Catholic Evangelization, Catholic Schools
By Mark S. Roberti, Director of Stewardship & Development
Other than through the family unit itself, there is probably no better form of Catholic evangelization today than Catholic schools. There, our children and grandchildren are in a Catholic environment with Catholic mentors and Catholic peers. They are being formed in a distinctively Catholic culture promoting our own particular set of Christian values for seven hours per day, five days per week.
Even at that, Catholic schools sometimes fail us (or to state it more precisely, we fail them). It is extremely difficult to raise our children Catholic. Many powerful negative cultural influences impact the formation of our children. As such, we can only try our best to shield our children – our greatest treasure – against the onslaught of perverted values and images to which they are now subject. As they leave our doors each day, the world has them…until they return. Often times, the world has them in our own living rooms!
How can we prepare them for what has become a real battle? How can we prepare them to face a world that has become almost hostile to the “concept” of an all-knowing God? Most public schools will not allow our children to be taught, even in theory, that an “Almighty” being created the world. Children can be taught uncorroborated “theories of evolution” developed over the last 100 year, but Judeo-Christian explanation of creationism, from which the fabric of Western Civilization has been formed over several millennia, are not tolerated. The world, let’s call it the establishment, allows us limited approval in speculating as to how mankind may have come into existence, but it leaves much less room within the public sector to speculate as to why we exist and what our purpose is in existing.
In a certain sense, I can understand why. If the Mormons or the Jehovah’s Witnesses were the majority, I wouldn’t want my children being taught their faith. In reality, the public school system in the United States used to be Protestant. If you lived in a community that was largely Catholic, the community itself compensated for that. But in either event, your children received a pretty decent Christian indoctrination into Christian morals and values within a basically Protestant school system.
But, today, the school system is “atheist,” meaning without God. That’s not to say that all the teachers or the other students are. The opposite is probably true. But the law is, and the system is, so the atheists have the greater clout. Hence, it’s simply unrealistic to think that our children are not going to be confronted with a set of values that are quite contrary to our faith.
It is our responsibility as parents -- and as Church – to raise our children in the strongest Catholic environment possible. The strongest Catholic environment should be the home. The family is the first tier of the Church. As such, moms and dads must be the primary evangelizers. That responsibility can never be delegated out to others without oversight. But due to the immensity of the battle we fight these days, and the brokenness of many of our families, it is more important than ever that we rely on the assistance of our faith community to help us raise our own children.
In a sense, we need to return to the Catholic ghetto where, in the old days, there was a support system of like-minded people. Today, our Catholic schools are that new ghetto. There, more like-minded clusters of families dwell. There, the families – as well as the students – get acquainted and much more involved as families.
Whether you send your children to Catholic schools or public schools, you need the help and support of your faith community to raise them. Evangelization is critical to our faith. It starts with you evangelizing your own children in your own home. The Church provides our Catholic schools, at a considerable effort, to help you.