College Search Timeline

/in /by

Fall of Your Junior Year

  • Take the CLT/PSAT
  • Start making a list of colleges you are interested in, especially from those recommended as faithful Catholic colleges by The Cardinal Newman Society
  • Sign up for The Cardinal Newman Society’s “Recruit Me” program
  • Start coming up with a standardized testing plan
  • Begin looking at financial aid options

Winter and Spring of Your Junior Year

  • Continue to look for scholarships, ask colleges about special scholarship weekends or competitions
  • Narrow down your list of colleges and set dates to visit during the spring
  • Take the CLT/SAT/ACT

Summer Between Your Junior and Senior Years

  • Attend a summer “experience” at one or more colleges that you’re interested in

Fall of Your Senior Year

  • Re-take standardized tests if you need to raise your score
  • Get letters of recommendation
  • Application essays, recommendations and forms
  • Complete applications
  • Submit FAFSA form for aid as soon as possible after Oct. 1st

Winter and Spring of Your Senior Year

Athletics Should Uphold Truth of Body and Gender

/in , /by

Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming winter 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine.

Seeking “a fair and safe playing field for all children and young adults,” the U.S. bishops in October backed federal legislation to prevent schools and colleges from allowing male athletes—including those who identify as transgender—to participate in female sports.

The bishops’ position should not be surprising. It reflects the Church’s clear teaching that gender is not divisible from biological sex, and that men and women should not be treated as identical despite sharing equal dignity and humanity. The Church has a long history of single-sex education and athletics programs, recognizing both physical and social differences between the sexes while protecting students’ safety, development and chastity.

But in athletics programs at many Catholic schools and colleges today, the Church’s teaching is less clear. Some participate in athletics conferences that allow students to declare their gender and compete against students of the opposite sex, while others have similar internal policies.

In Connecticut, three female high school athletes have filed a federal lawsuit claiming violation of the federal Title IX law, because biological males have been allowed to compete and win female titles in state track championships. The U.S. Department of Education has agreed that girls have the right to compete in all-female events. But since 2017, when the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference allowed students to choose teams according to a “preferred gender identity,” Catholic schools have continued to participate in the league.

Likewise many Catholic colleges belong to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which allows a biological male to compete on a women’s team after one year of testosterone suppression treatment. The NCAA hosted a summit on gender identity last October and is expected to expand its transgender policies and outreach.

Responding to the apparent need for clarity in Catholic education, the Newman Society is developing recommended standards for policies addressing all aspects of athletics programs—not only gender issues, but also the role of sports in virtue development and many practical concerns. These will be circulated for comment by athletics directors as well as diocesan leaders, school leaders and theologians.

But to specifically address the issue of gender, we have circulated and published a helpful advisory by veteran educator Dr. Dan Guernsey, titled “Protecting the Human Person: Gender Issues in Catholic School and College Sports.”

Body and Soul

When athletics are done well, it’s a great blessing for Catholic students, Guernsey writes.

Athletics serves the mission of Catholic education, which “entails the pursuit of truth, the integral formation of the human person, the sanctification of students, and service to the community,” he notes. Sports in Catholic schools and colleges “can be particularly effective in developing virtue, building community, and providing a powerful experience of the unity of body and soul.”

The Vatican teaches:

…in the context of the modern world, sport is perhaps the most striking example of the unity of body and soul. …neglecting the unity of body and soul results in an attitude that either entirely disregards the body or fosters a worldly materialism. Hence, all the dimensions have to be taken into account in order to understand what actually constitutes the human being.

Gender ideology is thus a danger to students and incompatible with a Catholic understanding of sport.

“Because athletics is such a powerful influence on both individuals and cultures, it can also pose a threat when it does not serve truth or does not serve to praise God,” writes Guernsey, recalling Pope St. John Paul II’s teaching that “self-denial and respect for the body as God’s gift are fundamental to a healthy athletic program.”

“Gender theory is a distortion of the full development of a person and attacks the integrity of the body,” writes Guernsey. “It works against a Catholic understanding of athletics and the good of the person and so has no claim on Catholic programing.”

The way forward

Guernsey recommends practical steps that Catholic schools and colleges should take to maintain a strong Catholic identity:

  • “Catholic educational institutions should publicly and explicitly affirm and seek to implement their faith-based mission and develop and consistently abide by policies in all programs that support this mission. They should assert religious freedom to uphold Catholic teaching and claim exemption from laws, regulations, athletic association rules, etc. that demand conformity to gender ideology.”
  • “Athletic programs should include in their goals the use of athletics as a means of inculcating virtue, especially justice and fair play, promoting the unity of body and soul, and protecting the human body not only from physical injury, but also from any attack on its integrity, exploitation, and idolatry.”
  • “Athletic policies should require that students participate on sport teams consistent with their biological sex.”
  • “Athletic personnel should be formed in a spirituality of athletics as part of their ongoing professional development. Such formation may include presentations by theologians on Christian anthropology, the role of sport and play in human well-being, and sports as a tool of evangelization and virtue development.”

By taking a leading role in local and national conversations about gender in sports and asserting the importance of single-sex competition, Catholic athletic directors and education leaders can find common ground with others. Some other Christian schools and colleges will share our moral perspective, while others will share our concerns for player safety, fair play, and justice. Advocates for women should be concerned about protecting single-sex athletics to ensure opportunities for girls.

“Catholic education is devoted to the sanctification of its students and integral formation by witnessing to Christ and all that is true and good,” Guernsey writes. “To lead the children in their care to God requires that they encounter the fullness of His truth and that they not foster situations in which students might be led astray in matters of basic human nature and morality.”

Mission Fit: Working with Nontraditional Families

/in , /by

Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming winter 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine.

Last year, when the child of a same-sex couple was denied admission to St. Ann Catholic School in Prairie Village, Kan., the incident sparked public debate over Catholic school admissions policies.

It also revealed disagreement in dioceses across the country about standards for Catholic school enrollment, particularly when students’ family relationships are taken into account. Disagreement in the Church regarding nontraditional families—the growing variety of home situations beyond a faithfully Catholic family with a married mother and father—may leave schools more vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits and to vilification by the media, politicians and social activists.

Following the incident at St. Ann’s, the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan., issued a statement, which read in part:

The Church teaches that individuals with same-sex attraction should be treated with dignity. However, the challenge regarding same-sex couples and our Catholic schools is that same-sex parents cannot model behaviors and attitudes regarding marriage and sexual morality consistent with essential components of the Church’s teachings. This creates a conflict for their children between what they are taught in school and what is experienced at home. It also becomes a source of confusion for the other school children.

Critics pounced, accusing the Archdiocese of discriminating against homosexuals while admitting children whose parents are divorced and remarried. Other dioceses disregard parents’ sexuality when making admissions decisions. Some argue that Catholic schools should welcome students from any family situation, so that at least the children can be taught the Catholic faith.

What policies best serve the mission of Catholic education? While it may take some time to reach consensus, The Cardinal Newman Society, through its Catholic Identity Standards Project, is working with educators to develop guidance on this critical but complex issue.

Not Every Family

As a key means of evangelization, Catholic schools serve the Church’s mission to teach the nations about Christ and all truth. In principle, they should be eager to teach every young person who seeks admission, although that is not possible or wise in every situation.

In practice, it is rare for a Catholic school not to limit enrollment for practical reasons as well as concerns about a student’s behavior and impact on other students’ education.

Enrollment decisions should also look at a student’s family situation, not because it is a school’s primary mission to address the moral life of parents—although the school can do much to witness to moral truth and help parents get the pastoral care they need—but because family circumstances may make it impossible to fulfill the mission of Catholic education without conflict, confusion and scandal to the students who are enrolled in the school.

Denying admission because of family situations, often no fault of the child, is difficult. But it is critical to the mission of Catholic education to prevent situations that could unintentionally lead other impressionable students away from virtue and holiness, which directly contradicts a Catholic school’s purpose.

A Catholic school is more than a service; it is a community committed to the mission of Catholic education, and participating families need to be a part of that commitment. Enrolling Catholic families should be a school’s first priority, because of the right of baptized Catholics to formation in the faith and the Church’s obligation to serve this need.

Family Circumstances

In today’s culture, schools increasingly are faced with students whose parents or guardians are not Catholic, unwed and cohabiting, remarried outside the Church, in a same-sex union, or identify as transgender.

In many of these instances, families may be safely invited into a Catholic school if they agree to support the mission of educating and forming students in the truths of the Catholic faith and do not interfere with that mission. Every such family seeking a Catholic education should be addressed with compassion and a desire to help parents reconcile with Catholic teaching, usually by referring them to a priest or other parish ministries for pastoral care.

Still, with its purpose of teaching truth, a Catholic school must be prepared to delay admission or turn away or dismiss a student whose family situation causes moral confusion and scandal among other students in the school’s care. This requires courage. A Catholic school must have the conviction that upholding its mission, protecting its students from confusion and scandal, and guiding families to moral truth even by denying enrollment is true compassion.

In some cases, a school could attempt to help a family regularize a home situation, as long as the problems are not so publicly visible and confusing to other students that they conflict with the mission of Catholic education. A school must avoid appearing to condone parents’ immoral choices and compromising the school’s reputation for teaching truth.

It must also consider the potential damage when parents openly and strongly oppose the moral lessons at a Catholic school. Children naturally rely on their parents’ emotional and physical care, and in cases in which the parents are so strongly opposed to what a Catholic school teaches, a school could cause the child to become alienated from the parents or, more likely, alienated from the Church. In such cases, it may be imprudent to enroll the child in Catholic education until they have the maturity to sort through such painful and complex realities.

For Catholic educators today, the most difficult situation to handle may be when it is discovered that a current or prospective student’s parents or guardians are in a homosexual relationship. This is not identical to other irregular and immoral circumstances, because the Church teaches that same-sex unions are fundamentally in opposition to marriage and allow no possibility of regularization, as is possible in most male-female relationships. It is always the case that a public same-sex union brings moral confusion and scandal into the school community.

For deeper discussion of these issues, the Newman Society recommends two papers: “Not All Families Are a Good Fit for Catholic Schools” and “Working With Nontraditional Families in Catholic Schools,” both by Dr. Dan Guernsey. These were circulated among Catholic educators, diocesan leaders, and theologians for comment before publication.

Moral Witness at the Heart of Catholic Education

/in , /by

Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming winter 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine.

Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that the “ministerial exception” applies to certain Catholic school teachers, a ruling hailed as protecting Catholic schools and colleges that uphold moral standards for employees.

While the ruling addresses serious questions of religious freedom, it also raises issues that many dioceses, schools and colleges have been wrestling with for several years: What moral standards should be expected of employees in Catholic education? The Church has repeatedly called on teachers to witness to the faith in both word and deed. But what about non-teaching employees?

Underlying these concerns is the necessity of ensuring that all employees faithfully serve the mission of Catholic education. Clear and consistent contracts and policies are the best means of upholding Catholic identity while avoiding employee disputes and lawsuits.

Ministerial exception

As explained in the Newman Society’s summary of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Our Lady of Guadalupe School, the Court explicitly forbade federal courts from interfering in Catholic school employment decisions concerning teachers of religion, because that would constitute a violate of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause.

The Court also signaled that the ministerial exception covers other employees with substantial religious duties, but more litigation will be needed to determine how the exception applies to teachers of subjects other than religion, clerical and maintenance staff, and higher education employees.

Already lower courts are testing and even challenging the ministerial exception. A panel of judges for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the exception only prevents lawsuits concerning hiring and firing decisions, so it allowed a former employee of a Chicago parish—fired because he entered into a same-sex union—to proceed with a lawsuit claiming a “hostile work environment.”

The Newman Society responded with the help of attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom, filing an amicus brief urging the full 7th Circuit Court to overrule the panel decision and to apply the ministerial exception to all employment-related matters. In December the full court took the rare step of vacating the panel ruling and will soon reconsider whether to let the case move forward.

Morality expectations

In 2015, controversy erupted in the Archdiocese of San Francisco over morality clauses in teacher contracts, although the Church’s standards were in the end preserved. Many other dioceses have implemented similar employment guidelines both to protect Catholic schools and to provide clarity to employees.

Catholic school and college leaders should be clear about moral expectations when interviewing prospective employees, and there are a variety of ways of inserting faith and morals clauses into employment documents. These include morality, witness, and belief statements and language in pre-contract agreements, contracts, and employee handbooks.

Catholic schools and colleges can avoid disputes by clearly explaining to employees the fundamental religious nature of all their efforts and the Catholic principles that undergird employment policies. All employees should be made aware of their responsibility to advance the religious mission of Catholic education. There should be no confusion about which faith and moral transgressions can result in disciplinary action or firing.

The Newman Society provides Catholic educators with a review of moral standards for Catholic school employment documents and a compilation of sample policies from dioceses around the country.

All Employees Matter

Moral standards at most schools and colleges focus especially on teachers and professors, which is understandable. Many Church documents highlight the duty of teachers to be witnesses to the faith. They have a primary role in Catholic education and direct influence over their students.

Moral standards should apply to educators in every subject area, not just religion teachers or theology professors. This is true especially in elementary and secondary education, when impressionable children rely on good role models and moral guides for their formation.

“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,” declares the Congregation for Catholic Education in The Catholic School (1977). “Over and above what he says, he guides his pupils beyond his mere words to the heart of total Truth.”

As even secular courts acknowledge by the ministerial exception, teachers in Catholic education are expected to display more than knowledge of a particular subject area—they are to be witnesses to the faith in word and action.

“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,” exhorted Pope Saint Paul VI in Gravissimum Educationis, the Vatican II Declaration on Christian Education.

Many non-teaching employees, too, have formational duties that are essential to Catholic education. These include coaches, counselors and others who are involved with student activities. They work closely with students and should be held to the same high moral standards.

What, then, of the receptionist and the librarian? Or the nurse? Or maintenance staff?

Such positions are often viewed as having primary secular functions and therefore not accountable to Catholic moral standards beyond the ethics of their particular tasks. Lawsuits against schools have increasingly concerned employees who were fired for civil same-sex unions—and many would question the need for a groundskeeper to witness to Catholic teachings on marriage.

