My subsequent formation as a Jesuit ran parallel to my path in higher education. Catholic Religious Education, particularly since the Second Vatican Council, is committed to teaching and learning about and from other religions, not as an option but as something intrinsic to the definition of Christian identity. It highlights the unique role of Catholic schools in providing exceptional instruction rooted in the Catholic faith. is: are the “kids really all right?”I am a member of the Society of Jesus, a religious order founded by St. Ignatius — a Jesuit — and in the great tradition of Jesuit personal narratives, my own journey into education has been one of unexpected twists that looks like a series of accidents, but is also one of mystery and coherence. I didn’t go to Catholic schools. I think it is the role of Jesuit University to be a place where the Church is in dialogue with the broader culture; where people of all religious faiths can practice and deepen their faith openly, while engaging with the world as it is, in all its complexity. Catholic schools, therefore, aspire to graduate students who will know that every person is made in God’s image and likeness and has value and that their education can help them contribute to the good of the larger community, not just themselves. Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, 1977. How to help. One in ten said they felt depressed, the lowest overall emotional health score since the survey began.• Back in the 1980s, about half of high school seniors reported spending about 40 hours a week hanging out with friends. Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J., President of Fairfield University, An address on the occasion of the Archbishop of Hartford’s St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast, March 17, 2016. I was happy as a scholar and teacher at Georgetown, and yet there was a clear need for more Jesuits in administrative positions throughout the network of 28 Jesuit colleges and Universities in the United States, and Fordham at that time was emerging from a difficult period. 8). At school, praying and worshiping with my friends has always been natural to me, as we feel more like a family than just classmates. But at the same time I became aware of a desire to be fully taken up in a great project, a project bigger than my own desires and ambitions — and I felt that perhaps the Society of Jesus would be a good fit for me. And so for 11 years — at what would be considered a very old age of 33 — St. Ignatius went back to school, first studying basic grammar in Barcelona, and then off to the University of Paris — where he gathered friends around him, and the Society of Jesus was born.There are two significant aspects of Ignatius’ story and that of the early Jesuits that I feel are still critical for us to understand and embrace this morning as we gather to support and celebrate the tradition of Catholic education.The first, is that St. Ignatius experienced God as a teacher — this is very explicit for St. Ignatius. It was the foundation for what would become the largest network of educational institutions in the world — spanning the globe, and including Asia, Europe, and South America. While the latter part will focus on its application to the 21st first century, to the world and its education … © 1996-2019 Catholic Education Resource Center | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Sitemap, CERC is an entirely reader-supported web site and non-profit charity. Then in 1547, the town leaders of Messina in Sicily asked Ignatius if he would found a school there to educate their young men — and St. Ignatius after some thought, agreed to found and staff a school.That is how Jesuit education began, over 450-years ago. This excerpt originally appeared as an Acton Commentary. It is reprinted here with permission of the Acton Institute. Pope Benedict fittingly calls it the duty of the educator to be led by 'intellectual charity' which is inspired by the recognition that leading the young to truth is an act of love. The relativistic mindset that reigns at most schools and universities, including many of those calling themselves Catholic, proclaiming that all truths are equal and the secular truth more equal than others, tells us that religion and education need to be separated because they have nothing to do with each other. What is really being proposed by secularist movements is that the pupil should replace whatever god he believes in with the secular god. Catholic educators however should be able to identify this ruse and know that the only proper way to educate is by providing a formation that centers on Christ alone. It is the only way to enable the student to beat out a coherent path of life by being guided by the one and only God who created heaven and earth. But throughout this own life and work he always asked himself what “more” could be done to “help souls,” as he would put it; what “more” could he do in service of the greater glory of God. So obviously, students don’t expect to develop a meaningful philosophy of life at college — nor do they think they need one.What is missing then in the lives of too many of our young people is a true sense of purpose, and a true sense of their own value — not to mention the value of others. The result was a very painful period of convalescence. A remarkable 99 percent of students who go to Catholic high schools graduate, and of those, 86 percent go on to college. Fairfield seemed like a very natural fit for me, having grown up on Long Island — which, incidentally, I can see from my office window at Fairfield, a strip of green and sand just across Long Island Sound.That’s my story. (1) It is Sacramental To say that Catholic education is sacramental is to suggest that there is nothing that is only secular. Every Catholic school and college, whatever its failings may be, has this understanding of the purpose of life at the core. Rev. Students are encouraged to recognize the presence of Christ in themselves and others. Furthermore, he came to understand that by educating these young men — and eventually women — they would then go on to be lawyers, doctors, administrators, priests, teachers, rulers, counselors, artists, business leaders, and so on. The Church states that promotion of human dignity does not just require freedom in education; it also implies that all have a right to education, as one of those things "necessary for leading a life truly human" (Gaudium et spes, no. For those of you who are familiar with the culture and language of the Society of Jesus you may be familiar with the phrase — the magis — which means, “the more.” It is attributed to St. Ignatius although he never used the phrase in this way. Philip Booth is Editorial and Programme Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. He also serves as Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at Cass Business School, City University and has been a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. He was a Catholic school governor for 20 years. Booth has worked on a number of projects developing insurance and finance education in Central and Eastern Europe. His edited and co-authored books include Christian Perspectives on the Financial Crash, Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy, The Road to Economic Freedom (a compilation of the work of a number of Nobel Prize Winners in Economics) and Investment Mathematics. Booth is Deputy Editor of Economic Affairs. That was another moment of discernment for me. Teaching about other religions is important for several reasons: 1. So I applied to join the Society during my senior year in college. A Catholic education means giving a student the opportunity to learn about the Holy Scriptures. Dr. Joseph Vorbach III, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Arlington, looks at the importance of Catholic education. Instead, he found a deeper more satisfying and more authentic feeling of joy when he contemplated the lives of the Saints and the stories of the Gospels.So Ignatius decided he wanted to serve God, but also discovered that if he really wanted to be of any value, that he needed to be educated. What he discovered was that the romantic and chivalric books and stories he once found so enticing no longer filled him with pleasure. It is at this point that the primary importance of what we would call "virtue-oriented" formation becomes visible. Our young people don’t even have to share our faith in the structure and aspirations of a Catholic school to benefit from its impact! It was Ignatius’s greatest wish — like that of another famous Spaniard, Don Quixote — to be a knight and a soldier, and to perform great acts of chivalry. Given that freedom in education is an extension of freedom of conscience and freedom of religion more generally, it is important to note that the Catholic Church is not calling for privileges for Catholic parents and children. In many traditionally Catholic countries (though also in the UK) systems of Catholic education have become intertwined with the provision of free state education more generally. This means that parents can choose a Catholic education that is funded by government on the same basis as secular education. However, this freedom is not necessarily available to all parents. Furthermore, Catholic parents can be limited in their choice of schools to those the state wishes to authorise (with places and the building of new schools often being severely limited). The Catholic Church, in the authentic promotion of her teaching, does not wish to defend such arrangements as privileges. The Church believes that freedom in education should be available to all parents. It is a fundamental human right and should not merely be a special arrangement for Catholics in countries where Catholics are sufficiently numerous. 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