Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2—June 3, 1976
Text Of Bishops’ Statement On Schools
Part Two
(Continued from last issue)
The integration of religious truth and
values with the rest of life which is
possible in these schools distinguishes
them from others. Here the Catholic for
whom religious commitment is a matter
of central importance finds an
appreciation of religion which parallels
his or her own. The integration is
expressed above all in the lives of the
teachers in Catholic schools whose daily
witness to the meaning of mature faith
and Christian living has a profound
impact upon the education and
formation of their pupils. On behalf of
the entire Church we affirm our debt to
these dedicated ministers of education,
Sisters, Brothers, priests and lay people,
who teach by what they are.
Our support of Catholic schools is
matched by the support of millions of
others, those who teach them, who send
their children to them, and who support
them morally and financially. The
present task is less to win support for
the schools than to mobilize the support
which already exists.
Why do we and so many others
continue to support Catholics schools in
the face of many obstacles and burdens,
problems not substantially different
from those we outlined in our pastoral
four years ago? The reasons are
compelling. Generally these schools are
notably successful educational
institutions which offer not only high
CHICAGO (NC) - How many
methods of birth control are Catholics
permitted to use? If you answered
“One: rhythm,” you are probably
unaware of the gains in knowledge of
reproductive biology and physiology
made in the past decade.
Your answer is technically correct,,
but there are now three types of natural
birth control - all variations of the
rhythm method - acceptable for
Catholics. The three methods were
discussed by officials of the Human Life
Foundation during a recent meeting
here of that organization’s board of
directors.
Dr. William A. Lynch, chairman of
the foundation’s science committee,
described the three methods as the
thermal, the sympto-thermal, and the
Billings.
; Dr. Lynch, an obstretician-gynecolo-
'gist from Brookline, Mass., was joined
by Edward B. Hanify, foundation
chairman, in discussing the progress
made by the foundation in the field of
natural family planning.
The foundation was formed by the
Arherican bishops seven years ago in
•response to Pope Paul Vi’s 1968
^encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which
encouraged research in the field.
’• One of its first actions was the
establishment of a scientific advisory
committee, which began underwriting
'research of birth control through
^natural means.
‘ According to Hanify, a Boston
^attorney, cultural factors make the
^prospects bright for the success of
‘natural family planning.
quality academic programs but also
instruction and formation in the beliefs,
values and traditions of Catholic
Christianity. They are significantly
effective in preparing students for life in
today’s Church and society. They instill
in children and young people
indispensible disciplines of mind and
heart. They have a highly positive
impact on adult religious behavior.
Another benefit of Catholic schools
deserves mention. They can be a focal
point for dedication and energy and
generosity of many different members
of the Catholic community. This
concerted focus, however, must not
preclude an active participation in other
forms of educational and ecclesial
ministry. Catholic schools therefore
have a rich potential for strengthening
the bonds which unify a community.
In a significant way Catholic schools
bear witness to the importance of
religion in our local civic communities,
and in our society as a whole. When a
sizeable segment of the American
people undertake to build and operate a
great system of schools at considerable
sacrifice, serious citizens are thereby
encouraged to reflect upon the
importance of religion in human life.
Without Catholic and other
church-related schools, spiritual values
would find far less support in American
society.
It is gratifying and encouraging that
“To Teach as Jesus Did” has helped
“There’s an enormous emphasis now
on the natural, freedom from the
artificial,” especially among the young,
Hanify asserted. The problems with
chemical and mechanical means of birth
control have been documented and
should be brought to the public’s
attention, he added.
Artificial birth control is a “brutal
form of male domination,” which
subjects “the women’s body to injury or
disease in order to satisfy the sexual
requirements of some males,” Hanify
said.
Obstacles to the natural family
planning movement include
commercialism, “subtle bigotry” and
ignorance. “There is no money to be
made by entrepreneurs in natural family
planning,” he said.
The bigotry, he said, is shown by a
refusal by some to admit that the Pope
was right in issuing his reaffirmation of
the Church’s traditional ban on artificial
methods of birth control. In the light of
recent revelations concerning
side-effects associated with oral
contraceptives, that ban seems more
reasonable than ever before, he said. But
according to Hanify, “what’s moral
can’t be practical” in the eyes of many.
Ignorance of scientific progress in
natural family planning is apparent in
people who persist in thinking of
rhythm as “Vatican roulette,” he
continued.
