Catholic Social Teaching in Catholic Education

Catholic Social Teaching and Curriculum Reform

Introduction

  • Catholic secondary schools are increasingly influenced by national state requirements.
  • These requirements are often economic and utilitarian, evaluated by measurable outputs.
  • This can lead to Catholic schools losing their distinctive religious and educational culture.
  • Catholic social teaching (CST) permeation is crucial to resist cultural incorporation and for its intrinsic importance.
  • Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (2009), is highlighted for its educational potential.
  • Schultheis et al. (1988) noted that Catholic social teaching seemed forgotten by many Catholics.
  • Major problem: lack of access to Papal encyclicals' discourse.
  • Catholic educational institutions have failed to provide curriculum mediations of this teaching.
  • This article argues that Caritas in Veritate (CV) could provide material for Catholic educators in secondary schools. The encyclical focuses on integral human development in charity and truth.
  • Using CV throughout the curriculum would offer a distinctive religious, cultural, and educational message.

Permeating Curricula with Caritas in Veritate

  • Three major themes in Caritas in Veritate (CV):
    • Religious, moral, and cultural issues
    • Economic, business, and enterprise issues
    • Social, environmental, and political issues
  • Potential for CST permeation across subjects like Theology, Philosophy, Economics, Sciences, and Humanities.

Religious, Moral, and Cultural Issues

  • Study sessions utilize CV extracts to elicit personal, critical responses from students.
  • Examples of discussion topics and assignment questions:
    • Charity transcends justice by building the earthly city according to law and justice, completing it in giving and forgiving (CV, para. 6, 7).
    • 'Charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples. It strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice. On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving'
    • Underdevelopment is the lack of brotherhood among individuals and peoples; globalization makes us neighbors, not brothers; reason establishes civic equalities but not fraternity (CV, para. 19, 20).
    • 'Underdevelopment is the lack of brotherhood among individuals and peoples. As society becomes ever more globalised it makes us neighbours but does not make us brothers. Reason can establish civic equalities but it cannot establish fraternity'
    • People frequently kill in God's name, especially terrorists motivated by fundamentalism, obstructing dialogue between nations (CV, para. 29, 33).
    • 'Today, people frequently kill in the holy name of God This applies especially to terrorism motivated by fundamentalism which generates grief, destruction and death and obstructs dialogue between nations'
    • Alienation and neuroses in affluent societies are partly attributable to spiritual factors; when far from God, man is unsettled (CV, para. 76, 88).
    • 'When he is far away from God, man is unsettled and ill at ease. Social and psychological alienation and the many neuroses that afflict affluent societies are attributable, in part, to spiritual factors'
    • Greatest service to development is Christian humanism; openness to God makes us open to others and life as a joyful task accomplished in solidarity (CV, para. 78, 91).
    • 'The greatest service to development then, is a Christian humanism Openness to God makes us open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity'
  • Study program needs readings on charity, social justice, fraternity, religious fundamentalism, engagement with 'new atheists' (e.g., Dawkins, 2006), and Christian social action.
  • This can contribute to a renewed, informed Catholic social conscience among the young.

Economic, Business and Enterprise Issues

  • Curriculum development related to Economics, Finance, Business Administration, and Enterprise is growing internationally in Catholic schools.
  • This reflects expectations for preparing students for a competitive, globalized world.
  • Challenge: these subjects can be secular implants unless organically linked to religious, moral, and social teachings.
  • There is little evidence of this organic relation being developed.
  • Many writers on Economics have kept religious and moral issues separate.
  • Hadas (2009) argues that refusal to take morality seriously played a role in the financial crisis.
  • The 'rich heritage' of Catholic social and moral teaching has generally been ignored in Catholic schools.
  • The global economic crisis and Caritas in Veritate provide an opportunity to focus on the relevance of CST to contemporary conditions.
  • Caritas in Veritate presents issues for senior students' consideration:
    • World's wealth is growing, but inequalities are increasing (CV, para. 22, 25).
    • 'The world's wealth is growing in absolute terms but inequalities are on the increase. The scandal of glaring inequalities continues'
    • Belief that the economy must be autonomous has led to destructive abuse (CV, para. 34, 39).
    • 'The conviction that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from the influences of a moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way'
    • The market can be a negative force due to ideology (CV, para. 36, 42).
    • 'The market can be a negative force, not because it is so by nature, but because a certain ideology can make it so'
    • John Paul II taught that investment has moral and economic significance (CV, para. 40, 47).
    • 'John Paul II taught that investment always has moral as well as economic significance'
    • Financiers must rediscover the ethical foundations of their activity (CV, para. 65, 77).
    • 'Financiers must rediscover the ethical foundations of their activity so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments what can serve to betray the interests of savers'
  • Teachers can bring together Economics, Finance, Business Administration, and Enterprise with Catholic religious, moral, and social teaching.
  • Caritas in Veritate can be the catalyst for this cultural transformation.

