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PAGE TEN—Section Two
THE BULLETIN
Saturday, August 20, 1960
PRINCIPLES OF PIUS XI
True Education Leads
To Man's Final Goal
(Continued, From Page 9)
excludes or weakens supernatural Christian formation
in the teaching of youth is false. Every method of edu
cation founded, wholly or in part, on the denial or for
getfulness of original sin and of grace and relying
on the sole powers of human nature is unsound.
Such, generally speaking, are those modern systems
bearing various names which appeal to a pretended self-
government and unrestrained freedom on the part of
the child. So today we see strange sights indeed, educa
tors and philosophers who spend their lives in search
ing for a universal moral code of education, as if there
existed n.o Decalogue, no Gospel law, no law even
of nature stamped by God on the heart of man.
Such men are miserably deluded in their claim
to emancipate, as they say, the child, while in
reality they are making him the slave of his own
blind pride and of his disorderly affections.
Another grave danger is that naturalism which
nowadays invades the field of education in that deli
cate matter of purity of morals. Far too common is
the error of those who with dangerous assurance
and under an ugly term propagate a so-called sex
education, falsely imagining they can forearm youth
against the dangers of sensuality by means purely
natural.
Grievous Error
Such persons err grievously in refusing to recog
nize the inborn weakness of human nature and in
ignoring the experience of facts, from which it is
clear that, particularly in young people, evil practices
are the effect not so much of ignorance of intellect
as of weakness of a will exposed to dangerous occa
sions and unsupported by the means of grace.
False also and harmful to Christian education is
the so-called method of co-education. This too, by
many of its supporters, is founded upon naturalism
and the denial of original sin; but by all upon a
deplorable confusion of ideas that mistakes a leveling
promiscuity and equality for the legitimate association
of the sexes.
The school is by its very nature an institution
subsidiary and complementary to the family and to
the Church. It follows logically and necessarily that
it must not'be in opposition to, but in positive accord
with, those other two elements and must form with
them a perfect moral union.
From this it follows that the so-called neutral or
lay school, from which religion is excluded, is con
trary to the fundamental principles of education. Such
a school, moreover, cannot exist in practice; it is
bound to become irreligious.
Neither can Catholics admit that other type of
mixed school in which the students are provided with
separate religious instructions, but receive other les
sons in common with non-Catholic pupils from non-
Catholic teachers.
Let it be loudly proclaimed and well understood
and recognized by all that Catholics, no matter what
their nationality, in agitating for Catholic schools
for their children are not mixing in party politics,
but are engaged in a religious enterprise demanded
by conscience.
They do not intend to separate their children
either from the body of the nation or its spirit, but
to educate them in a perfect manner, most conducive
to the prosperity of the nation. Indeed, a good Catho
lic, precisely because of his Catholic principles, makes
the better citizen.
In such a school, in harmony with the Church and
the Christian family, the various branches of secular
learning will not enter into conflict with religious in
struction. In such a school, moreover, the study of
the vernacular and classical literature will do no
damage to moral virtue.
Christian Product
The proper and immediate end of Christian educa
tion is to co-operate with divine grace in forming the
true and perfect Christian, that is, to form Christ
Himself in those regenerated by Baptism. For pre
cisely this reason, Christian education takes in the
whole aggregate of human life.
Hence the true Christian, product of Christian
education, is the supernatural man who thinks, judges
and acts constantly and consistently in accordance
with right reason illumined by the supernatural light
of the example and teaching of Christ.
NCWC Pamphlets
Material for some of the articles in this issue is
taken from “Catholic Elementary Schools, U.S.A.,”
“Catholic Secondary Schools, U.S.A.,” and “Catholic
Higher Education, U.S.A.” These pamphlets, together
with two others, “Catholic Seminaries, U.S.A.,” and
“The Catholic School Superintendent, U.S.A.,” may be
obtained as a kit from the NCWC Department of Edu
cation, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington
5, D.C., for ?1.25.
. . . In the Footsteps of Christ
RESPONSIBILITY TO PROGRESS
Tremendous Growth During Next Decade
Is Predicted for Parochial High Schools
By James E. Fiedler
S CHOOLS “IN ALL COUNTRIES and in all ages are a reflection of the culture and philosophy
of the people,” declares Sister Mary Janet. She points out that, where a totalitarian state
rules supreme, individual right and preference are completely disregarded and the school is or
ganized solely to promote the welfare of the state. (Catholic Secondary School, U.S.A., Department
of Education, National Catholic Welfare Conference, Washington, D.C.)
The American principle of respect for the inalien
able rights of the individual, however, has resulted in
acceptance of the right of parents to send children
to schools of their own choice and of the Church to
establish schools in which religion is taught as a sub
ject and in which religious principles are the guides
and integrating elements in every phase of school life.
Sister Janet defines Christian education as “the
harmonious development of physical, intellectual,
and moral capacities in the human person.”
Obviously, such education that comprehends life in
this world and in eternity does not take place in the
school alone. Consequently, it as all important that
home, school, and church co-operate closely and share
responsibility for all aspects of public growth.
Character Building
Catholic secondary schools, while insisting on strong
intellectual formation as the basis for sound Christ
ian life, have always empnasized character building
and growth in virtue as important phases of their
work. In other words, the nun adds, they have aimed
at cultivating the intellectual and also the moral and
theological virtues.
It is through the curriculum that the school accom
plishes its share in this total development.
The subjects taught in the Catholic high school are
designed to perpetuate our religious and intellectual
heritage, to develop as high degree of competency as
is possible in fundamental skills of language and com
putation, to cultivate appreciation of beauty in art,
music, and literature, skill in scientific and critical
thinking, understanding of social obligations, and abi
lity to assume responsibility in relation to them.
Catholic secondary schools are distributed in every
state and diocese in the United States in widely varying
numbers. In general, there are comparatively few
Catholic secondary schools in states from Kansas west
ward, except in California, and many Southern states
have very few.
Administrative Types
A significant factor in Catholic secondary education
is to be found in the type of administrative control.
In broad terms, this is of three kinds: “Central” or
“diocesan,” which defines schools designated as such
by a Bishop to care for pupils of several specified
parishes and having funds and administration under
diocesan control; “parochial,” applied to schools in
which funds and administration are under parish con
trol; and “private,” applied to schools owned and con
trolled by religious congregations more or less in
dependently of parish and diocese.
These distinctions are not completely accurate, how
ever, because many parochial and private schools
frequently function as central schools through arrange
ment with the Bishop or through co-operation among
several parishes.
There has been a great increase in central control
in the past 10 years and a corresponding decrease
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