PRINCIPLES OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION:

(1) Intellectual education must not be separated from moral and religious education.

To impart knowledge or to develop mental efficiency without building up moral character is not only contrary to psychological law, which requires that all the faculties should be trained but is also fatal both to the individual and to society.

No amount of intellectual attainment or culture can serve as a substitute for virtue; on the contrary, the more thorough intellectual education becomes, the greater is the need for sound moral training.

(2) Religion should be an essential part of education.

 It should form not merely an adjunct to instruction in other subjects, but the centre about which these are grouped and the spirit by which they are permeated.

The study of nature without any reference to God, or of human ideal with no mention of Jesus Christ, or of human legislation without Divine law is at best a one-sided education.

The fact that religious truth finds no place in the curriculum is, of itself, and apart from any open negation of that truth, sufficient to warp the pupil’s mind in such a way and to such an extent that he will feel little concern in his school-days or later for religion in any form; and this result is the more likely to ensue when the curriculum is made to include everything that is worth knowing except the one subject which is of chief importance.

(3) Sound moral instruction is impossible apart from religious education.

The child may be drilled in certain desirable habits, such as neatness, courtesy, and punctuality; he may be imbued with a spirit of honour, industry, and truthfulness — and none of this should be neglected; but if these duties towards self and neighbour are sacred, the duty towards God is immeasurably, more sacred. When it is faithfully performed, it includes and raises to a higher plane the discharge of every other obligation.

Training in religion, moreover, furnishes the best motives for conduct and the noblest ideals for imitation, while it sets before the mind an adequate sanction in the holiness and justice of God.

Religious education, it should be noted, is more than instruction in the dogmas of faith or the precepts of the Divine law; it is essentially a practical training in the exercises of religion, such as prayer, attendance at Divine worship, and reception of the sacraments.

By these means conscience is purified, the will to do right is strengthened, and the mind is fortified to resist those temptations which, especially in the period of adolescence, threaten the gravest danger to the moral life.

(4) An education which unites the intellectual, moral and religious elements is the best safeguard for the home, since it places on a secure basis the various relations which the family implies.

It also ensures the performance of social duties by inculcating a spirit of self-sacrifice, of obedience to law, and of Christian love for the fellow-man.

The most effectual preparation for the citizenship is that schooling in virtue which habituates a man to decide, to act, to oppose a movement or to further it, not with a view to personal gain nor simply in deference to public opinion, but in accordance with the standards of right that are fixed by the law of God.

The welfare of the State, therefore demands that the child be trained in the practice of virtue and religion no less than in the pursuit of knowledge.

(5) Far from lessening the need of moral and religious training, the advance in educational methods rather emphasizes that need.

Many of the so-called improvements in teaching are of passing importance, and some are at variance with the laws of the mind.

Upon their relative worth the Church does not pronounce, nor does she commit herself to any particular method provided the essentials of Christian education are secured, the Church welcomes whatever the sciences may contribute toward rendering the work of the school more efficient.

(6) Catholic parents are bound in conscience to provide for the education of their children, either at home or in schools of the right sort.

As the bodily life of the child must be cared for, so, for still graver reasons, must the mental and moral faculties be developed. “Teach children how they should live, and they will remember it all their life” (Prov. 22:6).  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) clearly teaches us the roles the parents must play in the moral education of their children.

Parents, therefore, cannot take an attitude of indifference toward this essential duty nor transfer it wholly to others. You must not transfer your primary responsibility of moral training of your children to school teachers and day care centres.

They are responsible for those earliest impressions which the child receives passively, before he exercises any conscious selective imitation; and as the intellectual powers develop, the parents’ example is the lesson that sinks most deeply into the child’s mind.  

They are also obliged to instruct the child according to his capacity, in the truths of religion and in the practice of religious duties, thus co-operating with the work of the Church and the school. “…Thus, the home is the first school of Christian life and a school for human enrichment…” (CCC 1657).

The virtues, especially of obedience, self-control, and purity, can nowhere be inculcated so thoroughly as in the home; and without such moral education by the parents, the task of forming upright men and women and worthy citizens is difficult, and if not impossible.

The family is traditionally regarded as the domestic church. Therefore, the moral uprightness required of the children as they grow up must be inculcated first in the family. “In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centres of living, radiant faith. For this reason, the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica…”. (See Catechism of the Catholic Church, CCC 1656).