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Some Church Teachings
on Catholic Education and Chaste Wedlock
From Pope Pius XI’s encyclical on education, Divini Illius
Magistri:
Another very grave danger is that naturalism which nowadays invades the
field of education in that most delicate matter of purity of morals. Far
too common is the error of those who with dangerous assurance and
under an ugly term propagate a so-called sex-education, falsely
imagining they can forearm youth against the dangers of sensuality by
means purely natural, such as a foolhardy initiation and
precautionary instruction for all indiscriminately, even in public;
and, worse still, by exposing them at an early age to the occasions,
in order to accustom them, so it is argued, and as it were to harden
them against such dangers.
Such persons grievously err in refusing to recognize the inborn weakness
of human nature, and the law of which the Apostle speaks, fighting
against the law of mind (Romans 7:23); and also
in ignoring the experience of facts, from which it is clear that,
particularly in young people, evil practices are the effect not so
much of ignorance of intellect as of weakness of a will exposed to
dangerous occasions, and unsupported by the means of grace.
In this extremely delicate matter, if, all things considered, some private
instruction is found necessary and opportune, from those who hold
from God the commission to teach and have the grace of state, every
precaution must be taken. Such precautions are well known in
traditional Christian education, and are adequately described by
Antoniano cited above, when he says:
"Such is our misery and inclination to sin, that often in
the very things considered to be remedies against sin, we find occasions for
and inducements to sin itself. Hence it is of the highest importance that
a good father, while discussing with his son a matter so delicate,
should be well on his guard and not descend to details, nor refer to
the various ways in which this infernal hydra destroys with its
poison so large a portion of the world; otherwise it may happen that
instead of extinguishing this fire, he unwittingly stirs or kindles
it in the simple and tender heart of the child. Speaking generally,
during the period of childhood it suffices to employ those remedies
which produce the double effect of opening the door to the virtue of
purity and closing the door upon vice." [...]
In fact it must never be forgotten that the subject of Christian education
is man whole and entire, soul united to body in unity of nature, with
all his faculties natural and supernatural, such as right reason and
revelation show him to be; man, therefore, fallen from his original
estate, but redeemed by Christ and restored to the supernatural
condition of adopted son of God, though without the preternatural
privileges of bodily immortality or perfect control of appetite.
There remain therefore, in human nature the effects of original sin,
the chief of which are weakness of will and disorderly inclinations.
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child and the rod of correction shall
drive it away. (Prov. xxii, 15) Disorderly inclinations then must be
corrected, good tendencies encouraged and regulated from tender childhood, and
above all the mind must be enlightened and the will strengthened by
supernatural truth and by means of grace, without which it is impossible to
control evil impulses, impossible to attain to the full and complete
perfection of education intended by the Church, which Christ has endowed so
richly with divine doctrine and with the Sacraments, the efficacious means
of grace.
Hence every form of pedagogic naturalism which in any way excludes or
weakens supernatural Christian formation in the teaching of youth is
false. Every method of education founded, wholly or in part, on the
denial or forgetfulness of original sin and of grace, and relying on
the sole powers of human nature, is unsound. [...]
But alas! it is clear from the obvious meaning of the words and from
experience, that what is intended by not a few, is the withdrawal of
education from every sort of dependence of the divine law. So today
we see, strange sight indeed, educators and philosophers who spend
their lives in searching for a universal moral code of education, as
if there existed no Decalogue, no gospel law, no law even of nature
stamped by God on the heart of man, promulgated by right reason, and
codified in positive revelation by God Himself in the ten
commandments. These innovators are wont to refer contemptuously to
Christian education as “heteronomous,” “passive,”
“obsolete,” because founded upon the authority of God and
his holy law.
Such men are miserably deluded in their claim to emancipate, as they say,
the child, while in reality they are making him the slave of his own
blind pride and of his disorderly affections, which, as a logical
consequence of this false system, come to be justified as legitimate
demands of a so-called autonomous nature. [...]
