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Reason to exist as Catholic school

The Purpose of a Catholic School is to be a Catholic School. Any institution which bears the name Catholic and participates in this mission must find its own specific mission under its maternal shadow. The Catholic school must be of, with and for the church because her purpose, identity and mission proceed from the Communion of the Church. In words of Congregation for Catholic school, the church clearly indicates that the establishment of catholic school is for the mission of the church. It asserts that ?To carry out her saving mission, the Church uses, above all, the means which Jesus Christ has given her. She also uses other means which at different times and in different cultures have proved effective in achieving and, promoting the development of the human person.?She establishes her own schools because she considers them as a privileged means of promoting the formation of the whole man, since the school is a centre in which a specific concept of the world, of man, and of history is developed and conveyed?.

The Sacred congregation for Catholic School emphasizes catholic school to present itself catholic and states clearly that for this reason only that catholic school has the right to exist. It states the following:

?While acknowledging this duty of the local Churches, the Sacred Congregation believes that now is the opportune moment to offer its own contribution by re-emphasising clearly the educational value of the Catholic school. It is in this value that the Catholic school’s fundamental reason for existing and the basis of its genuine apostolate is to be found. ?

In line with the above, the great Western Bishop Augustine states ?Catholic schools are an extension of the Catholic Church, a cell of the Body of Christ?. Since the church has its mission in evangelization, She establishes her own schools because she considers them as a privileged means of promoting the formation of the whole man, since the school is a centre in which a specific concept of the world, of man, and of history is developed and conveyed.?

In support of the above view, Deacon Keith Fournier, a Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia asserted that ?The Catholic School derives its? very reason for existence, its? identity, by living in the Heart of the Church. It finds its missionary assignment only when it sees its placement within the Ark of the Church. Thus, like the Church of which she is an extension, the Catholic school shares in the mission of Jesus Christ?.

To conclude the catholic school does not exist for itself. It owns its existence on the mission of the church that is to evangelize. The existence of catholic is therefore is to inform and educate the whole student, who is an integrated human person, in the teaching, ?the mind? of the Catholic Church, thus preparing men and women with a profoundly Catholic Vision of life. Catholic school therefore finds its true justification in the mission of the Church. This justification finds its meaning on an educational philosophy in which faith, culture and life are brought into harmony. Through it, the catholic school evangelizes, educates, and contributes to the formation of a healthy and morally sound life-style among its students. Only by doing this will the Catholic school fulfill its vital mission and has the right to pursue its existence.

Catholic school mission

As mentioned above, Catholic school attaches its meaning to mission of the church. The church herself is clear of her mission for She always and seriously reflects on it. In the Catholic school (1977), she states the Church is constantly deepening her awareness of herself and meditating on the mystery of her being and mission. Thus she is ever rediscovering her living relationship with Christ “in order to discover greater light, energy, and joy in fulfilling her mission and determining the best way to ensure that her relationship with humanity is closer and more efficacious” – that humanity of which she is a part and yet so undeniably distinct. Her destiny is to serve humanity until it reaches its fullness in Christ. Evangelisation is, therefore, the mission of the Church; that is she must proclaim the good news of salvation to all, generate new creatures in Christ through Baptism, and train them to live knowingly as children of God.

In light of the above catholic school as part of the church can not do otherwise, but to evangelize, that is it must proclaim the good news of salvation to all, generate new creatures in Christ through Baptism, and train them to live knowingly as children of God.?

The church herself realizes that to find Her light and strength she needs to constantly renew Her living relationship with Christ. Moved by the same Spirit, Catholic school must always deepen its awareness and meditates on the mystery of its being and mission so that it is ever rediscovering its living relationship with Christ. As a result Catholic school will be able to discover greater light, energy, and joy in fulfilling its mission and determining the best way to ensure that its educational mission with the young will be more efficacious and more fruitful until it reaches its fullness in Christ.

In the words of the Congregation for Catholic education, the church further shed light to catholic school of its commitment. It asserts:

?The Catholic school is committed thus to the development of the whole man, since in Christ, the Perfect Man, all human values find their fulfillment and unity. Herein lies the specifically Catholic character of the school. Its duty to cultivate human values in their own legitimate right in accordance with its particular mission to serve all men has its origin in the figure of Christ. He is the One Who ennobles man, gives meaning to human life, and is the Model which the Catholic school offers to its pupils.?