Nevertheless, all employees should be held to high standards at a Catholic school, because every employee is a member of the school’s Catholic community that is committed to students’ formation. Although the extent of their interaction with students may differ, any employee of a school can have an impact on students’ outlook and behavior.

The Newman Society is developing standards to help Catholic educators develop policies and employment documents upholding moral expectations for employees. See also our recently published argument for applying such expectations broadly, in “All Employees Matter in the Mission of Catholic Education” by Dr. Dan Guernsey. He notes that even limited student contact by an employee has potential for good or ill, and every employee should serve the mission of Catholic education.

Consider a secular business: every employee serves the company’s objectives, and any action that undermines the company’s success is reason for discipline or dismissal. The purpose of Catholic education is to teach and form young people in the faith and lead them to God, and no employee should ever obstruct that mission.

Working with Nontraditional Families in Catholic Schools

/in , /by
Click here for PDF

As evangelical educational communities, Catholic schools not only teach academic subjects but also help their members on the road to personal holiness and sanctity in all areas of their lives, with a special concern for those areas most in need of healing and growth in each individual’s situation. With their focus on young children and older minors, Catholic schools are especially attentive to the moral and social formation of their students.

Catholic schools are also aware of the preeminent role parents[1] play in student academic and moral formation, and the Church has long emphasized parents as the first and primary educators of their children.[2] Research shows that parental involvement with their children’s schooling has a positive effect on academic achievement.[3] This research also reports that both contexts (home and school) exert significant socializing influence, including moral development,[4] on the child. The greater the overlap and harmony among these contexts, the higher the probability for children’s success in school and in life.[5] 

Not surprisingly, Catholic schools find their greatest mission success when there is strong alignment between home and school expectations in academic, religious, and moral outlook and goals. And while their evangelical efforts assume that not all students and families are fully formed in the faith, it is important that Catholic schools establish and maintain a strong Catholic identity and ensure to the degree possible there is a strong core of on-mission families and students, so as to best serve those who might yet need additional formation. A preponderance of on-mission community members can help set the tone and culture and help bring the others along by witnessing to the joy of the Gospel lived in family and school life. Parents can help make or break a school culture and serve to evangelize each other. All members of Catholic educational communities are called to ongoing conversion and holiness.

In the current common culture, evangelization is especially needed on issues of marriage and sexual morality. A challenge for Catholic schools today is that many families are entering Catholic schools deeply wounded or confused about marriage and human sexuality as God intends it. Most of today’s parents grew up in a post-sexual revolution world where relentless media-portrayals of marriage, the family, and human sexuality have largely been at odds with Catholic teaching. Many parents of students entering Catholic schools are either unaware of a Catholic understanding in these areas or have dismissed or rejected them, with a majority of Catholics now favoring same-sex marriage, cohabitation, birth control, and divorce and remarriage.[6]

This presents a significant challenge to the Church and her schools, which are charged with presenting the fullness of Christ’s loving message and the truth about human sexuality, marriage, and the family, all of which are under unprecedented attack by the media and the common culture. In all cases, administrators must handle each situation in a sensitive and charitable manner while teaching the fullness of faith[7] adapted to the context, in a forthright and truthful way. Indeed, there is no authentic love or charity without truth.

At the heart of the truth about marriage and sexuality is the Church’s clear and consistent teaching that marriage is a life-long union of one man and one woman; that a man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family; and that the family is ordered to the good of a husband and wife and to the procreation and education of children.[8] The Church has always taught that the marriage act is exclusively ordered to love and life within the confines of a lifelong marriage between one man and one woman.[9] Outside of this, sexual activity is gravely sinful, as is remarriage without a declaration of nullity. While many traditional and even nontraditional families will be aware of and supportive of these perennial teachings, others may be unaware or unsupportive. Such truths may be difficult for these families to hear, but they are truths that Catholic schools must teach and witness to with clarity and charity. In hard cases, especially around human sexuality, the Vatican has noted that “departure from the Church’s teaching, or silence about it, in an effort to provide pastoral care is neither caring nor pastoral. Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral.”[10]

In working with nontraditional or wounded families struggling in these areas, educators should listen and seek to understand their complexities and limitations. Educators should not underestimate the time, compassion, and resources this worthwhile outreach will require or assume that the school is the best or only vehicle for evangelization in such cases. Educators should also always keep in mind that nontraditional families are not burdens, but beloved children of a God who loves them intimately and has a plan of growth, healing, or conversion for them. Catholic school leaders then must do all they can to facilitate the conversation around that divine plan, which may possibly include delaying, denying, or revoking enrollment in a Catholic school if it poses a threat to the school’s religious mission or causes confusion and scandal.

Circumstances for Delaying or Denying Admission

Before exploring working with more nuanced family cases, it is important to acknowledge that there may be cases where the disconnect between a Catholic school’s religious mission and the family’s needs and situation are so great that admission needs to be denied. Two such situations are if a family clearly rejects the school’s religious mission or if admission might bring Church teaching into ill repute or lead others to sin.

The religious mission of Catholic education includes Christian evangelization and moral formation. Families seeking admission need not be fully evangelized or committed Catholics, but they must recognize and respect the distinctive Catholic identity of the school and not actively work against its mission of moral formation or hinder the school’s ability to clearly teach Catholic beliefs. For example, a fundamentalist Protestant family that wanted the school’s academic program but insisted on publicly proclaiming to students and families that Catholics are not going to Heaven, an atheist family publicly proclaiming to students and families that religion is hogwash, or a family deeply and actively involved in so-called New Age practices or in the occult would not be suited to a Catholic school.

So, too, enrollment should be denied if a family’s example might cause moral confusion or scandal, or if the school appears to condone sinful behavior and thereby brings the school or the Catholic faith or morals into ill repute. The school’s mission is to promote holiness and the good. The school cannot seem to condone sinful behavior or allow what is sinful to be presented as a good to be pursued. This would contradict the mission of Catholic education.

The Church understands scandal as

an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.[11]

So grave is causing scandal in children and young adults that Jesus offers this chilling warning:

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6).

It can be morally confusing and scandalous to admit a family that actively and publicly engages in cohabitation, polygamy, incest, or homosexual activity in the same way that it could be scandalous to enroll the family of a notorious and unrepentant abortionist, drug dealer, or mafioso. The sins are quite different, but the broad principle is that a Catholic school cannot be seen as condoning publicly sinful and unrepented behavior, treating it as inconsequential, or, even worse, seeming to promote it as good or normal behavior to be imitated by others. Hopefully such situations are rare, but the school must ensure that its religious mission of moral formation and evangelization is not publicly compromised, hindered, or undone by significantly and publicly off-mission families.

All messaging within the school community contributes to the educative and formative mission of the Catholic school. Parents and school administration and teachers should work in harmony to avoid mixed messages to children and young adults.

Especially in the case of an immoral union of parents, disunity between home and school runs the risk of either harming a school’s mission or upsetting a home formed around an immoral union. This is a risk that must be carefully considered in each circumstance. The school may at some point be required to teach the truth about the student’s family situation. If the student is aware of the problem, one of two outcomes is possible: either the student (especially if young) will be alienated from the parents on whom they fundamentally rely for emotional and physical support, or much more likely, the student will feel alienated from the Church and God who appear to be condemning their home situation. Older students might, in rare cases, be able to negotiate these nuances, but should they also find themselves tempted to the sins of their parents, the school’s ability to proffer a viable alternative will be hampered by the fact that the parents’ immoral union is being witnessed day-in and day-out in the home. These various dynamics may eviscerate a joint formative enterprise that should exist but simply does not.

Furthermore, there may be undue stress on the teachers who need to be able to speak clearly and publicly about moral truth without fear of harming a child’s emotional well-being or home life. Teachers are naturally reticent to say or do things that might upset the student or the parent/student bond. There may be disruption to the class, as the teacher attempts to balance the conflicting ends of protecting the feelings of the suffering child while at the same time not allowing spiritual damage and confusion to spread to other children. Discharging a Catholic school teacher’s duties in such a dysfunctional situation can be deeply problematic and disruptive to the teacher’s duties.

In circumstances when parents are striving sincerely to regularize a situation, or if a Catholic school otherwise deems it appropriate to enroll a child despite irregularities or immoralities in the home, both the school and the parents should be prepared for difficulties and for the possibility that enrollment in the school may no longer serve the good of the student or the school. The parents may do well to explain the tentative situation to the student in advance of any difficulty, or at least be prepared with a clear explanation if troubles arise. The school should likewise prepare to respond to questions from students, other parents, and employees about a family’s situation and how the school is upholding its Catholic mission.

Catholic Families Journeying Toward Fullness of Catholic Faith and Morals

There are many families today who are working toward a fuller and deeper understanding of the Catholic faith but do not explicitly reject the mission of Catholic education due to ill will. In these cases, a Catholic school experience can be a significant aid toward this actualization. Schools offer such families catechesis and formation; if more personal care is needed, families can be referred to other parish or diocesan resources.

Those Catholic families who struggle more significantly with the acceptance of elements of Catholic faith or morals need the help of their parish priest or staff to discuss areas of conflict or uncertainty and to seek reconciliation with the Church. The integrity of such pastoral intervention is absolutely dependent on pastors and counselors being faithful to Catholic teaching and working closely in harmony with the Catholic school administrators and teachers as a cohesive team. Those known to be in unchaste unions (e.g., cohabiting, contracepting, or remarried without a declaration of nullity) need to hear the Church’s teaching, presented charitably and clearly, that the marriage act is reserved solely to a man and woman in a lifelong marriage open to the service of love and life. Those who struggle with elements of the Catholic faith or morals, whether in areas of human sexuality or elsewhere, can work through these issues confidentially without contradicting or publicly resisting the Catholic school’s efforts to teach students the fullness of the faith. Such a conflict could require denial of admission or dismissal from the school.

Families from Another Faith

Catholic schools will normally welcome non-Catholic families of goodwill who are expressly and affirmatively supportive of the school’s primary Catholic religious mission, but some points of guidance are needed. Non-Catholics whose religious practices and beliefs run counter to Church teaching—especially non-Christians—might experience conflicts as a school seeks to maintain mission integrity. Sincere questioning of the practices of the Catholic faith in order to more deeply understand them could be healthy to the student, but open hostility, public defiance, and public challenges against Catholic truths or morality are signs that a family is not a good fit for a school’s primary evangelical mission and, thus, may be denied admission or may be asked to leave the school.

There are also cases in which a child’s parent or guardian may sincerely desire for the child to have the chance to embrace a faith they have at present rejected. Such situations are opportunities for evangelization.

Non-Catholic students deserve the same religious instruction as Catholics, with grades in religion classes based on understanding of the faith content and not personal belief or practice of the faith.

Non-Catholic students should normally attend the same religious services and activities held during school hours required of Catholic students, participating to the extent they are able. During Mass non-Catholics may be expected to follow the rubrics of the Mass (i.e., standing, sitting, and kneeling with the community), just as a guest stands for the national anthem when visiting a foreign country without any violation of conscience.

The school’s Catholic chapel is open to all members of the school community for reverent prayer, but formal or ritual non-Catholic prayer services or activities are inappropriate and may be blasphemous. Non-Catholic students should be expressly prohibited from aggressively attempting to convert Catholic students.

In our pluralistic society, some contend that the occult is a religion that should be accepted. However, Satanic, wiccan, occult, or other blasphemous behaviors or practices are serious conflicts with a Catholic school’s mission and may result in the expulsion of a student.

The Truth, especially as present within the Sacraments, is powerful in its evangelizing effect. In a faithful Catholic school, all personnel make themselves available to students who have open and honest questions about admission into the Catholic Church. The school expects parents of non-Catholic students to allow them to formally transition into the Catholic faith by following Church protocols for candidates and catechumens, should a student wish to do so.

Single-Parent Households

A single-parent household is not normally a barrier to enrolling in a Catholic school. In some cases, a child’s parent may have died or may have abandoned the family, or a single non-parental caregiver may have generously stepped forward to care for a child whose parents are not present due to tragedy or death. Still in other cases the child may have been born out of wedlock. Whatever the case, sensitivity is called for.

By choosing a Catholic education for the child, the parent agrees to work in harmony with the school as it teaches the truths of the Catholic faith, including the areas of marriage, chastity, and divorce, and to consult the school or local parish priest if questions pertaining to the faith arise. The parent also agrees to avoid behaviors which are contrary to Catholic teaching (e.g., sexual promiscuity or adultery).[12] As with all families and social situations, should an occasion of public scandal arise, the family may be asked to withdraw.

Cohabiting Couples Forming a Household

If during the admissions process or after enrollment the school becomes aware of a couple living together without valid marriage, it upholds its commitment to truth and to the good of the student by referring the couple to the local pastor for counseling and catechesis, in the hope of starting down a path of regularization. Many people today are unaware that couples who live together:

…offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.[13]

Given the intricacies involved in setting such complex relationships aright, a couple may avoid scandal by living in chastity appropriate to their state in life. But if a pastor is aware that a catechized couple refuses to strive for a life of chastity, and in his judgment the couple is unlikely to consider such a move with additional outreach and catechesis, he may need to instruct them not to enroll or to withdraw their student from the Catholic school. This is especially necessary if issues of public scandal arise.

Parents Divorced and Remarried Outside the Church

The Church considers a valid marriage to be a permanent union between a man and a woman.[14] Individuals who have separated from their spouse, for whatever reason, are to remain chaste. Those who have divorced and remarried outside the Church and are reasonably assumed to be sexually active with their new partner, are involved in living an immoral lifestyle.

If the school becomes aware of such a situation, whether during the admission process or during the course of the school year, it may ask the couple to meet with the local parish priest to determine their status and if and how that status might be regularized in the Church. The pastor can provide guidance to both Catholics and non-Catholics who have been previously married, to help them understand and regularize their ecclesial status. As a couple makes their way through this sometimes lengthy, complicated, and complex process, they should do all they can to avoid scandalizing students.

If a couple refuses to attempt regularization or is unwilling to strive to meet Church requirements given their marital status, it may be prudent to ask them to withdraw their student from the Catholic school.

