed on Jan. 21, 2021).

[5] See the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, Disciple of Christ: Education in Virtue program’s list of virtues to learn in a Catholic school at https://golepress.com/welcome/education-in-virtue/ (accessed on Jan. 21, 2021).

[6] St. Thomas Aquinas, De veritate 27, 5 ad 5.

[7] Sr. Teresa Auer, O.P., Called to Happiness: Guiding Ethical Principles (Third ed.) (Nashville, Tenn.: St. Cecilia Congregation, 2013), 163.

[8] See Auer (2013) 156 for examples.

[9] See Martin Augustine Waldron, “Virtue,” The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 15 (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912) at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15472a.htm (accessed on Oct. 23, 2020) for definitions of the intellectual virtues.

[10] Aristotle, Metaphysics 1.982b.

[11] Anders Schinkel, “The Educational Importance of Deep Wonder” (2017), Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 51, No. 2 (2017), 543.

[12] Schinkel, 544.

[13] Newman frequently references this passage from Psalm 2:11 in his works.

[14] St. John Henry Newman, “Sermon 2: Reverence, a Belief in God’s Presence” 26 at http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume5/sermon2.html (accessed on Jan. 21, 2021).

[15] St. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio (1998) 33.

[16] Fr. David Pignato, “The Primacy of Faith and the Priority of Reason: A Justification for Public Recognition of Revealed Truth,” The Saint Anselm Journal, 12.2 (Spring 2017) 52-65.

[17] “Pope’s Q and A on the Challenges of Education,” ZENIT (Nov. 23, 2015) at https://zenit.org/2015/11/23/pope-s-q-and-a-on-the-challenges-of-education/ (accessed on Jan. 21, 2021).

[18] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (Vatican, 1977) 39.

[19] See “Educating to Truth, Beauty and Goodness” from The Cardinal Newman Society at https://newmansociety.org/educating-to-truth-beauty-and-goodness-2/

[20] Aquinas, De Veritate, Q.1, A. 1-3; cf. Summa Theologiae, Q. 16.

[21] See Fr. Robert Spitzer, New Proofs for the Existence of God (Grand Rapids: MI.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2010) 259-266.

[22] For further reading, we recommend the following resources: Auer (2013); Luigi Guisanni, The Risk of Education: Discovering Our Ultimate Destiny (New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1995); Curtis Hancock, Recovering a Catholic Philosophy of Elementary Education (Mount Pocono, PA: Newman House Press, 2005); and St. John Paul II, Fides et Ratio (1998).

Copyright © 2023 The Cardinal Newman Society, 10432 Balls Ford Road, Ste. 300, Manassas, Virginia 20109, (703) 367-0333, www.CardinalNewmanSociety.org. Permission to reprint without modification.

 

Cardinal Newman Society Files Amicus Brief on Upholding Ministerial Exception – U.S. Supreme Court.

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Click here to access the amicus brief PDF.

Cardinal Newman Society Files 2nd Amicus Brief on Equal Treatment of Religious Groups – 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

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The Cardinal Newman Society joined an amicus brief at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the full court to uphold a panel ruling that protects a religious student group from discriminatory treatment.

Policy Standards on Sexuality Programs in Catholic Education

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February 2023

Sexuality Programs in Catholic Education

 

An important part of the mission of Catholic education is the integral formation of students—body, mind, and spirit[1]—and, because we are a body/soul unity, it is important to acknowledge and address the human person’s sexual integrity and its role in intellectual development and the formation of the will.[2] The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education acknowledges the integrative role of one’s sexuality with the development of other facets of the human person:

Sexuality… is an integral part of the development of the personality and of its education process: “It is, in fact, from sex that the human person receives the characteristics which, on the biological, psychological and spiritual levels, make that person a man or a woman, and thereby largely condition his or her progress toward maturity and insertion into society.” Sexuality characterizes man and woman not only on the physical level, but also on the psychological and spiritual levels, making its mark on each of their expressions. (Educational Guidance in Human Love: Outlines for Sex Education, 1983, 4-5)

Integral formation acknowledges and facilitates the inner harmony of man’s nature as a human person made in the image and likeness of God with an intellect and will, the ability to love and the ability to give of oneself totally, both physically and spiritually, to another of the opposite sex in a complementary fashion.

As Catholic educators seek to form students in the area of human sexuality, it is important that they do so carefully and thoughtfully, in partnership with parents, and in line with Church teaching provided in this sensitive area. The following principles and standards, informed by guidance from the Church, aim to assist in fulfilling this complex and crucial mission. The principles below are more narrowly tailored to the topic than the moral and religious principles guiding the Newman Society’s other policy standards documents, for two reasons: the Vatican has provided more explicit guidance on this topic, and this document may be viewed as a further development of the principles and standards in the Newman Society’s Policy Standards on Human Sexuality in Catholic Education.

Principles

Principle 1: Human sexuality programs in Catholic education are clearly and convincingly grounded in Christian anthropology.

