In the second century, St.

Irenaeus coined one of the most famous phrases in

Christianity: “The glory of God is man, fully alive!”

But becoming “fully alive” does not come naturally to us. Because we have each
suffered the effects of sin, we do not easily choose or even recognize the true, the
good, and the beautiful—the universal attributes of being. We do not always choose
and live as we should. We do not, left to our own devices, exercise the full potential
of the gifts that God has given us. This is precisely why education—and Catholic
education especially—is so important.

“Education” is related to the Latin educere, which means to lead out of or to lead
through. It can be understood as the activity by which we are led out of our igno-
rance, out of our fallen condition, toward something greater.

Education is the process of shaping us to fulfill the purpose of our lives; to know
the happiness that comes from living in accord with our dignity and our nature.
Education is the work of drawing out, developing, and learning to use our intellects,
our memories, our wills, and our imaginations, to the fullness of their potential.
Since education is the formation of human hearts, minds, and wills for the glory of
their Creator, it has always been a priority within Catholicism.

A Centuries-Old Focus on Education

While the Civil War raged in the early 1860s, a small brick Catholic schoolhouse
named St. Benedict School went up in Nebraska City. Its students were boys and
girls, Catholic and non-Catholic, largely the children of immigrants and pioneers.
Those students received the gift of Catholic education from the Benedictine nuns
who taught them, but first from their parents and community who built the school.
This education was paid for in sacrifice—through the donated labor and earnings of
the community—to form the children in faith, character, and knowledge.

Since the first brick was laid for St. Benedict’s School more than 150 years ago,
Catholics in southern Nebraska have made countless sacrifices to mold young peo-
ple into disciples of Jesus Christ. Many of the great blessings in our diocese can be
attributed to those sacrifices which, coupled with the grace of God, have sustained
and strengthened the mission of Catholic schools. Through the efforts of parents,
teachers, pastors, religious and bishops, our schools have done extraordinary work
for the glory of God. In this, Nebraska mirrors the history of our country, whose first
Catholic school was founded in 1606 by a religious order (the Franciscan Friars) and
built mostly by the hands of the town’s citizens.

Being Reborn in Wonder

I am not one of the millions of children who received a Catholic education in this
great country. Nor was I Catholic when I showed up as a freshman at the University

2
of Kansas in the early 1970’s. My main interests at the time were basketball and the
Grateful Dead, and KU had them both! But God had other designs, and in my first
year I providentially enrolled in the Integrated Humanities Program. By the middle
of my junior year, I was baptized and received into the Catholic Church. If I were
to distill what converted me down to one thing (beyond the power of supernatural
grace), it was a “great books” liberal arts education. “Liberal arts” has become a con-
troversial term, but it simply denotes an education meant to free the student for truth
(liberal coming from the Latin word liber, which means free).

My liberal arts education lived up to its name, immersing students in truth, goodness,
and beauty through poetry, history, music, philosophy, theology, art, architecture,
and dance. This spurring of my imagination ultimately led to my conversion to
the Catholic Church, which was hastened through my classmates’ friendship and
our mutual love and desire for these three transcendentals. The words of Saint John
Henry Cardinal Newman ring true in my experience:
The heart is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the
imagination, by means of direct impressions, by the testimony of facts
and events, by history, by description. Persons influence us, voices melt
us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us. Many a man will live and die upon
a dogma: no man will be a martyr for a conclusion. (Tamworth Reading
Room Letters to Sir Robert Peel)
When I discovered truth, goodness, and beauty in the great books, described by
Matthew Arnold as “the best which has been thought and said,” wonder took hold
within me. This was not a happy accident. The three KU professors who founded the
Integrated Humanities Program firmly believed that a true education should engender
“a birth of the human spirit, an entry into a new world that excites interest because it
is seen in the light of wonder” (Dennis Quinn, “Essay on the Muses as Pedagogues of
the Liberal Arts”). “Wonder is the beginning of knowledge,” said Professor John Senior
(another co-founder), “the reverent fear that beauty strikes within us.” The idea was
so central that they chose the Latin phrase Nascantur in Admiratione (“Let Them Be
Born in Wonder”) as the program’s motto. As I was reborn in wonder my heart began
to sing for joy. St. Augustine wrote, only the lover sings, and ultimately, I discovered love
Himself through the joy and wonder suffused throughout my liberal arts program.

Although the Integrated Humanities Program was not Catholic, it led to around 300
conversions in the decade or so that it lasted. Such is the power of truth, goodness,
and beauty, which have always been at the heart of our faith. If an explicitly secular
program could be so powerful, imagine the impact of a Catholic education! But this
raises the question: what makes an education genuinely Catholic?

