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With this introduction, the Church charges parents with a grave responsibility toward their children. She does not leave us to wonder what is meant and how to carry out this responsibility:
"The role of parents in education is of
such importance, that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.
(Gravissimum educationis,
The right and duty of parents to educate
their children is primordial and inalienable. (Familiaris consortio,
36)
Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill God's law.
Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility by first creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery -- the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones." (Centessimus annus, 36 paragraph 2) Parents have a grave responsibility to give a good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them:
He who loves his son will not spare the rod. . . . He who disciplines his son will profit by him. (Sirach 30:1-2)The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach their children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies.Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)
Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege or evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the "first heralds" for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years into the life of the Church. (Lumen gentium, 11 Paragraph 3) A wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one's life.
Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. This already happens when family members help each other grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and discover their vocation as children of God. (Lumen gentium, 11) The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families. It is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.
. . . As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have a right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible, parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators. (Gravissimum educationis, 6) Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2221-2228, 2230).
1In a far corner of southwest Missouri, we find ourselves seeking to provide a Catholic education for our children. We would like to meet each month for Mass, confession, a pot luck lunch, educational, and social activities. Our deepest gratitude goes out to the Monastery of Mary Co-Redemptorix in Carthage Missouri for their hospitality in hosting our meetings. We would be happy for you to join with us. Contact us with your name, address, phone number, and the names and ages of your children so we can be ready to welcome you all. You can find a form here to fill out and bring to the next event.
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Last updated: 11 December, 2006
