Catholic Social Teaching in Catholic Education: Notes

Catholic Social Teaching in Catholic Education

Introduction

• International research indicates that Catholic secondary school curricula are increasingly dominated by national state requirements, often expressed in economic terms and evaluated by measurable outputs.

• This pressure risks the loss of a distinctive religious and educational cultural program in Catholic schools.

• Permeation of Catholic social teaching is essential to resist cultural incorporation into state-mandated curricula and holds intrinsic importance.

• Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (2009), offers significant educational potential.

• Michael Schultheis et al. (1988) noted that Catholic social teaching seemed forgotten or unknown by many Roman Catholics.

• This teaching includes Papal encyclicals of Leo XIII (1891), Pius XI (1931), Paul VI (1967), and John Paul II (1981, 1988).

• A major problem is the lack of access to Papal encyclicals' formal discourse.

• Catholic educational institutions have failed to provide curriculum mediations of this teaching, losing an opportunity to disseminate counter-cultural social messages.

• Pope Benedict's encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, addresses integral human development in charity and truth and can be used across secondary school subjects.

• Using Caritas in Veritate will provide a distinctive religious, cultural, and educational message absent in local state secular schools.

Permeating Curricula with Caritas in Veritate

• Three major themes of Caritas in Veritate:

  • Religious, moral, and cultural issues.

  • Economic, business, and enterprise issues.

  • Social, environmental, and political issues.

• Potential for permeation across subjects like Theology, Religious Education, Philosophy, Ethics, Personal and Moral Education, Mathematics, Business and Enterprise Studies, Economic and Social Sciences, Politics, Environmental and Physical Sciences, and Humane subjects.

Religious, Moral, and Cultural Issues

• Study sessions for senior students can be constructed around discussion topics related to specific Caritas in Veritate extracts, eliciting personal, critical responses.

• Examples of discussion topics:

  • Charity's transcendence of justice: recognition and respect for individual and peoples' rights, building the earthly city according to law and justice, and completing it in giving and forgiving (Para. 6, 7).

    • In what ways does charity 'transcend' justice?

  • Underdevelopment as a lack of brotherhood: globalization makes us neighbors but not brothers; reason establishes civic equalities but not fraternity (Para. 19, 20).

    • Outline your understanding of the Christian doctrine of fraternity and indicate how it could be applied to international development.

  • Killing in the name of God: terrorism motivated by fundamentalism generates grief, destruction, and death and obstructs dialogue between nations (Para. 29, 33).

    • How would you answer the arguments of Professor Richard Dawkins that this is the inevitable outcome of religious belief?

  • Alienation from God: man is unsettled and ill at ease when far from God; social and psychological alienation and neuroses in affluent societies are attributable to spiritual factors (Para. 76, 88).

    • To what extent do you agree with this statement?

  • Christian humanism: openness to God makes us open to our brothers and sisters, understanding life as a joyful task accomplished in solidarity (Para. 78, 91).

    • Does the record of Christian social action in the world support, in your view, this assertion?

• A study program must be based on a resource book of readings covering forms of charity, social justice, interpretations of fraternity, types of religious fundamentalism, engagement with 'new atheists' (e.g., Dawkins, 2006), and historical study of Christian social action.

• This is demanding for teachers and students but can contribute to a renewed, better-informed Catholic social conscience among the young.

Economic, Business, and Enterprise Issues

• Curriculum development in Economics, Finance, Business Administration, and Enterprise is growing in Catholic schools internationally, reflecting government, parent, and student expectations.

• These subjects prepare students for a competitive, mobile, and globalized world.

• The utilitarian appeal of these subjects is high.

• A challenge is preventing these subjects from being secular and utilitarian cultural implants by connecting them organically with religious, moral, and social teachings of the Church.

• There is little evidence that this connection is being developed.

• Many writers on Economics have kept religious and moral issues separate.

• Edward Hadas (2009) argues that the refusal to take morality seriously played a role in the pre-crisis abdication of responsibility in finance.

• The 'rich heritage' of Catholic social and moral teaching has generally been ignored in many Catholic schools.

• The global economic and financial crisis and the publication of Caritas in Veritate provide an opportunity to focus on the relevance of Catholic social teaching to contemporary conditions.

• Caritas in Veritate presents issues for discussion and reflection for senior students, such as:

  • Growing wealth with increasing inequalities (Para. 22, 25).

  • The destructive consequences of the belief that the economy must be autonomous from moral considerations (Para. 34, 39).

  • The market as a negative force due to certain ideologies (Para. 36, 42).

  • John Paul II's teaching: investment always has moral as well as economic significance (Para. 40, 47).

  • The need for financiers to rediscover the ethical foundations of their activity (Para. 65, 77).

• Catholic school teachers can bring together Economics, Finance, Business Administration, and Enterprise with Catholic religious, moral, and social teaching.

• This can achieve a higher-order level of knowledge and understanding, with Caritas in Veritate as a catalyst for cultural transformation.

Social, Environmental, and Political Issues

• Social, environmental, and political issues appeal to senior students who believe the world is in a dysfunctional state.

• They likely expect school programs to engage seriously with these issues and suggest Catholic social action for change and development.

