A "Catholic" Education

What does it mean to be a Catholic school? I recently read an article where the author suggested that Catholic schools distinguish themselves by teaching the orthodox faith and focusing on specifically “Catholic” topics in their classes. For example, in social studies, a Catholic school should emphasize the role of faithful Catholics in history and social development; in science, schools should focus on the work of Catholic scientists; in literature, students should study primarily Catholic authors, and so forth. While all of these are good things, such an approach fails to appreciate the scope and grandeur of what “Catholic” really means. 

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Especially in the United States, it is hard for us to remember that the Catholic Church is not just a mere religious sect amongst the many options of religious belief. Catholics are not just members of a sect who are promoting their own little 501c3 or non-profit interest group. That is to say, it is not an institution founded by men for sociological, political, or psychological purposes. On the contrary, Catholics believe that the Church transcends and incorporates all of Creation. She is not a “part” of temporal society but the end and goal of it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes clear that the Church is not simply a part of Creation, but is in fact the bride of Christ here on Earth in which the cosmos is perfected and fulfilled. Paragraph 760 of the Catechism makes this abundantly clear when it states:

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Christians of the first centuries said, ‘The world was created for the sake of the Church.’ God created the world for the sake of communion with his divine life, a communion brought about by the “convocation” of men in Christ, and this “convocation” is the Church. The Church is the goal of all things.

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The consequence of this truth, for education, is that we can confidently assert that there is no truth that is not Catholic; there is nothing in God’s Creation that is not rooted in God and will not find perfection in Him. There is thus no conclusion of science, no historical fact, no true logical deduction, that exists outside of a really Catholic education. This also means that a Catholic education is not a niche education for members of a somewhat odd and isolated religion. We are not studying just our own little private sect but rather the whole cosmos, since it is in the Church that Creation is fulfilled.

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The medievals expressed this truth with the claim that “theology is the Queen of all the sciences.” What this meant for them is that all the other disciplines and ways of knowing must be seen through the lens of the deepest and most profound truths, those of theology.

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At the St. Jerome Institute, this view of Catholicism lies at the heart of our curriculum and school culture. Indeed, this is what it means for us to have a truly “integrated” Catholic education. No science, no philosophical theory, no cultural practice, nor any thought at all can be excluded from Christ’s truth. Our educational plan puts this quite beautifully:

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Since relation to God is innermost to each creature and common to all, one is always tacitly treating of God, or the world in relation to God, in treating of anything whatsoever. And this means that theology and philosophy cannot simply be discrete subjects within the curriculum, essentially outside the study of arts and letters, or history, or nature, even though there is a place for the specialized study of these subjects and even though each discipline retains its own principles and its own proper autonomy. Rather, it means that theological and philosophical inquiry is the source of curricular unity, and that philosophical and theological questioning is necessarily operative inside of historical, literary, and scientific inquiry. This provides the methodological organizing principle for the Core Curriculum and necessitates that it be interdisciplinary.

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The beautiful consequence of such a view of Catholic education is that it is also a more real and useful education since it leads our students to what is truly fulfilling. By contemplating all things in relationship to Him, we open up the possibility of leading holier and more fulfilled Christian lives.

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