Place of the future” “

“Schools are not experiencing an easy situation in these initial years of the 21st century”, admit the Belgian bishops in a recently issued document entitled “The Catholic school at the beginning of the 21st century”, in which they reflect on current problems and future challenges. “The school – they write – is such an important place for preparing responsible adults who may freely conduct a honourable and generous life, that it is only too comprehensible that the Church should concern itself with it and play an active part in this task”. Here’s a résumé of the document. A humanist school, not subject to the market… “Schools must respond to the great expectations of society and parents – point out the Belgian bishops –. These expectations include the provision of high quality teaching to all children, equality in dignity and rights, and a sound intellectual formation as a preparation for further studies or professional life”. According to the bishops, schools, like other institutions in society, “are searching for a meaning”: “Education cannot fulfil its own task of ensuring the pupil’s personal growth without giving him/her a humanist and social dimension. No one becomes fully human without ethical principles that regard love for self and for others, and without reference to the tradition and legacy of those who preceded us”. Moreover, schools, the bishops note, involve the responsibility of the public authorities: “If we wish schools not to be dominated by the dream of riches and power, and remain a public service without being subjected to the laws of the market, the political authorities must guarantee their independence and the conditions for their continuing existence”. reflecting on the sense of being and acting. In Belgium, “the ideological conflicts and rivalries” between public and private schools have been overcome and now “seem to have been replaced by a new atmosphere and a feeling of reciprocal consideration”. Catholic schools, in particular, aim to provide their pupils with “a quality education”, also by inculcating “ethical values and reflecting on the human sense of being and acting”. In short, “they wish to help the young to form personal convictions, develop a hierarchy of values and present their own diversity of aims and attraction in a pluralist manner”. Four objectives: And since pluralism is also present in Catholic schools, the bishops recall four objectives that define their identity. First, Catholic schools wish to be “a place of high quality teaching and education for their pupils”, also for “socially disadvantaged or psychologically scarred children and adolescents”, hence with a “privileged option for the weak”. Second, they wish to be “a place in which the Christian faith is brought to the attention of pupils” who, as they grow, may be led “to dialogue with other religions and convictions”. Also important are “witness and opening to the questions of meaning and faith, while respecting reciprocal autonomies”. Lastly, Catholic schools “wish to be a place in which a way of life is proposed” and pupils are given “the chance to discover and develop the spiritual dimension of their own life”. “Faith is always a freely chosen act – stress the Belgian bishops –. But Catholic schools consider it their duty to propose it to the personal choice of pupils. That’s why they invite them to risk the adventure of faith, to experience it in the life of prayer, in the sacramental celebrations, in the service to others”. Lastly, “Catholic schools wish to be a project open to everyone”. The bishops therefore invite “pupils, parents, teachers and educators who recognise this project to support it for various reasons and to collaborate with it, irrespective of their personal convictions”.