The Five Essential Marks of Catholic Education

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, the former Secretary for the Congregation for
Catholic Education at the Vatican, examined numerous papal and Vatican documents

3
and enumerated five characteristics essential to Catholic education. If a school is to be
authentically Catholic, it must be: 1) inspired by a supernatural vision, 2) founded
on Christian anthropology, 3) animated by communion and community, 4) imbued
with a Catholic worldview throughout its curriculum, and 5) sustained by gospel
witness. As the Archbishop explains, “These benchmarks help to answer the critical
question: Is this a Catholic school according to the mind of the Church?” (The Holy See’s
Teaching on Catholic Schools, 17.) These elements must be thoroughly understood and
fully implemented, so let’s explore them.

1. Inspired by a Supernatural Vision

A truly Catholic education is concerned with the formation of the whole person:
intellectually, morally, socially, and spiritually. The ancient Greeks said that education
makes us free—freeing us from error, falsehood, and slavery so as to live the fullness
of human life, in virtue and excellence. As a liberal education seeks to unshackle
students to be independent thinkers, a Catholic liberal education seeks to free the
students to live the truth of being made in the image and likeness of God. This un-
derstanding serves as the foundation of each person’s inalienable dignity, which is so
under assault in today’s culture. A supernatural vision teaches students that happiness
comes from living in accord with our dignity and our nature, placing God’s will first.

A Catholic education also teaches baptized students to live in the glorious freedom
of the children of God (see Romans 8:21). As students come to understand the im-
mense privilege of baptism, they learn what it means to be temples of the Holy Spirit,
partake in divine life, and embrace their vocation through their sacrificial efforts to
bring people to God (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1241). It also highlights
the power of grace to potentially love as God Himself loves. Naturally, such an educa-
tion must be faithful to the Gospel and to the teachings of the Church, emphasizing
them as the true path to human flourishing and fulfillment. This supernatural vision
also helps even unbaptized students recognize they are unfathomably loved by God
and that He desires their adoption as sons and daughters through Christ.

This formation does far more than prepare students for a job. It frees them to know,
love, and live fully the joy and wonder of the Christian life. It provides meaning,
shaping students to fulfill the purpose of their lives and giving them a vision of life by
which they can fully integrate its disparate-seeming aspects.

2. Founded on a Christian Anthropology

All Catholic educators share directly in the mission of Jesus Christ, the Teacher. In
fact, the most common title for Jesus in the ancient world was Rabboni, which means
“teacher” in Hebrew. There are few professions today that can claim to be so directly
connected and grounded in the mission of Jesus Christ.

As such, an authentically Catholic education is centered on the person of Jesus Christ.

Catholic schools are not merely information delivery systems focused on secular

4
success, but rather are about transformation in Christ. Our educational mission goes
far beyond conveying factual knowledge of history, science, literature, or even of the
faith; it begins and ends with students’ potential for holiness.

Every student is made for holiness, made to become a saint. A Catholic education,
again, draws out of students a sense of their own call to holiness, helping them ex-
perience the grace that renews their minds (see Romans 12:2) and frees them from
sin and death (see Romans 8:2). An authentically Catholic school teaches students
that through Jesus they can become the people God calls them to be. Instead of a
myopic emphasis on what students can do, a Catholic education cultivates their inner
potential on natural and supernatural planes, thereby also preparing them for any
kind of work the future holds.

“Our educational mission begins and ends

with students’ potential for holiness”
For teachers, principals, pastors, and administrators, this means that Catholic schools
must be focused always on salvation. As Pope Pius XI said, a Catholic education must
“aim at securing the Supreme Good, that is, God, for the souls of those who are being
educated, and the maximum of well-being possible here below for human society”
(Divini Illius Magistri, 8). Here the Incarnation is indispensable, grounding students
in a Christian anthropology and providing a clear roadmap in life. When students
learn that God took on and retains a human nature, they discover the goodness of
materiality—especially the human body—as well as the privileges and responsibilities
that accompany it. They learn that happiness comes through living in accord with
our God-given human nature, not from ignoring or manipulating it. A Catholic
education also stresses that it is only Christ who “fully reveals man to man himself
and makes his supreme calling clear” (Gaudium et Spes, 22), teaching students not
to seek answers in lesser goods. By following Christ’s example of doing the will of
His Father, students learn that this is the path to God’s peace, which surpasses all
understanding (see Philippians 4:7).

Since grace builds on nature, a Catholic school’s emphasis on the supernatural inte-
grates seamlessly with the natural plane. As Pope Benedict XVI explained, “knowing
the truth leads us to discover the good” (Address to Catholic Educators at the Cath-
olic University of America in Washington, D.C., April 17, 2008). In that process of
learning, from delight, to joy, to wonder, to wisdom, students learn to order their
emotions. They learn what to love and what not to love. They learn what is good,
true, and beautiful while, at the same time, they learn what is bad, false, and ugly. St.
Augustine called this the ordering of the emotions or passions, ordo amoris. At young
ages students should learn that they are loved and created good. This formation of the
entire person teaches students how to lead a life ordered through Jesus, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, to God the Father—a life ordered to true and everlasting happiness.