In his discussion of the three types of
natural family planning, the science
committee’s chairman, Dr. Lynch,
explained that the object is the
strengthen the Catholic school
apostolate. Evidence of this comes from
many sources, including the National
Catholic Educational Association and
many religious communities, which have
themselves played a laudable role in
“giving form to the vision” of
educational ministry embodied in the
pastoral. Among the beneficial results
arising from that effort in part at least
are the following:
The identification of Catholic schools
as institutions which express the
threefold purpose of Catholic education
- as stated in the pastoral - to teach,
build community and serve, has become
more clear. Concrete priorities of the
schools consistent with this threefold
purpose have been brought into sharper
focus.
Programs for the formation of
teachers have been strengthened. There
has been increased recognition that all
share in the educational ministry, not
just those specifically assigned to “teach
religion.”
The reciprocal relationship of the
Catholic school and the community it
serves has been recognized and fostered.
New ways have been sought and put
into effect by which the school can be
of even greater direct service to the
community.
Increased attention has been given to
the need for a total, integrated approach
to Catholic education involving schools
and other educational programs.
Competition and duplication have been
reduced; collaboration and coordination
pinpointing of the time of ovulation.
With that event accurately determined,
“The couple may abstain or not
abstain . . . depending on whether they
want to have a child,” the Boston
physician said. _
The thermal method is simply the
recording of the wife’s temperature each
morning throughout the month.
Ovulation is accompanied by a
discernible elevation at approximately
mid-cycle.
In the sympto-thermal method,
temperature charts are combined with
observations of mucus secretions which
accompany ovulation.
The Billings method is based on
observations of the mucus alone -- but
not all women can use the method.
Sometimes, Dr. Lynch said, the womb
has been cauterized during childbirth,
destroying the glands which would
normally secrete at ovulation.
Dr. Lynch believes that high school
girls should begin to observe their own
cyclical patterns in preparation for
marriage. He takes time out from his
practice to deliver talks at seminaries,
law schools, colleges and high schools
on natural methods of birth control.
“This is the only method that
demands the same thing of the male - a
period of abstinence - as the female,”
Dr. Lynch pointed out. He said
psychologists “would consistently
agree” that this method has
strengthened marriages.
Both husband and wife “are making
the same sacrifice for the good of the
partner and for the good of the family,”
he noted.
have been increased. Significant in these
encouraging developments has been the
role played by parish boards of
education and parish councils which
have enabled the Catholic community in
an orderly fashion to identify and
respond to the educational needs of the
total community. More and more,
schools are being recognized and used as
resources and centers for total parish
programs of education.
Positive changes in the instructional
program have been carried forward,
including greater emphasis on
personalized learning which meets the
unique needs and capabilities of
individual students. Growing attention
has been given to education for justice
and for authentic human liberation.
Educational planning and the practice
of accountability have been encouraged.
At the same time a new thrust has
emerged in educational administration,
emphasizing not only technical skills
but the role of the administrator as one
who fosters community within both
schools and school systems.
Appreciation has increased for the
fact that the Catholic school is not
simply an institution which offers
academic instruction of high quality,
but, even more important, is an
effective vehicle of total Christian
Formation. The tendency to emphasize
one aspect at the expense of the other
has given way to recognition that both
are necessary and possible, and indeed
are being accomplished, in Catholic
schools.
In short, much that has happened in
the past four years testifies to the fact
that the schools not only remain an
important part of the Catholic Church
in the United States but continue to
grow in effectiveness as that is
determined by both educational and
religious measures. This favorable
judgment is strongly reinforced by a
recently published report on
educational research by the National
Opinion Research Center, showing that
Catholic schools have a significant
positive impact on those who attend
them and that the Catholic public is
highly supportive of them. In view of all
this, our commitment to the schools is v
clear and undiminished.
The Second Vatican Council asked
the Church “to spare no sacrifice” for
Catholic schools which care “for the
poor, for those who are without the
help and affection of family, and those
who do not have the faith.” In many
places in the United States the Church’s
response has been an extremely large
human and economic investment in
schools whose pupils are, in the main,
economically disadvantaged children
residing in the poverty areas of large
cities. The funding of this large
investment has come from the
self-sacrifice of the children’s parents,
the support of fellow parishioners and
the generosity of contributors to
diocesan funds for the subsidy of
schools which lack adequate parish
support for all educational expenses.
This action has been notably productive
in the black community where the
Catholic school “has been and remains
the strongest point of contact for many
black people with the Catholic
Church . . . The Catholic school is a
constant witness to the talented and
creative potential which black youth
possess and which needs only
opportunity and educational nuturing.”
