FAITH AND LEARNING

Faith and Learning

Abstract

In Catholic education, we seek to keep alive the memory of the words of life which Jesus spoke, and the marvelous works of mercy and goodness which Jesus performed. The heart and soul of Catholic education is following Jesus Christ, and our school system finds its very reason for existence in the communication of the Christian message. The goal of Catholic education is nothing less than a truly holistic formation of persons who will become living witnesses to the faith. This vision of Catholic education is inspired and sustained by an understanding of the Catholic school as a participant in the saving mission of the Church, a mission that is realized in and for the world.

Faith and Learning

Following Jesus, Catholics pledge they must change and improve the "taste" of human history. With faith, hope and love, and with intelligence, courage and perseverance, they are called to humanize the world we live in. As bishops, the teachers are committed to working together with parents, educators, and trustees to ensure the integrity of Catholic education (Saunders 2000). Their concern with "shared facilities" does not arise out of any desire to segregate themselves from the rest of society. When a family raises its children in the separate confines of its own home, it does not reject every other home and every other family.

It is merely preparing its own children for the necessary and desirable interaction to come. Bishop's insistence on having their own schools is not a rejection of society, as they claim but a preparation for full engagement in it. In the same way, they claim that a separate Catholic school is not a rejection of the culture, but a designated environment of faith formation, which requires its own separate space for the sake of cohesion, unity, and growth.

Far from rejecting our pluralistic society, we nurture these young citizens in an atmosphere of faith, so that they can make a unique contribution to that society. The particular contribution they do, in fact, make to our province because of their Catholic education is recognized and valued by our fellow citizens of all faiths. A Christian education challenges us to go beyond intelligence and sophisticated reason to enter the real world of family love, friendship, respect, and civic responsibility (Shula 2000).

Christian education that glorifies God does more than simply study God and the Bible to gain a better knowledge and understanding. Christian education teaches Christians, His image bearers, how to reflect His glory onto the issues of society and bring life and light to the world. To educate children to the glory of God means to not only teach children that God is holy and just, and that, as His image bearers, one has to be holy and just in all their ways and dealings in society, but to also teach what Godly justice (as one example) is, what distinguishes Godly justice from manly justice, to identify injustices, and how to lobby whatever means one has to bring ...