Same-Sex Unions

The circumstance of a same-sex union is not identical to that of other parents in irregular or immoral family situations. Same-sex couples who advocate and persist in their union actively and publicly model a different morality, present a lived counter-evangelization, and have a different understanding of what Christian integration of the mind, body, and spirit looks like. Admitting students from families formed around same-sex unions, therefore, is a certain cause of scandal in Catholic schools and invites moral confusion.

The Church is clear that a union attempted by persons of the same biological sex is opposed to Catholic teaching and the very nature of sexuality, marriage, and family. Scripture[15] consistently teaches the immorality of homosexual acts. The Catechism of the Catholic Church builds upon scripture and teaches that homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity” and are “intrinsically disordered.” Such acts are

contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.[16]

Unlike irregular unions between a man and woman, which often can be regularized and may be publicly ambiguous, same-sex unions are impossible to regularize and are visibly always a contradiction to Church teaching. Authentic marriage, as consistently affirmed by the Catholic faith, can only be between one man and one woman who are complementary in nature.[17] Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia re-affirms the Church’s position that “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”[18]

Catholics are never permitted to approve of same-sex unions. Justice demands that Catholics exercise the right to conscientious objection when faced with same-sex unions approved by civil law. According to the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “The denial of the social and legal status of marriage to forms of cohabitation that are not and cannot be marital is not opposed to justice; on the contrary, justice requires it.”[19]

The same-sex couple is directly responsible for creating confusion and scandal, by establishing a social structure which leads to the decline of Christian morals through the manipulation of public opinion.[20] They are openly engaged in and openly promote public, unrepentant, objectively disordered behavior. But the school itself can become complicit in confusion and scandal when its interaction with the same-sex couple generates the appearance of normalcy, creating an intractable conflict of position and grave confusion among children and families about the nature of marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

The scandal is not simply a fear that students might become same-sex active themselves or someday form their own same-sex union, but more importantly there is a real concern that this arrangement might cause students to become contemptuous of the Church or become moral relativists on a host of other issues of morality. Moral relativism, because it denies objective truth as an approach to reality, is a real and present danger to the eternal salvation of young people. Mission effectiveness and proper student formation depend upon creating a healthy and ordered learning environment free from moral confusion and moral relativism.

The school may also become complicit if it appears to support a sinful and unjust arrangement that denies students their natural rights. Pope Francis has emphasized that every child has a natural right to a loving mother and father.[21] As the Church refuses to participate in helping form same-sex households by providing adoption services, the Catholic school can refuse to condone and cooperate with a social structure which denies children their natural right to a biological mother and father and places them in spiritual danger.

Students Presenting with Same-Sex Attraction[22] 

All students are called to chastity, which is the successful integration of sexuality within the person according to their state in life. In most cases this virtue is developed in the context of students learning to acquire control over opposite-sex attraction in preparation for marriage. However, this universal call to chastity can be even more complicated, but no less required, in cases of same-sex attraction.

The Catholic Church teaches that physical same-sex relations work against the proper order of procreation and complementarity designed by God and because of this, such sexual activities are intrinsically disordered and contrary to natural law.[23] While the topic of same-sex attraction may be an appropriate academic topic of discussion in advanced classes, a Catholic school’s mission is compromised if students are allowed to advocate or celebrate same-sex attraction as a personal positive good in the context of classes, activities, or events. Such persistent and scandalous activity may be cause for dismissal from the school. Catholic schools generally use the term “same-sex attraction” rather than “homosexual orientation,” because there is only one proper sexual orientation: that which orients a man to a woman and vice versa in the bonds of matrimony. Given that labels can falsely promote a lasting identification or enduring notion of self, the school should avoid labeling individuals with such terms as “gay,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” or “queer,” even when the individual might desire such identification.[24] Allowing open or flagrant promotion of same-sex behavior would advance a position considered gravely sinful by the Church as normative and good.

A faithful Catholic school will present students who disclose same-sex attraction during the admissions process or in other school situations the beautiful and liberating teachings of the Catholic Church on God’s design for the human person and human sexuality. The Church encourages individuals experiencing same-sex attraction to pursue the virtues of chastity, self-mastery, and friendship instead of acting upon those inclinations romantically or sexually.[25] These students should, as a condition of enrollment, work with appropriate Church and diocesan offices, ministries,[26] and counselors who can provide psychological, sociological, and spiritual care[27] in the hope of overcoming individual challenges and living in harmony with Christ’s teachings as shared through his Church.[28]

Parent Identifying Contrary to Biological Sex

Parents experiencing confusion regarding their sexual identity and who seek to express a gender other than their biological sex face grave personal difficulties. The school, while sensitive to the suffering such a psychological disconnect from one’s biological sex may cause in a parent, nevertheless must work toward a mode of interaction with all members of the school that properly esteems the reality of their biological sex.  

The Catholic school can present such parents with the Church’s teaching about the human person and God’s plan for mankind and agree to this teaching for their children. In particular cases, parents may be directed to the local pastor and other faith-based psychologists and medical personnel, who can work with them to address their gender dysphoria.

At the very least, as a condition of a student’s enrollment, the parent whose sense of sexual identity is compromised must agree not to draw attention to his or her gender incongruence, so as not to confuse or scandalize the students.

Student Identifying Contrary to His or Her Biological Sex[29]

Prospective or current students presenting as a gender other than their biological sex require counseling, along with their parents, on the Catholic Church’s position that God created humans male and female and the complementarity between men and women is for the good of spouses and the propagation and generation of humanity.

In such situations, a faithful Catholic school will inform the student and the student’s parents that the school interacts with all students according to their biological sex, rather than on the basis of professed “gender identities.” The family should be willing to work toward integrating the student’s sexual identity with their biological sex, including counseling with their pastor and other trained Catholic medical and psychological professionals who are best able to help them in clarifying and defining issues of self (and sexual) identity in accord with Catholic teaching and God’s natural plan.[30] If the student or parents insist on a name, clothing, or behavior that publicly signal gender dysphoria, the student may be asked to leave the school.

It harms students to encourage misidentification during a socially and sexually challenging time of their lives, whether it be a deep-seated “belief” or a persistent “wish.”[31] Studies indicate that 80-95 percent of students experiencing dissonance between their biological sex and gender expression will naturally outgrow it,[32] and that limiting external expressions of the disconnect helps overcome it.[33] Regardless of the student’s perceptions, a Catholic school seeks to promote the welfare of all students, which is only ensured when truth is acknowledged.

Those who wish to express a gender other than what is naturally in harmony with their biological sex are understood as operating outside of a “reality deeply inscribed” within.[34] Assisting the person in his or her disconnect with this reality, however sincerely experienced, by agreeing to participate in any efforts to change natural gender expression is contrary to the pursuit of the truth. Authentic love, a gift of the self for the good of the other, requires that Catholic educators compassionately dwell in the truth and assist those they love to do the same.

Student Conceived by In-Vitro Fertilization or Born Through Surrogacy

Children are always a gift from God, no matter the circumstances of their conception. It would therefore seem inappropriate to bar a student from enrollment in a Catholic school, because of conception through in-vitro fertilization or surrogacy. But a parent’s or student’s public and persistent advocacy for these artificial methods of generating life, which undermines the teaching of the Church and the formative efforts of the school, is cause for dismissal.

The Church teaches that these methods are gravely immoral, since they disassociate conception from the sexual act between the biological mother and father, and that the “use of such technology is not a replacement for natural conception, since it involves the manipulation of human embryos, the fragmentation of parenthood, the instrumentalization and/or commercialization of the human body, as well as the reduction of a baby to an object in the hands of science and technology.”[35]

Parents should know that if a situation requiring clarification presents itself, all students will be taught that those members of God’s family conceived by in-vitro fertilization or born through surrogacy are wholly good, completely loved, and willed by God, even though the means chosen to bring about their conception were morally unacceptable.[36]

Conclusion

The challenges facing Catholic schools and the often-wounded families they are called to serve are significant and can almost seem overwhelming. This is a time calling not just for compassion, but also for courage. Courage to fulfill this ministry is required in a culture which may brand such teaching as judgmental or intolerant. Educators need courage to teach the faith in season and out, as inspired by the words of St. Paul:

Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths. But you, be self-possessed in all circumstances; put up with hardship; perform the work of an evangelist; fulfill your ministry. (2 Tim 4: 2-5)

Compassion, of course, is also required. Many wounded families have not fully encountered the fullness of Church teaching or experienced the painful yet liberating process of repentance, amendment of life, and acceptance of Christ’s loving forgiveness and his plan for their lives. All teachers and administrators are called to be fully present to everyone, listening to their unique situations with compassion.

Administrators must work with other Church ministries to help identify and meet any unique needs and challenges facing a nontraditional family. This may involve enrolling a family in a Catholic school, or it may require revoking, denying, or delaying enrollment as a family undergoes initial faith formation and regularization through other Church ministries. In either case, the desire is to meet them where they are and eventually bring them home to full communion with Christ and His Church.

 

Dan Guernsey, Ed.D., has 30 years of experience in Catholic education at the collegiate level as an associate professor, dean, and president and at the K-12 level as a teacher and principal. He is a Senior Fellow at The Cardinal Newman Society, which promotes and defends faithful Catholic education.

 

[1] For the purposes of this paper, the terms “parent” or “parents” include the legal guardian(s) of a child. “Family” is used in the broad sense of any unit self-identifying as such and including a parent and child. A “nontraditional” family includes any variation from a faithfully Catholic family formed around a marriage that is valid according to the Catholic Church.

[2] Saint Pope Paul VI, Gravissimum Educationis (1965) 6; Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri (1929) 35.

[3] William H. Jeynes, “A Meta-Analysis of the Relation of Parental Involvement to Urban Elementary School Student Academic Achievement,” Urban Education, Vol. 40, No. 3 (2005) 237-269; William H. Jeynes, “The Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Urban Secondary School Student Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis,” Urban Education, Vol. 42, No. 1 (2007) 82-110; S. Wilder, “Effects of Parental Involvement on Academic Achievement: A Meta-Synthesis,” Educational Review, Vol. 66, No. 3 (May 2013) 377-397; Sira Park and Susan D. Holloway, “The Effects of School-Based Parental Involvement on Academic Achievement at the Child and Elementary School Level: A Longitudinal Study,” The Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 110, No. 1 (May 2016) 1-16.

[4] See Mahwish Safder and Abid Hussain Ch., “Relationship Between Moral Atmosphere of School and Moral Development of Secondary School Students,” Bulletin of Education and Research, Vol. 40, No. 3 (2018) 63-71, showing correlations between the morality of teachers and peers and the morality of students and other studies mentioned in article.

[5] Anne Gregory and Rhona Weinstein, “Connection and Regulation at Home and in School: Predicting Growth in Achievement for Adolescents,” Journal of Adolescent Research, Vol. 19, No.4 (2004) 405-427; Ercan Kocayoruk, “Parental Involvement and School Achievement,” International Journal of Human Behavioral Science, Vol. 2, No. 2 (2016); Susan M. Sheridan, Lisa L. Knoche, and Andrew S. White, “Family-School Partnerships in Early Childhood: Exemplar of Evidence-Based Interventions,” in Steven Sheldon and Tammy Turner (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook of Family, School, and Community Relationships in Education (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2019), 190-191.

[6] David Masci and Gregory Smith, “7 Facts about American Catholics” (2018) at

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/10/7-facts-about-american-catholics/ (accessed Dec. 3, 2020).

[7] Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them: Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (2019) 56.

[8] Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993) 1601, 1652.

[9] Catechism, 1603-5, 1646.

[10] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986) 15.

[11] Catechism 2284.

[12] See Catechism 2380-2386 on adultery and divorce.

[13] Catechism 2390.

[14] Catechism 1605, 1622; Saint John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio (1981) 67.

[15] Rom. 1:26–27; 1 Cor. 6:9–10; 1 Tim. 1:8–10; Jude 7; Leviticus 18:22.

[16] Catechism 2357.

[17] Catechism 1625.

[18] Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (2016) 251.

[19] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons (2003) 8.

[20] Catechism 2286.

[21] Edward Pentin, “Pope’s Address to Colloquium on Complementarity of Man and Woman” at http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-francis-address-to-colloquium-on-complementarity-of-man-and-woman (accessed on Feb. 28, 2020).

[22] This section is adapted from Dan Guernsey and Denise Donohue, Human Sexuality Policies for Catholic Schools (2016) at https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/human-sexuality-policies-catholic-schools/

[23] Catechism 2357-2359.

[24] Rev. Paul Scalia, “A Label That Sticks,” First Things (June 2005) at https://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/06/a-label-that-sticks (accessed on Nov. 10, 2020).

[25] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona Humana (1975) 8; Synod of Bishops, The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization: Instrumentum Laboris (2014) 110-112.

[26] See Courage International at https://couragerc.org/

[27] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1986) 15, 17.

[28] Michael J. Maher, “Gay and Lesbian Students in Catholic High Schools: A Qualitative Study of Alumni Narratives,” Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice, Vol. 10, No. 4 (2007) 449-472.

[29] This section is adapted from Guernsey and Donohue (2016).

[30] The Diocese of Steubenville and the Ohio Catholic Conference have created separate written agreements to be signed by all school families and the school, which specifically include mention of gender dysphoric students and the limits of the school in accommodating them.

[31] Thomas D. Steensma, Jenifer K. McGuire, et. al., “Factors Associated with Desistence and Persistence of Childhood Gender Dysphoria: A Quantitative Follow-up Study,” Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. 52, No. 6 (June 2013) 583.

[32] See American College of Pediatricians, Gender Dysphoria in Children (Nov. 2018) at https://acpeds.org/position-statements/gender-dysphoria-in-children (accessed Feb. 28, 2020); and Paul R. McHugh, Paul Hruz, and Lawrence S. Mayer, Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioner, Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., Supreme Court of the United States, No. 16-273 (January 10, 2017) 12.

[33] Kenneth J. Zucker, Hayley Wood, et al., “A Developmental, Biopsychosocial Model for the Treatment of Children with Gender Identity Disorder,” Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 59 (March 2012) 382. See Table 3, p. 384 for family school interventions for individual student needs.

[34] Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Woman in the Church and the World (2004) 8.

[35] Catechism 2376-2377; Congregation for Catholic Education (2019) 28.

