Quotes: Importance of Catholic Education
"Teachers must remember that it [the Catholic school] depends chiefly on them whether the Catholic school achieves its purposes." (Declaration on Christian Education, 1965, #8)
"More than any other program of education sponsored by the Church, the Catholic school has the opportunity and obligation to be unique, contemporary, and oriented to Christian service..." (To Teach as Jesus Did, 1972, #106)
"Like the mission and message of Jesus Christ, the Church's educational mission is universal - for all men, at all times, in all places. In our world and in our nation, the mission of Christian education is of critical importance. The truth of Jesus Christ must be taught; the love of Jesus Christ must be extended to persons who seek and suffer."
(To Teach as Jesus Did, 1972, #154)
"When a sizeable segment of the American people undertakes to build and operate a great system of schools at considerable sacrifice, serious citizens are thereby encouraged to reflect upon the importance of religion in human life."
(Teach Them, 1976, p.4)
"She [the Church] establishes her own schools because she considers them as a privileged means of promoting the formation of the whole man, since the school is a center in which a specific concept of the world, of man, and of history is developed and conveyed." (The Catholic School, 1977, #8)
"The function exercised by the school in society has no substitute; it is the most important institution that society has so far developed to respond to the right of each individual to an education and, therefore, to full personal development; it is one of the decisive elements in the structuring and the life of society itself." (Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, 1982, #13)
"The Church has always had a love for its schools, because this is where its children receive their formation."
(The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School, 1988, #44)
"Graduates of Catholic schools are more closely bonded to the Church, more deeply committed to adult religious practices, happier, and more supportive of religious perspectives on women and have more confidence in other people, more benign images of God, and a greater awareness of the responsibility for moral decision making. They give in a committed fashion more contributions to the Catholic Church (National Opinion Research Center [NORC] 1988 General Social Survey)."
(In Support of Catholic Schools, 1990, pp. 4-5)
"In so doing, they [Catholic schools] have also fostered the improvement of all education in the United States. Many of the reforms being suggested for public education (school-based management, greater parental involvement, values education, increased homework, more rigorous courses, and even school uniforms) have long been associated with the success of Catholic schools." (In Support of Catholic Schools, 1990)
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