In the Beginning the Word, Part 2: Living Stones

1995

Archdiocese of Denver

Cardinal J. Francis Stafford

Pastoral Letter to the People of God of Northern Colorado on Catholic Education

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J. Francis Stafford, Archbishop of Denver

Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord

25 May 1995

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“Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Jos 1:9

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Of the educational programs available to the Catholic community, Catholic schools afford the fullest and best opportunity to realize the purpose of Christian education among children and young people. Schools naturally enjoy educational advantages which other programs either cannot offer or can offer only with great difficulty. A school has a greater claim on the time and loyalty of the student and his family. It makes more accessible to students participation in the liturgy and sacraments, which are powerful forces for the development of personal sanctity and for the building of community. It provides a more favorable pedagogical and psychological environment for teaching Christian faith. With the Second Vatican Council we affirm our conviction that the Catholic school “retains its immense importance in the circumstances of our times,” and we recall the duty of parents “to entrust their children to Catholic schools, when and where this is possible, to support such schools to the extent of their ability, and to work along with them for the welfare of their children” (GE, 8).

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”To Teach as Jesus Did” (101)

National Conference of Catholic Bishops

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I. THE MIND OF COLORADO

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1. To the people of God of northern Colorado and to all persons of good will: Greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ! Earlier this spring we began, together, a three-part reflection on the importance of Catholic education. We have already examined our basic principles in Part One: Signs of the Times (March 25). In August we will discuss the essentials of a successful, archdiocesanwide renewal of religious education programs. But today, on the Solemnity of the Ascension, we celebrate what the Creed affirms as a central article of our faith: “Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.” We confess that the humanity of Christ, together with our own humanity in Him, has been placed at the heart of the divine Trinity. On this solemnity, therefore, it is fitting that we turn our attention to one of the most powerful means in the Church's inventory to proclaim human dignity in the risen and ascended Christ: Catholic schools.

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2. As 1995 began, I encountered two very different, but revealing, sets of facts. The first was a collection of data from the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado in Denver. In late October and early November 1994, the graduate school's Norwest Public Policy Research Program conducted a statewide survey entitled “The Mind of Colorado.” The survey measured public trust in Colorado's basic societal institutions.

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3. The results were unsettling. According to the survey's narrative, “The remarkable thing is how significantly public confidence in almost all key institutions has fallen nationally over the first half of [the 1990s]. Colorado is clearly part of this 'no confidence vote' trend…” The police were the only Colorado institution to receive higher than a 50 percent confidence rating. Crime ranked first among registered voters as the most important problem facing our state, followed by education. Political parties enjoyed barely a 9 percent public trust rating. Local media earned only 17 percent. Forty-nine percent of the voters surveyed could not name a single Coloradan in public life who adequately reflected their values.

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4. The survey also found “an extraordinarily low confidence ranking” for our state's public school system—only 22 percent, compared to a 44 percent national average. At the same time, Coloradans most often recommended the Church as the organization for someone to join “in order to become part of community life.”

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5. Simultaneous with these data, and in response to numerous requests for more Catholic education services from across the Archdiocese of Denver, I received the results of a Strategic Plan for Catholic Schools developed by local educators with the help of specialists at Meitler Consultants. The plan, and the solid research undergirding it, showed a strong, growing demand for Catholic schools, and an astonishing level of support for Catholic schools from parents and pastors alike.

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6. Ninety percent of surveyed parish members voiced agreement that Catholic schools are the best way to help parents educate and nurture their children in the Catholic faith. More than 90 percent agreed that Catholic schools make a positive contribution to the well-being of the Catholic Church. More than 90 percent felt that providing a Catholic school education for children is a shared responsibility of parents and parish.

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7. Large majorities also felt that Catholic schools educate children at least as well as, or better than, public schools, and that the value of Catholic schools justifies their cost. Even those Catholic parents who send their children to public schools voiced their support for Catholic schools. So did a large majority of responding pastors. Imparting Catholic Christian values, supporting family values and providing a quality academic program ranked as the top three reasons among both parishioners and pastors as to why the Church should support Catholic schools.

