Christian Education of Youth
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On December 31, 1929, Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical letter on the topic "Christian Education of Youth." According to the Pope, the letter was to be "the record of Our Sacerdotal Jubilee [a year of priestly special indulgence] which, with altogether special affection, We wish to dedicate to our beloved youth, and to commend to all those whose office and duty is the work of education" (37). Although the church had long pursued a role in the education of youth, at the time of this encyclical--a decade following World War I ("the war to end all wars")--and "Western civilization seemed to all but a few prophets to be generally on the right track, needing only a little adjusting here and there" (Ryan, 1972, 2), the church saw a rising tide of change beginning to overtake religious education. As Pius XI wrote: never have exponents of new pedagogical theories been so numerous, or so many methods and means devised, proposed and debated, not merely to facilitate education, but to create a new system infallibly efficacious, and capable of preparing the present generations for that earthly happiness which they so ardently desire (37). Obviously, the church believed (as it continues to believe today) that its role as Supreme Educator is divinely ordained, and "Hence, it is evident that both by right and in fact the mission to educate belongs preeminently to the Church, and that no one free from prejudice can have a reasonable motive for opposing or impeding the Church in th
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duty of the state to provide for the freedom of the church to educate its own (63-64).
The paradigm concludes over several pages (65-71) with the need for "Catholic Action," and how it relates to teachers and the product of Christian education, as well as the evidence of history as the fruit of Christian education.
In his encyclical, the Pope made a passing reference to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (286 U.S. 510 [1925]), in which the Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees private (i.e., church) schools the right to do business, with only limited interference by the state. Arons (1976) has written an in-depth review of Pierce which deserves considerably more attention than can be devoted here.
In its decision in Pierce, the Court decided that it was "beyond the power of the state to compel all children to attend public schools" (Arons, 1976, 76-77). But as Arons points out, despite the ruling, Americans have not been prevented from
using the public school system as an arena in which to contest some of their most personal and deeply held beliefs. Sexuality and sexism, Christian morality and the scientific world view, authoritarianism and permissiveness, individualism and commu
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Approximate Word count = 1681
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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