In Medias Res

Mission Possible

by Joanna Bogle

When the history of these days in the Church is written, an honorable place will go to a document called Fit for Mission? Schools. It has been published by the Diocese of Lancaster in the North of England, under the name of the local bishop, Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue.

The document—for the first time in a great many years—acknowledges that there have been failings in Catholic education and that it is time for a fresh start and a renewed commitment to passing on the Catholic faith to the next generation.

A Time to Speak Up

“I would be failing in my duty as bishop if I did not point out that we may not condone or encourage lack of practice of the faith in our schools and colleges,” says Bishop O’Donoghue in his introduction. He goes on to state boldly that he will support all head teachers and their teams “who challenge, in the name of the Catholic Church, everything that seeks to undermine our doctrine, way of life, and mission, in order to bring about change and transformation through the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The problem for Catholic schools has been well summarized by Pope Benedict XVI, who points out that asserting anything as true is today often seen as immoral. “In a society where relativism has become a dogma, the light of truth is missing; indeed it is considered dangerous and ‘authoritarian’ to speak of truth, and the end result is doubt about the goodness of life . . . and in the validity of the relationships and commitment of which it consists.” Benedict also noted that today, “education tends to be reduced to the transmission of specific abilities or capacities whose only goal is a career or profession.”

Breakdown in Britain

Britain has been having something of an anguished debate about education and the plight of the young over the past year—an epidemic of “binge drinking” among the young followed the relaxing of the licensing laws. Large numbers of young teenagers are found drunk in the city centers and shopping malls of Britain on Friday and Saturday nights, and some as young as 13 or 14 have been brought into hospital emergency departments after collapsing from alcohol poisoning.

Added to this has been a spate of teenage suicides. Some of these seem to be linked to suicide-cult messages on various Internet websites. Meanwhile, the problem of drug addiction continues to spiral out of control, and teenage pregnancy rates and abortion rates continue to rise. Abortions have become a particular matter for concern, as some teenagers have had as many as three abortions before they reach their 18th birthday. (Abortion is available virtually on demand in Britain and is funded by the National Health Service.)

Crisis in Catholic Schools

Catholic schools, which receive public funds and are free for pupils, have a generally good reputation in Britain. Their academic results are positive, and they are popular because they tend to have tradition, uniforms, and a good sense of community. But it is no secret that the majority of Catholic pupils are not practicing their faith by the time they are 16. In most Catholic secondary schools (ages 11–18), it is rare to find more than a handful of regular Sunday Mass attendees.

Bishop O’Donoghue has pledged that this must change. Christ invites us to know, love, and serve Him. The Gospel must be proclaimed “in all its freshness and transforming power.”

“Our Catholic schools must become powerhouses of evangelization and catechesis” says Bishop O’Donoghue. “Again, I must stress that evangelization is not proselytism, which is a coercive pressure to go against one’s conscientious beliefs. Evangelization is an invitation to consider freely and experience the truth of the Catholic faith.

“I am concerned that a failure to appreciate this clear distinction between proselytism and evangelization has led some schools and colleges to be inhibited about proclaiming the full truth of the Catholic faith, due to the presence of non-Catholic pupils.”

In modern Britain, “non-Catholic pupils” often means Muslim ones. It will take courage and faith for Catholic schools to remain faithful to their evangelistic commitment in the face of allegations that they are attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Changes Face Opposition

Already, Bishop O’Donoghue has come under criticism from a group of members of Parliament who have accused him of promoting “fundamentalism” because he has made it clear that Catholic schools must teach the fullness of the Church’s message on love, sex, and human relationships. This inevitably means that a Catholic school cannot teach that same-sex marriage is acceptable to God. It cannot teach that abortion is an acceptable choice.

Fit for Mission? Schools urges that every Catholic school have a chapel or oratory. The school library should have “good and reliable Catholic periodicals, and a comprehensive section of good Catholic books for pupils, teachers, parents and indeed the wider Catholic community.” It should not contain books with “polemic against the Catholic faith, religion in general, race, gender, or the dignity of the human person.” There should be reproductions of great religious paintings, and there should be crucifixes on every classroom wall and in all the main public places. Pupils should be taught the immense contribution of the Church to music and how all the great composers—Mozart, Hadyn, Beethoven, Bach—have composed settings of the Mass.

