I have heard the question voiced by parish priests and pastors, by educational leaders and parish staff members, by people in the pews.  Pope Benedict XVI voiced it himself in his meeting with Catholic educators at the Catholic University of America in April of 2008 when he said, “Some today question the Church’s involvement in education, wondering whether her resources might be better placed elsewhere.”  During his address, he answered the question in many ways, suggesting that Catholic education is necessary and needs to be sustained, that it plays a crucial role in the Church’s mission of evangelization, and that it counters modern relativism with a necessary and indispensable witness to absolute truth and the transcendent dimension of human life.  

One of the most compelling arguments the Pope made was that Catholic educators and, by extension, Catholic education exercises something that society and its citizens urgently need today:  “intellectual charity”. In Benedict’s view, it is a profoundly loving act to lead people to the truth.  And education, of all human endeavors, holds the possibility and responsibility of doing this.  If Jesus is the definitive revelation of the truth, as we believe he is, then ultimately, education must, implicitly at least, expose people to the ethical and spiritual dimensions of his message. 

Thus, in a culture that increasingly distances itself from objective and moral truth, even in its educational institutions, the Catholic school becomes more and more essential.  In its overt proclamation of the truth of the Gospel and its unabashed orientation toward Christ, the Catholic school performs an outright act of charity toward society and toward its people.  It unites knowledge with truth and freedom with moral accountability, in a world that has forgotten their connection.  It promotes the only hope our nation has for future prosperity and long-term viability:  a citizenry that exercises its reason in pursuit of objective truth, that recognizes that a communal life is built upon the God-given dignity of each and all, that shoulders the sacrifice and self-denial necessary to build a just and humane society.  Without this “intellectual charity” that Catholic education offers, society may loose its footing on its ultimate, if undefined, foundation:  the God who is revealed in Christ Jesus.

The Pope’s answer to the question he posed at the beginning of his talk is encouraging to all of us who work with our Catholic schools.  At the beginning of a new school year, with Bishop Serratelli and our diocesan staff and school office, I remain convinced, like Pope Benedict, that the Church and her resources need to continue to be involved in Catholic education.