[36] John M. Haas, “Begotten Not Made: A Catholic View of Reproductive Technology,” at http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/reproductive-technology/begotten-not-made-a-catholic-view-of-reproductive-technology.cfm (accessed on Feb. 28, 2020).

Catholic College Scholarship Contest Invites Applications

/in , , /by

The Cardinal Newman Society is pleased to announce its fifth annual Essay Scholarship Contest. The winning essay writer will be awarded $5,000 toward the cost of attending a faithful Catholic college recommended in The Newman Guide (see https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/the-newman-guide/) in the fall of 2021.

In addition, several Newman Guide colleges have agreed to supplement the Newman Society’s scholarship with additional $5,000 grants to the winner over three additional years, according to criteria established by each college.

All of the details about the Contest can be found at this link: https://newmansoc.org/EssayContest

The Newman Society scholarship is made possible thanks to the generosity of Joe and Ann Guiffre, strong advocates of faithful Catholic education.

The contest is open to high school seniors in the United States who sign up for the Newman Society’s Recruit Me program, explore the Newman Society’s tips for navigating the college search, and check out the recommended colleges in The Newman Guide during their college search.

The topic for this year’s contest is to reflect, in 500-700 words, on the following:

Christ promised, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” The year 2020 was tumultuous and divisive for a variety of reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the election, racial tensions, and violence. How has any of this strengthened your resolve to attend a faithful Catholic college?

Essays will be judged by how well they demonstrate appreciation for faithful Catholic education, as well as the quality of the writing.

Last year, the Newman Society announced Maria Schmidt of Providence Academy in La Crosse, Wisconsin as the winner of the Society’s fourth annual Essay Scholarship Contest. She received a $5,000 scholarship toward her education at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida. She may also be eligible for additional $5,000 grants from Ave Maria University.

In her winning essay, Schmidt reflected on a recent Pew Research study that found that only 26 percent of self-professed Catholics under the age of 40 believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Catholics should face the crisis of faith “with a renewed commitment to strong Catholic education and faith formation,” Schmidt argued.

“A good education helps form the whole person, laying down proper philosophical principles necessary for the pursuit of truth in all its classes and activities,” Schmidt wrote.

Schmidt reminded us that the crisis of faith in our country and in the world is “not unprecedented.”

“Like the monks of Cluny Abbey who saved the faith of Europe in the tenth century, let us first reform ourselves through strong Catholic education and spiritual nourishment,” she wrote. “That is the first step towards the reform of the crisis, and another of many steps toward heaven.”

Schmidt’s entire essay can be read here.

Questions about this year’s Essay Scholarship Contest can be directed to Programs@CardinalNewmanSociety.org.

Getting it Right: Witness and Teaching on Sexuality in Catholic Education

/in , , /by

Editor’s Note: The article below is included in the forthcoming winter 2021 edition of the Newman Society’s Our Catholic Mission magazine.

In 2019, the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education released Male and Female He Created Them, a response to the contemporary “gender ideology” that has sown confusion in American society and even within Catholic education.

The document is important for its forthright acknowledgment of topics—including homosexuality and gender identification—of growing concern to Catholic families, schools and colleges. But despite the Congregation’s expressed hope that the document will be a “practical” resource to Catholic educators, it offers minimal guidance to help navigate the complexities of real situations with students and employees who struggle with sexuality and chastity, especially if they openly dissent from Catholic teaching or act in ways that are scandalous to students.

Increasingly, Catholic dioceses, schools and colleges are embroiled in controversy and conflict over sexual matters. To prevent such problems, these situations require pastoral sensitivity and the guidance of clear institutional policies that both uphold and explain the obligations of faithful Catholic education.

This is one important contribution of The Cardinal Newman Society: helping Catholic educators identify the principles of Catholic teaching and standards of policy and practice to strengthen faithful Catholic identity. Moreover, our work helps protect Catholic education by giving schools and colleges compelling claims to religious freedom, based on clear and consistently implemented policies that are tied directly to their Catholic mission.

Catholic educators cannot get human sexuality wrong. Not only would that be a tragic failure of Catholic education, which strives to form young people in faith, morality and truth, but it also invites lawsuits and increased threats to religious freedom if Catholic educators are perceived to be motivated by bigotry or arbitrary decisions instead of clear and compassionate Catholic teachings.

Consider for example the conflict in Kansas City a couple years ago, when the Archdiocese turned away a kindergarten student parented by a same-sex couple. What principles should guide admission to Catholic education? Does a Catholic school or college accept a child struggling with gender confusion?

How should a Catholic school or college respond when a teacher or professor announces a same-sex marriage or declares a new gender identity? In athletics, should students be able to use locker rooms or compete on teams of the opposite sex?

At the Newman Society, we have heard from well-intentioned educators who refuse to articulate their policies, instead leaving each situation to their own discretion. That approach, while understandable, can often lead to disaster for the school or college. Clear standards of policy and practice, consistent with traditional Catholic moral and theological norms, are key to ensuring fidelity, compassion and justice.

Principles of human sexuality in Catholic education

Our Catholic Identity Standards Project recently published “Policy Standards on Human Sexuality in Catholic Education,” updated from a 2016 paper that was one of our most popular resources for educators.

It looks broadly at Catholic teachings on sex, gender, chastity and marriage, drawing on magisterial teaching to identify key principles for Catholic education and then recommending standards to guide policymaking at Catholic schools and colleges. It also briefly considers the large variety of policies that should be developed to uphold Catholic teaching on sexuality, provides sample policies from several U.S. dioceses, and includes citations from Vatican documents.

Among the principles guiding Catholic education policies is the mission to provide integral formation of students so that the intellect and conscience work together to ensure true bodily health and integrity. Catholic education is so much bigger and so much more important than just teaching students academic subjects. It respects each student as a “complex and multifaceted being, striving for full human flourishing in their physical, moral, spiritual, psychological, social, and intellectual faculties.”

In society today, a disjointed view of the human person can sometimes influence Catholic educators. But as Catholics, we know that our uniquely human biological, social and spiritual elements are connected and should be developed in relation to each other.

In addition, Catholic education is “founded upon a sound Christian anthropology, which describes the human person as ‘a being at once corporeal and spiritual,’ made in the image of God, with complementarity and equality of the sexes as male and female.” Biological sex and gender cannot be separated, but should be “seen in harmony, according to God’s plan.”

Finally, Catholic education should help every student grow in virtue and “faithfully fulfill his role in building the Kingdom of God.” Catholic schools and colleges should be encouraging all community members to strive for chastity, according to their vocation as single, married or religious.

Implementing human sexuality policies

From these principles, the Newman Society recommends several important standards to guide policymaking related to human sexuality. Catholic education should, for instance:

  • expect all members of the Catholic educational community to strive for a life of chastity in keeping with their particular state of life, emphasizing the importance of chastity to a life of virtue and growth in one’s relationship with God;
  • provide clear institutional supports for living chastely, such as single-sex dorms and rules regarding clothing and behavior to establish standards and minimize temptation;
  • ensure that all human sexuality materials and instruction are carefully vetted for complete fidelity to Church teachings, taught by qualified and committed Catholics, modest and pure, targeted to the appropriate age and developmental stage of the student with respect for a child’s latency period (lasting up until puberty), and available in advance to parents who may choose to opt a minor student out of the program;
  • ensure that all speakers, vendors, third-party services, and materials are in harmony with the Catholic moral formation of students;
  • relate to all members of the school or college community according to their biological sex at birth and maintain appropriate distinctions between males and females, especially in issues of facilities use, athletic teams, uniforms, and nomenclature; and
  • prohibit advocacy of moral behavior at odds with Catholic teaching and activities that tend to encourage immoral behavior, especially on issues related to chastity.

These standards can be applied to nearly every aspect of a Catholic school or college. For example, dance policies, consistent with the goal to form virtuous and Christ-centered persons, should require students to refrain from any immodest, impure or sexually suggestive behavior both on and off the dance floor. College residence policies should ensure that students are assigned housing based on their biological sex, are prohibited from engaging in immoral sexual activity, and preserve the privacy of bedrooms from opposite-sex visitors.

It is crucial for a Catholic school to consider every activity of Catholic education and ensure that it upholds Catholic teaching. Students should know God’s beautiful purpose for sexuality and their calling to chastity. Truth is the foundation of Catholic education, and as our updated paper warns, “Educational programs or policies that promote a false understanding of the human person put the whole educational project at risk.”

Policy Standards on Human Sexuality in Catholic Education

/in , /by
Click here for PDF

Catholic education is committed to the pursuit of truth and promotion of the Gospel. Central to its mission is the integral formation of students’ minds, hearts, and bodies in truth and holiness.

A significant challenge toward this end is confusion in the common culture regarding the nature of human sexuality. The Catholic Church has a deep and rich understanding of the human person informed by natural law and firmly rooted in Christian revelation, which is its privilege and duty to proclaim and which the culture desperately needs to hear. Errors in understanding human sexuality can lead to errors in understanding human nature, the moral order, and even truth and reality itself.

Catholic education’s proclamation of the full truth of humanity requires both sensitivity and courage. It requires clarity, charity, and integrity. It requires loving pastoral responses and clearly articulated beliefs, standards, and policies.

Such pastoral efforts and policies should support the mission of Catholic education, be consistent with Church teaching, and be based on a sound Christian anthropology (i.e., concept of the human person). This concept derives from the overarching biblical vision of the human person, which proposes that we find our deepest identity and happiness only by making a sincere gift of ourselves to others. God made men and women as complementary creatures who are naturally ordered to the special union of one man and one woman in marriage. Central as well to the Christian concept of the human person is that God made both men and women in His image, of equal and immense dignity, existing as a unity of body and soul, and destined for union with Him according to His plan.

To counteract confusion in the common culture and to ensure that Catholic educational institutions fulfill their missions, it is essential to establish policies that foster a true account of the human person and of human sexuality consonant with Church teaching. Such policies justly ensure that employees, volunteers, and students are fully aware of their obligations and the institution’s principles, priorities, and commitments, and they help guard against error and disoriented notions of the human person.

Because modeling and personal witness are essential to the process of education, all members of a Catholic educational community should strive for virtue, guided by the teachings of the Catholic Church. Pastoral and policy practices will therefore necessarily touch on a broad array of activities beyond the strictly academic, in Catholic education’s attempts to promote the integral formation of student’s minds, bodies, and souls.

This broader goal is served by explicit efforts at developing moral, theological, and academic virtues. Development of these human excellences are critical to human freedom and fulfillment. By modeling moral freedom “grounded on those absolute values which alone give meaning and value to human life,”[1] Catholic schools and colleges fulfill their obligation to be “places of evangelization”[2] and equip students to be “leaven in the human community.”[3]

It is hard to overstate how radical the sexual revolution has been and how far-reaching and devastating its consequences to the human community. It has physically, morally, and spiritually destroyed countless individuals, families, children, and communities. Catholic educators must be astutely aware of the challenges posed by the sexual culture, prepared to bravely confront it, and equipped with educational principles and policies to deal with the crisis it has created.

The following principles and standards, deeply informed by guidance from the Church, aim to assist in this regard.

Principles

Principle 1: A key aspect of the mission of Catholic education is the integral formation of the human person.

This key aspect of integral formation, especially as it relates to human sexuality, should be reflected in institutional policies. This type of formation is rooted in the Church’s philosophy of the human person, who is seen as a complex and multi-faceted being, striving for full human flourishing in their physical, moral, spiritual, psychological, social, and intellectual faculties.[4]

Canon Law affirms:

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.[5]

Catholic schools and colleges are also obligated to be “places of evangelization”[6] to bring students to the fullness of truth and disposing them to salvation in Christ and service to the common good.[7] The mission includes empowering students to be “a saving leaven in the human community”[8] through apostolic witness and modeling of a Catholic understanding of moral freedom, which is “grounded on those absolute values which alone give meaning and value to human life.”[9]

Catholic schools and colleges are not simply educational organizations designed to satisfy the intellects of students with academic content. Rather, their “primary responsibility is one of witness”[10] and instruction in the truth of God and the world through complete integral human formation:

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.[11]

In all they do, Catholic educators “must consider the totality of the person and insist therefore on the integration of the biological, psycho-affective, social, and spiritual elements.”[12] This is a distinctly different view of the person than is currently promoted in much of common culture, which presents a disaggregation of these elements in an effort to empower the will, instill a false sense of freedom, and remove the divine.

Principle 2: Catholic education is founded upon a sound Christian anthropology, which describes the human person as “a being at once corporeal and spiritual,”[13] made in the image of God,[14] with complementarity and equality of the sexes as male and female.[15]

The Congregation for Catholic Education emphasizes that:

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.[16]

Some fundamental tenets of a Christian concept of the human person include that God created each person body and soul (Gen. 1:27) and that:

The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit. Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.[17]

This bodily nature includes a biological sexual reality that shares in God’s creative plan for the good.

“Being man” or “being woman” is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator.[18]

The conjugal union of man and woman is naturally ordered toward the good of marriage and family:

In marriage the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament.

“Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.”[19]

This is important, since there are many competing and incomplete views of humanity, particularly as related to issues of human sexuality.

The educative program should work in harmony with a Catholic understanding of the human person and the role of human sexuality, because:

…our sexuality plays an integral part in the development of our personality and in the process of its education: “In fact, it is from [their] 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 towards maturity and insertion into society.”[20]

Catholic education addresses issues of human sexuality, because it seeks to foster maturity, growth, and the ability of students to respond to God’s vocation for each of them as individuals and as members of society.

The Congregation for Catholic Education warns that our society is in “an educational crisis, especially in the field of affectivity and sexuality,” and that prevalent today is:

…an anthropology opposed to faith and to right reason… bringing with it a tendency to cancel out the differences between men and women, presenting them instead as merely the product of historical and cultural conditioning.[21]

This false ideology “creates the idea of the human person as a sort of abstraction who ‘chooses for himself what his nature is to be.’”[22] What is at stake is not just isolated discussions about personal sexual preferences or what to do about a small segment of people suffering from gender dysphoria (i.e., transgenderism), but rather what is at stake is this ideology’s “aim to annihilate the concept of ‘nature’”[23] and the surrender of natural law, objective reality, and God’s divine plan to the ravages of materialism and relativism.

