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Pope Pius XI after teaching on the nature and duties of the role of the Catholic Church, the civil State and the family in education, begins to show how they are related to one another in a hierarchy. The Catholic Church because of its higher order, is called to safeguard Education and to establish the principles to which education must be conformed.
“While treating of education, it is not out of place to show here how an ecclesiastical writer, who flourished in more recent times, during the Renaissance, the holy and learned Cardinal Silvio Antoniano, to whom the cause of Christian education is greatly indebted, has set forth most clearly this well established point of Catholic doctrine. He had been a disciple of that wonderful educator of youth, St. Philip Neri; he was teacher and Latin secretary to St. Charles Borromeo, and it was at the latter’s suggestion and under his inspiration that he wrote his splendid treatise on The Christian Education of Youth. In it he argues as follows:
“The more closely the temporal power of a nation aligns itself with the spiritual, and the more it fosters and promotes the latter, by so much the more it contributes to the conservation of the commonwealth. For it is the aim of the ecclesiastical authority by the use of spiritual means, to form good Christians in accordance with its own particular end and object; and in doing this it helps at the same time to form good citizens, and prepares them to meet their obligations as members of a civil society.
This follows of necessity because in the City of God, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, a good citizen and an upright man are absolutely one and the same thing. How grave therefore is the error of those who separate things so closely united, and who think that they can produce good citizens by ways and methods other than those which make for the formation of good Christians. For, let human prudence say what it likes and reason as it pleases, it is impossible to produce true temporal peace and tranquillity by things repugnant or opposed to the peace and happiness of eternity.”” (Cardinal Silvio Antoniano – Dell’Educazione Cristiana e Politica de’ Figliuoli, 1821) (Divini Illius Magistri 54)
Those who oppose the Catholic viewpoint have an incorrect understanding of the origin of mankind. In denying the existence of God and His creative power, they also come to deny the nature of man as being a creature composed of body and soul. They fall prey to the same temptation that was offered to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden by the serpent. Their actions promote sinful behaviours and lead to the inevitable collapse of society because they promote a false understanding of the moral order. It is acceptance of the moral order that produces good citizens and therefore leads to the development of cultured and just societies. One of the primary purposes of education is to teach this moral order to children so that they will come to know the purpose of their lives and the ultimate source of happiness.
“What is true of the State, is true also of science, scientific methods and scientific research; they have nothing to fear from the full and perfect mandate which the Church holds in the field of education. Our Catholic institutions, whatever their grade in the educational and scientific world, have no need of apology. The esteem they enjoy, the praise they receive, the learned works which they promote and produce in such abundance, and above all, the men, fully and splendidly equipped, whom they provide for the magistracy, for the professions, for the teaching career, in fact for every walk of life, more than sufficiently testify in their favour. (Pope Pius XI – Letter to the Cardinal Secretary of State, May 30, 1929) (Divini Illius Magistri 55)
Pope Pius XI emphasises the point that, well formed Catholics, whose primary aim in life is to live as God intends them to live, tend to excel as citizens in whatever path they choose in life. The evidence for this statement is overwhelming, but those who attack the Catholic Church tend to distort the narrative by focusing on specific failures of men who happen to be Catholic. They ignore the vast amount of good works that have been carried out by Catholics in order to promote an anti-Catholic agenda. This agenda is driven by erroneous ideological concerns rather than seeking the eternal good of mankind.
“These facts moreover present a most striking confirmation of the Catholic doctrine defined by the [First] Vatican Council:
Not only is it impossible for faith and reason to be at variance with each other, they are on the contrary of mutual help. For while right reason establishes the foundations of Faith, and, by the help of its light, develops a knowledge of the things of God, Faith on the other hand frees and preserves reason from error and enriches it with varied knowledge.
The Church therefore, far from hindering the pursuit of the arts and sciences, fosters and promotes them in many ways. For she is neither ignorant nor unappreciative of the many advantages which flow from them to mankind. On the contrary she admits that just as they come from God, Lord of all knowledge, so too if rightly used, with the help of His grace they lead to God. Nor does she prevent the sciences, each in its own sphere, from making use of principles and methods of their own. Only while acknowledging the freedom due to them, she takes every precaution to prevent them from falling into error by opposition to divine doctrine, or from overstepping their proper limits, and thus invading and disturbing the domain of Faith. (First Vatican Council – Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith. chapter 4) (Divini Illius Magistri 56)
Cases of scientists exceeding the moral limits are particularly evident in the area of human sexuality where pharmaceutical companies and others, for example, perform immoral experiments on human embryos in order to turn a profit. So called ‘assisted human reproduction’ techniques lead to the deaths of millions of embryos. These experiments and techniques are contrary to both faith and reason. It is never legitimate to do evil even though good may arise from it.
