What is Catholic Education?
By Brad Macke, Head of Mission
A few months into his pontificate, our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV promulgated an Apostolic Letter on Catholic education (Drawing New Maps of Hope), on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Christian Education called Gravissimum Educationis. What does the Church herself teach about Catholic education? What does this document have to say to us today? What follows is a sampling of a few rich nuggets given in this document from Vatican II.
Early on the document boldly, and maybe surprisingly, proclaims that “the Church must be concerned with the whole of man’s life, even the secular part of it insofar as it has a bearing on his heavenly calling” (Gravissimum Educationis [GE] Introduction). Relatedly, In his Angelus Address in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI said that the Church is “an expert in humanity.” The Church knows the truth of mankind, that each of us is a body-soul unity, all of which is oriented to God, created for the Beatific Vision. Every element of our lives as embodied souls matters. In fact, as a friend once said, “matter matters.”
This is a fitting way to start a document on Catholic education, where a school day does not only consist of prayer, attending Mass, and studying theology, as essential as these all are. The nature of Catholic education is that these are the necessary ground and center of everything else that occurs in a school day, rather than extrinsic additions! Our singing of music praises God and rightly orders our souls, and therefore matters greatly. Our reading of literature gives us a window into the great drama of man’s history with God, one another and with himself. Our creating of art is a reminder that we share in God’s creative power, and the objectivity of beauty (when done well) orients our hearts to Beauty Himself. Our study of mathematics gives us the satisfaction of the order of the created world. Our study of nature leads us to the gratitude of knowing that God did not have to create anything, yet He did, and it is good that we exist.
In the end, all of our “secular” studies, when rightly grounded in theology as the Queen of the Sciences, make our humanity flourish, lead us to know the truth, and love what is lovely since “a true education aims at the formation of the human person in pursuit of his ultimate end and the good of societies” (GE 1).
This is why parents “must be recognized as the primary and principal educators” of their children (GE 3). Catholic education does not wait to begin the moment a child enters first grade, or preschool, or even learns to say his first words. At that point, education has been in the works for some time. Catholic education has already begun in the womb when a mother caringly does what she needs for her precious baby’s growth and a father talks to his son or daughter, who learns the sound of his voice before birth. Here the child learns that she is from love and for love, that she is made for relationship.
Catholic education continues when a mother and father lovingly decide to have their child baptized, which brings about the cleansing of original sin and ushers in the divine life of the indwelling Trinity. The formation of the child’s intellect and will has already been set on a wonderful trajectory. “A Christian education…has as its principal purpose this goal: that the baptized…become ever more aware of the gift of the Faith…and learn how to worship God” (GE 2). The family is the “first school” that sets the tone for the unfolding of the child’s life and remains an enduring foundation for all that follows (GE 3).
As the child grows and her world expands, other adults aid parents in their work of education, since “the family which has the primary duty of imparting education needs help of the whole community” (GE 3). This is where the school serves as a wider a
rc in the concentric circles of a person’s communal life. “The school has a special importance. It is designed not only to develop with special care the intellectual faculties but also to form the ability to judge rightly, to hand on the cultural legacy of previous generations, to foster a sense of values, to prepare for professional life” (GE 5). The teachers in a school receive and build upon the irreplaceable vocation of parents as educators. A school shares in the parents’ work of helping their students discover, embrace and live the mission that Jesus Christ has for each of them. Ultimately, the school is intended “to order the whole of human culture to the news of salvation so that the knowledge the students gradually acquire of the world, life and man is illumined by faith….in order for students to become a saving leaven in the human community” and thus fulfill the Church’s mission to evangelize (GE 8).
At Fiat Classical Academy, we gratefully take up the gift and task of the Church’s vision of Catholic education by offering young men and women an encounter with the one, true, good, and beautiful which cultivates communion with God as we seek together the face of Christ!