The following is the address given by Bishop Gerald Wiesner at Sacred Heart School in Prince George on February 6, 1997, as part of Catholic Education Week.
I think it is a beautiful grace, a gift, that we as a faith community can gather during this week dedicated to Catholic Education and together reflect on the nature of Catholic education, how we go about implementing Catholic education, the role, duty and responsibility of parents, school, church community in the realization of Catholic education.
Thanks to those responsible for organizing this gathering, all of you for coming, and a especially thanks to those more directly serving Catholic education in our diocese.
By way of introduction I want to make three observations. To begin, the reflection that I will offer are all based on the official teaching of the church, the teachings of the Second Vatican Council together with official church documents following the Council.
Secondly, I admit that of which I will speak are ideals. Ideals are often a bit beyond what we are able to realize fully. Nevertheless ideals are necessary, absolutely necessary. They provide directions, guidelines, goals, Ideals are like the North Star giving orientation and direction. Without ideals we flounder about and never achieve any goals. Without ideals we are like a shop on heavy seas without a rudder.
If, with respect to some particular issues, I speak with greater emphasis and conviction, it is not because I want to judge or blame anyone. It is only because I believe firmly, because the matter is serious, and because I want to help all of us – myself included – to see more clearly the duty and responsibility that is ours in this matter of Catholic education.
When addressing the question of the nature of Catholic education we need to begin with the person of every Christian. Since every Christian has become a new creature by water and the Holy Spirit they are entitled and have a right to a Christian education. Having the dignity of a human person, they have the inalienable right to an education that corresponds to their proper destiny and that responds to their particular needs.
This education should pave the way to a smooth association with other peoples, and so promote genuine unity and peace on earth. While this education has as its purpose the formation of each person with respect to their ultimate goal, it should also form the person with respect to the good of those societies and communities in which the person will share as an adult. This education should promote the harmonious development of the person’s physical, moral and intellectual gifts.
As persons advance in years they should be helped to acquire, gradually, a more mature sense of responsibility toward perfecting and enabling their own lives (self-esteem, self-pride, self-love), developing a mature and responsible attitude toward human sexuality, and their role in social life and various aspects of society and the common good. Likewise, children and young people have a right to weigh moral values, embrace these values with a personal choice, and to know and love God more adequately.
Now, including all of the above and moving beyond it, Catholic education has as its aim to see to it that the baptized person is gradually introduced into the mystery of salvation, the mystery of how God deals with us, God’s people. This involves the whole curriculum of catechetics. Catholic Education is to help the baptized person become aware of the gift of faith they have received and to help them to worship God the Father as God asks to be worshipped through prayer, the liturgy and, especially the Eucharist.
This education is to help the baptized live their personal life in a proper manner, in holiness and truth. St. Paul sums this up in saying: “You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by the following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of truth.” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Catholic Education is to help the person grow into adulthood according to the measure of Christ. Beyond this it is to lead the person to the responsibility of building up the Body of Christ. We are taught that no member of the Body is merely passive. Each has a share in the life and function of the Body. In fact the parts are so intimately linked that the member failing to make their proper contribution to the building up of the Body is useful neither to the Body nor to themselves. Catholic Education is to lead to the responsibility of giving witness to others and promoting the transformation of the world.
“Each person must be a witness before the world to the resurrection and life of the Lord Jesus, and a sign of the living God” (Constitution on The Church #38). This is simply another way of saying what Jesus said to us: “you are the salt of the earth … the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13,14).
In summary I believe one can say that this is the task and mission of Catholic Education.
The key question that remains is: How is this to be realized? How is this to be carried out?
It is quite clear that this is the responsibility, task and ministry of a trinity: parents, school and parish community.
I begin by underlining the role of parents because in all of the documents we have it is alarmingly clear that the first and primary responsibility is that of the parents. We read such things as this: “Since parents have conferred life on their children, they have the most solemn obligation to educate their offspring. Hence parents must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children. Their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it” (Declaration on Christian Education #3). One needs to take note of the force of this statement: “most solemn obligation”, “first and foremost”, “scarcely anything can compensate for their failure”.
As parents we can get others to help; in fact we must. However as parents we cannot hand over our responsibility. Before anyone else the responsibility is ours as parents. Christian spouses, as cooperators with God, are the first to give faith to their children and to educate them. By their word and example they train their children for the Christian way of life. It is especially by their example and family prayer that parents lead their children to human maturity, holiness and salvation. Again, it is by word and example that parents train their children with respect to obligations they have of reaching out to others, recognizing God’s love for all people, and how they need to be concerned about the material and spiritual needs of others.
While there is great emphasis placed on parents in this undertaking of Catholic Education, the family is singled out as a major factor in the fostering of Catholic Education. As the foundation of society, the family plays an extremely important role in the mission of Catholic Education. Because of this, it is the responsibility of all, to promote the well-being of marriage and family life.