In accordance with Catholic education’s duty to equip students for attaining human perfection in full communion with God, programs in human sexuality should be based on a clear and convincing presentation of Christian anthropology which recognizes human nature as a gift from God with a specific design and purpose that must be respected. This foundational principle is articulated by the Congregation for Catholic Education:

It is clear that if we are to provide well-structured educational programmes that are coherent with the true nature of human persons (with a view to guiding them towards a full actualization of their sexual identity within the context of the vocation of self-giving), it is not possible to achieve this without a clear and convincing anthropology that gives a meaningful foundation to sexuality and affectivity. The first step in this process of throwing light on anthropology consists in recognizing that “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will.” (‘Male and Female He Created Them’: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education, 2019, 30)

Pope Benedict XVI also articulated this principle:[3]

Man does not create himself. He is intellect and will, but he is also nature, and his will is rightly ordered if he respects his nature, listens to it and accepts himself for who he is, as one who did not create himself. (Address at the Reichstag Building, Berlin, Sept. 22, 2011, 8)

Among the fundamental truths of the human person embedded in a Christian anthropology are:

  • the material world (and everything that exists) is good, as it is created by God;[4]
  • the things of creation are to be received with awe, respect, and gratitude as gifts from God and not manipulated, dominated, or controlled in ways contrary to their natural ends;[5]
  • everyone, by nature of their being created in the image and likeness of God, has inherent dignity and should be treated with love and respect;[6]
  • the human body is a creative gift from God and constitutes “a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19), which we should treat with honor and respect according to God’s original design and purpose;
  • the human person is a “being at once corporeal and spiritual; body and soul.”[7] These are not two natures intertwined but rather a union which forms a single nature;[8]
  • God made us male and female, two distinct but equally dignified and complementary ways of being human;[9]
  • the concepts of sex and gender can be “distinguished but not separated,”[10] and a person “should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity;”[11]
  • there is a natural “language of the body” which helps us understand and express our united physical and spiritual selves;[12] and
  • God, through Jesus Christ, the perfect man, fully reveals man to himself.[13]

Human sexuality programs not firmly based in Christian anthropology may lack, deny, or misrepresent the truth about the nature of the human person. In Educational Guidance in Human Love: Outlines for Sex Education (1983), the Congregation for Catholic Education outlines a sexuality program founded on Christian anthropology, focused on the integral formation of the human person, directed toward Christian virtue, and sustained by the grace of Christ:

In the Christian anthropological perspective, affective-sex education must consider the totality of the person and insist therefore, on the integration of the biological, psycho-affective, social and spiritual elements… A true “formation” is not limited to the informing of the intellect, but must pay particular attention to the will, to feelings and emotions. In fact, in order to move to maturation in affective-sexual life, self-control is necessary, which presupposes such virtues as modesty, temperance, respect for self and for others, openness to one’s neighbor. None of this is possible except in the power of the salvation which comes from Jesus Christ. (35)

Embedded within this anthropological presentation are Church teachings on morality and sexuality.

Principle 2: Human sexuality programs in Catholic education are deeply rooted the broader instruction of Catholic moral principles and worldview.

The Congregation for Catholic Education insists that the integration of moral principles be central in imparting knowledge of life and love: “The Church is firmly opposed to an often-widespread form of imparting sex information dissociated from moral principles,” and “education must bring the children to a knowledge of and respect for the moral norms as the necessary and highly valuable guarantee for responsible personal growth in human sexuality.”[14]

Catholic educators have a duty to cultivate in students those elements of Christian thought necessary for sound judgment, mindful that “[r]eference to Jesus Christ teaches man to discern the values which ennoble [him] from those which degrade him.”[15]

“It is only in the Mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear” (GS, 22), and human existence acquires its full meaning in the vocation to the divine life. Only by following Christ does man respond to this vocation and become so fully man, growing finally to reach the perfect man in the measure approaching the full maturity of Christ… In the light of the Mystery of Christ, sexuality appears to us as a vocation to realize that love which the Holy Spirit instills in the hearts of the redeemed.[16]

Instruction in human sexuality should also take into account the child’s contemporary culture and address and negate those practices and behaviors contrary to Christian morality, identifying those areas where Christ and His Gospel elevate and transcend culture. By helping students observe contemporary culture from a Catholic worldview, they learn to assess these conditions in light of the truth of reality.

Programs of affectivity and sexuality based only upon natural law, without mention of Christ and Catholic teaching, are insufficient for Catholic schools. Natural law “is the light of intellect infused within us by God.”[17] Indelibly inscribed in human nature itself, it unites people with a set of common principles.[18] However, while this law extends to all mankind and enlightens all to certain fundamental truths of good and evil, it is also the foundation upon which “revealed law and Grace, in full harmony with the work of the Spirit,” find fruition.[19] It is impossible to annul God’s natural law,[20] but man, as a result of sin and his fallen nature, often fails to recognize or live in accordance with these truths. Fallen man needs God’s grace and revelation even to live according to the dictates of the natural law. Christ elevates and fulfills natural law[21] and is man’s only hope of salvation:

Human freedom needs therefore to be liberated. Christ, by the power of his Paschal Mystery, frees man from his disordered love of self which is the source of his contempt for his neighbor and of those relationships marked by domination of others. Christ shows us that freedom attains its fulfilment in the gift of self. By his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus places man once more in communion with God and his neighbor.[22]

In this context, a foundation in natural law is essential but insufficient for programs in Catholic education but may be the best one can do in those contexts where an elevated discussion of our relationship with God is not possible.