In the face of such error and like St. Paul at the Areopagus, teachers must use all legitimate means to promote the truth of human body-soul integrity. Natural law arguments are a good start when explaining the harmony between body and soul and the actions that lead to human flourishing. These arguments use reason and are open to all of humanity. But these arguments alone are insufficient and must open to divine revelation in and through the person of Christ who has fully revealed our nature and destiny.

It is important to maintain in teaching and policy the Catholic understanding that, “Biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.”[24] One’s biological sex and gender expression are not to be disaggregated[25] but should be seen in harmony, according to God’s plan. One’s gender identity must be rooted in one’s biological sex. As the Church teaches, a biologically-based sexual identity is “a reality deeply inscribed in man and woman”[26] and affirms that a person “should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.”[27]

The Congregation for Catholic Education reminds educators that “any genuine educational philosophy has to be based on the nature of the human person and therefore must take into account all of the physical and spiritual powers of each individual.”[28] Educational programs or policies that promote a false understanding of the human person put the whole educational project at risk.

Principle 3: Catholic education should communicate and support the formation of virtue in order to help students “live a new life in Christ”[29] and faithfully fulfill their roles in building up the Kingdom of God.

Key to the area of human sexuality is the virtue of temperance, including the associated virtues of modesty, chastity, purity, abstinence, self-control, and moderation. All of these virtues are proper and important where one’s sexuality is concerned, but chastity, “the successful integration of sexuality within the person,”[30] sets the basis for one’s internal integrity of body and soul.

The Church holds that all are called to chastity appropriate to their state in life as single, married, or consecrated religious.[31] Human sexual behavior is only properly oriented to the ends of love and life in the context of Holy Matrimony. A proper understanding of human sexuality requires personal integrity and full integration of body and soul as created by God. The Catechism emphasizes this need for integrity:

…the chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.[32]

Integrity must be modeled by Catholic educational institutions as well. Policies should be clear, consistent, faithful to Church teaching, and protect from anything which might impair an institution’s faith-based mission and educational philosophy.

Catholic education cannot condone and must form young people with the desire, habits, and fortitude to avoid offenses against chastity and against God, including but not limited to lust, masturbation, pornography, homosexual activity, and fornication.[33] Students must also be formed with appreciation for the gifts of sexuality and openness toward life in marriage, respect for the sanctity of marriage and for all human life, and the desire, habits, and fortitude to avoid artificial contraception, in-vitro fertilization, and abortion.

Standards for Policies Related to Human Sexuality

In Catholic education, policies involving human sexuality:

  • support and protect educational communities of evangelization that promote the salvation of students, teach and witness to truth, and serve the common good;

  • ensure a Catholic environment in which students can develop their physical, moral, and intellectual talents harmoniously;

  • uphold Catholic teaching according to the magisterium of the Catholic Church, especially in matters of human sexuality;

  • are founded on a Christian anthropology which supports the unity of body and soul as part of God’s original plan for humanity and understands sexuality as a gift ordered toward the union of one man and one woman in marriage;

  • expect all members of the Catholic educational community to strive for a life of chastity in keeping with their particular state of life, emphasizing the importance of chastity to a life of virtue and growth in one’s relationship with God;

  • provide clear institutional supports for living chastely, such as single-sex dorms and rules regarding clothing and behavior to establish standards and minimize temptation;

  • provide instruction and reading material, such as Catholic books and pamphlets, that offer practical guidance for living chastely;

  • ensure that all human sexuality materials and instruction are carefully vetted for complete fidelity to Church teachings, taught by qualified and committed Catholics, modest and pure, targeted to the appropriate age and developmental stage of the student with respect for a child’s latency period (lasting up until puberty),[34] and available in advance to parents who may choose to opt a minor student out of the program;

  • ensure that all speakers, vendors, third-party services, and materials are in harmony with the Catholic moral formation of students;

  • ensure that the arts, movies, and literature on campus or in the curriculum are not an affront to a student’s purity or a proximate cause of sinful thoughts or actions;

  • relate to all members of the school or college community according to their biological sex at birth and maintain appropriate distinctions between males and females, especially in issues of facilities use, athletic teams, uniforms, and nomenclature;

  • prohibit advocacy of moral behavior at odds with Catholic teaching and activities that tend to encourage immoral behavior, especially on issues related to chastity;

  • prohibit displays or promotion of vulgar, promiscuous, or same-sex attracted behavior;

  • prohibit actions or activities which promote or encourage students to disaggregate gender from sex; and

  • prohibit bullying and ensure that the dignity of all is respected.

Operationalizing the Standards

Definition of Terms

“Chastity” is the virtue of sexual self-control and is an aspect of the cardinal virtue of temperance; as a religious virtue, chastity motivates and enables us to use the gift of our sexuality in complete accordance with God’s plan. Chastity makes possible the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of the person in his bodily and spiritual being.[35]

“Gender” was commonly used synonymously with the word “sex,” but over time has been changed to mean a person’s socio-cultural role apart from their biological sex. The Church is opposed to this division and views gender (one’s outward manifestation of sexuality) as inseparable from one’s biological sex.[36]

“Gender dysphoria” is the psychological condition given to a person who experiences a conflict between their biological sex and the gender in which they identity.[37]

“Marriage” is the lifelong union of one man and one woman for the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children. Jesus Christ raised this union between baptized persons to the dignity of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.[38]

“Sex” means the biological condition of being male or female.[39]

Specific Areas and Types of Policies

Catholic education policies related to human sexuality are needed within many areas of a school or college’s operation. The Cardinal Newman Society is committed to identifying principles of Catholic identity and policy standards particular to all key aspects of Catholic education through the work of its Catholic Identity Standards Project. For each area below, be sure to check with the Newman Society for more specific policy guidance that incorporates the human sexuality standards and other relevant concerns.

Admissions policies help target admission to students and families who can benefit from the educative and formative approach of the Catholic education program and not hinder the institution’s faith-based mission. Admissions policies should also ensure that students and families understand they are entering a faith-based institution and have an obligation to support its religious mission.

Athletics policies protect biological females and ensure fair play by having students participate on sport teams consistent with their biological sex.

Bullying policies prohibit bullying of any kind and support the common good and Christian justice and charity by affirming the dignity of all persons.

Chastity policies encourage all members of a Catholic educational community to strive for a life of chastity, appropriate to their vocation as single, married, or consecrated religious. The policies require modesty in language, appearance, and behavior.

Dance policies, consistent with the goal to form virtuous and Christ-centered persons, require students to refrain from any immodest, impure, or sexually suggestive behavior both on and off the dance floor.

Dress code/uniform policies, in order to maintain uniform appearance, modesty, and proper comportment throughout the school day and at school events, require all students, staff, and faculty to follow the dress code expectations of their biological sex while on campus and while representing the institution at outside functions.

Employment and volunteer policies, among other things, ensure that all employees and volunteers uphold the Catholic faith and morals—including sexual morality—in their teaching and other duties and by their personal witness. The policies ensure that employee benefits are provided in a manner that does not violate Catholic teaching, including prohibiting insurance coverage for abortion, artificial insemination, contraception, in-vitro fertilization, and drugs and procedures intended to change a person’s biological sex.

Facilities use policies require all adults and students who are on campus to model chaste behavior and observe modesty when using changing facilities, locker rooms, showers, and restrooms, and ensure that such facilities are only shared by those of the same biological sex. Facilities use policies should also prohibit use for any purpose or cause that is contrary to Catholic teaching or otherwise opposes or is opposed by the Catholic Church.

Formal titles and names policies ensure that students address all adults by their proper titles and names and that personnel address students by the original name with which the student was registered (or its common derivative) and correlating pronouns.

Health services, counseling, and programs policies ensure that health services personnel, counselors, and other medical and psychological student programs support a Christian anthropology and that parents, as primary educators of their children, are apprised of all conversations and concerns related to the child’s social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical well-being and safety, unless restrained otherwise by law. The policies ensure that the institution will not support a student or employee in any type of “transitioning” of gender or allow medications used for “transitioning” to be administered on campus or by school or college personnel.

Hiring policies ensure that all candidates are properly vetted for their adherence to Catholic teaching especially in the areas of moral expectations as articulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Housing services policies ensure that students are assigned housing based on their biological sex, are prohibited from engaging in sexual immorality, and preserve the privacy of bedrooms from opposite-sex visitors. Housing policies should support chastity.

Instructional material policies for schools ensure that students are not exposed to materials that are an affront to purity; do not include explicit discussion, presentation, or description of sexuality, sexual activity, or sexual fantasy; and are not a proximate cause of sinful thoughts or actions. The policies ensure that all human sexuality materials are carefully vetted for complete fidelity to Church teachings, taught by qualified committed Catholics, targeted to the appropriate age and developmental stage of the student, respect a child’s latency period, and are available in advance to parents who choose to opt their student out of the program.

Mission integrity policies ensure that the institution exercises its responsibility to teach Catholic faith and morals in all fullness and especially as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. These policies should also articulate that openly hostile, public defiance and challenge of Catholic truths or morality are signs that a student, parent, staff member, or faculty member may not be a good fit for a Catholic institution’s primary evangelical mission.

Nondiscrimination policies, crafted together with legal counsel to protect students and employees, should assert the institution’s Catholic identity and legal right to act according to its religious beliefs; avoid terms that can be broadly or falsely interpreted in ways that conflict with Catholic teaching, especially with regard to sexual identity; and stick to the minimal language required by law to avoid unnecessary legal implications.

Public displays of affection policies maintain a professional atmosphere of learning and for K-12 schools prohibit romantic displays of affection, such as romantic hugging, kissing, and handholding.

Same-sex attraction policies emphasize that because the Catholic Church teaches that same-sex attraction is inherently disordered[40] and that sexual activity is only appropriate for the purposes of love and life within Holy Matrimony,[41] individuals experiencing this disordered inclination are called to a life of chastity and may not advocate, celebrate, or express the disordered inclination in the context of classes, activities, or events. Such policies should use the term “same-sex attraction” in discussing homosexual inclinations, since there is only one proper sexual orientation: that which orients a man to a woman in the bonds of matrimony.

Sexual harassment policies, crafted together with legal counsel to protect students and employees, use language that upholds Catholic anthropology and morality.

Sexual identity policies clarify that the institution will provide pastoral care for any student working through challenges related to the integration of their sexual identity but will interact with students according to their biological sex as based upon physical differences at birth and will direct students to work with their parents, pastor, and other trained licensed professionals who might best assist them in clarifying and defining issues of self (and sexual) identity in accord with Catholic teaching and natural law.

Single-sex program policies allow for participation of students in particular activities based on their biological sex.

Speaker policies ensure that speaker presentations do not conflict with Catholic teaching and a Catholic worldview.

Student clubs policies ensure that all student clubs operate based on a Christian anthropology of the human person, and that no clubs advocate or celebrate gender transitioning or sexual behavior contrary to Church teaching.

Student pregnancy policies commit to helping a student-parent re-establish a life of chastity, prohibit abortion, and support students in their affirmation of the gift of life under all circumstances.

Third-party vendor policies regulate the hiring of outside contractors (such as after-school providers, Title II tutors, and counseling services) to ensure that their programs and personnel do not work against the educative and formative mission of Catholic education.

Possible Questions

Question: Don’t we need to be concerned about illegally discriminating against those who identify as “LGBTQ”?

Response: Under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and America’s tradition of respect for the natural right of religious freedom, faith-based institutions have a legal right to base hiring, admittance, and other decisions on clearly articulated and consistently applied faith and moral criteria. Increasingly, however, religious freedom has been threatened by local, state, and federal measures, and conflicts with government authorities or lawsuits by employees and students may bring serious challenges. Catholic educators can and must defend their religious freedom and, more importantly, must never violate the mission of Catholic education by compromising Catholic teaching on human sexuality.

Question: Even though it’s not illegal, isn’t it unjust and uncharitable not to conform to the wishes and behaviors of those who identify as “LGBTQ”?

Response: Relating to students and employees truthfully and with desire for their moral growth and purity is charitable and just. Catholic education strives to serve and respect the human dignity of all members of its communities. It does not single out anyone for correction, but it justly addresses concerns about sexual morality in accord with the gravity of the situation and the degree of scandal to its students. Catholic educational institutions have a right to expect employees and students to adhere to a code of conduct designed to create an educational environment capable of effectively carrying out Catholic formation and faith-based education. Publicly unchaste or scandalous behavior, or the presentation of sinful behavior as a good to be pursued, works against this mission.

Question: We don’t dismiss “heterosexual” students who are unchaste, so why do we seem to have a double standard for those who identify as “LGBTQ”?

Response: In fact, Catholic educators should be prepared to dismiss any student whose unchaste behavior is scandalous to other students and who is unlikely to be reconciled to Christ by conformity to Catholic teaching. An isolated non-scandalous incident of unchastity is usually not enough for removal, but an especially scandalous incident may require dismissal, as may repeated and persistent activity. Catholic educators must make distinctions between a student who falls while striving for chastity and a student who claims that unchaste activity is not a sin and acts, celebrates, or publicly encourages others to act accordingly.

Question: Don’t politeness, respect, and civility require addressing transgendered people by their preferred names and pronouns and allowing them to present as whatever gender they wish?

Response: In an entirely adult environment, there may be some logic to this approach, given the complex social fabric of the modern adult world and adults’ heightened ability to distinguish between labels and the true nature of the human person. Still, embracing a false perception of a person is unhealthy for the individual and for observers, and the potential for scandal must be weighed against the demands of civility. Our focus here is on Catholic educational institutions intended for young people; they seek to integrally form students harmoniously in mind, body, and spirit, and encouraging or accommodating gender dysphoria works against this goal. Significant data also shows that about 80 percent of youth experiencing gender dysphoria see the inclinations dissipate in adulthood.[42] In addition, Catholic teachers are in the truth-telling business and cannot blindly support student error, which in this case is a disconnect between the mind and reality.

Question: Since studies show that “LGBTQ” identifying students suffer higher rates of depression and often feel they are socially excluded, should Catholic schools and colleges actively promote “LGBTQ” support groups, “LGBTQ” pride groups, and groups of “LGBTQ” allies?