Substantially the same may be said of
Catholic schools which serve the unique
needs of Hispanic and native American
children from low income families.
A steadily increasing number of
economically poor parents are making
heroic personal sacrifices to raise funds
for the continuation of their Catholic
schools. These parents are convinced
that Catholic school education affords
their children a realistic and hopeful
opportunity “to break out of the hellish
cycle of poverty” and to move into the
mainstream of our nation’s good living.
These schools are therefore serving a
critical human need within the context
of a complete education which includes
religious instruction and guidance.
The challenge confronting the total
Catholic community is to approximate
the self-sacrifice of poverty belt parents
of Catholic school children by
increasing its contributions to
interparochial and diocesan funds for
the ongoing and expanded support of
schools in need of annual subsidy.
III. To sustain this momentum we
endorse developments and trends
favorable to the continuation of strong
and effective Catholic schools. In this
connection we turn now to the
challenges and opportunities
confronting specific groups involved in
educational ministry.
PARENTS
Parental confidence in Catholic
schools, a quiet but eloquent witness,
reinforced by great personal sacrifice,
produces in others an awareness of the
importance of Catholic education’s
ideals and values. This confidence also
encourages teachers to be available and
open to parents who seek to be
meaningfully involved in their children’s
schooling.
Parent-teacher conferences, home and
school associations, lay boards and
committees, and teacher-aide programs
are making progress because many
thoughtful parents participate faithfully
in these cooperative efforts to enrich
their children’s education. The benefits
of home and school partnership are so
evident that all parents should be made
aware of their duty to be full partners
with the school. The school
administrator who does not recognize
the importance of this cooperation may
be depriving pupils of one of the unique
advantages of Catholic schooling. In this
cooperation there is a kind of reciprocal
accountability: of schools to parents
and parents to schools. Today’s Catholic
school is more than a means for
safeguarding faith and virtue; it is a
center in which parents and teachers,
guided by the Holy Spirit, collaborate in
giving children a complete Catholic
education.
TEACHERS
The new awareness that all members
of the faculty at least by their example
are an integral part of the process of
religious education has brought with it a
more conscientious approach to the
selecting of teachers and professional
development of staff. Teachers’ life
style and character are as important as
their professional credentials. We
commend this trend and urge the
development of appropriate ceremonies
by which the Church can publicly
express its appreciation for their role in
the Church’s educational ministry.
Teacher-initiated instructional
programs are implementing the
principles contained in the pastoral.
Educational approaches that emphasize
doctrine, community and service as
central concepts have helped teachers
implement methodologies that are
responsive to the individual needs of
students. Reciprocally the thrust toward
personalized learning with emphasis on
the total educational environment
makes clear that the atmosphere and
relationships in the school are as much
the focus of the Catholic school as is the
formal religious education class. In
other wider applications of the pastoral
numerous faculties have used it in self
studies that are having profound,
positive effects on the daily experience
of the school.
ADMINISTRATORS
In the area of school administration
we note with great satisfaction the
growing awareness and acceptance of
the twin concepts of accountability and
evaluation. This represents a recognition
of the school’s obligation to serve and
be accountable to the Catholic
community in relation to the threefold
ideal set forth in the pastoral.
We urge administrators to exercise
their gifts of educational leadership by
promoting structures and cooperative
procedures which will render such
accountability and evaluation
meaningful and useful to all in the
Catholic educational community,
parents, teachers and the Catholic
community generally. They should
exercise their responsibility particularly
with reference to the selection,
motivation and development of teaching
personnel, keeping ever in mind the
apostolic goals and character of the
Catholic school.
PASTORS AND THE COMMUNITY
The leadership role of pastors and
their associates is a significant factor in
the Catholic school apostolate. Through
their words, their presence and their
support in so many ways they supply a
needed leadership to those who look to
such commitment as a sign of the
importance of their own sacrifices.
Recognition of the pastor’s increased
importance as a facilitator of
community among the professional
educational staff of the parish is a
positive development. The members of
such a total educational team view one
another as colleagues in a common work
carried on through a variety of
approaches.
Pastoral leadership can likewise foster
in the Catholic community the proud
realization that worthy Catholic schools
in parishes and dioceses are immense
spiritual assets which benefit all and give
witness to the faith of the entire
community. Such schools, like all other
aspects of the educational ministry,
deserve the support of all members of
the Catholic community because,
directly or indirectly, they serve all. Not
to support such schools merely because
they do not enroll all the children of the
community would, in our opinion,
reflect an inaccurate and damaging view
of the Church’s total educational
mission.