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8. The contrast between these two sets of data tells a compelling story. Despite heroic efforts by scores of capable teachers and administrators, Colorado's government-funded school system suffers from the same deep, public skepticism engendered by other official institutions. With far fewer resources and 22 percent minority enrollment, archdiocesan Catholic schools enjoy outright enthusiasm from their constituencies. My point here is not that public schools are doing something “wrong”—their problems are already heavily covered by the mainline news media and have sparked vigorous civic debate. Rather, Catholic schools are clearly doing something right.

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9. Catholic schools offer an example of outstanding education, permeated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and love, and conducted in a manner consistent with good stewardship. And their success benefits all Coloradans, not merely Catholics, by transfusing society with a spirit of service and self-sacrifice. Not surprisingly, “The Mind of Colorado” survey identified honesty as the “most important value for people to live by” among our state's registered voters. In an age of duplicitous marketing, image management, spin control and political cynicism, bedrock civic virtues like honesty have become pearls of great price.

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10. Inculcating these virtues in the heart of each student is natural to Catholic classrooms. But good citizenship is a byproduct, not the primary goal, of a Catholic school. For Catholic education, the result—community service, civic leadership, ethical public conduct—flows from a much deeper cause. That cause is a personal encounter with, and love for, Jesus of Nazareth.

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11. Catholic schools exist to proclaim the lordship of Jesus Christ. They must create a climate for education that integrates what is human and what is divine. For Catholic schools, Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. As an organic part of the archdiocesan Church and also, most frequently, of a local parish, every Catholic school must foster a believing community, a living “Catholic culture,” that encourages the joyful practice and confident sharing of our faith. Catholic schools must above all bring students to salvation through a Gospel—and sacrament—centered life. Every other good is secondary.

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II. THE IDENTITY OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL

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12. In the years during and immediately following the Second Vatican Council, some Catholic educators, pastors and bishops concluded that Church resources would have greater effect if shifted away from Catholic schools toward religious education programs. Until the late 1960s, I shared this view. In part, this strategy responded to an obvious, legitimate concern: Many more Catholic children attend public schools than Catholic ones. At times, however, reformers saw Catholic schools as the outdated defense machinery of an immigrant, ghetto faith, which prevented assimilation into mainstream American culture and perpetuated Catholic separatism. As a result, with the chemistry of Catholicism in the United States rapidly changing in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, many fine Catholic educational institutions simply went out of existence.

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13. But American culture continues to change, and the Catholic Church's relationship to that culture has also changed. Research has consistently affirmed the unique contributions Catholic schools have made, and still effectively make today, in developing young Christians in their faith. This research, along with the teaching of the Church's Magisterium, has profoundly influenced my own views. Democratic pluralism must assume people of conviction will actively advance, not abandon, their beliefs in the public square. Catholic schools, by nurturing an articulate Catholic identity, ensure real pluralism. Moreover, the founding of the Catholic school system in the United States was not just a “ghetto” reaction to established Protestantism in the common schools. The Church entered the schools’ apostolate centuries before Europeans arrived in North America—and for a very good reason. The Catholic school, in cooperation with the family, offers an unequaled community for the integration of faith and culture, and faith and life.

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14. In Colorado, the tradition of Catholic schools stretches back more than 250 years to the Spanish missions. Catholic schools became an early priority for Father Joseph Machebeuf, later the first bishop of Denver, in the 19th century. Bishops Nicholas Matz and John Tihen continued the expansion of the Catholic school system, as did Archbishop Urban Vehr, who by 1955 had dedicated 34 new schools with 251 classrooms. Archbishop James Casey, my immediate predecessor, faced very different and challenging pastoral conditions that forced a retrenchment in our education ministry. But all our bishops, together with priests, religious and parents of the day, understood the crucial role schools play in planting the seed of faith among young people.