These principles [i.e. of the basic difference between the
sexes], with due regard to time and place, must in accordance
with Christian prudence, be applied to all schools, particularly in
the most delicate and decisive period of formation, that, namely, of
adolescence; and in gymnastic exercises and deportment, special care
must be had of Christian modesty in young women and girls, which is
so gravely impaired by any kind of exhibition in public. [...]
Perfect schools are the result not so much of good methods as of good
teachers, teachers who are thoroughly prepared and well-grounded in
the matter they have to teach; who possess the intellectual and moral
qualifications required by their important office; who cherish a pure
and holy love for the youths confided to them, because they love
Jesus Christ and His Church, of which these are the children of
predilection; and who have therefore sincerely at heart the true good
of family and country. [...]
The proper and immediate end of Christian education is to co-operate 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 labor again, until Christ be formed in you. (Gal.
iv, 19) For the true Christian must live a supernatural life
in Christ: Christ who is your life, (Col. iii, 4)
and display it in all his actions: That the life also of Jesus may
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. (II Cor. iv,
11) [...]
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 illuminated 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. [...]
“By nature parents have a right to the training of their children, but
with this added duty that the education and instruction of the child
be in accord with the end for which by God’s blessing it was
begotten. Therefore it is the duty of parents to make every effort to
prevent any invasion of their rights in this matter, and to make
absolutely sure that the education of their children remain under
their control in keeping with their Christian duty, and above all to
refuse to send them to those schools in which there is danger of
imbibing the deadly poison of impiety.” (Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae
Christianae, January 10, 1890 as quoted in Divini Illius Magistri)
On March 21, 1931, the Holy Office (now the Sacred Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith) issued a Decree. The Holy
Office had proposed to it for solution a question pertaining to Pope
Pius XI's encyclical, Divini Illius Magistri. The Decree's
question and answer about sex-education read:
Question: May the method called "sex-education" or even "sex
initiation" be approved?
Answer: No. In the education of youth the method to be followed is that
hitherto observed by the Church and the Saints as recommended by His
Holiness the Pope in the encyclical dealing with the Christian
education of youth, promulgated on December 31, 1929. The first place
is to be given to the full, sound and continuous instruction in
religion of both sexes. Esteem, desire and love of the angelic virtue
must be instilled into their minds and hearts. They must be made
fully alive to the necessity of constant prayer, and assiduous
frequenting of the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist; they
must be directed to foster a filial devotion to the Blessed Virgin as
Mother of holy purity, to whose protection they must entirely commit
themselves. Precautions must be taken to see that they avoid
dangerous reading, indecent shows, conversations of the wicked, and
all other occasions of sin.
Hence no approbation whatever can be given to the advocacy of the new
method even as taken up recently by some Catholic authors and set
before the public in printed publications.
In a Papal Letter to the Cardinal of Malines in 1955, Pope Pius XII
wrote about his predecessor’s encyclical:
The inviolable principles which this document
[Divini Illius Magistri] lays down regarding the Church,
family and State in the matter of education, are based on the very nature of
things and on revealed truth. They cannot be shaken by the ebb and
flow of events. As for the fundamental rules which it prescribes,
these too are not subject to the wear and tear of time, since they
are only the faithful echo of the Divine Master, Whose words shall
never pass away. The encyclical is a real Magna Carta of
Christian education, ‘outside of which no education is complete
and perfect.’
The Catechism of the Council of Trent does not, of course,
explicitly prohibit classroom sex-ed, since there was no classroom
sex-ed as we know it in the 16th century. But the section on the
Sixth Commandment, Thou shalt not commit adultery, is
devoted to teaching pastors the proper matter and method of public
instruction in sexual morality. It states clearly and
succinctly under the heading IMPORTANCE OF CAREFUL
INSTRUCTION ON THIS COMMANDMENT:
In the explanation of this Commandment, however, the pastor has need of
great caution and prudence, and should treat with great delicacy a
subject which requires brevity rather than copiousness of exposition.
For it is to be feared that if he explained in too great detail or at
length the ways in which this Commandment is violated, he might
unintentionally speak of subjects which, instead of extinguishing,
usually serve rather to inflame corrupt passion.