Catholics recognize the dignity of the human person resulting from being made in God’s image and likeness, as temples of the Holy Spirit and therefore called to live chastely according to their state in life.[23] Sexuality programs in Catholic education should therefore promote the virtue of chastity and “devote special attention and care to education in virginity or celibacy.”[24] Helping young people understand chastity as “a virtue that develops a person’s authentic maturity and makes him or her capable of respecting and fostering the ‘nuptial meaning’ of the body”[25] is an essential part of  the formation of Catholic youth in human sexuality.

It is also important that this formation not encourage or model moral relativism. Moral relativism, the idea that there are no binding truths outside of personal or societal preference, is a common error in the modern world and in the lives of many students today. These errors are prone to occur in values clarification programs where young people are “encouraged to reflect upon, to clarify, and to decide upon moral issues with the greatest degree of ‘autonomy,’ ignoring the objective reality of the moral law in general and disregarding the formation of consciences on the specific Christian moral precept.”[26] The Pontifical Council for the Family warns that through such values clarification programs,

Young people are given the idea that a moral code is something which they create themselves, as if man were the source and norm of morality. However, the values clarification method impedes the true freedom and autonomy of young people at an insecure stage of their development. In practice, not only is the opinion of the majority favoured, but complex moral situations are put before young people, far removed from the normal moral choices they face each day, in which good or evil are easily recognizable.[27]

The document further warns that “this unacceptable method tends to be closely linked to moral relativism, and thus encourages indifference to moral law and permissiveness.”[28] In Catholic education, content should be based on objective truth.

Principle 3: Human sexuality programs in Catholic education are delivered at the appropriate intellectual, moral, emotional, physical, and spiritual level of the child.

Methods used and content presented in these programs should take into consideration the various phases of a child’s intellectual, moral, emotional, physical, and spiritual development, in particular the “‘years of innocence’ and puberty,” “the way each child or young person experiences the various stages of life,” and the “particular problems associated with these stages.”[29]

The years of innocence are said to be between the ages five and puberty.[30] According to the Pontifical Council for the Family, “this period of tranquility and serenity must never be disturbed by unnecessary information about sex.”[31] Information regarding sexuality should be indirect. The Council goes on to say:

During this stage of development, children are normally at ease with their body and its functions. They accept the need for modesty in dress and behavior. Although they are aware of the physical differences between the two sexes, the growing child generally shows little interest in genital functions… Nonetheless, this period of childhood is not without its own significance in terms of psycho-sexual development. A growing boy or girl is learning from adult example and family experience what it means to be a woman or a man…in some societies subjected to ideological pressures, parents should also protect themselves from an exaggerated opposition to what is defined as a “stereotyping of roles.” The real difference between the two sexes should not be ignored or minimized, and in a healthy family environment children will learn that it is natural for a certain difference to exist between the usual family and domestic roles of men and women.[32]

At this stage, the establishment of trust and the modeling and witness by parents, caregivers, and teachers in all areas affecting sexual integrity are important.

Beginning with puberty, the period in which adolescence reach sexual maturity and are capable of reproduction, a more detailed and individualized information can be provided about the physiological and psychological changes they are experiencing. The witness of adults who have successfully integrated their own sexuality assists the young person to successfully integrate his or her own. Adults can also provide information about physical, social, and emotional changes linked to puberty and the value of chastity according to ones state in life.[33] Building on trust and dialogue established in the pre-adolescent years, parents and educators can also dispel false or harmful contemporary ideologies that counter Christian principles. These explanations, says the Congregation for Catholic Education, should always be provided at the level of the developmental understanding of the adolescent:

Explanations must not be distorted by reticence or by lack of frankness. Prudence therefore requires of the teacher not only an appropriate adaptation of the matter to the expectations of the pupil, but also a choice of language, mode and time in which the teaching is carried out. This requires that the child’s sense of decency be taken into account.[34]

This guidance is reiterated by the Pontifical Council for the Family, which requires that such programs be explicitly rooted in Church teaching, delicately deal with the subject matter, and safeguard students’ innocence and purity:

In an atmosphere of prayer and awareness of the presence and fatherhood of God, the truths of faith and morals should be taught, understood and deeply studied with reverence, and the Word of God should be read and lived with love …Only information proportionate to each phase of their individual development should be presented to children and young people…Parents and all who help them should be sensitive: (a) to the different phases of development, in particular, the ‘years of innocence’ and puberty, (b) to the way each child or young person experiences the various stages of life, (c) to particular problems associated with these stages.[35]

Sexually explicit material, images, and language should always be avoided to prevent creating an occasion of sin, threatening chastity, or causing scandal to impressionable young students. Information about sexual activity, anatomy, and hygiene should always be within the context of a Christian view of life[36] and not simply be reduced to an explanation of genitalia and genital activity. Information should not lead to emotional disorientation, unhealthy curiosity, or sin. Some misguided programs may seek to expose children to explicit sexual information and material early in an effort to de-mystify human sexuality. In so doing, they “…[refuse] to recognize the inborn weakness of human nature” and thus pose “grave danger” to students:[37]

Some school textbooks on sexuality, by reason of their naturalist character, are harmful to the child and the adolescent. Graphic and audio-visual materials are more harmful when they crudely present sexual realities for which the pupil is not prepared, and thus create traumatic impressions or raise an unhealthy curiosity which leads to evil. Let teachers think seriously of the grave harm that an irresponsible attitude in such delicate matters can cause in pupils.[38]

