Must Parents Send Children to Catholic Schools?

May Catholic Children Attend Government-run Schools?

This question touches on several important topics, including amongst others:

  • What is the role of education?
  • What is a Catholic’s stance in theory and in practice regarding public education?
  • Is attendance at Catholic schools obligatory?
  • What authority should the Church exercise over public education?
  • What discretion do parents have in their children’s education?

 

Non-Catholic Schools Are Generally Forbidden

The Christian Home, written by Celestine Strub, OFM, presents a series of important considerations for today’s Catholic parents, with the perennial clarity found in the writings of the Popes in the first half of the twentieth century. On the question of whether a Catholic parent may send their children to non-Catholic schools, Fr. Strub quotes from Pope Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri (“On Christian Education”):

“There is no need to repeat what Our predecessors have declared on this point, especially Pius IX and Leo XIII… We renew and confirm their declarations, as well as the sacred Canons, in which the frequenting of non-Catholic schools, whether neutral or mixed, those namely which are open to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, is forbidden for Catholic children, and can be at most tolerated, on the approval of the Ordinary alone, under determined circumstances of place and time, and with special precautions.

“… it is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organization of the school, its teachers, syllabus, and textbooks in every branch be regulated by the Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church; so that religion may be in very truth the foundation and crown of the youth’s entire training; and this in every grade of school, not only the elementary, but the intermediate and the higher institutions of learning as well.”

The Requirement to Send Children to Parochial Schools

The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884, in a shift from merely exhorting parents to send children to Catholic schools, laid it down as a command in the United States. And the Council obliged parishes to build a school near each church which did not have one. While exceptions were permitted, those who failed to build the schools or support them were to be “induced to contribute the necessary support.” On a similar reason, Fr. Heribert Jone notes in Moral Theology of the necessity of sending children to Catholic schools – exceptions withstanding:

“Parents have the natural and inviolable right and duty to give their children a good education. In virtue of this duty parents must educate their children according to their own social standing, accustom them to work and to help themselves at an early age, and provide especially for their physical, moral and spiritual welfare. This latter includes, therefore, the parental duty to set a good example and exercise correction and watchfulness. In the interest of a Catholic education attendance at Catholic schools is obligatory. According to canon 1374 Catholic children may not attend non-Catholic, non-denominational or mixed schools. Only the local Ordinary can decide under which circumstances and with which precautions attendance at such schools may be tolerated.”[1]

Are Parents Today Compelled to Send Children to Catholic Schools?

However, this era – the era of the Baltimore Catechism – was before the Catholic Church was engulfed in a crisis of modernism, which has affected all corners of the world. Due to the crisis in the Church today, many parents and shepherds of souls must ask whether these disciplinary measures still apply.

It is important to keep in mind that the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore occurred at a time when Catholic schools were actually teaching the Catholic Faith and were staffed primarily by faithful Religious (priests, brothers, and nuns) and the schooling was free (or at a very low cost). Sadly, most Catholic schools today are no longer handing on the Catholic Faith and cost an exorbitant amount which makes them out of reach for most families.

The Latin dictum “Salus animarum est suprema lex” (the salvation of souls is the supreme law) reminds us that we must act in our souls’ best interest. For this reason, refusing to obey superiors in sinful actions, donating to parishes that teach error or offer sacrilegious liturgies, or sending children to schools that do not teach the Faith is not wrong. On the contrary, no one may ever be compelled to commit a sin or to put one’s soul – or souls entrusted to him – in the near occasion of sin.

For this reason, in theory, it is not always wrong to send children to public schools. Homeschooling, Catholic schools, and public schools can each be morally acceptable – the determination will come down to the practical application of what is taught in them.[2] Ask yourself: “Is the child being formed in a truly Catholic manner?”