Then, after taking its own advice, the catechism explains as
follows:
These are the points which we have deemed proper matter for public
instruction of the faithful. The pastor, however, should add the
decrees of the Council of Trent against adulterers, and those
who keep harlots and concubines, omitting many other
species of immodesty and lust, of which each individual is to be
admonished privately, as circumstances of time and person may
require. [...]
The first [remedy of lust] is studiously to avoid
idleness ... in the next place intemperance is carefully to be
avoided. ... the eyes in particular, are the inlets to criminal
passion, ... Too much display in dress ... [is]
an occasion of sin. ... Obscene language is a torch which lights up
the worst passions of the young mind ... Immodest and passionate
songs and dances are ... cautiously to be avoided [as
also] soft and obscene books ... no less than indecent
pictures.
But the most efficacious means for subduing [lust’s] violence are
frequent use of confession and Communion, as also unceasing and devout prayer
to God, accompanied by fasting and almsdeeds.
In the section on the Sacrament of Matrimony the same catechism
instructs:
Finally, the use of marriage is a subject which pastors should so treat as
to avoid any expression that may be unfit to meet the ears of the
faithful, that may be calculated to offend the piety of some, or
excite the laughter of others. The words of the Lord are chaste
words (Psalm xi, 7); and the teacher of a
Christian people should make use of the same kind of language, one
that is characterized by singular gravity and purity of soul.
The Gospel according to Saint Matthew (v, 27-28)
records the very words of Our Lord.
You have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Thou
shalt not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that anyone who so much
as looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery with her
in his heart.
At Fatima, Our Lady prophesied:
Wars are a punishment from God for sin. ... Certain fashions
will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much. ... More souls go to
Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason.
From Pope Pius XI’s encyclical on chaste wedlock, Casti Connubii:
[C]all to mind that firmly established principle, esteemed alike in sound
philosophy and sacred theology: namely, that whatever things have
deviated from their right order, cannot be brought back to that
original state which is in harmony with their nature except by a
return to the divine plan which ... is the exemplar of all right
order. [...]
In order therefore to restore due order in this matter of marriage, it
is necessary that all should bear in mind what is the divine plan and
strive to conform to it. Wherefore, since the chief obstacle to this
study is the power of unbridled lust, which is the most potent cause
of sinning against the sacred laws of matrimony, and since man cannot
hold in check his passions, unless he first subject himself to God,
this must be his primary endeavour, in accordance with the plan
divinely ordained. For it is a sacred ordinance that whoever shall
have first subjected himself to God will, by the aid of divine grace,
be glad to subject to himself his own passions and concupiscence;
while he who is a rebel against God, will, to his sorrow, experience
within himself the violent rebellion of his worst passions. [...]
“This indeed is fitting, that the lower be subject to the higher, so
that he who would have subject to himself whatever is below him, should
himself submit to whatever is above him. Acknowledge order, seek
peace. Be thou subject to God, and thy flesh subject to thee. What
more fitting! What more fair! Thou art subject to the higher and the
lower is subject to thee. Do thou serve Him who made thee, so that
that which was made for thee may serve thee. For we do not
commend this order, namely, The flesh to thee and thou to God, but
Thou to God and the flesh to thee. If, however, thou despisest
the subjection of thyself to God, thou shalt never bring about the
subjection of the flesh to thyself. If thou doest not obey the Lord,
thou shalt be tormented by thy servant.” (St. Augustine,
Enarrat. in Ps. 143) This right ordering on the part of God’s
wisdom is mentioned by the holy Doctor of the Gentiles, inspired by
the Holy Ghost, for in speaking of those ancient philosophers who
refused to adore and reverence Him Whom they knew to be the Creator
of the universe, he says: Wherefore God gave them up to the
desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own
bodies among themselves: and again: For this same God
delivered them up to shameful affections. (Rom. i,
24, 26) And St. James says: God resisteth the proud and
giveth grace to the humble, (Jam. iv, 6)
without which grace, as the same Doctor of the Gentiles reminds us,
man cannot subdue the rebellion of the flesh. (Rom. vii,
8)
Consequently, as the onslaughts of these uncontrolled passions cannot in
any way be lessened, unless the spirit first shows a humble compliance of duty
and reverence toward its Maker, it is above and before all needful
that those who are joined in the bond of sacred wedlock should be
wholly imbued with a profound and genuine sense of duty towards God,
which will shape their whole lives, and fill their minds and wills
with a very deep reverence for the majesty of God.