The Pontifical Council for the Family stresses that “no material of an erotic nature should be presented to children or young people of any age, individually or in a group.”[39]

Pope Francis also expresses the need to safeguard modesty:

A sexual education that fosters a healthy sense of modesty has immense value… Modesty is a natural means whereby we defend our personal privacy and prevent ourselves from being turned into objects to be used. Without a sense of modesty, affection and sexuality can be reduced to an obsession with genitality and unhealthy behaviours that distort our capacity for love.[40]

Pope Pius XI also warns that “every precaution must be taken” to refrain from details which might actually induce sin:

Such is our misery and inclination to sin, that often in the very things considered to be remedies against sin, we find occasions for and inducements to sin itself. Hence it is of the highest importance that a good father, while discussing with his son a matter so delicate, should be well on his guard and not descend to details, nor refer to the various ways in which this infernal hydra destroys with its poison so large a portion of the world; otherwise it may happen that instead of extinguishing this fire, he unwittingly stirs or kindles it in the simple and tender heart of the child. Speaking generally, during the period of childhood it suffices to employ those remedies which produce the double effect of opening the door to the virtue of purity and closing the door upon vice.[41]

He explicitly warns that serious scandal can be given by inappropriate, detailed, or salacious sex education, which can introduce temptation to students.[42]

Principle 4: Human sexuality programs in Catholic education are taught in collaboration with parents.

“Personal dialogue between parents and their children, that is, individual formation within the family circle,”[43] is the primary method for education in human sexuality proposed by the Pontifical Council for the Family. The Council states that there is no substitute for this familial setting where a dialogue of trust and openness based on the child’s developmental readiness exists:[44]

Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centers chosen and controlled by them. In this regard, the Church reaffirms the law of subsidiarity, which the school is bound to observe when it cooperates in sex education by entering into the same spirit that animates the parents.[45]

The Council also states that if parents need assistance in presenting the Church’s teachings on human sexuality to their children, others who are qualified and experienced in this area of human love can be consulted. Through this consultative process parents can better learn the Church’s teachings and correct vocabulary, as well as enrich and deepen their own understanding of “the community of life and love in marriage.”[46] 

To ensure parental involvement and the presence of qualified and trained Catholic teachers in this area, schools and other educational programs should be very attentive to discussion of human sexuality that may arise in other subject areas like literature, history, social studies, and biology. Instruction in the nature and meaning of the marital act should not occur in such settings. Policy implications such as population control, contraception, and other moral issues around same-sex sexual activity should always be in complete harmony with Catholic teaching. Regarding literature in sexuality programs, there should be no explicit description of sexual activity or sexual fantasy. The material should not diminish the student’s innocence or lead the student to sin.[47] The instructor should be equipped to provide a Catholic perspective on content. Parents should be made aware if significant issues of sexuality arise in class texts or discussion, so that they might fulfill their role as primary educators and ensure no student error or confusion.

Standards for Policies Related to Sexuality Programs

In Catholic education, policies involving human sexuality programs:

  • are grounded in a clear and convincing Christian anthropology that respects man’s God-given nature as a body/soul unity which cannot be manipulated at will.
  • fully reflect, without ambiguity or reservation, the moral precepts of the Church regarding human sexuality throughout the program, especially as presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
  • address and negate (at an appropriate age and in the appropriate context) practices and behaviors contrary to Christian morality, including sexual activity outside of marriage (and same-sex activity), contraception, abortion, transgenderism, masturbation, and pornography.
  • present the sacramentality of marriage as between a man and a woman and ordained by God.
  • teach a Catholic worldview of the beauty and dignity of the marital act and its use only within the confines of marriage for the procreation of children and the bonding of the spouses.
  • specifically and clearly promote the virtue of chastity.
  • promote self-control, modesty, temperance, fortitude, and respect for self and others.
  • counter harmful or false information students receive from mass media, social networking, and peer groups which may be beyond their comprehension, or which may lead them to premature assumptions about their sexuality.[48]
  • present all information at an age-appropriate developmental level, carefully protecting a child’s natural latency period and prudently introducing relevant material during adolescence to guide a child through development and change.
  • when possible, separate students by biological sex when offering instruction on human sexuality.
  • exclude any sexually explicit materials, images, or language and anything that might create emotional disorientation in students or unhealthy curiosity which may lead to sin.
  • protect student modesty and purity by avoiding any flippant, cynical, ambiguous, or indecent approaches to the topic.
  • are delivered under the attentive guidance of a student’s parents with their knowledge, collaboration, and approval.
  • are delivered by well-trained, well-formed staff knowledgeable and faithful to the Catholic teachings on human sexuality in the proper environment.
  • fully supplement any carefully screened secular materials with Catholic moral principles and Christian anthropology and teach the saving power of Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit.

 

  • Operationalizing the Standards

To meet these core standards, policies and practices such as those below can be of assistance:

  • Require signed parental consent forms and keep them on file for students receiving instruction in human sexuality programs.
  • Parents and guardians are catechized or presented with the Church’s teachings on human sexuality so they can reinforce or instruct their children on them at home.
  • Train or ensure appropriate training for instructors in areas of human sexuality and select instructors who are themselves models of sexual integrity.
  • Ensure that the beauty of human reproduction is not trivialized by the use of worksheet activities such as crosswords, word searches, matching, and so forth, or misrepresented by the use of non-human images such as animals or aliens.
  • As appropriate, use multi-modal instruction—role-play, discussion, stories, skills that students practice, homework—which invites students to make a personal commitment to chastity and abstinence outside of marriage.
  • Present content in a clear, positive and direct way without apology or backsliding on Church teaching.

