Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week Resources
The resources prepared by the Bishops' Conference for Catholic Schools Week (this week!) deserve a plug. Not all the prayers and resources chosen are quite to my taste, but it's important that we affirm our commitment to Catholic education.
Incidentally, it's a shame that this hasn't been better promoted on the ground. I only received news of these resources during the week. A little more notice would have enabled me to prepare a lot more work.

A Recent Debate
There's been a lot of nonsense in the media about the Church's control of schools, but thankfully, there've also been some solid refutations of those opinions.
In particular, there's been quite a debate recently about a recent opinion poll suggesting that a majority of Irish adults think that the Catholic Church should give up 'control' of primary schools. When the question is asked like that, the answer is bound to be somewhat skewed. However, no one seemed to bother checking whether we did in fact control the schools at all! I certainly don't 'control' the schools I'm involved in. They are Catholic schools, yes, and have a Catholic ethos, but to suggest that the Church or clergy 'control' the schools is misleading.

Church Control?
Most primary schools in Ireland are under the patronage of the Diocesan Bishop and are run by their Boards of Management. The Bishop nominates two members (including the Chairperson), two members represent the school staff, two represent the parents (normally elected by the Parents' Council) and two represent the local community. Whilst they operate with a Catholic ethos, I think you'll find that most Boards of Management are controlled more by the State than by the local Bishop. After all, it is the Department of Education who lay down the curricula, who pay the teachers, who set down the regulations under which schools run on a day-to-day basis, etc, etc...
Within that framework, however, it's important to cultivate our Catholic ethos. That is something which goes beyond the assigned periods of religious instruction (from which parents are entitled to withdraw their children). Catholicism teaches some fundamental truths about the value of the human beings, the purpose of education and a holistic understanding what growth is. As De Lubac affirms, true Christianity must be a humanism - a philosophy which contains within it a strong and affirmative vision of humanity which is committed to its development. Within that context, it should be clear that our Catholic schools can respectfully welcome those of other faiths.
Part of what we need to do as a nation is to recognise how much of our humanism - the value we place on family and community, our commitment to the physical, moral, spiritual and educational growth of our children - is rooted in our Catholic ethos. We need to recognise that a purely secular vision of education operates from a different ethos, and we need to ask whether such an ethos sustains similar or conflicting values.

Incidentally
Did you know that there's actually a legal definition of the Catholic ethos agreed between the State and the Patrons of Ireland's Catholic Schools? It's called the 'Schedule of a Catholic School' and is a useful thing to know about when questions arise about 'Catholic Ethos' and 'Church Control'. It reads as follows and should (by law) be displayed in all our Catholic primary schools.

The Schedule of a Catholic School
A Roman Catholic School (which is established in connection with the Minister) aims at promoting the full and harmonious development of all aspects of the person of the pupil: intellectual, physical, cultural, moral and spiritual, including a living relationship with God and with other people.
The school models and promotes a philosophy of life inspired by belief in God and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Catholic school provides Religious education for the pupils in accordance with the doctrines, practices and tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and promotes the formation of the pupils in the Catholic Faith.

This PDF document provides some useful addenda:

The Schedule indicates that a Catholic Primary School:
o is one established in connection with the Minister and therefore recognised as a national school for public funding
o is a denominational school under the patronage of the local Catholic bishop
o strives to be a good school committed to the ‘full and harmonious development of all aspects of the person of the pupil’
o sees full human development as including a living relationship with God and other people
o provides Religious Education for the pupils in accordance with the doctrines, practices and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church
o promotes the faith formation of the pupils in the Catholic faith including the reception of the Sacraments of Penance, First Communion and Confirmation
o seeks to let pupils experience a religious way of life by being part of a faith community, the values and practices of which model a living relationship with God in Jesus Christ.
The Schedule does not state that a Catholic school is a school only for Catholic pupils.
Neither does it state that the Catholic school provides what may be called a ‘common’ or ‘multi-denominational’ religious education programme open to pupils of all religious faiths and none. The Catholic school is a welcoming and inclusive school.

The Unfortunate Tertullian

I mentioned 'the unfortunate Tertullian' over at Enbrethiliel's comment box a couple of days ago, and got my wrist slapped because she thinks that Tertullian was 'pretty cool'. And I must confess to having an affection for him, and thinking that he could indeed be pretty cool, even if I still insist that he was 'unfortunate'. I mean, if you start off being an exceptionally talented orthodox Christian polemicist and apologist, then drift into the somewhat murky waters of Montanism, and then find that the Montanists are too soft for you and become a Tertullianist, then you're unfortunate. If you break away from the Church, become a Tertullianist and you yourself are called Tertullian, you should probably realise that something's gone awry with your spiritual life.

But, as Enbrethiliel herself reminded me, Tertullian was pretty cool. He was certainly the earliest theologian of talent who wrote in Latin (late 2nd and early 3rd Century AD) and we can thank him for much of our Latin theological vocabulary. Speaking of the 'Trinity' as 'one substance' and 'three persons' is something that we can thank Tertullian for. His fellow North African St Cyprian of Carthage used to simply refer to him as 'the Master', and Pope Benedict devoted a Wednesday Catechesis to him back in 2007. Tertullian is as good an example as any as to why we shouldn;t confine our reading to those who have managed to stay within the confines of orthodox thought.

That being said, he is an essentially tragic figure, one whose talent and high moral standards, led him on an increasingly individualistic spiritual journey, ultimately cutting himself of from the societas permixta, the Church of saints and sinners. As Pope Benedict points out:

This great moral and intellectual personality, this man who made such a great contribution to Christian thought, makes me think deeply. One sees that in the end he lacked the simplicity, the humility to integrate himself with the Church, to accept his weaknesses, to be forbearing with others and himself.

And yet he did the Church some service. So many of the important insights and thoughts which would prove crucial in the development of Christian thought find early and robust expression in Tertullian. The principle that only the Church can soundly interpret scripture finds a typically lawyerly expression in Tertullian's Prescription of Heretics:

Thus, not being Christians, they have acquired no right to the Christian Scriptures; and it may be very fairly said to them, "Who are you? When and whence did you come? As you are none of mine, what have you to do with that which is mine? Indeed, Marcion, by what right do you hew my wood? By whose permission, Valentinus, are you diverting the streams of my fountain? By what power, Apelles, are you removing my landmarks? This is my property. Why are you, the rest, sowing and feeding here at your own pleasure? This (I say) is my property. I have long possessed it; I possessed it before you. I hold sure title-deeds from the original owners themselves, to whom the estate belonged. I am the heir of the apostles. Just as they carefully prepared their will and testament, and committed it to a trust, and adjured (the trustees to be faithful to their charge), even so do I hold it. As for you, they have, it is certain, always held you as disinherited, and rejected you as strangers— as enemies. But on what ground are heretics strangers and enemies to the apostles, if it be not from the difference of their teaching, which each individual of his own mere will has either advanced or received in opposition to the apostles?"

Even though Tertullian at his best is 'punchy', his writing wasn't all polemic. He also wrote a very early exposition of the Lord's Prayer describing it as a 'summary of the entire Gospel'. Some hold that he was one of the proto-protestants. Whatever one might make of that assessment, I think that unfortunate is the best word for one who lapsed through rigorism and enthusiasm.

What's the Irish for 'creeping secularism'?

A priest friend has made me aware of the fact that Raidió na Gaeltachta - a radio station which serves the Irish-speaking communities of Ireland - has stopped broadcasting weekly Mass. Mass is now being broadcast one week in four, with the readings of the day being broadcast on the other four Sundays.