Culture of Christ

Pius XI
Christian Education
Part 2c: The Role of
Society in Education

It must be borne in mind also that the obligation of the family to bring up children, includes not only religious and moral education, but physical and civic education as well, principally in so far as it touches upon religion and morality.

Here the Pontiff outlines that education is more than just morality and religion, but all-encompassing, to physical education, and their role in society. Morality and religion heavily influence these two things. As our bodies are gifts of God, we should use them wisely. Part of using that body wisely is using it properly in society. Furthermore, as St. Paul reminded us that we still live in this world, even though we are not of it, we are to bring Christ to this world. It is for this reason our Blessed Lord told us to be the salt of the earth.

This incontestable right of the family has at various times been recognized by nations anxious to respect the natural law in their civil enactments. Thus, to give one recent example, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, in a decision on an important controversy, declared that it is not in the competence of the State to fix any uniform standard of education by forcing children to receive instruction exclusively in public schools, and it bases its decision on the natural law: the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to educate him and prepare him for the fulfillment of his obligations.

Quite astonishing that this decision occurred in America during Pius XI’s pontificate, compared to what we see nowadays, where judges are doing their best to force children into public schooling and compulsory public education. Yet the reasoning is something we must remind our out of control courts on. The civil law was not the first law to be enacted. There is a law higher than that, natural law, which all laws must conform to. Ultimately, these two sets of laws are to conform to the divine law. Furthermore, as the Court pointed out, the child is a creature of the parents. The state did not create them. Therefore, even if the State were to fail in educating the child, the parent would still be responsible. The state is not directly responsible if the parent fails to educate that child. It may help the child, but it is ultimately not the State’s obligation to do so. For society is responsible for the things it has created, and husband and wife theirs.

History bears witness how, particularly in modern times, the State has violated and does violate rights conferred by God on the family. At the same time it shows magnificently how the Church has ever protected and defended these rights, a fact proved by the special confidence which parents have in Catholic schools. As We pointed out recently in Our letter to the Cardinal Secretary of State:

The family has instinctively understood this to be so, and from the earliest days of Christianity down to our own times, fathers and mothers, even those of little or no faith, have been sending or bringing their children in millions to places of education under the direction of the Church.

As always, a strong and vibrant Church always protects citizens of society from a society overstepping it’s boundaries. When society abuses its power in education, the Catholic Church established an education system that educated children rightly and properly, free from the control of the State. Even those Non-Catholic parents may have sent their children to Catholic schools from time to time, realizing the prominence the Church placed on education, and the prominence the Church placed on the families role in education above the state.

On the other hand so jealous is she of the family's inviolable natural right to educate the children, that she never consents, save under peculiar circumstances and with special cautions, to baptize the children of infidels, or provide for their education against the will of the parents, till such time as the children can choose for hemselves and freely embrace the Faith

Unlike the out of control State, which wishes to indoctrinate children against the will of their parents, the Church has always respected the right of the family, even if that family were not Catholic. They would not baptize that child without the parents consent, or educate the children against their will. The state in Pius XI’s time and more so today, wishes to indoctrinate the child with the ills of secular humanism, and the parent has little say over this manner. When the
parent exercises their right as parent and removes the child from such a hostile environment, charges are levied upon the parent and the child for truancy.

These rights have been conferred upon civil society by the Author of nature Himself, not by title of fatherhood, as in the case of the Church and of the family, but in virtue of the authority which it possesses to promote the common temporal welfare, which is precisely the purpose of its existence. Consequently education cannot pertain to civil society in the same way in which it pertains to the Church and to the family, but in a different way corresponding to its own particular end and object.

Here we see that from a Christian perspective, and indeed from natural law, the State is to have a very limited role in education. It is to protect education as so far it goes towards promoting the common welfare. While they may provide education services, nowhere is a mandate provided for the State to do as it pleases in education. Nowhere is it a mandate of the State to stop parents from choosing which schools their children attend. Rather, the state is to ensure education, however it is done, promotes the general welfare of society and the people living in society.

It also belongs to the State to protect the rights of the child itself when the parents are found wanting either physically or morally in this respect, whether by default, incapacity or misconduct, since, as has been shown, their right to educate is not an absolute and despotic one, but dependent on the natural and divine law, and therefore subject alike to the authority and jurisdiction of the Church, and to the vigilance and administrative care of the State in view of the common good. Besides, the family is not a perfect society, that is, it has not in itself all the means necessary for its full development. In such cases, exceptional no doubt, the State does not put itself in the place of the family, but merely supplies deficiencies, and provides suitable means, always in conformity with the natural rights of the child and the supernatural rights of the Church.

Notice that first of all, The Pontiff states that these cases are exceptional, not the norm. If it can be proven that parents are teaching their children in contradiction of the natural law, or were educating their children inefficiently, the State may assist, not overriding the parent’s authority, but complementing such. For the common welfare is never served by intruding into the rights of the family as a whole.

In general then it is the right and duty of the State to protect, according to the rules of right reason and faith, the moral and religious education of youth, by removing public impediments that stand in the way. In the first place it pertains to the State, in view of the common good, to promote in various ways the education and instruction of youth. It should begin by encouraging and assisting, of its own accord, the initiative and activity of the Church and the family, whose successes in this field have been clearly demonstrated by history and experience. It should moreover supplement their work whenever this falls short of what is necessary, even by means of its own schools and institutions. For the State more than any other society is provided with the means put at its disposal for the needs of all, and it is only right that it use these means to the advantage of those who have contributed them

We see that the State’s primary role in the eyes of Pius XI is not as educator, but as protector of those who educate. As the parents know that child best, they know what the best course of education is for that child. Likewise, it is a fact that those home schooled, or those in private Christian institutions consistently outperform those in public schools. This track record sadly nowadays is completely ignored. The reason for this success is not hard to understand, given the special relationship between the child and his parents, and the child and the Church.