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15. Today, with Colorado's sustained economic growth and the influx of thousands of new Catholic families, the time is ripe to reaffirm Catholic schools as a powerful instrument for the evangelization of American life and culture. But a school cannot build character in students if it lacks character itself. It cannot share the truth unless it possesses and lives the truth within its own community. This is why understanding the proper identity of our Catholic schools, and building even more firmly on their religious foundation, is so urgent.

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16. Fortunately, we don't have to invent a “Catholic school constitution.” The key documents already exist. In Gravissimum Educationis (“Declaration on Christian Education”), the Fathers of Vatican II stressed that “...among the various organs of education, the school is of outstanding importance” (5). They noted the uniquely vital impact “[of] Catholic schools. These are no less zealous than other schools in the promotion of culture and in the human formation of young people. It is, however, the special function of the Catholic school to develop in the school community an atmosphere animated by a spirit of liberty and charity based on the Gospel” (8).

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17. The Fathers continued that “[The Catholic school] enables young people, while developing their own personality, to grow at the same time in that new life which has been given them at Baptism. Finally, it so orients the whole of human culture to the message of salvation that the knowledge which the pupils acquire of the world, of life and of men, is illumined by faith. Thus the Catholic school...prepares its pupils to contribute effectively to the welfare of the world of men and to work for the extension of the kingdom of God, so that by living an exemplary and apostolic life they may be, as it were, a saving leaven to the community” (8).

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18. In a subsequent statement (“Catholic Schools,” 1977), the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education stressed that “to favor...a merely non-institutional presence of the Church in the scholastic field is a dangerous illusion” (64). Rather, there is enormous value for the whole Church, as well as the wider civic community, in the fact that “Christ is the foundation of the whole educational enterprise in a Catholic school” (34). Catholic schools must be “guided by [a] Christian vision of reality [which aims at] forming in the Christian those particular virtues which will enable him to live a new life in Christ and help him to play faithfully his part in building up the kingdom of God” (36).

19. The task of a Catholic school “is fundamentally a synthesis of culture and faith, and a synthesis of faith and life: The first is reached by integrating all the different aspects of human knowledge through the subjects taught, in the light of the Gospel; the second in the growth of the virtues characteristic of the Christian” (37). The Catholic school “will give pride of place in the education it provides through Christian doctrine to the gradual formation of conscience in fundamental, permanent virtues—above all the theological virtues, and charity in particular” (47). It will work to inculcate in students “not simply intellectual assent to religious truths, but also a total commitment of one's whole being to the person of Christ” (50).

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20. Thus, “the importance and need of catechetical instruction in Catholic schools cannot be sufficiently emphasized” (51). Yet a Catholic school also “must be a community” and not merely an instruction-machine because “faith is principally assimilated through contact with people whose daily life bears witness to it. Christian faith, in fact, is born and grows inside a community” (53). As a “genuine community, [the Catholic school must be] bent on imparting, over and above an academic education, all the help it can to its members to adopt a Christian way of life” (60). The cooperation needed to achieve this goal “is a duty, in conscience, for all members of the community—teachers, parents, pupils, administrative personnel. Each has his or her own part to play” (61).

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21. In short, a genuinely Catholic school must be a community of faith assisting everyone in his or her call to holiness (Lumen Gentium, 39). It should never be an enclave of privilege or an escape from our fraternal responsibility for those in the world around us who suffer. It must never be merely a “good private academy” with a religious or ethical patina. The heart of every Catholic school must be alive with a zeal for the Gospel, the Eucharist and the teachings of the Catholic faith, especially as they are embodied in the great Catechism of the Catholic Church. It must strive to form every student as a servant-leader centered in Jesus Christ, on fire with the Catholic faith, and committed to serving Christ's brothers and sisters in the wider community. The student must grow in the realization that the only enduring gift is love (1 Cor 12-13) and that those who are greatest in the kingdom of God are the saints.

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Ill. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

22. Science has greatly enriched our knowledge of Creation. Social science has deepened our understanding of humanity itself. Technology, the child of science, has turned this knowledge into power. In many ways, our lives are more fruitful because of it. But it is the nature of science to be skeptical; to objectify, dissect and disassemble. The human person, however, is a subject, never simply an object. As humanity has become the “object” of genetics, psychology and the other sciences, our century has grown more and more cynical, more and more determinist. Issues of human meaning, freedom and dignity have therefore become more urgent.