Appendix A

Possible Questions

Question: Why are Catholic educators involved in teaching human sexuality? It seems this should just be left to the parents.

Response: The Catholic Church and school affirm that parents are the original and primary educators of their children and have the “irreplaceable and inalienable” right to provide education in the areas of affectivity and sexuality.[49] The Congregation for Catholic Education writes:

Education, in the first place, is the duty of the family, which “is the school of richest humanity.” It is, in fact, the best environment to accomplish the obligation of securing a gradual education in sexual life.[50]

But the Church must also fulfill her divinely prescribed mandate of promoting “the welfare of the whole life of man, including his life in this world insofar as it is related to his heavenly vocation.”[51] Catholic education, as a key means of evangelization in the Church, assists in this mandate by providing for the integral formation of the human person—which includes areas of affectivity and sexuality.

The Congregation noted that “openness and collaboration of parents with other educators who are co-responsible for formation will positively influence the maturation of young people,”[52] whether they be specially trained Catholic school educators,[53] doctors, priests, or others formed in the Catholic perspective of life and love.[54]

Question: Can parents opt their students out of such programs?

Response: Yes. If Catholic educators choose to incorporate a human sexuality program into their curriculum which includes discussion about human physiology and the specifics of the marital act, parents may opt their child out of the program. Church documents are replete with instruction that all programs of human sexuality in Catholic schools are presented in collaboration with parents.[55] It is then assumed that parents will exercise their responsibility in this most sensitive area of human life and love.

Should a school or other educational service choose to include instruction on human sexuality in its course offerings, in the spirit of full disclosure and professional courtesy, parents should be educated about the instruction’s contents. This should occur at specific entry points, such as during the admissions process, at the beginning of the school year when the program is offered, and before the program begins. A letter home to parents concerning the program contents and an option for the parent to opt-out the student should be offered. The key here is collaboration between the parents and the school. Parents are asked to cooperate with the school for the good of the student if such a program is offered, and the parents choose to enroll the student at the school.[56]

Question: Are Catholic schools required to teach human sexuality?

Response: No. Because of the sensitive nature of the information, Catholic schools need not provide instruction in human sexuality; however, they should encourage parents to provide such instruction at a time the parent deems most appropriate. Schools may choose to provide resources for parents to aid in this task in the effort of providing language and concepts from the mind of the Church. Parish-based, after-school programs such as mother-daughter teas and father-son nights have also proven effective. Catholic schools are not required to teach the mechanics of human sexuality, but they are required to provide moral formation in areas of human sexuality for mature adolescents. This will require some discussion in the meaning of human sexuality; if it concerns the mechanics of human reproduction or other areas of human physiology, then parents should be notified.

Question: What if an educator is forced to talk about human sexuality? For example, if a student draws obscene pictures or shows pornography to others, contributes or participates in loose talk on the playground, or brings up the topic in a science class that is talking about animal or plant reproduction?

Response: Schools should be careful to respect the latency period of younger students and not seek a comprehensive response to isolated incidents. At such times a very minimal or short response is sufficient, and then the teacher can move on with instruction. However, in such a case the teacher should report to the administration and parents the nature of the incident, so that they can follow up individually with students who may have had the most exposure or need significant parental interaction and attention given the particulars of the situation. The key is open, honest communication among adults who can then provide targeted and proportionate information to particular children based on their individual needs.

 

This document was developed with substantial comment and contributions from education, legal, and other experts. The lead author is Denise Donohue, Ed.D., Vice President for Educator Resources and Evaluation at The Cardinal Newman Society. Special thanks to Dr. Leisa Marie Carzon for her contributions.

Appendix B: Selections from Church Documents Informing This Topic

General Principles

The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1995) 121-127.

  1. In the light of these recommendations, education for love can take concrete form in four working principles.

Informed by Christian reverence and realism, this doctrinal principle must guide every moment of education for love. In an age when the mystery has been taken from human sexuality, parents must take care to avoid trivializing human sexuality, in their teaching and in the help offered by others. In particular, profound respect must be maintained for the difference between man and woman which reflects the love and fruitfulness of God himself.

  1. 1. Human sexuality is a sacred mystery and must be presented according to the doctrinal and moral teaching of the Church, always bearing in mind the effects of original sin.

Informed by Christian reverence and realism, this doctrinal principle must guide every moment of education for love. In an age when the mystery has been taken from human sexuality, parents must take care to avoid trivializing human sexuality, in their teaching and in the help offered by others. In particular, profound respect must be maintained for the difference between man and woman which reflects the love and fruitfulness of God himself.

  1. At the same time, when teaching Catholic doctrine and morality about sexuality, the lasting effects of original sin must be taken into account, that is to say, human weakness and the need for the grace of God to overcome temptations and avoid sin. In this regard, the conscience of every individual must be formed clearly, precisely and in accord with spiritual values. But Catholic morality is never limited to teaching about avoiding sin. It also deals with growth in the Christian virtues and developing the capacity for self-giving in the vocation of one’s own life.
  2. 2. Only information proportionate to each phase of their individual development should be presented to children and young people.

