This article is available for download. You can download it and print it for private use and for private sharing but it cannot be reproduced in any other publication. To download a print copy click here – Divini Illius Magistri – Article 12
In the final part of his Encyclical ‘Divini Illius Magistri’, Pope Pius XI warns us about the need for vigilance in education before summing up by teaching us the true nature of Christian education.
“It is no less necessary to direct and watch the education of the adolescent, “soft as wax to be moulded into vice,” in whatever other environment he may happen to be, removing occasions of evil and providing occasions for good in his recreations and social intercourse; for “evil communications corrupt good manners.”” (Divini Illius Magistri 89)
“More than ever nowadays an extended and careful vigilance is necessary, inasmuch as the dangers of moral and religious shipwreck are greater for inexperienced youth. Especially is this true of impious and immoral books, often diabolically circulated at low prices; of the cinema, which multiplies every kind of exhibition; and now also of the radio, which facilitates every kind of communications. These most powerful means of publicity, which can be of great utility for instruction and education when directed by sound principles, are only too often used as an incentive to evil passions and greed for gain. St. Augustine deplored the passion for the shows of the circus which possessed even some Christians of his time, and he dramatically narrates the infatuation for them, fortunately only temporary, of his disciple and friend Alipius. How often today must parents and educators bewail the corruption of youth brought about by the modern theatre and the vile book!” (Divini Illius Magistri 90)
Pope Pius XI was writing before the internet age where pornography is made easily accessible to everyone. But we have seen from recent developments in education in Ireland, that books are still favoured when it comes to the chosen means used to corrupt our youth. It is one of the main means used to promote gender ideology and the homosexual lifestyle in schools. Especially to very young children. A range of books which oppose Catholic teaching on human sexuality have been developed for use in Prinmary schools. This includes Catholic Primary schools.
“Worthy of all praise and encouragement therefore are those educational associations which have for their object to point out to parents and educators, by means of suitable books and periodicals, the dangers to morals and religion that are often cunningly disguised in books and theatrical representations. In their spirit of zeal for the souls of the young, they endeavour at the same time to circulate good literature and to promote plays that are really instructive, going so far as to put up at the cost of great sacrifices, theatres and cinemas, in which virtue will have nothing to suffer and much to gain.” (Divini Illius Magistri 91)
Sad to say, there are very few Catholics nowadays who see anything wrong in promoting sexual information to very young children. The Catholic bishops in many countries have developed questionable ‘Relationships & Sexuality Programmes’ which often times rely on materials from secular governments which contradict Catholic Church teaching. In Ireland, the Flourish programme is an example, which uses resources from the abortion providing HSE to teach primary school children about human sexuality. What is taught contradicts the tried and tested methods of forming Catholic youth.
“This necessary vigilance does not demand that young people be removed from the society in which they must live and save their souls; but that today more than ever they should be forewarned and forearmed as Christians against the seductions and the errors of the world, which, as Holy Writ admonishes us, is all “concupiscence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes and pride of life.” Let them be what Tertullian wrote of the first Christians, and what Christians of all times ought to be, “sharers in the possession of the world, not of its error.”
“This saying of Tertullian brings us to the topic which we propose to treat in the last place, and which is of the greatest importance, that is, the true nature of Christian education, as deduced from its proper end. Its consideration reveals with noonday clearness the pre-eminent educational mission of the Church.” (Divini Illius Magistri 92-93)
In today’s world, it would seem that most Catholics are prepared to work a damaging compromise with the secular authorities rather than protect children from the harmful ideologies of the world. Those in charge of Catholic education go to great lengths so as not to offend anybody, even those whose ideologies are dangerous to the salvation of children. Thus we end up with schools which are Catholic in name only and this in turn leaves sincere Catholic parents at a loss. The schools that should be catechising their children and teaching them how to become saints in a dark world, are failing their children through faulty and inadequate religious education programmes.
