A great responsibility

A few days ago the Spanish Bishops’ Conference published the document “Pastoral Guidelines for the coordination of the family, the parish and school in the transmission of faith”, that was given the final approval by the permanent Commission of February 25. Drawn up by the Bishops’ Commission for education and catechesis, the document integrates the guidelines of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI on the so-called “educational emergency”, which proposes as one of the first answers of the Church “to combine efforts, share experiences, focus on the persons and prioritize resources in order to coordinate goals and actions between different policy areas: family, parish, school, on the transmission of the faith today”.Help to educators. The pastoral guidelines “are meant to help families in their difficult, beautiful responsibility of educating their children; to provide support to priests and catechists in parishes in their patient mission of initiating to faith the new generations of Christians and to help religion teachers in public and private centers of learning: Catholics or lay people engaged in the noble work of educating children and young people”. The document is divided into five chapters: the first gives a brief analysis of the needs, challenges, and opportunities for transmission of the faith in the Christian family, in parish catechesis and in religion classes in schools. The second is addressed to those responsible for the coordination of objectives and actions. The third presents distinct and complementary services that correspond to the different areas, the fourth chapter highlights the specific dimensions of these services in the transmission of the faith and finally the fifth chapter focuses on the tools which encourage and help the transmission of faith today, according to the different situations of the recipients and the responsibilities of parents, catechists and teachers.New evangelization. The document drawn up by the Spanish bishops is set against the background of the “new evangelization”. Even recognizing the difficulties caused by the present economic downturn “we believe a sound anthropology conveys to children, adolescents and young people a large reservoir of goodness, truth and beauty that negative values cannot hide or destroy. There is widespread yearning for certainties, values and high goals that orient their lives”. The bishops recalled the special and irreplaceable role that Christian lay people play in the communication of the faith, calling for the commitment to education to be realized in communion, at the service of the mission in the parish, in ‘archpriesthood or in schools, in Catholic schools in particular, “an educational point of reference not only in its formative function, but also in the witness of consecrated persons and lay Christian teachers. This testimony will only be effective if it is carried out in the spirituality of ecclesial communion”.Teachers and witnesses. The document describes the family as the “very first educational realm” and as “the domestic church”. “Parents are the first and most important educators – the text reads -. They are the mirror in which children and adolescents reflect their image”. As a “domestic church”, the role of the family is not limited to witness, which is however indispensable. Indeed, the family is the realm that conveys through education the contents of faith, according to the age of their children. It is the propitious framework where Christian virtues are discovered and practiced, even more so in an unfavorable social environment. In turn, the Parish has the duty to promote the first proclamation of the call to faith, as not always religious awakening takes place inside the family. As relates to the teaching of religion in schools, the document points out that “it represents a right and duty of Catholic parents and pupils”. To those who question the teaching of religion in schools, the Guidelines respond by highlighting the role of religious education which “enables the comprehension of the European civilization in which we are immersed”, providing pupils with “reasons for life and moral values, indicating the path that will guide their behaviors”. “We invite all institutions involved – the bishop concluded – to collaborate on this project for transmitting Christian faith. Today, we need religious educators that are both teachers and witnesses. The Spanish Bishops’ Conference will explore the possibilities of a Catholic educational project encompassing a coherent, harmonious and complete vision of man, with objectives, actions and means, that may serve as a point of reference for all Catholic educational institutions. In the words of Blessed John Paul II, we are aware that what is at stake is “the future of the transmission of the faith and its realization”.