This principle of timing has already been presented in the study of the various phases of the development of children and young people. Parents and all who help them should be sensitive: (a) to the different phases of development, in particular, the “years of innocence” and puberty, (b) to the way each child or young person experiences the various stages of life, (c) to particular problems associated with these stages.

  1. In the light of this principle, the relevance of timing in relation to specific problems can also be indicated.

(a) In later adolescence, young people can first be introduced to the knowledge of the signs of fertility and then to the natural regulation of fertility, but only in the context of education for love, fidelity in marriage, God’s plan for procreation and respect for human life.

(b) Homosexuality should not be discussed before adolescence unless a specific serious problem has arisen in a particular situation. This subject must be presented only in terms of chastity, health and “the truth about human sexuality in its relationship to the family as taught by the Church”.

(c) Sexual perversions that are relatively rare should not be dealt with except through individual counselling, as the parents’ response to genuine problems.

  1. 3. No material of an erotic nature should be presented to children or young people of any age, individually or in a group.

This principle of decency must safeguard the virtue of Christian chastity.

Therefore, in passing on sexual information in the context of education for love, the instruction must always be “positive and prudent” and “clear and delicate“. These four words used by the Catholic Church exclude every form of unacceptable content in sexual education.

Moreover, even if they are not erotic, graphic and realistic representations of childbirth, for example in a film, should be made known gradually, so as not to create fear and negative attitudes towards procreation in girls and young women.

  1. 4. No one should ever be invited, let alone obliged, to act in any way that could objectively offend against modesty or which could subjectively offend against his or her own delicacy or sense of privacy.

This principle of respect for the child excludes all improper forms of involving children and young people. In this regard, among other things, this can include the following methods that abuse sex education: (a) every “dramatized” representation, mime or “role playing” which depict genital or erotic matters, (b) making drawings, charts or models etc. of this nature, (c) seeking personal information about sexual questions or asking that family information be divulged, (d) oral or written exams about genital or erotic questions.

Christian Anthropology

Congregation for Catholic Education, ‘Male and Female He Created Them:’ Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (2019) 30.

It is clear that if we are to provide well-structured educational programmes that are coherent with the true nature of human persons (with a view to guiding them towards a full actualisation of their sexual identity within the context of the vocation of self-giving), it is not possible to achieve this without a clear and convincing anthropology that gives a meaningful foundation to sexuality and affectivity. The first step in this process of throwing light on anthropology consists in recognising that “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will”.

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love (1983) 35.

In the Christian anthropological perspective, affective-sex education must consider the totality of the person and insist, therefore, on the integration of the biological, psycho-affective, social and spiritual elements…A true ‘formation’ is not limited to the informing of the intellect, but must pay particular attention to the will, to feelings and emotions. In fact, in order to move to maturation in affective-sexual life, self-control is necessary, which presupposes such virtues as modesty, temperance, respect for self and for others, openness to one’s neighbor.

Morality

St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio (1981) 37.

In view of the close links between the sexual dimension of the person and his or her ethical values, education must bring the children to a knowledge of and respect for the moral norms as the necessary and highly valuable guarantee for responsible personal growth in human sexuality. For this reason the Church is firmly opposed to an often widespread form of imparting sex information dissociated from moral principles. That would merely be an introduction to the experience of pleasure and a stimulus leading to the loss of serenity – while still in the years of innocence – by opening the way to vice.

Developmentally Appropriate

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love (1983) 84-85.

Affective sex-education, being more conditioned than others by the degree of physical and psychological development of the pupil, must always be adapted to the individual. In certain cases it is necessary to advise the pupil in preparation for particularly difficult situations, when it is foreseen that the pupil will have to encounter them, or forewarn him or her of imminent or permanent dangers.

It is necessary therefore to respect the progressive character of this education. A proper gradual progress of initiatives must be attentive to the stages of physical and psychological growth, which require a more careful preparation and a prolonged period of maturation.

Collaboration with Parents and Others

The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1995) 129-133.

  1. The normal and fundamental method, already proposed in this guide, is personal dialogue between parents and their children, that is, individual formation within the family circle. In fact there is no substitute for a dialogue of trust and openness between parents and their children, a dialogue which respects not only their stages of development but also the young persons as individuals. However, when parents seek help from others, there are various useful methods which can be recommended in the light of parental experience and in conformity with Christian prudence.
  2. 1. As couples or as individuals, parents can meet with others who are prepared for education for love to draw on their experience and competence. These people can offer explanations and provide parents with books and other resources approved by the ecclesiastical authorities.
  3. 2. Parents who are not always prepared to face up to the problematic side of education for love can take part in meetings with their children, guided by expert persons who are worthy of trust, for example, doctors, priests, educators. In some cases, in the interest of greater freedom of expression, meetings where only daughters or sons are present seem preferable.
  4. 3. In certain situations, parents can entrust part of education for love to another trustworthy person, if there are matters which require a specific competence or pastoral care in particular cases.
  5. 4 Catechesis on morality may be provided by other trustworthy persons, with particular emphasis on sexual ethics at puberty and adolescence. Parents should take an interest in the moral catechesis which is given to their own children outside the home and use it as a support for their own educational work. Such catechesis must not include the more intimate aspects of sexual information, whether biological or affective, which belong to individual formation within the family

Rights of Children

The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1995) 118-120.