“The proper and immediate end of Christian education is to cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian, that is, to form Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism, according to the emphatic expression of the Apostle: “My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you.” (Galatians 4:19) For the true Christian must live a supernatural life in Christ: “Christ who is your life,” (Colossians 3:4) and display it in all his actions: “That the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:10)
For precisely this reason, Christian education takes in the whole aggregate of human life, physical and spiritual, intellectual and moral, individual, domestic and social, not with a view of reducing it in any way, but in order to elevate, regulate and perfect it, in accordance with the example and teaching of Christ.”
(Divini Illius Magistri 94-95)
In Ireland and other western democracies, the State now controls the curriculum, even in the Catholic schools. Religion is tolerated provided it is limited in its application and not allowed to interfere with other subjects. These other subjects are free to contradict the Catholic Church teaching that may be taught in the religion class. Although, it is now permitted for those who have abandoned the practice of the Catholic faith to teach the religion classes to Catholic children.
“Hence the true Christian, product of Christian education, is the supernatural man who thinks, judges and acts constantly and consistently in accordance with right reason illumined by the supernatural light of the example and teaching of Christ; in other words, to use the current term, the true and finished man of character. For, it is not every kind of consistency and firmness of conduct based on subjective principles that makes true character, but only constancy in following the eternal principles of justice, as is admitted even by the pagan poet when he praises as one and the same “the man who is just and firm of purpose.” (Horat., Od., 1,III, od. 3, v. 1) And on the other hand, there cannot be full justice except in giving to God what is due to God, as the true Christian does.” (Divini Illius Magistri 96)
The votes in the 2018 abortion referendum in Ireland clearly showed that those who have received an education in Irish so-called Catholic schools, are very far from being men and women of character. It is estimated that more than 86% of them voted to permit the killing of innocent human beings in their mother’s wombs.
“The scope and aim of Christian education as here described, appears to the worldly as an abstraction, or rather as something that cannot be attained without the suppression or dwarfing of the natural faculties, and without a renunciation of the activities of the present life, and hence inimical to social life and temporal prosperity, and contrary to all progress in letters, arts and sciences, and all the other elements of civilization. To a like objection raised by the ignorance and the prejudice of even cultured pagans of a former day, and repeated with greater frequency and insistence in modern times, Tertullian has replied as follows:
We are not strangers to life. We are fully aware of the gratitude we owe to God, our Lord and Creator. We reject none of the fruits of His handiwork; we only abstain from their immoderate or unlawful use. We are living in the world with you; we do not shun your forum, your markets, your baths, your shops, your factories, your stables, your places of business and traffic. We take shop with you and we serve in your armies; we are farmers and merchants with you; we interchange skilled labour and display our works in public for your service. How we can seem unprofitable to you with whom we live and of whom we are, I know not. (Tertullian Apol., 42) (Divini Illius Magistri 97)
In our day, most of the Catholic bishops have given up on the possibility of providing a truly Catholic education to the youth of Ireland. They wish to maintain the status quo, which sees the corruption of the Catholic faith of young children rather than openly defy the Irish government who are promoting an evil agenda in the schools of Ireland. These politicians are of their father, the father of lies, but there are no Apostles to call them out.
“The true Christian does not renounce the activities of this life, he does not stunt his natural faculties; but he develops and perfects them, by coordinating them with the supernatural. He thus ennobles what is merely natural in life and secures for it new strength in the material and temporal order, no less then in the spiritual and eternal.” (Divini Illius Magistri 98)
Given the widespread denial of the existence of Hell and the possibility that anyone goes there, the supernatural order is almost totally forgotten in the modern methods of teaching children.
“This fact is proved by the whole history of Christianity and its institutions, which is nothing else but the history of true civilization and progress up to the present day. It stands out conspicuously in the lives of the numerous Saints, whom the Church, and she alone, produces, in whom is perfectly realized the purpose of Christian education, and who have in every way ennobled and benefited human society. Indeed, the Saints have ever been, are, and ever will be the greatest benefactors of society, and perfect models for every class and profession, for every state and condition of life, from the simple and uncultured peasant to the master of sciences and letters, from the humble artisan to the commander of armies, from the father of a family to the ruler of peoples and nations, from simple maidens and matrons of the domestic hearth to queens and empresses. What shall we say of the immense work which has been accomplished even for the temporal well-being of men by missionaries of the Gospel, who have brought and still bring to barbarous tribes the benefits of civilization together with the light of the Faith? What of the founders of so many social and charitable institutions, of the vast numbers of saintly educators, men and women, who have perpetuated and multiplied their life work, by leaving after them prolific institutions of Christian education, in aid of families and for the inestimable advantage of nations?” (Divini Illius Magistri 99)
The opposite of this statement is also true which can be seen in the decline of the moral standards of Western nations. This decline is in no small part due to the corruption of the Catholic schools.