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3. Animated by Communion and Community
“The Holy See describes the school as a community in four areas: the teamwork
among all those involved; the cooperation between educators and bishops; the inter-
action of students with teachers; and the school’s physical environment” (The Holy
See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools, 29). Teamwork between teachers, staff, and prin-
cipal is obviously essential to a well-run school. Teachers in a school must become a
“faculty of friends,” mutually encouraging one another in their common mission of
helping to transform their students into saints.

Catholic schools must also prioritize cooperation between the staff and the students’
families, especially parents, who “have the first responsibility for the education of
their children” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2223). This promotes the mutual
exchanges of gifts, to the benefit of students and the school’s mission.

Healthy cooperation between educators and bishops also helps further an authenti-
cally Catholic education. As a bishop, I have the responsibility of overseeing Catholic
schools in my diocese, ensuring they “are outstanding in correct doctrine, the witness
of a Christian life, and teaching skill” (Code of Canon Law, 804 §2). But I can’t lead
effectively without the trust of my teachers. By respectful listening, honoring each
other’s gifts, and understanding our complementary roles and responsibilities, we
have been able to come together to address the pressing challenges of Catholic educa-
tion in our own time. As I understand it, this is an expression of true “synodality” that
Pope Francis desires for the local church, walking together toward a common goal.

The challenges are many. In the Diocese of Lincoln, our schools face continual
financial struggles as the cost of education increases. We also face the difficulty of
forming teachers and administrators as disciples of Jesus Christ, the challenge of re-
sponding to changing demographics in rural and urban communities, and the strain
of increased regulatory obligations. There is also a particular need to respond to an
increasingly secular culture with ever-more authentically Catholic formation, which
includes developing curricula reflective of truth, goodness, and beauty, and assessing
and adapting our methods and approaches as needed. Our history tells us that we can
face these challenges and handle them successfully. Doing so requires docility to the
Holy Spirit, trust in the Providence of God, and mutual cooperation.

Just as Catholic schools require a good rapport between bishops and educators to
thrive, they also need reciprocity between teachers and students. True Catholic
formation demands a personal relationship, one in which students are known and
loved as individuals. Coupled with healthy boundaries, authentic relationships pro-
mote a learning atmosphere. When educators maintain a healthy level of personal
involvement with their students, they can accompany their charges along the road of
intellectual, spiritual, religious, emotional, and social growth.

A school’s physical environment also plays a key role in generating community. A

Catholic school is not meant to look like an institution but instead be a welcoming

6
place of beauty—with windows, plants, rugs, and excellent secular art. It should reflect
our faith, which is both spiritual and material (like us!). The physical can make visible
the invisible, and so a school’s environment should include crucifixes, statues, images,
and objects of devotion that reinforce the incarnational aspects of Catholicism.

Music, both sacred and profane, also builds up the community of a school. Singing
in common, particularly in choirs, is an expression of communion. This is especially
true with regard to the sacred liturgy. Just as the Eucharist “is the source and summit
of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11), so the Eucharist must be the heart of
every school. The opportunity for daily Mass and frequent confession should be part
of the rhythm of life in a Catholic school.

Communal prayer outside of the Mass also helps foster community, teaching students
to pray with and for each other in joys and sorrows. Eucharistic processions through
the hallways of the school and opportunities for silent Eucharistic adoration should
also be a part of the liturgical life of every school.

“Catholic schools have been proven to

be one of the best ways to bring families
and whole communities out of poverty”
Lastly, I would add that Catholic schools should be apostolates of the entire com-
munity, supported by all parishes and Catholics in the diocese. Even Catholics who
don’t have children, or whose children are grown, have a vested interest in educating
the youth. First, it is our duty as Catholics to evangelize, and a genuinely Catholic
education directs young souls to Christ. Catholic schools offer the best opportunity
for evangelization, both of non-Catholics as well as of Catholics who are not fully
living their faith. Second, Catholic schools have been proven to be one of the best
ways to bring families and whole communities out of poverty (see Lost Classroom, Lost
Community: Catholic Schools’ Importance in Urban America by Nicole Stelle Garnett
and Margaret Brinig). So it’s always a tragedy when schools have to close in inner
cities because they’re not sustainable. Third, education serves the common good, and
Catholic education does so even more by forming not only good citizens, but ambas-
sadors of Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5:20) who work to make present the Kingdom of
Heaven on earth. Imagine the change within our country if even a fraction of today’s
students were on fire with the love of God, seeking to share that love and working for
the common good of all!