It remains the duty of each person to presume a wholesome view of the entire person, a view in which the values of intellect, will, conscience, and neighborliness are pre-eminent. These values are all rooted in God the Creator, and have been wonderfully restored and devoted in Christ. The family is the mother and nurse of these values, and the furtherance of them are the responsibility primarily of the family. It is in the family, in an atmosphere of love, safety and peace that children more easily learn and live the God-given values of life.
The family is the domestic church, the little church. This means that everything that happens in the church should happen in the family. It is the place where the gospel, the message of Jesus is taught. “Virtue is learned at mother’s knee, vice at some other joint”. The gospel can be taught in so many other places: church, school, youth gatherings, but if it is not taught at home it is almost sure to fail.
The family is the place of prayer. It is a statistical fact that where parents and children pray together, family life is much more wholesome. The prayer that takes place in church on Sunday is naturally ordained to continue at home throughout the week.
The family is the place where Jesus is present. If we are looking for the presence, teaching, example and virtues of Jesus, we should be able to find all of this in the family.
The family is the place where love lives. When all is said and done, and we know that often more is said than done, what really matters is love. We know that love is patient, kind, never rude, jealous or prone to anger, it does not rejoice over the pain of others, is always forgiving. It is in the family that we should be able to find this love.
Clearly, all of this is at the heart of Catholic Education.
The second key agent in Catholic Education is the Catholic School. Catholic Schools form part of the saving mission of the Church. The great missionary command that Jesus gave to his apostles, “Go make disciples of all the nations … teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19ff), “As the Father has sent me, so am I sending you” (John 20:21), beyond a doubt these words are spoken directly to every Catholic school. All of us who are in any way involved in Catholic schools, must take this as our own personal vocation and mandate.
As we look more closely at this it becomes clear that Jesus is the foundation of the whole educational enterprise in a Catholic school. It is Jesus and his message that give meaning, life and direction to the Catholic school. The fact that in their own individual ways all members of the school community share this Christian vision, makes the school Catholic.
Mindful of the fact that all have been redeemed by Christ, the Catholic school aims at forming in the Christian those particular virtues which will enable them to live a new life in Christ and help them to faithfully play an important part in building up the reign of God.
The Catholic school is to form that atmosphere wherein young people learn to integrate faith and life and where they learn to share their lives with God. It is in and through the Catholic school that persons are drawn to commit themselves to serve God, their sisters and brothers and to make the world a better place for all people to live. It is the atmosphere of the Catholic school that enables persons to learn that they are to be living witnesses to God’s love for all people by the way they live.
Evidently this atmosphere in a Catholic school is important and needs to be constantly fostered. What is eminently more important is the importance and need for catechetical instruction. As in all of the areas of education and development it is of paramount importance, essential, that we have a logically developed, carefully planned, and fully inclusive curriculum of matter, so also in the area of faith. It is essential that we be teaching the core, substance and heart of our faith, and this in a systematic manner.
In order to help the church fulfill its catechetical mission the school must do everything in its power to have the best qualified teachers of religion. Clearly teachers are of the essence here. It is within the mission of the Catholic school that teachers are in an excellent position to guide pupils to a deepening of faith, and to enrich and enlighten their human knowledge with the data of faith. Teachers can form the mind and heart of pupils and guide them to develop a total commitment to Christ.
The witness and conduct of teachers are of primary importance in giving a distinctive character to Catholic schools. It is quite indispensable to ensure the continued formation of teachers through some form of suitable pastoral training. It was Pope Paul VI who affirmed that people respond to witnessing than to teaching, and if they respond to teaching it is because the teachers also witness.
To commit oneself to working in accordance with the aims of a Catholic school is to make a great act of faith in the necessity and influence of this ministry. It is only a person who has this conviction, accepts Christ’s message, has love for and understanding of today’s young people together with an appreciation of the real problems and difficulties of people that will give themselves with courage and even audacity to this apostolate.
In the name of Jesus who invites and calls, and in the name of the church who asks, I publicly, sincerely and prayerfully thank you teachers who generously exercise this essential ministry in the church. I support, encourage and gently challenge you to grow in this ministry.
The third agent in this important ministry of Catholic Education is clearly the church, the larger Christian community. It is the church that has the responsibility of announcing the way of salvation to all people and of communicating the life of Christ to all who believe. It is the church’s mission of assisting them with constant concern so that they may grow into the fullness of that life.
As a mother the church h is bound to give these children of hers the kind of education through which their entire lives can be penetrated with the spirit of Christ.
While we can look back to parents and say that they have the primary and irreplaceable role in Catholic Education, while we can look to the Catholic school and its teachers to speak of the indispensable role they play, we need to look at all of us as church renewing our awareness of and accepting our responsibility for the carrying out of the mission of Catholic Education.
Pope John Paul II affirmed, “The way a community takes care of its children is a measure of its faithfulness to the Lord.”