“Such are the fruits of Christian education. Their price and value is derived from the supernatural virtue and life in Christ which Christian education forms and develops in man. Of this life and virtue Christ our Lord and Master is the source and dispenser. By His example He is at the same time the universal model accessible to all, especially to the young in the period of His hidden life, a life of labour and obedience, adorned with all virtues, personal, domestic and social, before God and men.” (Divini Illius Magistri 100)
Oh that our bishops would once again become convinced of the importance of a truly Catholic education and would admit that they are failing in this regard. This admittance is the first step to having to ushering in a Catholic reform of the schools. Without this admission of responsibility, things will continue to go from bad to worse. We must pray for our bishops.
“Now all this array of priceless educational treasures which We have barely touched upon, is so truly a property of the Church as to form her very substance, since she is the mystical body of Christ, the immaculate spouse of Christ, and consequently a most admirable mother and an incomparable and perfect teacher. This thought inspired St. Augustine, the great genius of whose blessed death we are about to celebrate the fifteenth centenary, with accents of tenderest love for so glorious a mother:
O Catholic Church, true Mother of Christians! Not only does thou preach to us, as is meet, how purely and chastely we are to worship God Himself, Whom to possess is life most blessed; thou does moreover so cherish neighbourly love and charity, that all the infirmities to which sinful souls are subject, find their most potent remedy in thee. Childlike thou are in moulding the child, strong with the young man, gentle with the aged, dealing with each according to his needs of mind of body. Thou does subject child to parent in a sort of free servitude, and sets parent over child in a jurisdiction of love. Thou binds brethren to brethren by the bond of religion, stronger and closer then the bond of blood …. Thou unites citizen to citizen, nation to nation, yea, all men, in a union not of companionship only, but of brotherhood, reminding them of their common origin. Thou teaches kings to care for their people, and bids people to be subject to their kings. Thou teaches assiduously to whom honour is due, to whom love, to whom reverence, to whom fear, to whom comfort, to whom rebuke, to whom punishment; showing us that whilst not all things nor the same things are due to all, charity is due to all and offense to none.” (St Augustine – De moribus Eccleslae catholicae, lib. 1, c. 30) (Divini Illius Magistri 101)
“Let us then, Venerable Brethren, raise our hands and our hearts in supplication to heaven, “to the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls,” to the divine King “who gives laws to rulers,” that in His almighty power He may cause these splendid fruits of Christian education to be gathered in ever greater abundance “in the whole world,” for the lasting benefit of individuals and of nations. (Divini Illius Magistri 102)
“As a pledge of these heavenly favours, with paternal affection We impart to you, Venerable Brethren, to your clergy and your people, the Apostolic Benediction. Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, the thirty-first day of December, in the year 1929, the eighth of Our Pontificate.”
Let us pray that our bishops will once again heed the message of Pope Pius XI and will earnestly begin a reform of the Catholic schools in Ireland and in every country where they are failing in their mission. Let us pray that they will undertake this task soon, in full confidence that the Lord God will bless their efforts. Meanwhile, let Catholic parents look to securing the Catholic education of their own children by whatever means necessary. Catholic parents cannot wait for their bishops, they must act to protect the Catholic faith of their children now.
To be cont’d…
Go To Previous Article In This Series
Contact Details:
John Lacken
Caherea
Lissycasey
Ennis
Co Clare V95 T6D0
Ireland
Tel: +353 (0)85 120 8779
Click this link to send me an e-mail: https://www.truedevotions.ie/contact/
If you would like to support the work of Legio Sanctae Familiae you can do so here –
You can purchase a copy of my book by clicking on this link – ‘The Traditional Catholic Family’
Leave a Reply