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23. Thus, the Catholic school classroom. should be a place where knowledge itself is redeemed. Catholic schools should foster and demand academic excellence, both to honor the dignity of the student and to glorify the God who gave us intelligence. As the Congregation for Catholic Education observed in 1988 (“The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School”), intellectual work is intimately involved in loving God and doing His will: “The light of Christian faith stimulates a desire to know the universe as God's creation. It enkindles a love for the truth...It impels the mind to learn with careful order and precise methods” (49). Moreover, “intellectual development and growth as a Christian go forward hand in hand” because “the world of human culture and the world of religion are not like two parallel lines that never meet; [rather,] points of contact are established within the human person,” and anyone “who searches for the contact points will be able to find them” (51).

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24. Christian respect should inform the whole environment, “illuminat[ing it with] the light of faith,” from attitudes to manners to conduct (25). Real learning depends on a classroom atmosphere of shared basic principles and purpose-filled harmony. We should remember that we live in an age of information overload. We are drowning in too much data and too little coherence. The task of the Catholic school is to restore a sense of organic wholeness to knowledge; to instill a sense of wonder before the beauty, truth and goodness of created reality. We must demonstrate that the broken fragments of our world fit together in a deeper fabric of meaning. We must reassert that beauty, truth and goodness exist; that God is their source; and that in Him, as His child, the human person possesses a surpassing nobility that is more than the sum of our genes or atoms.

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25. Many contemporary catechetical documents, including the “General Catechetical Directory” and “Sharing the Light of Faith,” cite the importance of memorization and formulas in religious education and catechesis. To memorize “by heart” is a beautiful phrase and an equally beautiful reality. Throughout the ages, it has always had a special place in the handing on of our Christian faith.

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26. Pope John Paul II, in his 1979 apostolic exhortation Catechesi Tradendae (“Catechesis in Our Time”), gently and simply recalls us to this tradition: “A certain memorization of the words of Jesus, of important Bible passages, of the Ten Commandments, of the formulas of profession of the faith, of the liturgical texts, of the essential prayers, of key doctrinal ideas, etc., far from being opposed to the dignity of young Christians, or constituting an obstacle to personal dialogue with the Lord, is a real need...We must be realists. The blossoms [of] faith and piety...do not grow in the desert places of a memory-less catechesis” (55). In my own experience as priest and bishop, I have been present on many occasions when prayers memorized “by heart” in childhood have sustained and brightened the spirit of suffering elderly Christians.

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27. Catholic schools should take great care to recruit religion teachers and catechists who are energetic, intellectually adroit and deeply committed to the authentic Magisterium of the Church. Daily, ongoing, religious instruction and catechesis should have primacy of place in every Catholic school curriculum. Wherever possible, religion should be the first subject taught every morning. We should seek not merely professional competence, but a faithfilled dedication to excellence, a sense of vocation and mission, in all faculty and administrative positions.

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28. Moreover, while respecting an appropriate freedom of classroom inquiry, even the purely academic disciplines should in some tangible way serve the larger ecclesial mission of the school. The student should complete a Catholic school education understanding that faith is not an “optional add-on” to daily life. Rather, the practical, every-day world, along with every intellectual discipline, is penetrated and given meaning by faith in Jesus Christ. Students of Catholic schools should find their humanity anew “by embracing the higher values of love and friendship, prayer and contemplation” (Populorum Progressio, 20).

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29. Teachers and administrators, who serve as Christ's leaven in Catholic schools, must strive to spark their students with the desire to acquire knowledge; to understand the interrelationship of facts; and to communicate this understanding to others. Students should develop superior academic, vocational and professional skills because God wishes an abundant life for every one of His children—and this goal is furthered by enhancing his or her talents to the fullest. Moreover, through their personal witness and achievements, students glorify God and lead others to the truth.