Response: Catholic schools and colleges should be prepared to offer discreet and robust pastoral services to students who may be struggling with sexuality, but public support groups on campus are inappropriate, as they may prematurely encourage a student to ascribe to a temporary struggle or attraction to a lasting sense of personal identity. They could lead peers to pigeon-hole a student into a category of errant sexuality. Additionally, such support groups, especially if tied to national “LGBTQ” movements, embrace a false notion of the human person and human sexuality which is antithetical to a Christian anthropology, and therefore they are harmful to the students we are trying to integrally form in truth and love.

 

This document was developed with substantial comment and contributions from education, legal, and other experts. Lead authors are Denise Donohue, Ed.D., Director of the Catholic Education Honor Roll at The Cardinal Newman Society, and Dan Guernsey, Ed.D., Senior Fellow at The Cardinal Newman Society and principal of a diocesan K-12 Catholic school.

 

Appendix A: Examples of Diocesan and School Policies

This Appendix includes examples of policies in use at the time of publication. These are presented in alphabetical order by category and are not necessarily exemplary in all possible areas.

Chastity

Marian High School, Mishawaka, Ind.

The Catholic school upholds and supports God’s plan for sexual relations by promoting chastity and a respect for human life. Sexual union is intended by God to express the complete gift of self that a man and a woman make to one another in marriage, a mutual gift that opens them to the gift of a child. Therefore, all students are expected to live a chaste lifestyle and to abstain from sexual relations.

Gender Identity

Catholic Bishops of Minnesota[43]

Application of Guiding Principles

The aforementioned Guiding Principles are practically applied in Catholic schools. Catholic schools in the Diocese of [insert] will relate to each student in a way that is respectful of and consistent with each student’s God-given sexual identity and biological sex. To this end, below are some examples of how these Guiding Principles apply to organizations that teach children and youth in the name of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of [insert]:

  1. All school policies, procedures, resources, employee training, and assistance given to families are consistent with the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the human person, including human sexuality. Reflective of a commitment to a culture of transparency and understanding, these policies will be made available in writing to members of the school community by way of inclusion in relevant handbooks, agreements, and statements.
  2. Student’s name and pronouns usage will correspond to his/her sexual identity (see definitions).
  3. Student access to facilities and overnight accommodations will align with his/her sexual identity.
  4. Eligibility for single-sex curricular and extracurricular activities is based on the sexual identity of the child.
  5. Expressions of a student’s sexual identity are prohibited when they cause disruption or confusion regarding the Church’s teaching on human sexuality.
  6. The consciences of students and employees will be respected with the assurance of their inviolable right to the acknowledgement that God has created each person as a unity of body and soul, male or female, and that God-designed sexual expression and behavior must be exclusively oriented to love and life in marriage between one man and one woman.
  7. Schools communicate with parents or guardians about their child’s behavior at school and inform them of any concerns relating to the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health, safety, or welfare of their child, except when advised otherwise by law enforcement or a social service agency.

    Definitions
    1. Sex refers to a person’s biological identification as male or female based upon physical characteristics present at birth.
    2. Sexual identity refers to a person’s identity as male or female that is congruent with one’s sex.
    3. Sexual binary refers to the God-given gift of the human family created male or female in the image and likeness of God.
    4. Transgender or gender non-conforming is an adjective describing a person who perceives his or her sexual identity to be different from his or her sex and publicly presents himself or herself as the opposite sex or outside the sexual binary. Such public expressions that are intended to communicate a sexual identity different from one’s sex include, but are not limited to, utilizing pronouns of the opposite sex, changing one’s name to reflect the cultural norms of the opposite sex, wearing a uniform designated for the opposite sex, and undergoing surgery to change the appearance of one’s reproductive or sexual anatomy.

Diocese of Springfield in Illinois[44]

§650.1 General Policy Concerning Gender Identity

While the Church has a duty to teach the truth about the human person (anthropology) and human sexuality, and incorporate this teaching into her policies and procedures, the Church has compassion and empathy toward all her members who suffer from confusion about their identity, including their sexual or gender identity.

650.1. Policy: It is the policy of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois that all Catholic agencies, including parishes, schools, institutions, departments, or other entities, shall respect the biological sex with which a person is born and shall apply all policies and procedures in relation to that person according to that person’s biological sex at birth.

Procedures: (portions omitted)

  1. Examples of this policy in practice include the following:
    1. All persons will be addressed and referred to with pronouns in accord with their biological sex;
    2. All correspondence, documents, and records will reflect the subject person’s biological sex;
    3. All persons will use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their biological sex while on Diocesan or Parish property.
  2. The Diocese also supports and encourages counseling for those who suffer from or are diagnosed with gender dysphoria by licensed counselors or other medical professionals who hold a correct Christian anthropology of the human person and who understand and adhere to Catholic teaching.
  3. While the Catholic Church does not support transgender therapies and/or surgeries that assist a person in “transitioning” his or her gender, the Church recognizes that appropriate medical care may be necessary in rare cases of true genetic or physical anomalies, such as hermaphroditism or intersex.

§650.2. Specific Policy Concerning Employees and Volunteers

650.2 Policy. Employees and volunteers are expected to live virtuous lives guided by Gospel values and the teaching of the Church. Employees and volunteers shall conduct themselves in accord with their biological sex at all times. Likewise, all employees and volunteers shall perform their duties, and tailor their interactions with other persons, in accord with the Diocese’s general policy concerning gender identity (650.1).

Procedures:

  1. Examples of this policy in practice include the following:
    1. All employees and volunteers will be addressed and referred to with pronouns in accord with their biological sex;
    2. All employee or volunteer correspondence, documents, and records will reflect the employee’s or volunteer’s biological sex;
    3. All employees and volunteers will use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex while on Diocesan or Parish property.
  2. Violation of this policy by any employee may include immediate corrective action, suspension, and possible termination of employment.
  3. Violation of this policy by any volunteer may include immediate corrective action, suspension, and possible termination of volunteer status.

§650.3 Specific Policy Concerning Students

650.3. Policy. Students and their parents are expected to live virtuous lives guided by Gospel values and the teaching of the Church as described in the Family School Agreement (BK3§404.1). Students shall conduct themselves in accord with their biological sex at all times.

Procedures:

  1. A student diagnosed with gender dysphoria should not be denied admission to a Catholic school as long as the student and his or her parents agree that the child will abide by the Family School Agreement and this policy.
  2. Respectful, critical questioning of Catholic teaching in the classroom is encouraged as long as its intent is to help the student progress toward greater awareness and understanding.
  3. Examples of this policy in practice include the following:
    1. All students and their parents will be addressed and referred to with pronouns in accord with their biological sex;
    2. All school correspondence, documents, and records will reflect the student or parent’s biological sex;
    3. Students will participate in competitive athletics in accord with their biological sex;
    4. Catholic schools will not allow, or otherwise cooperate in, the administration of puberty-blocking or cross-sex hormones on school property;
    5. All students will use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their biological sex. Students who have been clinically diagnosed with gender dysphoria, however, may request the use of a single-person, unisex facility. Such requests will be assessed on an individual basis by the appropriate school administrator.
  4. A student of any Catholic school who insists, or whose parents insist, on open hostility toward, or defiance of, Church teaching, or who otherwise intentionally violate this policy, may be expelled from the school pursuant to this policy and the provisions of BK3§404.1.3.

Diocese of Steubenville

Policies regarding Transgender Students in Catholic Schools

  1. In Catholic schools of the Diocese of Steubenville, all curricular and extra-curricular activity is to be rooted in, and consistent with, the principles of Catholic doctrine.
  2. Catholic schools, and individuals employed with Catholic schools, shall not sponsor, facilitate or host such organizations, events or activities that would promote views contrary to Catholic doctrine regarding human sexuality and gender, either on or off the school campus, or through social media.
  3. Students enrolled in Catholic schools who suffer from gender dysphoria shall be treated with sensitivity, respect, mercy, and compassion.
  4. The sexual identity of students enrolled in Catholic schools shall be in accordance to the student’s biological sex, as determined by an original state issued birth certificate (or an official copy thereof).
  5. Catholic schools shall:
    1. Require that participation on/in school athletic teams and all other school sponsored extra-curricular activities, where applicable (e., school dances) be in accordance with biological sex.
    2. Require that the use of names and pronouns be in accordance with the person’s biological sex.
    3. Designate Catholic sex education, school and athletic uniforms, and appropriate dress, bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and sleeping accommodations on trips according to biological sex.
    4. Maintain names in school records according to the student’s biological sex.
    5. Provide reasonable accommodation to a private bathroom for use by any student who desires increased privacy.
  6. In the case of a specific request, the school shall consider in a compassionate way, on a case-by-case basis, the physical and psychological needs of a student based on the following questions:
    1. What is the specific request of the student and/or parent?
    2. Is the request in keeping with the teaching of the Catholic Church?
    3. Is the school reasonably able to accommodate the request?

Schools shall make a reasonable effort to inform and instruct school personnel, parents, and students (where appropriate) concerning these policies. School personnel shall be made aware of “Exhibit B.1” (Catechetical Statement) regarding students who identify as transgender. Parents and high school grade students shall read and sign Exhibit B.2 upon enrollment in a Catholic school.

Modesty in Dress

Holy Family Academy, Manchester, N.H.

As the body reflects the soul, so one’s dress reflects one’s attitudes. Modesty is crucial in the dress of each student: dressing with dignity is uplifting, it encourages growth in virtue and character, and prepares the student to engage in the noble activity of liberal education. As such, students are always neat, clean, and well-groomed while at school and at all school-related functions. At all school events, it is important that students keep in mind that they serve as ambassadors of Holy Family Academy in the larger community.

The Highlands School, Irving, Tex.

Pope St. John Paul II called modesty the boundary that protects “the intimate center of the person.” Dances and all school sponsored events (sports banquets, other social activities) should reflect the philosophy of our school (Blazer Spirit) and the moral teachings of the Catholic faith. Out of respect for their own dignity and others’ as children of God and temples of the Holy Spirit, The Highlands School asks all students and guests to dress with modesty, following school guidelines.

Pregnancy

Bishop England High School, Charleston, S.C.

Pro-Life Policy: It is understood that we, as Catholic educators, are convinced of the value and dignity of human life. We hold a pro-life stance which enables us to bring to our students the realization that a Christian code of morality based on the Gospel should give their lives direction and that thorough instruction should help them understand their own sexuality. While we do not condone contraception or premarital sex, once a young couple becomes responsible for the conceiving of human life, we believe every effort must be made and every measure must be taken to preserve this life. In all instances, the student(s) will be treated with charity. In keeping with these beliefs, the following guidelines will be applied whenever female or male students become involved in a pregnancy:

  1. As soon as possible after learning of the pregnancy, the student(s) and their parents will meet with the Principal to inform the school of the situation.
  2. A female student will obtain a medical statement from her doctor giving her due date and her medical fitness to remain in school. The statement must include any medical problems of which the school should be aware. When it is deemed necessary by the administration, she will proceed to an alternative educational program. At that time, the male student will also proceed to an alternative educational program.
  3. Female and male students must follow a bona fide program of counseling which their church or other religious support agency offers. The name of the counselor must be given to the Principal.
  4. During the time of the pregnancy and after the birth, participation for both the mother and the father in all co-curricular activities, as well as graduation, is at the discretion of the Principal.
  5. After the birth, the students and their parents must schedule an interview with the school administration to determine the feasibility and conditions of returning to school.

In addition, we believe that abortion at any stage of pregnancy is the taking of the life of an innocent human person. Therefore, a female student who attempts to procure an abortion or a male student who enables this attempt must withdraw from the school immediately.

Academy of Our Lady, Marrero, La.

A young woman’s life is forever changed with the conception and birth of a child. Her new condition takes precedence even over her role as a student. In order to foster a complete “pro-life” stance, when a pregnancy becomes known the parent/guardian(s) and student must inform the principal, and the student will be required to follow the guidelines set out by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. In accordance with Archdiocesan policy, the student may be allowed to return to Academy of Our Lady after the birth of her child if she agrees to abide by the conditions for returning and remaining in school. The administration will meet with the student and her parents/guardians to explain the conditions for returning and remaining in school. The principal determines attendance at school functions. A student who does not disclose her pregnancy to school administration and continues to attend classes is subject to immediate dismissal.

Same-Sex Attraction Policy

Archdiocese of New Orleans

The Archdiocese of New Orleans respects and follows the teachings of the Catholic Church as we minister to youth who face the complexity of cultural and personal issues of today. As they grow in their understanding of their identity and sexuality, we will provide guidance and parameters founded on the truth that they, as male and female, are created in the image of God and redeemed by Jesus. We will teach respect for the dignity of the human person, recognizing the importance of chastity as we guide our youth in discovering their identity as children of God. We will not tolerate hatred or bullying at any level in our parish or school programs. We set boundaries and policies that help us teach young people to live with relational integrity, showing respect for themselves and one another. Out of respect for the confidentiality of our students and their families, we will not address specific questions regarding a parish/school situation. We will continue to minister to our youth and members of their families during times of struggle as they develop in their understanding of their identity and sexuality.

Appendix B: Selections from Church Documents Informing This Topic

Bodily Integrity

The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:

Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.

 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 364.

The Holy Scripture reveals the wisdom of the Creator’s design, which “has assigned as a task to man his body, his masculinity and femininity; and that in masculinity and femininity he, in a way, assigned to him as a task his humanity, the dignity of the person, and also the clear sign of the interpersonal communion in which man fulfils himself through the authentic gift of himself.” Thus, human nature must be understood on the basis of the unity of body and soul, far removed from any sort of physicalism or naturalism…

Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them:
Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (2019) 32.

Sexuality affects all aspect of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concern affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2332.

By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2393.

In [St.] Paul’s eyes, it is not only the human spirit…that decides the dignity of the human body. But even more so it is the supernatural reality [of] the indwelling and continual presence of the Holy Spirit in man—in his soul and in his body—as the fruit of the redemption carried out by Christ. It follows that man’s body is no longer just his own. It deserves that respect whose manifestation in the mutual conduct of man, male and female, constitutes the virtue of purity.

Pope St. John Paul II, General Audience, The Virtue of Purity
Is the Expression and Fruit of Life According to the Spirit (February 11, 1981) 3.