“This norm of a just freedom in things scientific, serves also as an inviolable norm of a just freedom in things didactic, or for rightly understood liberty in teaching; it should be observed therefore in whatever instruction is imparted to others. Its obligation is all the more binding in justice when there is question of instructing youth. For in this work the teacher, whether public or private, has no absolute right of his own, but only such as has been communicated to him by others. Besides every Christian child or youth has a strict right to instruction in harmony with the teaching of the Church, the pillar and ground of truth. And whoever disturbs the pupil’s Faith in any way, does him grave wrong, inasmuch as he abuses the trust which children place in their teachers, and takes unfair advantage of their inexperience and of their natural craving for unrestrained liberty, at once illusory and false.” (Divini Illius Magistri 57)
This paragraph is so important for our times where our Catholic schools have been targeted for infiltration with subject matter that is contrary to the Catholic faith. Young children are being daily harmed by what is being permitted to be taught in schools. Children are being taught, from a very young age, that it is acceptable to live an immoral sexual lifestyle. They are being taught that the homosexual lifestyle is not immoral, and that it is simply another lifestyle choice without moral implications. They are being taught that sexual activity outside of marriage is not immoral. The trust of these children is being abused but, in many cases, the trust of Catholic parents is also being abused.
“In fact it must never be forgotten that the subject of Christian education is man whole and entire, soul united to body in unity of nature, with all his faculties natural and supernatural, such as right reason and revelation show him to be; man, therefore, fallen from his original estate, but redeemed by Christ and restored to the supernatural condition of adopted son of God, though without the preternatural privileges of bodily immortality or perfect control of appetite. There remain therefore, in human nature the effects of original sin, the chief of which are weakness of will and disorderly inclinations.” (Divini Illius Magistri 58)
It is quite astonishing to see how far modern man has drifted from these principles which were once broadly accepted. The very concept of original sin is now denied, even amongst members of the Catholic hierarchy. There are Catholics who object to the use of the term ‘disordered’ as being offensive. As if taking offence permits one to change the meaning of words. This offence taking is a not so subtle tactic which seeks to promote disordered actions as being conformable to the moral law. That some of the main protagonists of this position are Catholic, is disgraceful and an offence against God. Men have become so blinded in their reason that very few seem to care about the offence given to God.
““Folly is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction shall drive it away.” (Proverbs 22:15) Disorderly inclinations then must be corrected, good tendencies encouraged and regulated from tender childhood, and above all the mind must be enlightened and the will strengthened by supernatural truth and by the means of grace, without which it is impossible to control evil impulses, impossible to attain to the full and complete perfection of education intended by the Church, which Christ has endowed so richly with divine doctrine and with the Sacraments, the efficacious means of grace.” (Divini Illius Magistri 59)
My paternal grandmother was fond of saying “bend the tree while it is still young.” This is the same as the point being made above. Because of original sin, virtue does not come naturally to us. It must be instilled in us. In the case of young children, one cannot educate them in moral principles before they reach the age of reason, therefore they must be trained in good habits through the use of discouragement of the bad and encouragement of the good.
As the child matures they must be taught the moral principles which form the basis for virtuous actions. In early childhood negative consequences must attach to bad actions and positive consequences to good actions in order to form good habits. But as they grow, children must be taught to engage their moral faculties. One should not engage in bad habits even if there are seemingly good consequences and sometimes we are duty bound to a good action even though it may lead to negative consequences. The martyrs bear great testimony to these truths and children are naturally drawn to the heroic stories of the martyrs who gave up their lives rather than betray the Catholic faith.
“Hence every form of pedagogic naturalism which in any way excludes or weakens supernatural Christian formation in the teaching of youth, is false. Every method of education founded, wholly or in part, on the denial or forgetfulness of original sin and of grace, and relying on the sole powers of human nature, is unsound. Such, generally speaking, are those modern systems bearing various names which appeal to a pretended self-government and unrestrained freedom on the part of the child, and which diminish or even suppress the teacher’s authority and action, attributing to the child an exclusive primacy of initiative, and an activity independent of any higher law, natural or divine, in the work of his education.” (Divini Illius Magistri 60)
We are seeing the fruits of such pedagogic naturalism in the sexual identity movement. Once the truths of the Catholic faith are denied, it is not long before any truth is denied. The truth about “male and female” He created them” has now been replaced with the falsehood that our sex is whatever we identify it as being. Girls can become boys and boys can become girls. This is what they are now teaching to children in primary schools. It has no basis in science and no basis in reality but there are very few who are prepared to publicly stand against this nonsensical tyranny. The ones to suffer most from this are the children who succumb to the falsehoods. Next are the child’s parents who either go along with the delusions or are forced to watch their children descend into a form of madness. The madness is fully facilitated by the civil State and by the care agencies who are duty bound to protect children. Having abandoned logic, faith and reason, they increase the damage being done to children and young adults rather than helping them to come back to reality.
To be cont’d…
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