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30. Faculty and staff should have a strong sense of a supernatural, Christian vocation to teach in the Church. They should be models of what it means to respond to the universal call to holiness. Catholic teachers should also joyfully, actively participate in the liturgical and sacramental life of the school (“The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School,” 26). Moreover, as the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education noted in 1982, all teachers must recognize that the Catholic school “involves a sincere adherence to the Magisterium of the Church, a presentation of Christ as the supreme model of the human person, and a special care for the quality of religious education in the school” (“Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith,” 38).

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31. In return, the school community should make every reasonable sacrifice to encourage, respect, support and compensate teachers and administrators in a just and appropriate manner. The Archdiocese of Denver will continue to assist in the ongoing professional and religious formation of teachers through the Mile Hi Congress, the Catholic Biblical School, the Archdiocesan Catechetical School and other forms of in-service education. To accomplish this, I ask all teachers and principals to take an active, positive role in cooperating with in-service efforts.

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32. Parents should recall, as Pope John Paul II stressed in his 1981 apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortia (“On the Family”), that they are the primary teachers of their children. While parents and Catholic educators need to form a community of mutual support to ensure best success, the parents are ultimately responsible for the education of their daughters and sons (FC, 36-40). Therefore, I encourage parents to take an active, hands-on role in building the Catholic culture of the school. They should offer their support generously in time, talent and treasure, as their family circumstances allow. Fortunately, many Catholic parents already do this. They understand that Catholic schools are never merely a financial transaction. A Catholic education cannot be “bought.” It is always a community effort, hinging first on the parents and the Gospel example they set within the home. When parents create an atmosphere of forgiveness and prayer within the family, when they attend Mass faithfully on Sunday, when they model a love of Scripture and a joyful acceptance of Church teaching, then they themselves provide the most fruitful kind of Catholic education. No Catholic school can adequately take their place.

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33. This is especially the case for education in human sexuality. As the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education noted in 1983 (“Educational Guidance in Human Love: Outlines for Sex Education”), the task of such education “is not reducible to simple teaching material, nor to theoretical knowledge alone…” (70). Moreover, it “cannot be entrusted indiscriminately to just any member of the school community…” (71). Education in human sexuality in Catholic schools must have the virtue of chastity as its goal. It must communicate, and be guided by, a deep love of Catholic moral teaching. Moreover, it must actively involve the parents, for “...the contribution of the school in all education, and particularly in these matters which are so delicate, must be carried out in agreement with the family” (108).

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34. Those serving in the Office of Catholic Schools—in particular the superintendent, under the direction of the secretary for Catholic education—should take a leadership role in coordinating, supporting and guiding the Catholic education apostolate on an archdiocesan level. I charge the secretary especially with the tasks of ensuring the high quality and authentic Catholic content of in-school religious education and catechetical courses, including the review and approval of all textbooks; of guaranteeing the academic excellence of all curricula; of establishing and supervising personnel and other relevant archdiocesan-wide education policies; and of implementing the new Strategic Plan for Catholic Schools released this year. Moreover, while our schools have always reached out in a special way to the poor and minorities, I ask that redoubled efforts be made to develop scholarship and financial aid resources so that lower-income families will have even greater access to our Catholic schools.

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35. I take special pride in the strong support for Catholic schools which my brother priests voiced in the surveys leading up to the present Strategic Plan. It subtracts nothing from the importance of our lay people to stress once again that the priest is the shepherd and leader of the Eucharistic community which exists in every parish. Following in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, the pastor must feed the flock entrusted to him. Since most Catholic grammar schools are an organic part of a local parish's life, they come under the pastor's guidance.

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36. I am aware of the many demands already placed on our priests. Nonetheless, our schools cannot thrive without their personal support and involvement. The pastor of a parish is also pastor of its school. I ask pastors to enliven the liturgical life of our schools, and to ensure that students have frequent, regular access to the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. I urge pastors to build even stronger links between school and parish, so that all parish members, not merely parents of school children, take ownership in the school as a shared, community apostolate. Schools create the diocesan and parish leaders of tomorrow. They should be centers of learning for the entire parish—including non-school religious education programs. In this way, they become an ever more vital investment in the future.