A sexual education that fosters a healthy sense of modesty has immense value, however much some people nowadays consider modesty a relic of a bygone era. 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, and with forms of sexual violence that lead to inhuman treatment or cause hurt to others.

Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (2016) 282.

Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. Eros, reduced to pure “sex,” has become a commodity, a mere “thing” to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity. This is hardly man’s great “yes” to the body. On the contrary, he now considers his body and his sexuality as the purely material part of himself, to be used and exploited at will.

Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est (2005) 5.

…human sexuality [is] being regarded more as an area for manipulation and exploitation than as the basis of the primordial wonder which led Adam on the morning of creation to exclaim before Eve: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23).

Pope St. John Paul II, Letter to the Families (1994) 19.

Frequently, sex education deals primarily with “protection” through the practice of “safe sex.” Such expressions convey a negative attitude towards the natural procreative fina`lity of sexuality, as if an eventual child were an enemy to be protected against. This way of thinking promotes narcissism and aggressivity in place of acceptance. It is always irresponsible to invite adolescents to toy with their bodies and their desires, as if they possessed the maturity, values, mutual commitment and goals proper to marriage. They end up being blithely encouraged to use other persons as a means of fulfilling their needs or limitations. The important thing is to teach them sensitivity to different expressions of love, mutual concern and care, loving respect and deeply meaningful communication. All of these prepare them for an integral and generous gift of self that will be expressed, following a public commitment, in the gift of their bodies. Sexual union in marriage will thus appear as a sign of an all-inclusive commitment, enriched by everything that has preceded it.

Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (2016) 283.

Sexual Complementarity

Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. “Being man” and “being woman” is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity “in the image of God.” In their “being-man” and “being-woman,” they reflect the Creator’s wisdom and goodness.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 369.

Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2361.

Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2360.

Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2333.

Homosexuality refers to relations between men or women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which present homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 2357.

Connected with de facto unions is the particular problem concerning demands for the legal recognition of unions between homosexual persons, which is increasingly the topic of public debate. Only an anthropology corresponding to the full truth of the human person can give an appropriate response to this problem with its different aspects on both the societal and ecclesial levels. The light of such anthropology reveals “how incongruous is the demand to accord ‘marital’ status to unions between persons of the same sex. It is opposed, first of all, by the objective impossibility of making the partnership fruitful through the transmission of life according to the plan inscribed by God in the very structure of the human being. Another obstacle is the absence of the conditions for that interpersonal complementarity between male and female willed by the Creator at both the physical-biological and the eminently psychological levels. It is only in the union of two sexually different persons that the individual can achieve perfection in a synthesis of unity and mutual psychophysical completion.” Homosexual persons are to be fully respected in their human dignity and encouraged to follow God’s plan with particular attention in the exercise of chastity. This duty calling for respect does not justify the legitimization of behaviour that is not consistent with moral law, even less does it justify the recognition of a right to marriage between persons of the same sex and its being considered equivalent to the family.

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the
Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) 228.

The complementarity of man and woman, the pinnacle of divine creation, is being questioned by the so-called gender ideology, in the name of a more free and just society. The differences between man and woman are not for opposition or subordination, but for communion and generation, always in the “image and likeness” of God.

Pope Francis, Address to the Bishops of Puerto Rico (June 8, 2015).

The Christian vision of man is, in fact, a great “yes” to the dignity of persons called to an intimate filial communion of humility and faithfulness. The human being is not a self-sufficient individual nor an anonymous element in the group. Rather he is a unique and unrepeatable person, intrinsically ordered to relationships and sociability. Thus the Church reaffirms her great “yes” to the dignity and beauty of marriage as an expression of the faithful and generous bond between man and woman, and her no to “gender” philosophies, because the reciprocity between male and female is an expression of the beauty of nature willed by the Creator.

Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” (January 19, 2013).

Femininity in some way finds itself before masculinity, while masculinity confirms itself through femininity. Precisely the function of sex [that is, being male or female], which in some way is “constitutive for the person” (not only “an attribute of the person”), shows how deeply man, with all his spiritual solitude, with the uniqueness and unrepeatability proper to the person, is constituted by the body as “he” or “she.”

Pope St. John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body,
trans. M. Waldstein, (Pauline Books and Media, 2006) 10:1.

There is a need to reaffirm the metaphysical roots of sexual difference, as an anthropological refutation of attempts to negate the male-female duality of human nature, from which the family is generated. The denial of this duality not only erases the vision of human beings as the fruit of an act of creation but creates the idea of the human person as a sort of abstraction who “chooses for himself what his nature is to be. Man and woman in their created state as complementary versions of what it means to be human are disputed. But if there is no pre-ordained duality of man and woman in creation, then neither is the family any longer a reality established by creation. Likewise, the child has lost the place he had occupied hitherto and the dignity pertaining to him.”

Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them (2019) 34.

Social Ideology

These words lay the foundation for what is put forward today under the term “gender” as a new philosophy of sexuality. According to this philosophy, sex is no longer a given element of nature that man has to accept and personally make sense of: it is a social role that we choose for ourselves, while in the past it was chosen for us by society. The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious. People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.

Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia (December 21, 2012).

The process of identifying sexual identity is made more difficult by the fictitious construct known as “gender neuter” or “third gender,” which has the effect of obscuring the fact that a person’s sex is a structural determinant of male or female identity. Efforts to go beyond the constitutive male-female sexual difference, such as the ideas of “intersex” or “transgender,” lead to a masculinity or femininity that is ambiguous, even though (in a self-contradictory way), these concepts themselves actually presuppose the very sexual difference that they propose to negate or supersede.

Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them (2019) 25.

In this perspective [i.e., that of gender ideology], physical difference, termed sex, is minimized, while the purely cultural element, termed gender, is emphasized to the maximum and held to be primary. The obscuring of the difference or duality of the sexes has enormous consequences on a variety of levels. This theory of the human person, intended to promote prospects for equality of women through liberation from biological determinism, has in reality inspired ideologies which, for example, call into question the family, in its natural two-parent structure of mother and father, and make homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter on the Collaboration of
Men and Women in the Church and in the World (2004) 2.

The profound falsehood of this theory and the anthropological revolution contained within are obvious. People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves. According to the Biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God. This very duality as something given is now disputed. The words “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27) no longer apply. No, what now applies is this: it was not God who created them male and female—hitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves.

Pope Benedict XVI, Address on the Occasion of Christmas Greetings
to the Roman Curia (December 21, 2012).

Yet another challenge is posed by the various forms of an ideology of gender that “denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family. This ideology leads to educational programmes and legislative enactments that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female. Consequently, human identity becomes the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time.” It is a source of concern that some ideologies of this sort, which seek to respond to what are at times understandable aspirations, manage to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised. It needs to be emphasized that “biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.” …It is one thing to be understanding of human weakness and the complexities of life, and another to accept ideologies that attempt to sunder what are inseparable aspects of reality. Let us not fall into the sin of trying to replace the Creator. We are creatures, and not omnipotent. Creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.

Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (2016) 56.

The crisis of the family is a societal fact. There are also ideological colonializations of the family, different paths and proposals in Europe and also coming from overseas. Then, there is the mistake of the human mind—gender theory—creating so much confusion.

Pope Francis, Pastoral Visit of His Holiness Pope Francis
to Pompeii and Naples (March 21, 2015).

The underlying presuppositions of these theories can be traced back to a dualistic anthropology separating body (reduced to the status of inert matter) from human will, which itself becomes an absolute that can manipulate the body as it pleases. This combination of physicalism and voluntarism gives rise to relativism, in which everything that exists is of equal value and at the same time undifferentiated, without any real order or purpose…The effect of this move is chiefly to create a cultural and ideological revolution driven by relativism…

Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them (2019) 20.

Faced with theories that consider gender identity as merely the cultural and social product of the interaction between the community and the individual, independent of personal sexual identity without any reference to the true meaning of sexuality, the Church does not tire of repeating her teaching: “Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral and spiritual difference and complementarities are oriented towards the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life….” According to this perspective, it is obligatory that positive law be conformed to the natural law, according to which sexual identity is indispensable, because it is the objective condition for forming a couple in marriage. [Emphasis in original and internal citation omitted.]

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of
the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004) 224.

In the process that could be described as the gradual cultural and human de-structuring of the institution of marriage, the spread of a certain ideology of “gender” should not be underestimated. According to this ideology, being a man or a woman is not determined fundamentally by sex but by culture. Therefore, the bases of the family and inter-personal relationships are attacked.

Pontifical Council for the Family, Family, Marriage and “De Facto” Unions (2000) 8.

 

 

[1] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (1977) 9.

[2] Congregation for Catholic Education, Catholic Schools on the Threshold of the Third Millennium (1997) 11.

[3] Saint Paul VI, Gravissimum Educationis (1965) 8.

[4] Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (2019) 3; citing Congregation for Catholic Education, Educational Guidance in Human Love: Outlines for Sex Education (1983) 5.

[5] Code of Canon Law (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1983) 795.

[6] Congregation for Catholic Education, Catholic Schools on the Threshold of the Third Millennium (1997) 11.

[7] Saint John Paul II, Ex corde Ecclesiae (1990) 4.

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

[9] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (1977) 9.

[10] Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating in Intercultural Dialogue in the Catholic School: Living in Harmony for a Civilization of Love (2013) 57.

[11] Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982) 17.

[12] Congregation for Catholic Education (2019) 3.

[13] Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993) 362.

[14] Catechism 355.

[15] Catechism 355, 369.

[16] Congregation for Catholic Education (1982) 18.

[17] Catechism 364.

[18] Catechism 362, 369.

[19] Catechism 2360-2361.

[20] Congregation for Catholic Education (2019) 4; citing Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Persona Humana: Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics (1975) 1.

[21] Congregation for Catholic Education (2019) Introduction.

[22] Congregation for Catholic Education (2019) Introduction.

[23] Congregation for Catholic Education (2019) 25.

[24] Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (2016) 56.

[25] Pontifical Council for the Family, Family, Marriage and ‘De Facto’ Unions (2000) 8.

[26] Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Letter to Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and the World (2004) 8.

[27] Catechism 2393.

[28] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School: Guidelines for Reflection and Renewal (1988) Introduction, 63.

[29] Congregation for Catholic Education (1977) 36.

[30] Catechism 2337.

[31] Catechism 2348.

[32] Catechism 2338; Mt 5:37.

[33] Catechism 2351-2359.

[34] The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1996) 60.

[35] Catechism 2337.

[36] Synod of Bishops, “Synod15 – Final Relatio of the Synod of Bishops to The Holy Father, Francis,” (October 2015) 58. Accessed July 20, 2020 from http://www.lancasterdiocese.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Final-Relatio15-Final.pdf

“According to the Christian principle, soul and body, biological sex as well and the social-cultural role of the sex (gender), can be distinguished, but not separated.” See also Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (2016) 56.

[37] American Psychiatric Association. What is Gender Dysphoria? Accessed 7/17/20. https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria.

[38] Catechism 1601.

[39] Physical differences at birth include chromosomal levels. In the unlikely event that a biological sex determination made at birth is uncertain or inaccurate chromosomal levels may need be taken into consideration. Statistics show that such disorders of sexual development (DSD) occur between 1 and  4,500 – 5,500 births (.02%). See Lee, P.A., et al. “Global Disorders of Sex Development Update since 2006: Perceptions, Approach and Care,” Hormone Research in Paediatrics. Vol. 85 (April 2016). Accessed July 20, 2020 from https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/442975

[40] Catechism 2357.

[41] Catechism 2360.

[42] Riittakerttu Kaltiala-Heino et al. “Gender Dysphoria in Adolescence: Current Perspectives,” Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, Vol. 9 (March 2018) 31-41.

[43] Full text can be found at http://www.mncatholic.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20.0304-Sexual-Identity-Guiding-Principles-FINAL.pdf (accessed 5/20/20). See also the Diocese of Little Rock, AR. Policies and Procedures Manual (2019) found at https://www.dolr.org/sites/default/files/documents/policy_manual_students_20.pdf (accessed 5/20/20) #4.40 for excellent wording and citations.

[44] Full text can be found at https://www.dio.org/policy-book/77-650-gender-identity/file.html (accessed 5/20/20).

All Employees Matter in the Mission of Catholic Education

/in , /by
Click here for PDF
 
In Catholic education[1] it is not just religion teachers but all faculty and staff members who are responsible for the success of the school’s religious mission: the complete and integrated formation of students’ physical, moral, and intellectual abilities so that they might attain salvation and assist in the well-being of others.[2]

It is evident to most that teachers of religion must be authentic witnesses in both word and deed to the fullness of the Catholic faith. What may be less obvious is how all faculty and staff members contribute to the religious mission. While the impact of different types of employees may vary, an impact nevertheless remains. This is because a Catholic school is a faith-based community where all relationships matter, and all are involved in modeling a Christian worldview in order to fulfill an important part of the school’s responsibilities for evangelization and moral formation.

Community Matters

“Because its aim is to make man more man, education can be carried out authentically only in a relational and community context,” explains the Congregation for Catholic Education in Educating Together in Catholic Schools.[3] A Catholic educational institution, “because of its identity and its ecclesial roots, …must aspire to becoming a Christian community, that is, a community of faith, able to create increasingly more profound relations of communion which are themselves educational.”[4]

Not only does it cultivate in the students the cultural values that derive from the Christian vision of reality, but it also involves each one of them in the life of the community, where values are mediated by authentic interpersonal relationships among the various members that form it, and by the individual and community acceptance of them. In this way, the life of communion of the educational community assumes the value of an educational principle, of a paradigm that directs its formational action as a service for the achievement of a culture of communion.[5]

The unique communal nature of a Catholic school is critically important to emphasize because,

Everything that the Catholic educator does in a school takes place within the structure of an educational community, made up of the contacts and the collaboration among all of the various groups — students, parents, teachers, directors, non-teaching staff — that together are responsible for making the school an instrument for integral formation.[6]

This principle of integral formation entails deep appreciation that a student is a complex but unified person made in the image and likeness of God. Integral formation seeks to develop harmoniously the student’s mind, body, and spirit in a Catholic context. Because the environment surrounding a student plays such a critical role in integral formation, Catholic leaders must pay close attention to that environment and the values and beliefs of those hired to create and maintain it.

