Today, in the 3,500,000 teachers in Catholic schools, "there is a lay majority, though with very different percentages in various parts of the world". It is one of the data emerged during the presentation of the new Vatican document on "Educating together in Catholic schools", elaborated by the Congregation for Catholic education and published by the Vatican publishing house (Libreria Editrice Vaticana). "The laymen it is said in the text living in touch with the world, owing to their family and social relations, may encourage the openness of the educational community to constructive relationships with cultural, civil and political institutions, through the different social aggregations from the most informal to the most organized ones which are present on the territory". And teachers may play an important role to encourage "relationships between Catholic schools and the families which chose them for educating their children". This implies "full participation of parents to the life of the educational community", thanks also to a specific "organic service of permanent training" meant for them. "Teachers educate, as every person living and working in a school environment, but may also miseducate, with their verbal and non-verbal behaviours": therefore, "lifestyle" is important. And lifestyle must depend on "communion", and the need for a "solid professional training".
