What are we doing? In today's confusing, demanding world, Catholic educators must frequently ask this question of themselves. Standards, tests, mandates, accreditation, programs, parents, students, board members, pull us this way and that all the time. But what is our goal? How can we steer a consistent path to that goal?

 

 

In The Holy See's Teaching on Catholic Schools, Archbishop Michael Miller, former Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Schools, gives an excellent summary of recent magisterial teaching directed to Catholic schools. This excerpt from his book explains how a Catholic worldview should affect every aspect of a Catholic school.

 

 

St. Theresa Catholic School is a new parochial school within the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. As a classical Catholic school, St. Theresa self consciously intends to operate within the rich educational tradition that is Catholic liberal education. Liberal education aims for freedom-or more exactly, freedom from vice and freedom for virtue, or in today's lingo, freedom for excellence. A liberal education aims for nothing else than excellence in every area of life, and our curriculum promotes that through an emphasis on the physical, intellectual, and theological virtues.

 

 

Archbishop Michael Miller, former Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Schools, has recently penned a "must-read" (and easily readable) book for all Catholic educators. The Holy See's Teaching on Catholic Schools faithfully summarizes the last fifty years of Magisterial documents on the Catholic school.