Page 8: Five Essentials continued...

3. Animated by Communion and Community

A third important teaching on Catholic schools that has emerged in the Holy See’s documents in recent years is its emphasis on the community aspect of the Catholic school, a dimension rooted both in the social nature of the human person and the reality the Church as a “the home and the school of communion.” [18] That the Catholic school is an educational community “is one of the most enriching developments for the contemporary school.” [19] The Congregation’s Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School sums up this new emphasis:

The declaration Gravissimum Educationis notes an important advance in the way a Catholic school is thought of: the transition from the school as an institution to the school as a community. This community dimension is, perhaps, one result of the new awareness of the Church’s nature as developed by the Council. In the Council texts, the community dimension is primarily a theological concept rather than a sociological category. [20]

. . . .

I would like to mention three particular ways in which the Holy See would like to see the development of the school as a community: the teamwork or collaboration among all those involved; the interaction of students with teachers and the school’s physical environment.

. . . .

4. Imbued with a Catholic Worldview

A fourth distinctive characteristic of Catholic schools, which always finds a place in the Holy See’s teaching is this. Catholicism should permeate not just the class period of catechism or religious education, or the school’s pastoral activities, but the entire curriculum. The Vatican documents speak of “an integral education, an education which responds to all the needs of the human person.” [21]

This is why the Church establishes schools: because they are a privileged place which fosters the formation of the whole person. [22] An integral education aims to develop gradually every capability of every student: their intellectual, physical, psychological, moral and religious dimensions. It is “intentionally directed to the growth of the whole person.” [23]

To be integral or “whole,” Catholic schooling must be constantly inspired and guided by the Gospel. As we have seen, the Catholic school would betray its purpose if it failed to take as its

[18] John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 43.
[19] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 22.
[20] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 31; cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 18.
[21] Cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 17: “The integral formation of the human person, which is the purpose of education, includes the development of all the human faculties of the students, together with preparation for professional life, formation of ethical and social awareness, becoming aware of the transcendental, and religious education. Every school, and every educator in the school, ought to be striving ‘to form strong and responsible individuals, who are capable of making free and correct choices,’ thus preparing young people ‘to open themselves more and more to reality, and to form in themselves a clear idea of the meaning of life’ (Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 31); cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 3; Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 99.
[22] Cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 8, 26.
[23] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 29