The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education is convinced that the educative experience in Catholic schools should be understood as an experience of communion, and their newly-released document reflects that conviction.With Benedict XVI's approval, the 26-page statement “Educating Together in Catholic Schools: A Shared Mission Between Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful" was released Tuesday in four languages, including English.
The prefect and undersecretary of the dicastery, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski and monsignor Angelo Zani, respectively, presented the document. Roberto Zappalà, rector at the Gonzaga Institute of Milan, joined the Vatican officials in presenting the details of the text.
Zappalà noted that the concept of communion in Catholic schools was the guiding point for the dicastery, given that contemporary society shares less and less common points of reference, due to individualism and moral relativism.
And this comes into play in every teaching institution, in particular in a Catholic school, because “it proposes itself as an educational community that not only frames itself within a determined set of values -- those of the Gospel -- and transmits them, but also lives and makes come alive an experience of communion in which these values take on the form of educational norms,” Zappalá said.
A mission
From this perspective, the professor added, “the educational experience of a Catholic school” has to be understood as “an experience of communion,” something “that can’t be improvised, but which requires ecclesial maturity in the relationship between consecrated members and the laity,” and a path of formation.
The document thus explained that man is called to fulfill himself in communion with God and others, and that education can only truly be carried out in a relational and communitarian context, beginning with the family and then the school, which places itself alongside the family as an aid, explained Zappalà.
The text further emphasized the need for good teachers. The suggestions of the dicastery in this area highlight the need for professional formation, capable of synthesizing competence and educational motivations.
The overall goal, Zappalá explained, is that “the Catholic school participates in the mission of the Church, and the Church -- as Benedict XVI has emphasized -- is never an end in itself: It exists to show God to the world, it exists for others. The Catholic school exists for the entire world and is the builder of a communion open to the entire world."
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