CATHOLIC EDUCATION

The Protective Mission of the Catholic School


by Joseph O’Donnell

William Bennett, when he was Secretary of Education, wrote in an enlightening little book called Schools Without Drugs that “The foremost responsibility of any society is to nurture and protect its children.”

If such a responsibility rests upon American society in general, it falls with greater weight upon American schools in particular.
    The nurturing role in education is usually understood to mean forming students intellectually by teaching them to read, write, and calculate. No school worthy of the name would depart from that objective. Schools that do are judged harshly by society, and rightly so.
    Catholic schools are not unaware of the need to educate children in the ordinary sense of the word, and current test scores for scholastic achievement show (lest anyone doubt) that they fulfill this obligation admirably.
    But our responsibility is not just to nurture our children but to protect them. Certainly, basic intellectual formation, such as imparting the “3Rs,” could be called a protection of sorts, since ignorance carries with it a very real vulnerability. In his declaration, however, Mr. Bennett is prodding us to respond protectively to a specific and more sinister danger: drugs. He would have schools not only strengthen their academic programs to nurture children more effectively, but he wants them also to develop “battle plans” to protect children from drugs.
    Protection in the drug war, as most educators know, cannot be won with intellectual skills alone. Intellect must be joined to will in such a fight, and therein lies an important distinction between the public school and the Catholic school. Public schools — for all the good intentions of those who teach in them — simply lack the freedom that Catholic schools enjoy in forming the character as well as the intellects of their students.
    Catholic schools are openly committed to teaching, along with academic subjects, religious truths and values that they want their students to integrate into their daily lives. Our American bishops in their 1972 pastoral letter To Teach as Jesus Did told us that “This integration of religious truths and values with life distinguishes the Catholic school from other schools.” What may be thought by some as ulterior motives in the Catholic educational mission are actually ultimate motives. Catholic schools want their students not just to be educated but to be holy; they want their students not just to be successful but to be saved.
    The importance of the salvific mission in Catholic education was reaffirmed by Pope John Paul II when he told Catholic educators during his second pastoral visit to the United States that “The ultimate goal of Catholic education is salvation in Jesus Christ.” And according to educational historian Father Harold A. Buetow, “salvation” as a goal of Catholic schooling means “holiness.”1
    But Father Buetow also tells us that “holiness” is a “standoffish” term. Certainly it is not a term to be found in public education parlance and, sadly, may be missing from the vocabulary of some Catholic educators. Holiness, however, has always been the central concern of the Church, and she was explicit about it during the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council: “. . . all in the Church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or are cared for by it are called to holiness” (Lumen Gentium, 39).
    What, then, does this word “holiness” connote, and how does one achieve it along with the salvation promised to all who are holy? All who are near God in faith and obedience are holy. In concrete terms, this means holding fast to the truths that Jesus gave us, the truths of the Creed; it means praying as He taught us; it means obeying the Ten Commandments; it means living the sacramental life that He invites us to live, so that Christ Himself may, in turn, live in us. And this, I submit, is the greatest protection against life’s dangers (including drugs) that we can give our children.
    Is this salvific message of the Church an achievable goal for the Catholic school? The Congregation on Catholic Education responds affirmatively, telling us that Catholic schools form part of the saving mission of the Church and charges them with educating their students in the faith.2 The Church has commissioned her schools to educate in the faith, and such a commission puts the teaching of religion at the center of the Catholic school curriculum. Pope John Paul II makes the point emphatically when he tells us that the Catholic school, if it fails in its religious education program, it fails as a Catholic school, irrespective of how well it teaches non-religious subjects. “The special character of the Catholic school, the underlying reason for it... is precisely the quality of the religious instruction integrated into the education of the pupils” (Catechesis Tradendae, 69).
    The task of the teacher in impressing upon the student the importance of religion is not an easy one. A high school student’s reply to a recent survey question on the importance of religion in his life sounds all too typical: “I do participate in religion, but I don’t make it the focus of my life.”3 Yet the overriding goal of the Catholic school is precisely to make religion—or, more accurately, Jesus Himself—the focal point of the student’s life.
    Combating religious ignorance, calling back those who have strayed from her authentic teaching, has been the perennial task of the Church. With each new generation, with each new age, the age-old message of the Gospel must be sounded anew—and the Church looks to her schools to bring that message to the young.
    Catholic educators stand today, as they did so often in the past, in troubled times. In a world lacking an understanding of the importance of religion, making holiness an educational goal could seem ephemeral, unrealistic, even self-centered. There is a tendency for religion teachers to address what might seem to some to be the more immediate problems of society and to steer their students in the direction of a social apostolate instead of personal holiness. Social problems are, of course, a legitimate concern that no Christian can in conscience ignore. But the Church endures and souls are saved because they are holy. All of us engaged in the educational mission of the Church would do well to take to heart the words John Paul II addressed specifically to those who teach:

The world needs more than social reformers. It needs saints. Holiness is not the privilege of a few; it is a gift offered to all. The call to holiness is addressed also to you and to your students (New Orleans, September 12, 1987).

Joseph O’Donnell teaches religion at The Heights School in Potomac, Maryland.

End Notes

1    Harold A. Buetow, The Catholic School: Its Roots, Identity, and Future (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Co.), 1988, p.92

2    The Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, Rome, 1988, nos. 33,34.

3    E. Nancy McAuley and Moria Mathieson, Faith Without Form: Beliefs of Catholic Youth (Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward), 1986, p. 115.

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(© Copyright 1998, As translated into HTML for Catholic Information Center on Internet by Jill Gooler 9/19/98)