The document continues to insist that Catholic school should transition itself from an institution to a community. This community dimension is primarily built on theological concept rather than a sociological category. Catholic school therefore should reflect its mission entrusted to it by the Lord, the Church gradually develops its pastoral instruments so that they may become ever more effective in proclaiming the Gospel and promoting total human formation. The Catholic school is one of these pastoral instruments; its specific pastoral service consists in mediating between faith and culture: being faithful to the newness of the Gospel while at the same time respecting the autonomy and the methods proper to human knowledge.

The document further ascertains that the Catholic school finds its true justification in the mission of the Church; it is based on an educational philosophy in which faith, culture and life are brought into harmony. Through it, the local Church evangelizes, educates, and contributes to the formation of a healthy and morally sound life-style among its members. The Holy Father affirms that “the need for the Catholic school becomes evidently clear when we consider what it contributes to the development of the mission of the People of God, to the dialogue between Church and the human community, to the safeguarding of freedom of conscience …”. Above all, according to the Holy Father, the Catholic school helps in achieving a double objective: “of its nature it guides men and women to human and Christian perfection, and at the same time helps them to become mature in their faith. For those who believe in Christ, these are two facets of a single reality”

Thus the catholic school needs to deepen its understanding on the mission of the church. Realizing the importance of its mission will provide a clear and distinct picture of what catholic school should be like and run itself in such a way that its service will be directed to the right path in enhancing its students in line with the mission of the church.

Examination of Catholic School Mission: A Synthesis of Faith, Culture, and Life

In order to respond to the new challenges faithfully and truthfully, Catholic school needs to examine its distinguishing characteristic of a Catholic school. Moreover the Church also invites Catholic school to reflect whether or not the words of the Council have become a reality. ?The Church describes it this way: “The Catholic school pursues cultural goals and the natural development of youth to the same degree as any other school. What makes the Catholic school distinctive is its attempt to generate a community climate in the school that is permeated by the Gospel spirit of freedom and love. It tries to guide the adolescents in such a way that personality development goes hand in hand with the development of the “new creature” that each one has become through baptism. It tries to relate all of human culture to the good news of salvation so that the light of faith will illumine everything that the students will gradually come to learn about the world, about life, and about the human person” ?(the Religious Dimension of Education in Catholic School).

In Declaration on Christian Education, the document asserts that ?Christ is the foundation of the whole educational enterprise in a Catholic school. His revelation gives new meaning to life and helps man to direct his thought, action and will according to the Gospel, making the beatitudes his norm of life. The fact that in their own individual ways all members of the school community share this Christian vision, makes the school “Catholic”; principles of the Gospel in this manner become the educational norms since the school then has them as its internal motivation and final goal.? This vision is to form pupils into development of the whole man, in Christ, the Perfect Man. In Him all human values find their fulfilment and unity.

Meaning to say the core of Catholic school mission is on Christ and in Him it finds its manifestation in the principles of the Gospel. Catholic school must therefore be aware of this and devotes itself to cultivate human values in their own legitimate right in accordance with its particular mission to serve all pupils and its origin in the figure of Christ. In so doing only Catholic school can claim its achievement and on these educational norms only catholic school can qualify itself.

In the light of this vision, the Church suggests a means to form Her children in school. She considers culture as a means of communication to do so. She states ?the Catholic school has as its aim the critical communication of human culture and the total formation of the individual, it works towards this goal guided by its Christian vision of reality “through which our cultural heritage acquires its special place in the total vocational life of man”?

The church further suggests that Catholic school becomes aware of the existing relationship between faith and human culture in them and help them grow beyond this limited human reality. In GAUDIUM ET SPES, it stresses:? ?Human culture remains human, and must be taught with scientific objectivity. But the lessons of the teacher and the reception of those students who are believers will not divorce faith from this culture. This would be a major spiritual loss. The world of human culture and the world of religion are not like two parallel lines that never meet; points of contact are established within the human person. ???.Everyone should work together, each one developing his or her own subject area with professional competence, but sensitive to those opportunities in which they can help students to see beyond the limited horizon of human reality.?

The church clearly sees where the achievement of Catholic education lies in. She considers the achievement of the aim of catholic school not so much in the method of teaching or the subject matters but in the person of teacher who must be able to integrate culture and faith together. In the same document, it states ?To achieve this specific aim of the Catholic school depends not so much on subject matter or methodology as on the people who work there. The extent to which the Christian message is transmitted through education depends to a very great extent on the teachers. The integration of culture and faith is mediated by the other integration of faith and life in the person of the teacher. The nobility of the task to which teachers are called demands that, in imitation of Christ, the only Teacher, they reveal the Christian message not only by word but also by every gesture of their behaviour. This is what makes the difference between a school whose education is permeated by the Christian spirit and one in which religion is only regarded as an academic subject like any other.?