Quite fittingly, therefore, and quite in accordance with the defined norm
of Christian sentiment, do those pastors of souls act who, to prevent
married people from failing in the observance of God’s law, urge
them to perform their duty and exercise their religion so that they
should give themselves to God, continually ask His divine assistance,
frequent the sacraments, and always nourish and preserve a loyal a
thoroughly sincere devotion to God.
They are greatly deceived who having underestimated or neglected these
means which rise above nature, think that they can induce men by the
use and discovery of the natural sciences, such as those of biology,
the science of heredity, and the like, to curb their natural desires.
We do not say this in order to belittle those natural means which are
not dishonest; for God is the author of nature as well as of grace,
and He has disposed the good things of both orders for the beneficial
use of men. But they are mistaken who think that these means are able
to establish chastity in the nuptial union, or that they are more
effective than supernatural grace. [...]
Such wholesome instruction and religious training in regard to Christian
marriage will be quite different from that exaggerated physiological
education by means of which, in these times of ours, some reformers
of married life make a pretense of helping those joined in wedlock,
laying much stress on these physiological matters, in which is
learned rather the art of sinning in a subtle way than the virtue of
living chastely. [...]
All these things, however, ... depend in large measure on the due
preparation remote and proximate, of the parties for marriage. For it
cannot be denied that the basis of a happy wedlock, and the ruin of
an unhappy one, is prepared and set in the souls of boys and girls
during the period of childhood and adolescence. There is danger that
those who before marriage sought in all things what is theirs, who
indulged even their impure desires, will be in the married state what
they were before, that they will reap that which they have sown;
(Gal. vi, 9) indeed within the home there will be
sadness, lamentation, mutual contempt, strifes, estrangements,
weariness of common life, and, worst of all, such parties will find
themselves left alone with their own unconquered passions.
On the authentic Catholic school, Pope John Paul II:
“This [education in Faith] of
course concerns first and foremost the Catholic school:
it would no longer deserve this title if, no matter how
much it shone for its high level of teaching in
non-religious matters, there were justification for reproaching it
for negligence or deviation in strictly religious education.”
(Catechesi Tradendae, no. 69, 1979)
[The Catholic school is] first and foremost, a place and a special
community for the education and maturation of faith. ... A Catholic
school -- I said -- would no longer deserve this title ‘if,
no matter how much it shone for its high level of teaching in
non-religious matters, there were justification for reproaching it
for negligence or deviation in strictly religious education. Let it
not be said that such education will always be given implicitly and
indirectly. The special character of the Catholic school, the
underlying reason for it, the reason why Catholic parents should
prefer it, is precisely the quality of its religious instruction
integrated into the education of the pupils’. ... And this
religious teaching must be entire in its content, because every
disciple of Christ has the right to receive the word of faith in a
form that is not mutilated, not distorted, not reduced, but complete
and whole, in all its rigor and vigor.
(The Whole Truth about Man, Daughters of St. Paul ca.
1981 pp. 109-110)
From the Catechism of the Catholic
Church:
“I thought that continence arose from one's own powers, which I did
not recognize in myself. I was foolish enough not to know ... that no one can
be continent unless you grant it. For you would surely have granted it if my
inner groaning had reached your ears and I with firm faith had cast my cares
on you.” (Saint Augustine, Confessions 6 11, 20)
§2520
Purity requires modesty, an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects
the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should
remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears
witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in
conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity.
§2521
Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages
patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the
conditions for the definitive giving and commitment of man and woman to one
another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one's choice of
clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy
curiosity. It is discreet.
§2522
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