On account of some hostilities towards Catholic schools that have become increasingly evident, I offer the following reply:
1. Schools and
universities are inventions of the Catholic Church. Today’s educational institutions began with
bishops’ households and grew into monastic and cathedral schools and ultimately
into universities. Moreover, the curriculum
of the seven liberal arts was invented by a Christian monk, Cassiodorus, to be
used in the schools; academic degrees originally carried the weight of papal
authority (and in many cases still do).
For Catholics to be deprived of our schools would effectively be to be deprived
of our intellectual property.
2. That having
been said, the Church cannot be expected to make use of its intellectual
property for contrary purposes. The
Church established schools to foster learning and virtue by way of the seven
liberal arts; the history of the twentieth century suffices to show that
secularist schools inevitably devolve to socio-political indoctrination and the
diminishing of liberal education. The
Church cannot be party to such a distortion of the school’s purpose.
3. Catholicity teaches
that the human person possesses infinite and inalienable worth and dignity on
account of having been created in God’s image and likeness, a doctrine not
shared by non-believers. Thus, Catholic
schools are, by dogmatic necessity, ‘safe places’ for even sexual
minorities. It seems that secularists
assert human dignity upon the force of changeable law or common sentiment. Forgive me, but I fail to see how the
assertion of human dignity upon insufficient grounds can make secular schools
safe places for everyone.
4. The religious
component of taxpayer-funded education can be, understandably, unsettling. I would propose that, upon closer inspection,
the issue isn’t so much about ‘religion’ as it is about ‘belief.’ For example, how many of us hold certain beliefs
without having arrived at them by way of rigorous examination? I would propose that what Christians are
accused of doing in terms of ‘religion’ is exactly what our accusers do in
holding to certain ethical, political, or social beliefs. This strikes me as a probable case of the pot
calling the kettle black.
5. On the topic of
paying taxes, let us not forget that Catholics, too, are taxpaying citizens
and, account of our citizenship, our voices are equal to others. We do not dispute the right of people to
divert their taxes to secular schools and to send their children there. We simply ask to be afforded the same right
as those who choose and pay to send their children to non-Catholic schools.
