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Saturday, August 20, 1960
THE BULLETIN
Section Two—PAGE NINE
WORDS OF PIUS XII
Education Perfected
By Christian Ideals
By Kenneth W. Peters
(From Writings and Addresses of Pius XII)
Christian Ideal of Education
The Christian ideal of education is identified with
the latest findings of psycho-pedagogical science, sur
rounding it with a light which perfects it and facilitat
ing the educative process with the complete and fruitful
development of the individual personality.
Man in His Total Reality
Of essential importance (in adult education) is the
inculcation of the art of distinguishing the true from
the false, of awakening an appreciation of political
and economic realities in conformity with the Chris
tian concept of life, which, rejecting equally material
ism and egotistic individualism, considers man in his
total reality, composed at the same time of body and
soul, an individual person and member of society, a
citizen of this earth and one chosen for heaven. Only
one with this composite outlook can provide a right
interpretation of particular problems.
Primacy of Spiritual Values
To the exaggerated importance that is accorded
today to whatever is purely technical and material,
reply with an education which always gives first place
to spiritual and moral values; both to the natural and,
above all, to the supernatural ones.
Not Mere Instruction
Good teachers . . . are careful to educate rather
than merely to instruct; capable, above all, of forming
and of moulding souls chiefly through contact with
their own.
Participates in Mystery
He (the Christian educator), like the grace of
God, of which he wants to be nothing more than the
helper, corrects and elevates at one and the same time.
. . In this way, Christian education participates in the
mystery of the Redemption and effectively works
with it.
Adaptation to Environment
The work of education, since it must be carried
on in a specific environment and for a specific back
ground (milieu), must constantly adapt itself to the
circumstances of this background and of this environ
ment wherein this perfection has to be obtained and
for which it is destined.
In Keeping With Catholic Idea
This (a superior education by modern standards)
is in keeping with the Catholic idea, which gratefully
welcomes all that is naturally good, beautiful, and true,
because it is an image of Divine goodness, beauty, and
truth.
Broadening of Views
It is time to broaden their (students’) views, be
yond a world obstructed by factions, jealous one of
the other, by extreme nationalism and desires of hege
mony, because of which the present generation has
suffered so much. Let the new youths be allowed to
breathe Catholicity and feel the spell of universal
charity that embraces all peoples in one Lord.
Child of His Own Era
You, the teachers of today, who draw your sure
directives from the past, what ideal of man must you
prepare for the future? You will find that ideal funda
mentally designed in the perfect Christian. By the
perfect Christian we mean the Christian of today,
child of his own era, knowing and cultivating all the
advances made by science and technical skill; a citizen
and not something apart from the life led in his own
country today.
A Positive Approach
Understanding young people certainly does not
mean approving and admitting everything they main
tain in their ideas, their tastes, their whims, their
false enthusiasm. It consists fundamentally in finding
out what is solid in them and accepting this trustfully
without remorse or anger; in discovering the origin
of their deviations and errors which are often nothing
but the unhappy attempt to solve real and difficult
problems; and, finally, in following closely the vicis
situdes and conditions of the present time.
“Art of Arts . . .”
Baxima debetur puero reverentia—“We owe the
utmost reverence to the child” (Juven. Sat. xiv, 37) is
a perennial invitation, as well as a warning, addressed
to parent and teacher alike by the classic wisdom of
pagan Rome, ages before the great pedagogue of the
Christian Orient St. Gregory Nazianzen reminds you
both that the direction and formation of the young is
the “art of arts, the science of sciences.”
Responsibility of the Family
Many families should not be allowed to believe
they have satisfied their duties toward their children
when they have sent them off to school, giving them
no thought to working hand in hand with the teachers,
on whom they wrongly think they can completely un
load a part of their own responsibilities.
Age-Old Links
If the vicissitudes of the times have sometimes re
laxed the age-old links between the Church and uni
versities, the present-day disorientation of a mankind
eager for unity and concord, and the spiritual anguish
of so many persons of good will, all invite you to re
establish those links once again.
Model for Teachers
Jesus Christ is for all time the perfect Model for
teachers. In His discourses, as in the Sermon on the
Mount shown here, He expounded the most profound
truths in terms easily understood by His hearers.
Charity imbued His every word.
IMMORTAL PRINCIPLES OF PIUS XI
All True Education Must Be Directed
To Man's Final Goal Set by Creator
By Raymond Whitehead
(Based on Pius XI’s encyclical on “The Christian Education of Youth.”)
S INCE EDUCATION CONSISTS essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what
he must do here below, that he may attain the sublime end for which he was created, it is
clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man’s last end and that,
in the present order of Providence, there can be
education.
Education is essentially a social and not a mere
individual activity. First of all education belongs pre
eminently to the Church, by reason of a double title
in the supernatural order, conferred exclusively upon
her by God Himself. Absolutely superior, therefore,
to any other title in the natural order.
Prior Right of Church
By necessary consequence the Church is independ
ent of any sort of earthly power, as well in the origin
as in the excercise of her mission as educator. Nor
does this work interfere in the least with the regula
tions of the State, because the Church in her motherly
prudence is not unwilling that her schools and institu
tions for the education of the laity be in keeping with
the legitimate requirements of civil authority.
Again it is the inalienable right as well as the in
dispensable duty of the Church to watch over the en
tire education of her children in all institutions, public
or private, not merely in regard to the religious in
struction there given, but in regard to every other
branch of learning and every regulation in so far as
religion and morality are concerned.
The rights of the family, the State, and the in
dividual not only are not opposed to this pre-eminence
of the Church but are in complete harmony with it.
The family holds directly from the Creator the
mission and hence the right to educate the off
spring, a right inalienable because inseparably
joined to a strict obligation, a right anterior to
any right whatever of civil society and of the
State, and, therefore, inviolable on the part of
any power on earth.
From the priority or rights on the part of the
no ideally perfect education which is not Christian
Church and of the family, most important advantages
accure to the whole of society. Educational rights
have been conferred on civil society by the authority
of God, not however, by the title of fatherhood, as in
the case of the Church and of the family, but in
virtue of the authority it possesses to promote the
common temporal welfare. And the State has the
duty of protecting in its legislation the prior rights
of the family and of the Church.
It also belongs to the State to protect the rights of
the child itself when the parents are found wanting
either physically or morally . . . since their right to
educate is not an absolute and despotic one, but is de
pendent on the natural and divine law.
Over and above this, the State can exact and take
measures to secure that all its citizens have the neces
sary knowledge of their civic and political duties, and
a certain degree of physical, intellectual, and moral
culture, which, considering the conditions of our times,
is really necessary for the common good.
But unjust and unlawful is any monopoly, educa
tional or scholastic, which, physically or morally,
forces families to make use of government schools
contrary to the dictates of their Christian consci
ence or contrary even to their legitimate prefer
ences.
Errors Condemned
It must never be forgotten that the subject of
Christian education is man whole and entire . . .
man, therefore, fallen from his original estate. Hence
every form of pedagogic naturalism which in any way
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