One of the bigger decisions that parents make is
deciding the type of education for their children. Of course we want what is
best for our children and for Catholic parents this usually entails the
prospect of choosing Catholic education over public education. This begs the
question of whether Catholic parents are morally obligated to send their child
to a Catholic School if it is within their means to do so.Let’s see what the Church Itself has to say by starting with Canon law:
• Canon 793 § 1: Parents, and those who take their place, have both the obligation and the right to educate their children. Catholic parents have also the duty and the right to choose those means and institutes which, in their local circumstances, can best promote the Catholic education of their children.
• Canon 795: Education must pay regard to the formation of the whole person, so that all may attain their eternal destiny and at the same time promote the common good of society. Children and young persons are therefore to be cared for in such a way that their physical, moral and intellectual talents may develop in a harmonious manner, so that they may attain a greater sense of responsibility and a right use of freedom, and be formed to take an active part in social life.
I think Pope Pius XI addressed this topic best in his encyclical “With Burning Concern’” where he tackled this issue head on. Although he was addressing Nazi Germany in 1937 it eerily reads like he is talking to us today:
“39. We address Our special greetings to the Catholic parents. Their rights and duties as educators, conferred on them by God, are at present the stake of a campaign pregnant with consequences. The Church cannot wait to deplore the devastation of its altars, the destruction of its temples, if an education, hostile to Christ, is to profane the temple of the child's soul consecrated by baptism, and extinguish the eternal light of the faith in Christ for the sake of counterfeit light alien to the Cross. Then the violation of temples is nigh, and it will be every one's duty to sever his responsibility from the opposite camp, and free his conscience from guilty cooperation with such corruption. The more the enemies attempt to disguise their designs, the more a distrustful vigilance will be needed, in the light of bitter experience.”
Does anyone have any doubt as to whether “an education, hostile to Christ” is present in our public schools? The Supreme Court has banned prayer in the schools. The Planned Parenthood based "comprehensive sex education" curriculum does violence to the morality of our children and the controversial International Baccalaureate programs bolster support for liberal forms of social justice.
Let’s look at another canon:
• Canon 797 Parents must have a real freedom in their choice of schools. For this reason Christ's faithful must be watchful that the civil society acknowledges this freedom of parents and in accordance with the requirement of distributive justice, even provides them with assistance
To comment on this canon I turn to the clear, prophetic words of Fr. Gordon Knight written in his book “Rational Theology – Apologetics” His writing best illustrates how this freedom to choose Catholic education will be taken away from parents and the real motive behind it. Astonishingly, he foresaw all this in the early 1950's:
“Furthermore, nothing could be easier than to persuade the majority of men that the government should provide free education for its citizens. This education would be at public expense, of course, but it would be free to those who made use of it. The majority seems to be under the impression that whatever the government provides for them, it provides free of cost to them. People do not seem to realize that an education that is provided by the government is paid for by themselves. Once the principle that education should be provided free of charge by the government has been accepted, it would be an easy task to persuade the majority that the education provided must be devoid of any religious instruction simply because the majority do not agree on what is the true version of religion. If a government were to provide an education free of charge but without religion, this would place parents who wish to provide their children with a religious education under the burden of having to pay twice for the education their children receive. They would first be taxed to maintain an irreligious system of schools which they do not wish to use, and then they would be required to maintain a separate educational establishment at their own expense.
If atheists could succeed in persuading the majority in any democratic form of government that this should be done (and what could be easier?), they would have struck such a blow at religious education as almost to guarantee the extinction of religion. For the majority, as atheists very well know, cannot afford to pay twice for the education of their children. They can scarcely afford to pay the taxes that are required to maintain a system of public schools in which religion is not taught. If, in addition to this, atheists could persuade the Christian majority that State-supported schools and colleges should have the best equipment that money can buy and the best teaching talent that money can hire, and that private schools in which religion is not taught should be subsidized by public funds, then the teaching of religion would be hampered to the utmost.
No matter how bitterly atheists may be opposed to the teaching of religion, it would be hopeless to try to persuade a Christian majority to forbid their children to receive a religious education. But it is by no means necessary that the teaching of religion be forbidden in order to prevent the majority of children from receiving such instruction. It is merely necessary to make it impossible to receive it. And it is impossible for the majority of children to receive a religious education once the principle has been accepted that parents are to be taxed to maintain an irreligious educational establishment and that if they wish their children to receive a religious education, they must maintain at their own expense an entirely separate and equivalent establishment. Once the principle that the State should provide an education devoid of any religious teaching has been accepted, then irreligion and atheism would be fostered by Christians at their own expense. An education devoid of religious teaching can be satisfactory only to atheists or to those who are opposed to the teaching of religion. It is practically a stroke of genius on the part of atheists to have induced a Christian majority to pay for that very system which deprives their children of the sort of education they wish them to receive.
Political atheism provides an ambitious and well-directed program for the extinction of religion. A person skilled in jujitsu need not be as strong as his opponent in order to overcome him. Such a person makes use of his opponent’s strength in order to defeat him. Atheists have taken a leaf out of the book of jujitsu. They make use of the pocket books of their opponents in order to overcome them. They take advantage of the confusion caused by the presence of many versions of religion to induce Christians themselves to pay for a system of education that will eventually eradicate belief in any version of religion. ....... Where atheists control the government, the teaching of religion is forbidden. Where they are not in control, they have persuaded the religious majority to provide themselves with an irreligious system of education.”
Fr. Knight is right and if atheists succeed in abolishing Catholic education then as a society we will be derelict. So in light of this I will
conclude by quoting two more canons concerning parental responsibilities to
their children regarding education:• Canon 798: Parents are to send their children to those schools which will provide for their Catholic education… If they cannot do this, they are bound to ensure the proper Catholic education of their children outside the school.
• Canon 800 § 2: Christ's faithful are to promote Catholic schools, doing everything possible to help in establishing and maintaining them.
