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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 (Turn to Page 10 — Column 1)