 

The Church Exercises Authority Even in Public Schools

Even public schools must affirm Catholic teaching. The Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX condemns, among other propositions, the following:

“The entire government of the public schools in which the youth of any Christian state is instructed, episcopal seminaries being excepted for some reason, can and should be assigned to the civil authority; and assigned in such a way, indeed, that for no other authority is the right recognized to interfere in the discipline of the schools, in the system of studies, in the conferring of degrees, in the choice or approval of teachers.” [No. 45]

Simply stated, public education is not condemned unilaterally; however, the notion that public schools are entirely separate from the teaching authority of the Church is condemned.[3] Sadly, in practice, except perhaps in certain Catholic nations, this error is in force today. On such a point, Pope Leo XIII condemns, in Affari vos, schools which treat all religions as equal or which condemn morality and Catholic Truth; yet, he does not ipso facto condemn all public education:

“For our children cannot go for instruction to schools which either ignore or of set purpose combat the Catholic religion, or in which its teachings are despised and its fundamental principles repudiated. Wherever the Church has allowed this to be done, it has only been with pain and through necessity, at the same time surrounding her children with many safeguards which, nevertheless it has been too often recognized [to] have been insufficient to cope successfully with the danger attending it. Similarly, it is necessary to avoid at all costs, as most dangerous, those schools in which all beliefs are welcomed and treated as equal, as if, in what regards God and divine things, it makes no difference whether one believes rightly or wrongly, and takes up with truth or error. You know well, Venerable Brethren, that every school of this kind has been condemned by the Church, because nothing can be more harmful or better calculated to ruin the integrity of the faith and to turn aside the tender minds of the young from the way of truth.”

Catholic Education Must Underpin All Education

There can be no true education without formation in both the truths of the Catholic religion and Christian morality. The errors of today – from Critical Race Theory to so called “gender” identity, to the litany of sins crying out to Heaven for vengeance – all run rampant when society ceases to teach and enforce unchangeable moral truths. These truths must be affirmed. The Catholic religion must be taught. On such a salient matter, Pope Leo XIII declared:

“Without religion there can be no moral education deserving of the name … to be desirous that minds should be imbued with good and at the same time to leave them without religion is as senseless as to invite people to virtue after having taken away the foundations on which it rests. For the Catholic there is only one true religion, the Catholic religion; and, therefore, when it is a question of the teaching of morality or religion, he can neither accept nor recognize any which is not drawn from Catholic doctrine” (Affari vos).

And to those who claim that Catholic education would run counter to the advances in medicine, architecture, astronomy, physics, or any other field, Pope Leo XIII succinctly countered, “there is no class of study, no progress in human knowledge, which cannot fully harmonize with Catholic doctrine and teaching” (Affari vos).

Practical Application

Sadly, while in theory public education is not condemned, the actual public education in place in American and Canadian schools – amongst others – is contrary to the Catholic religion and no parent should, without grave reason, send their children to these schools. Even more troubling, due to the crisis in the Church, parochial schools with exorbitant costs and modernistic errors, are not appropriate either. In fact, there are plenty of anecdotal testimonies of parochial schools doing more damage in destroying the faith in Catholic youth than government-run institutions.

Finding good traditional Catholic schools or authentic traditional Catholic homeschooling programs and communities is the best option for today’s children. Until a time comes when the Faith is again affirmed by public schools and in the average Catholic school, great care should be taken to ensure that all children are properly educated in the Catholic Faith outside of which no one is saved.

Parents who are seeking guidance on how to handle their own children’s education should consult with a traditional Catholic priest who can better advise on the specifics for their own situation.


[1] Sending children to non-Catholic, non-denominational schools is forbidden. But even more so, Catholic parents who willfully have their children brought up in a non-Catholic religion also incur excommunication: “Catholic parents, or those who take their place, who knowingly have their children or wards educated or brought up in a non-Catholic religion (C. 2319)” (Fr. Jone, Moral Theology, p. 303).

On a related note, as to the question whether Catholics may give to the building of non-Catholic schools and orphanages, Fr. Jone writes: “Since the principal purpose of such institutions is instruction and the exercise of charity one may contribute money towards such projects in mixed localities, provided no scandal results therefrom and the institutions will not be used for proselytizing.” [emphasis added]

[2] In Chicago, public schools will start to give children condoms at age 10 (see LiteSite’s article on the matter). This is not an isolated story. More and more states are requiring radical sexual education that directly violates God’s laws and even encourages the murder of unborn children. This along with atheistic evolution – which is often taught as a fact – make in practice most public schools unacceptable for Catholic children.

[3] This error harkens back to the separation of Church and state, which despite modern man’s views, is a condemned philosophy. See https://fatima.org/news-views/catholic-apologetics-2/ for more information.

Total
0
Shares
Total
0
Share