The document emphasizes that the Christian faith must be taught with joy and enthusiasm. Fit for Mission? quotes Pope John Paul II, in Veritatis Splendor, saying that Christian faith is a truth that must be lived out, a decision involving one’s whole life, a new and original criterion for thinking and acting.

Bishop O’Donoghue was summoned to Parliament for a meeting of the Children, Schools, and Families Select Committee, chaired by Barry Sheerman MP. Sheerman made clear his dislike of the fact that Catholic schools are free to teach the Church’s message on love and marriage. “A lot of taxpayers’ money is going into church schools and I think we should tease out what is happening here,” Sheerman said.

Effectively, he believes that Catholic schools shouldn’t be free to teach Catholic doctrine—or, at any rate, not the Catholic doctrine of which Sheerman happens to disapprove. He took particular offense to the fact that Fit for Mission? states that sexual education must respect modesty, must only be carried out under the direction of parents, must reject “secularized anti-life” materials, and must insist on continence outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage, rejecting the promotion of “safe sex.”

Standing Firm

Undeterred by pressure from politicians, Bishop O’Donoghue is clearly determined to press ahead, ensuring that the Catholic schools in his diocese will be centers of thriving faith and real service to the community. Fit for Mission? looks at whole areas of school life that have been neglected for too long—it calls for more events such as Corpus Christi processions, a focus on the centrality of Sunday Mass whenever there is a school trip that includes a weekend away, the importance of having Confession available in school, and the value of retreats and of visits to local churches, especially for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Demand for the report—initially published by the Diocese of Lancaster as a discussion document—has been so high that it has now been printed by the Catholic Truth Society as a booklet. Catholic teachers across Britain are discussing it, and the main author, Fr. Luiz Ruscillo, the diocesan director of education, is in high demand as a speaker.

Many Catholic teachers are relieved. For a long while, the sidelining of religious education, the fact that many pupils do not attend Mass or pray, the reality of non-practicing teachers, and the scandal of forms of sex education that oppose the Church’s teaching, have all combined to form an “elephant in the room” whenever Catholic education was on the agenda. But now these issues are being discussed openly, marking the atmosphere with a freshness and vigor.

Battles Ahead

But danger lurks. Just when the Catholic community is waking up to its responsibilities and recognizing that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, the political pressure from outside is beginning to bite. Catholic schools have been well funded in Britain for a long time. For many centuries, the Church had sole responsibility for education, and after compulsory schooling was introduced in 1870, many of Britain’s schools were still Church-run, whether Catholic or Anglican. Public funding for Church schools has always recognized this reality of history. But now, with a heavy Islamic presence in most cities, the question has arisen of giving Muslim groups funds to run schools—and if serious questions are raised as to whether or not it is wise to have schools run by Islamic groups of dubious ideological bent, then, in order to appear fair, all religious-based schools will be called into question.

These are not easy days for Catholic parents, teachers, priests, or bishops. A clear and robust defense of Catholic education and its excellent record in the long story of Western civilization is needed. All of Europe’s great universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, were effectively founded as Catholic schools. The Western tradition owes a massive debt to the Catholic Church.

A Vision of Light

Today, families are breaking down, the sense of disorientation and loneliness in society is skyrocketing, many young people questioning why they have been born and whether life has meaning, and the rate of violent crime and a sense of social fragmentation are rising. Catholic schools can be beacons of light and places of hope. Like the monasteries of the Dark Ages, they can serve to keep the faith alive—a gift of infinite worth for future generations. But we will need prayer, unity, courage, and wisdom to fight the battles ahead and to stay faithful to the vision of what a Catholic school can and should be.

Fit for Mission? Schools is available from the Catholic Truth Society, which can be reached at www.cts-online.org.uk or at: CTS, 40-46 Harleyford Road, London SE11 5AY, UNITED KINGDOM.

Joanna Bogle is an author, journalist, and broadcaster based in Britain. She has been active with the international charity Aid to the Church in Need for more than 20 years and is the author of a biography of its founder, Fr. Werenfried van Straaten. She appears regularly on EWTN with a cooking series offering ideas and recipes for the various feasts and seasons of the year. Her new Yearbook of Seasons and Celebrations was published in 2007 (Gracewing Books, Leominster, Herefordshire, England), and other recent books include a short biography of Pope Benedict XVI, The Pope Benedict Code.

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