‘Be Not Conformed to This Age’

This is Catholic Schools Week, an important week, as public schools are trying to take away parental rights to exclude them from the education of their children. It's assumed they must be excluded to prevent them from interfering with conforming their children to the whims of popular culture.

But this is not a new problem. The following quotes come from an encyclical written by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

33. That this right is inviolable St. Thomas proves as follows: The child is naturally something of the father . . . so by natural right the child, before reaching the use of reason, is under the father's care. Hence it would be contrary to natural justice if the child, before the use of reason, were removed from the care of its parents, or if any disposition were made concerning him against the will of the parents. And as this duty on the part of the parents continues up to the time when the child is in a position to provide for itself, this same inviolable parental right of education also endures. "Nature intends not merely the generation of the offspring, but also its development and advance to the perfection of man considered as man, that is, to the state of virtue" says the same St. Thomas. 36. It must be borne in mind also that the obligation of the family to bring up children, includes not only religious and moral education, but physical and civic education as well, principally in so far as it touches upon religion and morality. 37. This incontestable right of the family has at various times been recognized by nations anxious to respect the natural law in their civil enactments. Thus, to give one recent example, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, in a decision on an important controversy, declared that it is not in the competence of the State to fix any uniform standard of education by forcing children to receive instruction exclusively in public schools, and it bases its decision on the natural law: the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to educate him and prepare him for the fulfillment of his obligations.

Catholic schools should not just prepare students for a college education at an Ivy League school. Perhaps they should spend some time teaching students on how to avoid an Ivy League school instead.

Bishop Burbridge speaks to the role parents play in their children's education in the following video.