• Caritas in Veritate shares these concerns and provides guidance for action and transformation.

• Statements from Pope Benedict XVI:

  • Globalization can lead to large-scale redistribution of wealth or increase poverty and inequality (Para. 42, 50).

  • Material resources for rescuing people from poverty are greater than ever but are concentrated in developed countries (Para. 42, 51).

  • How humanity treats the environment influences how it treats itself (Para. 51, 63).

  • Every migrant possesses fundamental inalienable rights (Para. 62, 75).

  • There is an urgent need for a true world political authority to ensure security, justice, and respect for rights (Para. 67, 79–80).

• Students may distance themselves from faith if it seems disconnected from real-world challenges.

• Detailed study of Caritas in Veritate can show that the Christian religion in the Catholic tradition is integral to understanding these challenges and provides guidance.

• Believers are called to perfect the Earthly City through social action.

• Development requires attention to the spiritual life (trust in God, fellowship in Christ, reliance on God's providence and mercy, love, forgiveness, self-denial, acceptance of others, justice, and peace) to transform hearts of stone into hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

• The 'real world' is a construct of globalized materialism.

• Catholic social teaching (especially Caritas in Veritate) shows the authentic face of religion and a 'real world' attainable by faith-inspired social action.

Catholic Social Teaching and the Catholic School Curriculum

• Robert Davis (1999) questioned whether there can be a Catholic curriculum, given governmental and economic domination.

• Davis argued that Catholic schools' Catholicity is restricted to worship, ethos, and Religious Education.

• He questioned whether this is sufficient if the rest of the curriculum is secular, utilitarian, and shaped by external requirements.

• There is an urgent need to strengthen the Catholic cultural content of the curriculum to prevent incorporation into a secularized and technicist educational culture.

• Catholic social teaching can provide distinctive and counter-cultural material across subjects.

• Caritas in Veritate and earlier works (especially from Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II) offer a rich resource for innovative teachers.

• This will strengthen the school's Catholicity by integrating faith and learning through Catholic social teaching.

• This transformation requires:

  • School authorities to struggle for curriculum autonomy.

  • Changes in professional preparation and development for Catholic teachers.

  • School leaders to be innovative agents of change.

• Maintaining mission integrity in a secular, globalized, and technicist world requires such cultural action.

Education and the Formation of the Catholic Social Conscience

• Benedict XVI: education refers not only to classroom teaching and vocational training, but to the complete formation of the person (Para. 61, 73).

• A Catholic educational discourse emphasizes 'formation of the person' as counter-cultural and more humane.

• The ultimate goal is forming good persons with knowledge and skills to serve the common good, motivated by faith and a Catholic social conscience.

• Ratzinger (2006):

  • Conscience signifies the presence of truth in the subject himself.

  • It overcomes mere subjectivity in encountering truth from God.

  • Conscience includes the obligation to care for, form, and educate it.

• Catholic schools and colleges are crucial for forming and informing conscience, alongside parents and attendance at Mass.

• The Catholic social conscience requires:

  • Acquisition of knowledge about Catholic social teaching.

  • Nurture of spirituality and Christian faith.

  • Constant interaction between social teaching and the teaching, practice, and mission of Jesus Christ and the saints.

  • Involvement in Catholic social action projects.

• The challenge is preventing this formation from being marginalized in the pursuit of academic and test results.

• The history of Catholicism is rich in martyrs of conscience who showed obedience to the truth.

• Catholic schools and colleges have role models to inspire students to think and act beyond individualism.

• Pope Benedict XVI has given a better vision for the future and emphasized that love of God must be shown in love of neighbor.

Conclusion: Catholic Social Teaching

• Catholic education could be renewed by systematically permeating Catholic social teaching across all subjects.

• Advantages:

  • Engages senior students who question the relevance of faith.

  • Informs and strengthens their Catholic social conscience by connecting faith and action.

  • Prevents students and schools from being incorporated into a global culture focused only on practical utility and economic/technological progress.

• Caritas in Veritate and earlier Papal encyclicals provide a foundation.

• The corpus of Catholic social teaching is extensive.

• Cultural transformations in education are difficult due to academic productivity, public accountability, market competition, and value for money calculations.

• Measurements of Catholic social conscience are not included in school accountability processes.

• Catholic school leaders must assert their role as guardians of mission integrity.

• Public accountability and workload pressures impede religious, cultural, and curriculum change.

Core Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

A term's program can be focused on the seven core principles of Catholic social teaching, as outlined by the Center of Concern in Washington (2003):

1. The Dignity of the Human Person

2. The Dignity of Work

3. The Person in Community

4. Rights and Responsibilities

5. Option for those in Poverty

6. Solidarity

7. Care for Creation

These principles include topics such as the common good, 'structures of sin', liberation theology, human rights, resisting market idolatry, subsidiarity, peace-making, and just war.

In 1996, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales called for more participation in the future development of Catholic Social Teaching so that it is properly owned by all Catholics (para. 31).

The way to ensure this ownership and the formation of a maturely developed Catholic social conscience is to permeate the curriculum and the pedagogy of Catholic schools and colleges, with the rich heritage of Catholic social teaching