  1. 1. Since each child or young person must be able to live his or her own sexuality in conformity with Christian principles, and hence be able to exercise the virtue of chastity, no educator — not even parents — can interfere with this right to chastity (cf. Matthew 18: 4-7).

…119. 2. It is recommended that respect be given to the right of the child and the young person to be adequately informed by their own parents on moral and sexual questions in a way that complies with his or her desire to be chaste and to be formed in chastity. This right is further qualified by a child’s stage of development, his or her capacity to integrate moral truth with sexual information, and by respect for his or her innocence and tranquility.

…120. 3. It is recommended that respect be given to the right of the child or young person to withdraw from any form of sexual instruction imparted outside the home. Neither the children nor other members of their family should ever be penalized or discriminated against for this decision.

Methods and Ideologies to Avoid

The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1995) 139-141.

  1. Another abuse occurs whenever sex education is given to children by teaching them all the intimate details of genital relationships, even in a graphic way. Today this is often motivated by wanting to provide education for “safe sex”, above all in relation to the spread of AIDS. In this situation, parents must also reject the promotion of so-called “safe sex” or “safer sex”, a dangerous and immoral policy based on the deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against AIDS. Parents must insist on continence outside marriage and fidelity in marriage as the only true and secure education for the prevention of this contagious disease.
  2. One widely-used, but possibly harmful, approach goes by the name of “values clarification”. Young people are encouraged to reflect upon, to clarify and to decide upon moral issues with the greatest degree of “autonomy”, ignoring the objective reality of the moral law in general and disregarding the formation of consciences on the specific Christian moral precepts, as affirmed by the Magisterium of the Church. Young people are given the idea that a moral code is something which they create themselves, as if man were the source and norm of morality.

However, the values clarification method impedes the true freedom and autonomy of young people at an insecure stage of their development. In practice, not only is the opinion of the majority favoured, but complex moral situations are put before young people, far removed from the normal moral choices they face each day, in which good or evil are easily recognizable. This unacceptable method tends to be closely linked with moral relativism, and thus encourages indifference to moral law and permissiveness.

  1. Parents should also be attentive to ways in which sexual instruction can be inserted in the context of other subjects which are otherwise useful (for example, health and hygiene, personal development, family life, children’s literature, social and cultural studies etc.). In these situations it is more difficult to control the content of sexual instruction. This method of inclusion is used in particular by those who promote sex instruction within the perspective of birth control or in countries where the government does not respect the rights of parents in this field. But catechesis would also be distorted if the inseparable links between religion and morality were to be used as a pretext for introducing into religious instruction the biological and affective sexual information which the parents should give according to their prudent decision in their own home.

Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love (1983) 76

Some school textbooks on sexuality, by reason of their naturalist character, are harmful to the child and the adolescent. Graphic and audio-visual materials are more harmful when they crudely present sexual realities for which the pupil is not prepared, and thus create traumatic impressions or raise an unhealthy curiosity which leads to evil. Let teachers think seriously of the grave harm that an irresponsible attitude in such delicate matters can cause in pupils.

[1] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School (1988) 55, 83, 112; Pope Paul VI, Gravissimum Educationis (1965) 1, “Therefore children and young people must be helped, with the aid of the latest advances in psychology and the arts and science of teaching, to develop harmoniously their physical, moral, and intellectual endowments so that they may gradually acquire a mature sense of responsibility in striving to form their own lives properly and in pursuing true freedom as they surmount the vicissitudes of life with courage and constancy. Let them be given also, as they advance in years, a positive and prudent sexual education.”

[2] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love (1983) 35.

[3] Benedict XVI, Address at the Reichstag Building, Berlin, September 22, 2011.

[4] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 339.

[5] Catechism, 307.

[6] Catechism, 27.

[7] Catechism, 362.

[8] Catechism, 365.

[9] Genesis 1:27; Catechism, 2334, 2383.

[10] Pope Francis, Amoris laetitia (2016) 56.

[11] Catechism, 2393.

[12] Saint John Paul II, “Language of the Body, the Substratum and Content of the Sacramental Sign of Spousal Communion,” weekly address (January 5, 1983), in The Redemption of the Body and Sacramentality of Marriage (Theology of the Body) (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005) 268-270.

[13] Saint Paul VI, Gaudium et spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965) 22, at http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html (accessed on Oct. 6, 2020).

[14] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1983) 19.

[15] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (1977) 19.

[16] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1983, 29-30 

[17] Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) 140.

[18] Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 141.

[19] Catechism, 1960.

[20] Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 142.

[21] International Theological Commission (2009) Chapter 5.

[22] Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace 143.

[23] Catechism, 2348.

[24] St. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation: Familiaris Consortio (1981) 37.

[25] St. John Paul II ƒ(1981) 37.

[26] Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1995) 140.

[27] Pontifical Council for the Family, 140.

[28] Pontifical Council for the Family, 140.

[29] Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1995) 124.2.

[30] Pontifical Council for the Family 78.

[31] Pontifical Council for the Family 78.

[32] Pontifical Council for the Family 79-80.

[33] Pontifical Council for the Family 88.

[34] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love: Outlines for Sex Education (1983) 87.

