CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THEIR MISSION IN SCHOOLS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 19, 2002 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press Office, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski and Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, S.J., respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, presented the document "Consecrated Persons and Their Mission in Schools: Reflections and Orientations." Mother Antonia Colombo, general superior of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians also participated.

The document, made public today in Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese, consists of an introduction, two chapters and a conclusion. It is dated October 28, the 35th anniversary of the promulgation of the Vatican Council II declaration "Gravissimum educationis."

Cardinal Grocholewski placed the document in its context, that of the school, with its demands, while Archbishop Pittau outlined the educational commitment of consecrated persons in the Church. Mother Colombo spoke about the content.

After recalling that the scholastic institutions of the Church number more than 250,000, with 42 million students, the cardinal said that according to data gathered by UNESCO there are 135 million children between the ages of 6 and 11 who do not go to school and more than 280 million children and young people who are illiterate or have had very little schooling.

The prefect emphasized that in the current scholastic world, especially in the West, teachers "feel unmotivated." In addition, he affirmed, "a very worrying sign is the increase in violence in schools and among adolescents, as well as the difficulty of families (...) in being an active part of the educational community." Furthermore, he continued, the loss of the sense of education "is closely related to the loss of values."

"Consecrated persons," he said, "make an essential contribution to the development in educational and scholastic activity of the vertical dimension, that is, openness to God, in addition to the horizontal dimension, the education to live responsibly together."

Mother Antonia Colombo affirmed that the first section of the document "delineates the physiognomy of consecrated persons, understood through and defined by their radical reference to Christ. ... A typical contribution of theirs is to offer radical testimony of the goods of the Kingdom in the educational field".

Referring to the second section of the text which concerns the educational mission of consecrated people, the superior general of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians said that this is a "path to sanctity, a requirement for justice and solidarity, especially towards the poorest young boys and girls" in Catholic schools as well as non-Catholic schools.

Regarding the task defined in the document as that of "accompanying towards the Other," Mother Colombo indicated that "this journey takes place in the context of the educational community," among the variety and beauty of vocations. "With their presence," she added, "consecrated persons are a tacit invitation to question oneself about God, about the mystery of life." The teaching of religion in school "acts as a cultural proposal for everyone, independent of the faith that one professes."

"A dimension highlighted in the document is that of being united to the poor and not excluding them. The better option for the poor requires a different way of organizing the scholastic program."

Mother Colombo concluded by emphasizing the section which the document dedicated to the education of peace. "The underlying conviction is that peace cannot be assured without a commitment to justice, without promoting equal opportunity to the access of goods, especially the good of education."

Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, secretary of the congregation, indicated that there were no exact statistics on the numbers of religious teaching in Catholic schools throughout the world but stated that, since Vatican Council II, there has been a strong decline in their numbers. By way of example, he pointed to the United States where, he said, in 1970, 51 percent of teachers in Catholic schools were priests or religious: that figure declined to 7.5 percent in the year 2000. "This is only one nation but it is probably a typical description of the situation of a great part of the countries in the West, and also of many other countries."

The archbishop spoke of the 29 years he lived in Japan, travelling within the country and to other nations in Asia. "I can personally witness to the vital importance of nursery schools for evangelizing the Far East. The children in nursery schools are still very open to Christian values and their parents, whose contact with the school diminishes proportionately with the child's age, are often brought closer to the faith and strengthened in it through their children."

"Consecrated persons, men and women," he added, "are capable of introducing children to a spirit of prayer and holiness, partially through their teaching, but especially through their being, consecrated to the Lord and filled with joy."

The archbishop then observed that "the Church, from Medieval times, especially through religious communities, has been in the forefront of the field of education. The schools of the cathedrals and monasteries and the Church's universities were the few scholastic institutions in existence. Truly the European educational system was born 'ex corde Ecclesiae'."

He added that "at the start of the 16th century there was a flowering of numerous Orders and Congregations who dedicated themselves to the apostolate of education, especially to poor children who did not have the possibility of receiving a systematic formation." Among the male institutes Archbishop Pittau listed are the Barnabites, Jesuits, Brothers of the Christian Schools, Marianists, Marists and Salesians. He briefly described the history and charism of each one, doing the same for notable women's institutes which, he said, include the Ursulines, Sisters of Notre Dame, and the Franciscans, especially the Sisters of the Schools of St. Francis of Christ the King.

He quoted St. Julia Billiart, foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame, who described education "above all as a work of faith, ... of hope, ... of charity, ... and a work of prayer. Only through prayer can our work produce fruit in the hearts of the students we wish to educate."

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