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37. The principal plays a unique role in the success of every Catholic school. On the one hand, he or she must ensure the academic excellence of the curriculum and guide the productive interaction of faculty, parents and students. On the other hand, each principal of a parish school is also a member of the larger parish staff—a delegate of the pastor and responsible to the pastor; a delegate who not only guarantees the school's religious environment, but also ensures the school's healthy, cooperative integration into overall parish life. Principals of Catholic high schools and non-parish Catholic elementary schools, are, of course, unconnected to parish staffs. Nonetheless, they have a similar duty to integrate their schools' identity and goals into the larger identity and goals of archdiocesan Church life, and especially the archdiocesan education apostolate.

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38. To encourage these conditions in Catholic schools, I submit the following strategies for developing and maintaining an authentic Catholic identity in our classrooms:

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a. The school climate should be clearly Catholic-Christian.

b. All school structures must support the development and maintenance of a Catholic-Christian environment.

c. We must establish a set of distinctive educational and formational goals and priorities for each Catholic school. In American culture, special emphasis needs to be given to the gospel of life (cf. the 1995 encyclical letter of Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae).

d. We must base decisions about faculty and staff hiring, development and termination not merely on their professional competence, but also on their commitment to building a faith community and their support for school goals.

e. The school's curriculum must be anchored in Catholic truth. It should be informed, in an age-appropriate way, by The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the documents of the Second Vatican Council.

d. The school must demonstrate the Catholic faith as attractive, life-giving and joy-filled. It is reasonable and appropriate for a Catholic school to embrace the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, and to show a special loyalty to the Holy Father.

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IV. LIVING STONES

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39. Earlier this year, in Part One: Signs of the Times, I outlined six principles that should govern every Catholic educational effort (25-36). I reaffirm them here. Additionally, I ask all pastors, principals and teachers to discuss and to implement Part One: Signs of the Times and Part Two: Living Stones, as integral elements of school hiring and in-service training.

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40. I also direct all schools to incorporate the key documents on Catholic education from the Popes, the Second Vatican Council, Roman congregations, the Code of Canon Law and the bishops of the United States—some of them referenced here—in their ongoing, in-service education. Finally, I encourage all members of the Catholic educational community to share their suggestions and experiences with me, for I am grateful for their many sacrifices and eager to assist them in their apostolic work.

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41. I commit myself this day to support the Strategic Plan for Catholic Schools in every way possible, in consultation with the Presbyteral Council, the Archdiocesan Finance Council and the College of Consultors. Strong popular conviction already exists to expand many of our current Catholic schools, and to build new ones. Thus, I am confident that this plan is a moment of grace. I believe the Strategic Plan for our schools will have far wider effect than merely providing more classroom space; it will lead to growth and renewal throughout the Church in northern Colorado. We face an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime. As we approach the Jubilee of the Year 2000, we cannot let it pass.

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42. But no matter how positive the survey data, no matter how strong the expressions of popular support, we now face the hard realities of brick and mortar and finance. How much are we willing to sacrifice for the future of our children? How hard are we willing to work, and how much are we really willing to pay, for the renewal of our schools—and through them, our community of faith? These questions must be answered by each parish, each priest and each parishioner in the months ahead. I am committed to this road. But we will have to walk it together.

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43. The way may be arduous. But in prayer, I return again and again to the conversion of St. Francis of Assisi. Kneeling in the remnants of a crumbling chapel, the Poverello heard Christ's quiet voice asking him to “Repair my house.” What began with the rough stones of one chapel became the great Franciscan renewal of our whole Catholic faith.

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“Come to Him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 2:4-5).

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44. Brothers and sisters, to build our schools, we will find the energy and hope, the brick and mortar, in one place only: the furnace of creative love which is the Trinity, the inner life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In God's hands, we are the brick and mortar. We are the living stones.

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J. Francis Stafford

Archbishop of Denver

25 May 1995

Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord

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