[35] Pontifical Council for the Family, 63, 124.

[36] Pontifical Council for the Family, 94.

[37] Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri (1929) 65-55.

[38] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 76.

[39] Pontifical Council for the Family, 126.

[40] Pope Francis, Amoris Latetia (2015) 282.

[41] Pius XI 67.

[42] Pius XI 69.

[43] Pontifical Council for the Family 129. [italics in document]

[44] Pontifical Council for the Family 129.

[45] Pontifical Council for the Family 43.

[46] Pontifical Council for the Family 134.

[47] Pius XI 87.

[48] Pontifical Council for the Family, 83-84.

[49] St. John Paul II (1981) 36.

[50] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1983) 48.

[51] Pope Paul VI (1965) Preface.

[52] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1983) 51.

[53] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1983) 71,79-82.

[54] Pontifical Council for the Family 131.

[55] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education (1983) 15, 17, 58; Pontifical Council for the Family 41-47, 129: St. John Paul II (1981) 37.

[56] Vatican II, Gravissimum Educationis (1965) 8.

Gender Confusion in Australia’s Catholic Schools

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In September, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference released “Created and Loved: A Guide for Catholic Schools on Identity and Gender.” While the document has thoughtful and salient points regarding gender identity, it also recommends that Catholic schools use the preferred names and pronouns of children suffering from gender dysphoria, providing “flexibility with uniform expectations.”

As a lifelong Catholic educator, I have deep concerns about this approach, which is fundamentally at odds with the mission of Catholic education. The challenge for Catholic schools today is not that we work with gender-dysphoric children, but how. Children suffering from gender dysphoria can be admitted under certain conditions: The gender dysphoria is acknowledged as a disorder; the child’s family obtains proper counseling and treatment; and the child is able to function in an environment where gender expression is expected to match biological reality. However, Catholic schools do great harm by allowing children suffering from gender dysphoria to externally represent and even celebrate that disorder and requiring that others in the school support and participate in it.

The document’s injudicious recommendation stems from three misconceptions.

The first misconception is that it is unacceptable to ask children suffering with gender dysphoria to follow gender norms while in a Catholic school. It is, in fact, necessary for the good of the child as well as the integrity of the school. Eighty-four percent of children experiencing gender dysphoria will not continue to experience it through adolescence and adulthood, according to an oft-cited 2011 study from Sweden. We must therefore love such students through the challenge on our terms, not theirs. This is not unlike how we deal with children with anorexia who have a dangerous distortion of their sense of weight. We admit them to school but require that they receive care, and we refrain from supporting their bodily disorientation through false affirmation.

The second misconception concerns the implications of Christian anthropology and respect for the human person. The Australian bishops’ document correctly notes that Christian anthropology “demands that we respect the worth of each person at every moment of their existence—from conception to death—regardless of who they are or how they present themselves in the world. It also asks us to see each person holistically rather than seeking to define them by just one aspect of their identity.” It continues: “Any relevant educational programme and the care of individuals in a Catholic school must be faithful to this Christian Anthropology.”

However, the document goes on to mistakenly conclude that being “faithful to this Christian Anthropology” and promoting “a fundamental attitude of charity and respect, of care and compassion,” requires Catholic schools to conform their activities and policies to reinforce gender dysmorphia. This is neither caring nor compassionate. We must interface with children “holistically” as integrated beings, a unity of mind, body, and spirit, and not reduce them to “just one aspect of their identity.”

The third misconception is the assumption that, since Christian anthropology provides a basis for human worth and dignity—we are loved by God and created in his image—and since we are made for communion and flourishing in community, any exclusionary activity is an affront to Christian anthropology. With this argument, the Australian bishops compel Catholic schools to accept and placate children who have “transitioned” to a new name, pronouns, or way of dress.

The natural order has supplied children the family as the primary social unit and source of belonging and wellbeing. Formal institutions can assist in creating other environments of belonging, but a child not being admitted to a certain school, for whatever reason, is not deprived of human dignity or worth, nor of family, church, friends, or love.

We must not conflate attendance at a Catholic school with membership in the Church. Most Catholic children worldwide do not attend Catholic schools but are full members of the Church. The modern Catholic school itself has only been widely available for less than 10 percent of the Church’s history, with catechesis and Christian socializing taking place in the home and parish for most Catholics.

Catholic schools are in the business of integrally forming children in mind, body, and spirit. It is what we do, it is all we do, and we do it one way: in conformity with the will of God and with respect for children as mind-body-spirit unities. Those who seek a different type of formation are free to do so—but they cannot demand that we adapt to their differing goals and conceptions of reality and of the human person.

Using students’ preferred names and pronouns goes against the nature and goals of Catholic education. It casts Catholic schools as active participants in the child’s catastrophic quest for emancipation from the body. It has us (knowingly or unknowingly) participating in relativism, gnostic dualism, materialism, and the toxic fluidity of the modern world. It implicates us in destroying the differences between male and female and the dignity of sexual distinctiveness. It involves us in eroding the roots of the family, severing God from his creation, and distorting the nature of reality itself. And worse yet, by our personal example in forming those under our direct care, we invite our students and families to do the same.

Dan Guernsey is a senior fellow at The Cardinal Newman Society and a 30-year veteran of Catholic education.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the online edition of First Things on February 3, 2023.