Catholic schools teaching the Catholic faith

Last year the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome produced a document addressing the question of the identity of our Catholic schools.

It was written with the consciousness that in some parts of the world there is a struggle to retain the full Catholic character of our schools.

The document speaks of evangelisation and integral human development being “entwined in the Church’s educational work”.

Quoting from the documents of the Second Vatican Council it says that the Church’s work in education “aims not only to ensure the maturity proper to the human person, but above all to ensure that the baptised, gradually initiated into the knowledge of the mystery of salvation, become ever more aware of the gift of faith”.

Catholic schools exist because of the desire of Catholic parents for the education of their children to be grounded in the Catholic faith.

The Church has always understood that education should involve the formation of the whole person according to a Catholic understanding of the purpose and goal of human life.

A well-formed young person, who has based their life around faith in Jesus Christ, is thus prepared for their future life and for their contribution to human society.

Increasingly there is pressure being put on Christian institutions to change their teaching when it conflicts with the dominant social beliefs in the culture or simply go quiet and not actively promote such beliefs.

Pope St John Paul II commented back in 2004, “It is of utmost importance, therefore, that the Church’s institutions be genuinely Catholic: Catholic in their self-understanding and Catholic in their identity”.

In a Catholic approach to education we understand that there are two complimentary paths to truth, one through divine revelation and the other through observation of and reflection on human experience guided by human reason (the natural law).

Thus, Catholic teaching is not just ‘religious’ teaching. It does not just make ‘religious’ claims but it also makes claims about the nature of reality.

Here we can add that there are not different approaches to Catholic teaching, a so-called ‘progressive’ and ‘conservative’ approach.

There is simply one body of Catholic teaching which is articulated in official documents like the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Thus, for instance, when we address the question of Catholic teaching on human sexuality and marriage, our focus is on what actually enables genuine human flourishing.

We believe that this teaching provides the right path for life. In other words, whether a person is Catholic or not, we hold that embracing the vision of marriage and sexuality as understood within the tradition of the Church is the way in which a person can fully flourish as a human being.

The Catholic understanding of marriage is grounded in what we know both from divine revelation and human observation and enquiry: that human beings come into existence as one of two biological sexes.

Across the ages people have understood that these two biological sexes are complementary or interdependent. They are specifically designed for the marriage union and thus ensure the propagation of the human race.

To teach and promote Catholic beliefs about human sexuality and marriage, which we hold to be true, is not in itself an attack on those who may disagree.

Disagreement is not hatred. Disagreement is not vilification. Disagreement is not discrimination. We are servants of the truth of the human person and propose this truth to the wider society as well as to our students.

In the end we would want to propose to the students in our Catholic schools a path for their wellbeing and for the flourishing of their lives. 

It is critical in a civilised society divided on fundamental questions that the basic freedom of faith-based schools to express their beliefs about the human person is respected.

Preserving the identity of our Catholic schools is vital in a changing society.

The Church’s teaching is a pillar of truth, holding before students, and society as a whole, the Christian vision of the human person and the meaning and purpose of human life.