When Catholic values animate the environment, vision and moral purpose flourish. Some of the conditions necessary to foster and sustain this culture of communion are:

that everyone agree with the educational goals and cooperate in achieving them; that interpersonal relationships be based on love and Christian freedom; that each individual, in daily life, be a witness to Gospel values; that every student be challenged to strive for the highest possible level of formation, both human and Christian.[7]

Relationships, programs, and conditions in conflict with Catholic moral teaching undermine the Christian community and environment necessary to ensure the effective formation of students.

All Teachers Matter

All teachers share in the religious mission of the Catholic school: first, because they are in relationship with the students who are in a unified and integrated program of formation; second, because all academic disciplines participate in the One Truth, who is God.

Catholic schools focus on the complete person, made in God’s image and likeness, not just on the mind or on a subject matter. Learning and formation happen concurrently. They are entwined. A teacher cannot separate academic formation from complex integrated human formation. Teachers are not mere functionaries imparting technical information. The Church emphasizes that,

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.”[8] 

Everything is connected. Every person and every relationship matters on the path to holiness. These relationships are deeply human and spiritual. They must be respected and used to achieve the wholistic mission entrusted to the teacher by the Church.

While academic disciplines differ in specifics, they all find their source in God. St. John Henry Newman understood that Catholic schools must show students how the truths of different academic disciplines relate to each other so that they illuminate each other and reality, leading to an appreciation for the unity of all truth and to Christ himself. Nothing should be taught in isolation.

A critical proposition is that all pedagogy is to be inspired by Gospel values, and all knowledge to be illuminated by the light of faith.[9] All teachers in all subjects by word and natural example must be able to impart a Christian vision of culture, history, and human experience that is ordered to the news of salvation.[10] There is also in this process of intellectual, spiritual, and cultural development a natural intimacy between the student and teacher, which is powerful and which the Catholic educational institution seeks to harness toward its mission of salvation and service. That intimacy must never result in a student being misled or scandalized in any way.

All Staff Members Matter

Students learn to trust and love not only their teachers but also other formators as well, including coaches, extra-curricular program staff, receptionists, librarians, counselors, and nurses. These are people in authority and service who take care of students; seek their benefit; make them stronger, healthier, and happier; ease their day or ease their struggles; and have a privileged place in the students’ lives. It may be in working through an athletic loss, a sickness, or a student activity that a life-changing opening occurs where the student grows in holiness thanks to the insight or encouragement of an adult with privileged access to a student’s aspirations, goals, hopes, or dreams. When such privileged access is granted, it is crucial for all such adults to provide in word and deed a stable, coherent, and lived Christian worldview. By doing so, the adult helps the student encounter Christ and thereby grow in virtue and strength.

Even those who have limited formative contact with the students, such as office, maintenance, and cafeteria staff, among others, have a role in the educational institution effectively fulfilling its Catholic mission. This role is important for three reasons: even limited student contact is still contact for potential good or ill; organizations benefit from the basic mission support of all members and are stronger for it; and a Christian community involves everyone, and the behavior of adults impacts those students and other staff members who interact with them.

It is sometimes the case that a maintenance worker or cafeteria worker is the loving and loved heart of a community. Goodness, generosity, kindness, and sanctity are all effusive of themselves, and a gifted and holy adult in any environment will have an outsized, even if unintended, positive impact on others. Additionally, what students see going on around them matters, no matter who is involved. Students may not talk to a maintenance worker about the faith, but they will notice if a maintenance worker is kind, diligent, loyal, faithful, and worthy of imitation. Conversely, they will also notice if the maintenance worker exhibits behaviors that are unkind, rude, lazy, disloyal, or sinful. It is especially important that sinful behavior not be normalized in the community from any source, no matter how intimate the relationship might be with students. Actions and behaviors contrary to Catholic moral teaching harm the community and interfere with evangelization and moral formation.

The dignity of all workers is valued, and part of that dignity and community membership is accountability for advancing the mission to the degree natural for the position—and never detracting from it. Anything less would risk harming authentic community by excluding those who are apparently held in lower esteem or to no standard.

Part of a school’s mission is to build its staff in holiness and camaraderie. This in turn positively impacts overall mission effectiveness. When adult co-workers model lives of integrity and encourage each other toward holiness by lived example, the community grows stronger. Such a commitment toward holiness and shared values is what builds community among the faculty and staff, who are the keepers and advancers of the mission to an ever-revolving student body.

Protecting Children and the Mission

The faith-based community that is the Catholic school strives to be a type of family where the most innocent children or young adults can be safely raised in the Catholic faith. It is a special training ground and type of spiritual and moral incubator where students can be free to play, pray, and grow in physical and spiritual safety, as they work out their individual salvation in Christ and learn the skills necessary to later go out and evangelize the world. All faculty and staff have a strict responsibility to “do no harm” and avoid scandal, both inside and outside the workplace. A negative or counter-witness to the faith erodes the duty an employee or volunteer has in assisting in the moral development of the children being protected and formed in this privileged environment—so critical to the future of the Church and the world.

It would be unacceptable for employees who disagree with Catholic moral teaching to use their relationships with students to advance that disagreement or bring Church teaching into question or disrepute. It would be the height of what Pope Francis has called “ideological colonization”[11] for an employee to allow their privileged and powerful influence over students to in any way lead those students away from the Catholic faith and closer to the employee’s competing vision or competing morality.

Conclusion

Because the mission of Catholic education is ordered to a difficult, sensitive, and comprehensive end—the complete and integrated formation of student’s minds, bodies and souls, so that they might attain salvation and assist in the well-being of others—the entire faculty and staff in an educational institution must be ordered toward this end. It is not accomplished simply by teaching discrete subject matter in isolated classes. It is not accomplished by remaining aloof from the students. It can only be effectively accomplished with the entire community, in communion with each other and God. The education is not only provided in the classroom, but also the hallways, the sports field, the locker room, and the cafeteria. This formative environment must be marked by a deep, permeating unity of purpose and conduct among the faculty and staff who are dedicated to the mission of Catholic education.

Dan Guernsey, Ed.D., has 30 years of experience in Catholic education at the collegiate level as an associate professor, dean, and president and at the K-12 level as a teacher and principal. He is a Senior Fellow at The Cardinal Newman Society, which promotes and defends faithful Catholic education.

 

[1] This document focuses on elementary and secondary education. Employees in higher education have similar expectations, but colleges educate and form young adults in a broader, more complex, and less intimate environment. St. John Paul II’s Ex corde Ecclesiae emphasizes that the responsibility for maintaining and strengthening Catholic identity “is shared in varying degrees by all members of the university community, and therefore calls for the recruitment of adequate university personnel, especially teachers and administrators, who are both willing and able to promote that identity. The identity of a Catholic University is essentially linked to the quality of its teachers and to respect for Catholic doctrine” (Part 2, Art. 4, 1).

[2] Saint Pope Paul VI,; Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri (1929) 7; Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (1977) 26.

[3] Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Together in Catholic Schools: A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and The Lay Faithful (2007) 14.

[4] Congregation for Catholic Education (2007) 12.

[5] Congregation for Catholic Education (2007) 39.

[6] Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith (1982) 22.

[7] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School (1988) 103.

[8] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School on The Threshold of The Third Millennium (1997) 19.

[9] Saint Pope Paul VI (1965) 4.

[10] Congregation for Catholic Education (1977) 8.

[11] Elise Harris, “Pope: Ideological Colonization Is ‘Blasphemy’ that Leads to Persecution,” Catholic News Agency (Nov. 22, 2017) at https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-ideological-colonization-is-blasphemy-that-leads-to-persecution-33704.

Not All Families Are a Good Fit for Catholic Schools

/in , /by
Click here for PDF

The Catholic educational project is best served when the school and the family work in harmony. Even though a Catholic school will be inclined to admit academically qualified students whenever possible, there are times when admission must be denied for moral reasons connected to the student or family. While this may be difficult for secular society to understand, it is mission-critical that a Catholic school not overlook or ignore behaviors that may interfere with moral and faith formation and risk leading young people away from a life of virtue and holiness.

While such situations will hopefully be rare, it is important to prepare for them and have the policies and procedures in place to ensure that such situations are handled faithfully, respectfully, compassionately, and with the hope of facilitating conversion, repentance, and full communion with the Church.

It is important that families are aware and supportive of a Catholic school’s religious mission, because a Catholic school is emphatically not just an academic organization which also teaches religion. It is a real and concrete community of faith. The Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education states:

It is precisely the presence and life of an educational community, in which all the members participate in a fraternal communion, nourished by a living relationship with Christ and with the Church, that makes the Catholic school the environment for an authentically ecclesial experience.[1]

The Church, school, parents, and students have responsibilities to each other. The Church has a responsibility to the school to offer support, and it has a responsibility to its parents and children to make available quality, faithful Catholic education. The Catholic school has a responsibility to the Church to serve it in complete fidelity to Christ’s teachings and careful stewardship, and a school has an obligation to its families to provide a safe, professional, and faithful formation for their children. Parents have primary responsibility for the education of their children in truth and morality. Catholic parents have an obligation to the Church to support Catholic education as best they can,[2] and all parents have an obligation to their children’s school to help it fulfill its mission as best they can. Finally, students are obligated to participate constructively in their own education and not distract or scandalize other students.

Families will vary in the amount of time, talent, and treasure they contribute to the mission, and they will also vary in their degree of religious formation, awareness, and practice. A Catholic school’s first priority is to serve practicing Catholic families to ensure the Catholic education that is their right by baptism, but when possible, families who are not yet fully formed or fully practicing the Faith may also be invited to attend, as long as they affirmatively agree to support that mission and are not actively working against the mission or likely to interfere with the school’s Catholic education and formation. The goal is to meet people of good will where they are and bring them more into Christ’s plan for their lives, which includes complete union with Him. The closer students and their families are with Christ and with His Church, the more effectively the school can fulfill its mission.

Because of this fact, it is the school’s right and responsibility to call all of its families to support the school’s mission and to call everyone to greater holiness and Christian fidelity. Catholic schools are fully cognizant that it is the parents who are the principal educators of their children.[3] However, while parents’ responsibilities and rights to educate their children are primary, they are not absolute, as they are obligated to raise their children in accord with natural and divine law.[4] The Church, as the authentic interpreter and safeguard of the divine law, has been given the authority to teach by divine mandate and the duty “to direct and fashion men, in all their actions individually and socially, to purity of morals and integrity of life, in accordance with revealed doctrine.”[5] Catholic parents therefore should partner with the Church in the education and formation of their children.

Catholic schools are both subsidiary and complementary to the family and Church. Because of this, Pope Pius XI noted:

It follows logically and necessarily that [the school] must not be in opposition to, but in positive accord with those other two elements, and form with them a perfect moral union, constituting one sanctuary of education, as it were, with the family and the Church. Otherwise it is doomed to fail of its purpose, and to become instead an agent of destruction.[6]

The family, the Church, and the school must be united in a common moral vision, or the whole educational and formational project could fail—and not only fail, but actually be destructive to students. Moral disunity between home and school runs the risk of alienating children from their parents or from God and the Church, when Catholic teaching appears to be contradicting a home situation. For this reason, if the school and family disagree about fundamental aspects of human flourishing and formation, they should not enter into a joint venture in the formation of students.

Proper Fit Between Family and School

Not every family and not every student is necessarily a good fit for a particular Catholic school. This is a painful but certain reality. This is why Catholic schools have admission processes in the first place. Given their limited resources, Catholic schools simply cannot serve every student or every family. There are frequently cases in which students are not invited to join a school because their academic needs are not able to be met by a school’s limited program and resources, and cases in which students’ prior disciplinary records indicate they may not be good additions to the school community.

During the admission process, if it becomes clear that a family disagrees with the school’s mission or policies, it is also normal not to admit them. Catholic school leaders must be ready to acknowledge that a student’s primary teacher, the parent, may be so passionate or committed to a non-Catholic or anti-Catholic worldview that admission to a Catholic school is inappropriate.

Even after admission, if these discordant elements later appear, it is appropriate to ask the student or even the whole family to leave the school community. If it later becomes clear that a student cannot benefit from a school’s academic program (usually signified by failing grades), the student is asked to leave. Students who exhibit extreme discipline problems are also asked to leave. Even entire families are asked to leave if the parents refuse to abide by school policies (e.g., tuition or discipline requirements) or if the parents do something harmful to the school community, like publicly disparaging it or taking legal action against it. It may also be necessary in some cases not to foster a school/family/student relationship because of public behaviors and positions that contradict what students are taught in a Catholic school.

For those who are not ready to fully support and embrace a school’s faith-based mission, solid catechesis with a pastor and private Catholic counseling can serve as preparation for entry or re-entry into a Catholic school. There is always the opportunity for amendment and reconciliation with the school and the Church.

It is important that families understand that exclusion from a Catholic school for academic, disciplinary, or mission-fit challenges is not the same as being excluded from the Church itself. The vast majority of Catholics are catechized, formed, and served outside of the Catholic school system.[7] Not attending a Catholic school is not the same thing as being denied Christ, the sacraments, or access to the faith.

Catholic schools are academic communities of faith whose comprehensive mission is focused on the sanctification of their students and service to the common good through the presentation of a Christian worldview and in Christian service. Those who voluntarily seek membership in such a community should be both able and willing to work within this vision and be formed by it. The admissions process should identify any potential challenges, address them if possible, and deny or defer admission, if necessary, to ensure mission integrity and success.

 

Dan Guernsey, Ed.D., is a senior fellow of The Cardinal Newman Society, which promotes and defends faithful Catholic education. He has 13 years’ experience as a high school principal and has served an associate professor and education department chair at the university level. He and his wife Lisa have six children.

 

 

[1] Congregation for Catholic Education, Educating Together in Catholic Schools: A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful (2007) 12-14.

[2] Pope Paul VI, Gravisimum Educationis (1963) 8.

[3] Pope Paul VI 3.

[4] Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri (1929) 35.

[5] Pope Pius IX, Quum Non Sine (1864) 8.

[6] Pope Pius XI 77.

[7] National Catholic Educational Association, “Catholic School Data” at https://www.ncea.org/NCEA/Proclaim/Catholic_School_Data/Catholic_School_Data.aspx (accessed on 2/28/20).