Community support is manifested
also by the presence of the larger
community as volunteer staff for the
parish educational program and by the
witness to that program which these
persons give in their contacts with
friends and neighbors.
UNITED STATES
CATHOLIC CONFERENCE
We ask the Committee on Education
and the Department of Education to
consider the following steps:
1. Careful study of recent research on
Catholic schools, especially as it relates
to their progress toward the goals set
forth in “To Teach as Jesus Did.” In a
special way there is a need for careful
identification of the facts, both
quantitative and qualitative, concerning
the Catholic schools’ role in educating
those who have suffered economic
deprivation or experience discrimination
because of racial, cultural or linguistic
differences. This will help both to
demonstrate the contribution now being
made in this way by Catholic schools to
American society generally and to foster
the formulation of proposals for further
steps to maintain and strengthen this
commitment, including the possibility
of some form of nationwide action.
Professional guidance and assistance
are also needed in making realistic
predictions of future enrollment and
estimates of future costs, notably for
teachers’ salaries. We will be assisted by
documented “success reports”
describing how particular school
systems or individual schools have
solved problems relating to downward
enrollment, soaring expenses, tensions
in governance, and disputes about
religious instruction. For it is entirely
possible that a solution in one diocese
or individual school within a diocese can
be replicated elsewhere. We hope also
for the discovery or development of
promising models, instruments and
processes to facilitate educational
planning at the local level.
2. Development and promotion at all
levels, local, diocesan and national, of
effective programs of public relations on
behalf of Catholic schools.
3. Encouragement for the
development and organization of
parents, teachers, and other citizens
which can articulate the just demands of
the nonpublic school community with
respect to government aid.
4. Pursuit and publicizing of every
appropriate constitutional possibility of
public assistance to Catholic and other
nonpublic school pupils.
We urge that the entire nation
realistically acknowledge the
contributions which Catholic and other
nonpublic schools make to the total
educational enterprise in our country.
Although Congress and several state
legislatures reflecting growing public
appreciation of this kind, have
expressed such recognition in recent
years by enacting programs to assist the
education of nonpublic school children,
it is a deplorable fact that courts have
often overturned this legislation for
reasons we and others consider tenuous
and at times offensive. In doing so, they
have inflicted a harsh injustice on
supporters of nonpublic schools,
increased their burdens, and caused
serious suffering to many of them. It is
our hope that this situation will be
corrected by more perceptive rulings
which reflect the authentic American
tradition firmly rooted in our history
concerning church and state, while
taking a clear-eyed view of the real
needs and rights of nonpublic school
students and parents and of the best
interests of American education
generally. We affirm, as Pope Pius XI
did some 40 years ago, that “Catholics
will never feel, whatever may have been
the sacrifices already made, that they
have done enough for the support and
defense of their schools and for the
securing of laws that will do them
justice.”
5. Last September 15, the day
following the canonization of St.
Elizabeth Seton, who is celebrated as
the foundress of the parochial school
system in the United States, Pope Paul
VI spoke to some 80 of us concerning
his hopes for our country. He spoke
among other things of Catholic schools.
“We know the difficulties involved in
preserving the Catholic schools and the
uncertainties of the future,” he said,
“and yet we rely on the help of God
and your own zealous collaboration and
untiring efforts so that Catholic schools
can continue, despite grave obstacles, to
fulfill (their) providential role at the
service of genuine Catholic education
and at the service of your country.”
How consistent this is with the first
command of Jesus to teach. We receive
these words of the Holy Father in the
light of the centuries-old tradition of
those who have given us so much that
we take for granted. Our call now is to
all who see with undimmed sight this
same apostolic responsibility as their
own and will join in carrying out this
commitment in the years ahead: the
commitment of handing on the faith o
the next generation, not merely
preserved, but more glorious, more
efficacious, more valued by those who
in their turn will take up the charge to
“go and teach.”
INTERNATIONAL EMBRACE ~ Bishop James S.
Rausch (right), general secretary of the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), and Cardinal
Stefan Wyszynski, of Warsaw and Gneizno, Poland,
exchange the kiss of peace at the shrine of Our Lady of
Czestochowa where he and Archbishop Joseph L
Bernardin, NCCB president, rededicated the Unite*
States to Mary. The visit to Poland’s holiest shrine wa
considered by the two bishops as the highlight of thei
10-day visit to Poland. (NC Photo)
Natural Family Planning
Seen Ripe For Acceptance