Social, Environmental, and Political Issues

  • Social, environmental, and political issues appeal to senior students.
  • They are the inheritors of a dysfunctional world and are more informed about its dysfunctions than previous generations.
  • They expect school programs to engage with these issues and suggest Catholic social action for change.
  • Caritas in Veritate offers guidance for action and transformation.
  • The crisis becomes an opportunity for discernment to shape a new vision (CV, 24).
  • Pope Benedict XVI shares their concerns and provides guidance.
  • Statements that can animate youth:
    • Globalization opens possibilities for wealth redistribution but can increase poverty and inequality if misdirected (CV, para. 42, 50).
    • 'The processes of globalization open up the unprecedented possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world – wide scale; if badly directed however, they can lead to an increase in poverty and inequality'
    • Resources for rescuing people from poverty are greater than ever, but largely benefit people from developed countries due to liberalization (CV, para. 42, 51).
    • 'Today the material resources available for rescuing peoples from poverty are potentially greater than ever before, but they have ended up largely in the hands of people from developed countries who have benefited more from the liberalisation that has occurred in the mobility of capital and labour'
    • How humanity treats the environment influences how it treats itself, inviting a review of lifestyles prone to hedonism and consumerism (CV, para. 51, 63).
    • 'The way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself This invites contemporary society to a serious review of its life-style, which, in many parts of the world is prone to hedonism and consumerism, regardless of their harmful consequences'
    • Every migrant is a human person with fundamental inalienable rights (CV, para. 62, 75).
    • 'Every migrant is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance'
    • Urgent need for a world political authority to ensure security, justice, and respect for rights (CV, para. 67, 79–80).
    • 'There is urgent need of a true world political authority vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights'
  • Detailed study of Caritas in Veritate can show that Christian religion is integral to understanding these challenges.
  • There is an Earthly City that believers are called upon to perfect by social action.
  • Development requires attention to the spiritual life (CV, para. 79, 92).
  • Authentic religion shows a 'real world' attainable by faith-inspired social action, countering the construct of globalized materialism.

Catholic Social Teaching and the Catholic School Curriculum

  • Davis (1999) questioned if there can be a Catholic curriculum.
  • Catholic schools may have had to restrict their Catholicity to worship, ethos, and religious education to be accredited.
  • Davis raises the question of whether that's sufficient if most of the curriculum is secular.
  • There is an urgent need to strengthen the Catholic cultural content of the curriculum.
  • The rich heritage of Catholic social teaching could provide distinctive, counter-cultural material.
  • Caritas in Veritate builds upon earlier work, especially from Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.
  • Innovative teachers can illuminate subjects distinctively, integrating faith and learning through Catholic social teaching.
  • This transformation requires school autonomy, changes in teacher preparation, and innovative school leaders.
  • Maintaining mission integrity in a secular, globalized world requires such cultural action.

Education and the Formation of the Catholic Social Conscience

  • Benedict XVI: education refers to complete formation of the person (CV, para. 61, 73).
  • Emphasizing 'formation of the person' is counter-cultural and more humane.
  • Ultimate goal: forming good persons equipped to serve the common good, motivated by faith and a Catholic social conscience.
  • Ratzinger (2006) argued that conscience signifies the presence of truth in the subject and the obligation to care for and form it.
  • Catholic schools are crucial arenas for forming conscience.
  • The Catholic social conscience requires nurture of spirituality and Christian faith by interaction between social teaching and the teaching, practice and mission of Jesus Christ and the saints.
  • Students need opportunities to be involved in Catholic social action projects.
  • The challenge is that such formation is being marginalized in pursuit of better academic and test results.
  • Catholic schools have role models to inspire students to act beyond a culture of acquisitive and competitive individualism.
  • Pope Benedict XVI has given them a better vision for the future and emphasised love of God shown in love of neighbour.

Conclusion: Catholic Social Teaching: A Major Resource

  • Catholic education could be renewed by systematic permeation of Catholic social teaching across all subjects.
  • This would engage senior students and strengthen their Catholic social conscience.
  • It would help prevent students and schools from being incorporated into a global culture focused solely on practical utility and economic progress.
  • The corpus of Catholic social teaching is more extensive than Caritas in Veritate and earlier Papal encyclicals.
  • Serious cultural transformations in educational practice are not easy.
  • Measurements of Catholic social conscience are not included in school accountability processes.
  • Catholic school leaders must balance public accountability requirements with their role as guardians of mission integrity.
  • A mediating text for school leaders and teachers is the Fourth Edition of Catholic Social Teaching, published by the Center of Concern (2003).
  • Teachers and students can focus on seven core principles:
    • Dignity of the Human Person
    • Dignity of Work
    • Person in Community
    • Rights and Responsibilities
    • Option for those in Poverty
    • Solidarity
    • Care for Creation
  • The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales (1996) called for more participation in the development of Catholic Social Teaching.
  • To ensure ownership and a mature Catholic social conscience, permeate the curriculum with Catholic social teaching.
  • Catholic Bishops Conferences should give leadership to strengthen the religious and cultural distinctiveness of Catholic school curricula.