IF there is one word that is most frequently associated with Jesus' ministry in the Gospels, it is the verb "teach." In one pericope we have Jesus with his exhausted disciples seeking some respite — but encountering instead a large crowd that had followed them on foot. Rather than instructing his disciples "Get me out of here," the Gospels tell us that Jesus was moved with compassion — and he taught them.
Faithful to the mission entrusted to her to "go forth and teach all nations," the Church has constantly taught — through missionaries, catechists, zealous lay faithful, priests, bishops and popes. And many times this teaching has come at a tremendous cost. Many of the Church's teachers suffered martyrdom because they would not go back on their teaching nor be silenced. And she has, through the ages, established and maintained schools, colleges and higher centers of learning.
This, to me, is the reason that when engaging in strategic planning, Catholic universities and colleges betray their identity as Catholic — their very reason for being — when they use models that are principally meant for business enterprises or even secular organizations. In 2022, the Congregation (now Dicastery) for Catholic Education promulgated a crucial document precisely "on the identity of the Catholic school" so that none would lose sight of what should be central to all Catholic institutions of learning. The Holy See spelled out the task in the following terms:
"The whole school community is responsible for implementing the school's Catholic educational project as an expression of its ecclesiality and its being a part of the community of the Church. The fact that in their own individual ways all members of the school community share this Christian vision makes the school 'Catholic'; principles of the Gospel in this manner become the educational norms since the school then has them as its internal motivation and final goal.
"Everyone has the obligation to recognize, respect and bear witness to the Catholic identity of the school, officially set out in the educational project. This applies to the teaching staff, the non-teaching personnel and the pupils and their families. At the time of enrolment, both the parents and the student must be made aware of the Catholic school's educational project." (Paragraphs 38 and 39)
It certainly will not do for lip service to be paid the Catholic identity of an institution. Planning strategically means precisely planning on how to live, in authenticity, its Catholic character and how to pursue the mission of the Church principally and centrally! Whenever, in a strategic planning exercise, models from businesses, government or NGOs are used that result in the marginalization of the Catholic character of a college, the institution reneges on its principal mission.
Who should plan? Who should animate the planning? What considerations should predominate in the planning? In 1997, the same Dicastery issued an instruction entitled "The Catholic School" that addresses itself precisely to the question of school planning:
"Catholic education is inspired by the general principles enunciated by the Second Vatican Council concerning collaboration between the hierarchy and those who work in the apostolate. In consequence of the principle of participation and co-responsibility, the various groupings which constitute the educational community are, according to their several competencies, to be associated in decision-making concerning the Catholic school and in the application of decisions once taken. It is first and foremost at the stage of planning and of putting into operation an educational project that this principle of the Council is to be applied. The assigning of various responsibilities is governed by the principle of subsidiarity, and, with reference to this principle, ecclesiastical authority respects the competence of the professionals in teaching and education. Indeed, 'the right and duty of exercising the apostolate is common to all the faithful, clerical and lay, and laypeople have their own proper competence in the building up of the Church.'"
It follows from this magisterial instruction that the first strategic objective is for the principles of Catholic education, articulated in "Gravissimum Educationis," the Declaration on Christian Education of the Second Vatican Council and promulgated by St. Pope Paul VI to be brought to life.
Secularism has gripped a large part of the world, and the shadow of the eclipse of God and of a sense of the sacred gradually casts a pall of darkness over nations and peoples and the youth, many of whom are in our Catholic colleges and universities, become the principal victims as well as purveyors of a culture that is gradually letting go of every vestige of religion and the Christian faith. We have no right to demand of the State that it be Catholic, but the Church has every right to demand of its schools, colleges and universities that, in the face of this clear threat to the continuing relevance of religion and the life of faith, that they be principally, centrally and aggressively agents of mission, instruments of evangelization, centers of Catholic life and character!
rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph
rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph
rannie_aquino@outlook.com
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