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touchstone the person of Christ and his Gospel: “It derives all the energy necessary for its educational work from him.” [24]

. . . .

5. Sustained by the Witness of Teaching

Lastly I would like to close with a few observations about the vital role teachers play in ensuring a school’s Catholic identity. With them lies the primary responsibility for creating a unique Christian school climate, as individuals and as a community. [25] Indeed, “it depends chiefly on them whether the Catholic school achieves its purpose.” [26] Consequently the Holy See’s documents pay considerable attention to the vocation of teachers and their specific participation in the Church’s mission. Theirs is a calling and not simply the exercise of a profession. [27]

In a word, those involved in Catholic schools, with very few exceptions, should be practising Catholics committed to the Church and living her sacramental life. Despite the difficulties involved–which you know all too well–it is, I believe, a serious mistake to be anything other than “rigorists” about the personnel hired. The Catholic school system in Ontario, Canada, where I was raised, when pressured by public authorities for what they regarded as reasonable accommodations, relaxed this requirement for a time. The result was disastrous. With the influx of non-Catholic teachers, many schools ended up by seriously compromising their Catholic identity. Children absorbed, even if they were not taught, a soft indifferentism which sustained neither their practice of the faith nor their ability to imbue society with authentically Christian values. Principals, pastors, trustees and parents share, therefore, in the serious duty of hiring teachers who meet the standards of doctrine and integrity of life essential to maintaining and advancing a school’s Catholic identity.

. . . .

J. Michael Miller, CSB

[24] Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 55.
[25] Cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 26; Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 19.
[26] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Gravissimum Educationis, 8.
[27] Cf. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 37; cf Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 19.