Catholic educational institutions should have three goals ...

The Purpose of Catholic Education

 and the Role of the State

by Christiaan Alting von Geusau

by Philip Booth

Catholic educational institutions should have three goals in order to be able to fulfil their primary mission to allow students to “encounter the living God who in Jesus Christ reveals his transforming love and truth” (Pope Benedict XVI). 

These objectives are: 

• to provide an environment in which students are enabled to build and deepen their relationship with God; 
• to foster an academic culture aimed at the pursuit of truth; and 
• to actively promote growth in virtue.

When Christ is the center of all we do, then we are enabled to redirect our focus of life towards an understanding of the world in which we live that is geared towards the promotion of human dignity and the common good. Young men and women graduating from Catholic schools and universities should have the keen understanding of being called as Christians to work for the common good and to do so through a life that is deeply rooted in Christ, combined with a vigorous desire to pursue the truth of things, to live through and with reality rather than merely being guided by constantly changing feelings and preferences.

It is at this point that the primary importance of what we would call “virtue-oriented” formation becomes visible. Catholic schools should let the educational endeavor be guided by a constant promotion of the virtues, especially the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance. No matter how strong the faith of a person might be, without a certain degree of practice in the virtues, it will be hard not to be led exclusively by the emotions and impressions that constantly enter our minds.

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