Catholic schools

259. The Catholic school (²⁶⁷) is a most important locus for human and Christian formation. The declaration of the Second Vatican Council, Gravissimum Educationis "makes a decisive change in the history of Catholic schools: the move from school as institution to school as community". (²⁶⁸) Catholic schools "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;

– enable young people, while developing their own personality, to grow at the same time in that new life which has been given them in baptism;

– orientate the whole of human culture to the message of salvation"; (²⁶⁹)

The educational task of Catholic schools is bound to be developed along the basis of this concept proposed by the Second Vatican Council. It is accomplished in the school community, to which belong all of those who are directly involved in it: "teachers, management, administrative and auxiliary staff, parents—central in that they are the natural and irreplaceable educators of their own children—and pupils, who are participants and active subjects too of the educational process". (²⁷⁰)

260. When most students attending a Catholic school belong to families who associate themselves with the school because of its Catholic character, the ministry of the word can be exercised in it in multiple forms: primary proclamation, scholastic religious instruction, catechesis, homily. Two of these forms, however, have a particular importance in the Catholic school: religious instruction in the school and catechesis whose respective characteristics have already been discussed. (²⁷¹) When students and their families become associated with Catholic schools because of the quality of education offered in the school, or for other possible reasons, catechetical activity is necessarily limited and even religious education—when possible—accentuates its cultural character. The contribution of such schools is always "a service of great value to men", (²⁷²) as well as an internal element of evangelization of the Church. Given the plurality of socio-cultural and religious contexts in which the work of Catholic schools is carried on in different nations, it is opportune that the Bishops and the Episcopal Conferences specify the kind of catechetical activity to be implemented in Catholic schools.