Here too, in the communication of culture, teachers have a special role to play. They are the authors of, and the sharers in, the more lay aspects of culture; their mission, then, is to help the students come to understand, from a lay point of view, the global character that is proper to culture, the synthesis which will join together the lay and the religious aspects of culture, and the personal contribution which those in the lay state can be expected to make to culture.?

Moreover the church considers teachers to be in an excellent position to guide pupil to a deepening of his faith and to enrich and enlighten his human knowledge with the data of the faith. The church suggests that teachers need to find occasions in teaching when pupils can be stimulated by insights of faith. They can use academic subjects to form pupils towards the development of a mature Christian and a total commitment to Christ. Furthermore teachers should also be concerned with the educational context when they apply their methods of teaching. In support of this aspect the church states:

?The communication of culture in an educational context involves a methodology, whose principles and techniques are collected together into a consistent pedagogy. A variety of pedagogical theories exist; the choice of the Catholic educator, based on a Christian concept of the human person, should be the practice of a pedagogy which gives special emphasis to direct and personal contact with the students. If the teacher undertakes this contact with the conviction that students are already in possession of fundamentally positive values, the relationship will allow for an openness and a dialogue which will facilitate an understanding of the witness to faith that is revealed through the behaviour of the teacher.??

From this it is clear that Catholic school has to review its entire programme of formation, both its content and the methods used, in the light of that vision of the reality from which it draws its inspiration and on which it depends. ?It means that all subjects and all activities in a Catholic School should be conducted and taught in consideration with culture of the pupils under the same aim that Christ is the center of their lives and in Him they find fulfillment of their lives. The achievement of this aim is mostly laid upon the endeavour of teachers, their endeavour to interweave faith and culture which has become the heart of individual subjects, makes for unity, articulation and coordination, bringing forth within what is learnt in school a Christian vision of the world, of life, of culture and of history.

Conclusion

The attempt of this paper was to present to catholic Educators in Thailand a framework on which they can base their response to the new challenges such as the crisis of values assumes the forms, often exalted by the media, of subjectivism, moral relativism and nihilism, the extreme pluralism pervading contemporary society leads to behaviour patterns which are at times so opposed to one another as to undermine any idea of community identity, and the rapid structural changes, profound technical innovations and the globalization of the economy affect human life more and more throughout the world (The Catholic School on the Threshold of Third millennium).

To function as an effectively Catholic educational institute, Catholic school can not but realize itself as Catholic. The understanding on Catholic school concept will come as an accident. It needs to be in continual reflection on its mission as part of the church which is to evangelize.

Deepening itself in the true knowledge of its mission catholic school will ultimately crystallize its idea of what Catholic school is like in the light of church?s teaching. As a result, a framework on which new content, new capabilities and new educational models can be drawn to face the new challenges. This framework focuses on the importance of synthesis of Faith culture and Life that means to integrate all the different aspects of human knowledge and growth of the virtues characteristic of the Christian through the subjects taught, in the light of the Gospel.

The achievement of this aim is mostly laid upon the endeavour of teacher, their endeavour to interweave faith and culture which has become the heart of individual subjects, makes for unity, articulation and coordination, bringing forth within what is learnt in school a Christian vision of the world, of life, of culture and of history. Teacher also has to lead the pupil on to a personal integration of faith and life through the relationship that will allow for an openness and a dialogue which will facilitate an understanding of the witness to faith that is revealed through the behaviour of the teacher.??

From this writing the following points are proposed:

1.????? Catholic schools in Thailand should not be clouded only with the vision of how to respond relevantly to the new challenges but also how to preserve their identity as catholic school.

2.????? Catholic school should give due importance to the formation of its teachers and also provide them with adequate knowledge and practice.

3.????? Establishment of Advanced Learning for Catholic Educators should be considered urgent and necessary.

? ??

REFERENCES

Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School, 1977.

Congregation for Catholic Education, Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982.

Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 1988. Pope John Paul II, At the Beginning of the Third Millennium, 2001. Pope John Paul II, The Church in America, 1999.

Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 1997.

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