Of course, education is primarily about the good of the students, and because Cath-
olic education is so transformational, Catholic schools should be affordable. In the
Lincoln diocese, we have some of the lowest elementary and high school tuition
rates in the country, largely due to Bishop Glennon Patrick Flavin’s prioritization of

7
Catholic education. By having enough priests to utilize some in Catholic education
and thanks to the sacrifices of lay teachers, we have been able to keep tuition down.
Additionally, it is our goal that no child should be turned away because of an inability
to pay. All Christians “have a right to a Christian education” (Gravissimum Educatio-
nis, 2), and charity demands we ensure Catholic education is not a privilege reserved
only for those who can afford it. Catholics within the Lincoln diocese have risen to
this call, with parishioners taking ownership of their parish schools and contributing
a substantial part of what it costs to educate each student. Their generosity has helped
keep Catholic education accessible and affordable.

Catholics within the community should also lobby elected officials to help families
offset the cost of education by supporting parental choice in the form of vouchers, tax
credit scholarships, or educational savings accounts. As the Second Vatican Council
noted, the government is “bound according to the principles of distributive justice to
ensure that public subsidies to schools are so allocated that parents are truly free to
select schools for their children in accordance with their conscience” (Gravissimum
Educationis, 6). This principle of parental choice in the education of their children is
an important piece in the mosaic of social justice—especially because such programs
typically have income caps and therefore disproportionately benefit low-income
households. Still, more reform is needed to include middle-income families—espe-
cially those with multiple children, who are embracing the pro-life teaching of the
Catholic Church. Efforts to empower all parents to choose educational opportunities
that best suit their children’s needs have been stymied for too long but they’re now
slowly making progress in select state legislatures. More needs to be done on this
front and it is incumbent upon the Catholic faithful to make their views known to
public officials.

4. Imbued with a Catholic Worldview throughout the Curriculum

To effectively help students develop toward the fullness of their potential, Christ and
His teachings must animate all the school’s efforts. Therefore, a truly catholic (or
universal) curriculum is integrated, interdisciplinary, historically aligned, and aimed
at developing the whole person.

We can have the very best religion classes in the world, and still lose the students
if faith is not woven through the entire curriculum. Faith cannot be added on as a
stand-alone subject; it must be integrated into every class, subject, and activity in a
school, like yeast that causes everything to rise. To simply tack on faith would be as
unfair as giving students a ten-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle, without providing a
picture on the box showing how all the pieces fit together to make a whole.

A Catholic education should offer so much more to students because we see the
world through a sacramental lens—a lens that sees connections, integrates knowl-
edge, discerns the ultimate meaning, destiny, and purpose of the human person,

8
and understands how we fit into the big picture. When students awaken to truth,
goodness, and beauty, their lives are changed.

Math and science and the other STEM subjects are privileged gateways into the divine
order of things. Every subject bears the fingerprints of God, pointing to the beauty,
joy, and wonder behind all reality. Whether that be the marvel of number, equation,
order and sequence in mathematics, or salvation history, all reality is “charged with
the grandeur of God.” It is filled with meaning and purpose and should provide the
answer to the “whys” behind everything. As Bishop Robert Barron wrote recently,
“education should be in the meaning business!” (Evangelization and Culture: The
Journal of the Word on Fire Institute, issue #17: Education). Young people want to
know the “why” behind everything.

“When students awaken to truth, goodness,

and beauty, their lives are changed”
Another hallmark of a Catholic worldview is that it fosters joy and wonder, natural
happiness, confidence, virtue, and an eagerness to learn. Forming a sacramental imag-
ination fosters a love for learning because it associates learning with the experience
of delight. Students can become creators of beauty: singing, painting, performing
on stage, entering into the great stories, reciting poems, and writing creatively. They
should rhyme with Mother Goose, adventure into Narnia and Middle Earth, lift their
spirits with Bach and Mozart, explore the complexities of life with Shakespeare, and
soar into the sacramental vision of Michelangelo. Students should be encouraged to
embrace their natural creativity, discovering that, in the words of Pope St. John Paul
II, “the human craftsman mirrors the image of God as Creator” (Letter to Artists, 1).

The liberal arts are especially potent for teaching humility, openness, and an apprecia-
tion for mystery. As St. John Henry Cardinal Newman noted, the poetic suggests that
“we should not put ourselves above” the objects of our study, “but at their feet; that
we should feel them to be above and beyond us, that we should look up to them…
instead of fancying that we can comprehend them.” This implies a universe filled with
wonder, “vast, immeasurable, impenetrable, inscrutable, mysterious; so that at best
we are only forming conjectures about them, not conclusions, for the phenomena
which they present admit of many explanations, and we cannot know the true one”
(A Benedictine Education, 20).

The poetic and the scientific are both important, but only the former can stave off
scientific reductionism. For, as Newman continued, “Poetry does not address the rea-
son, but the imagination and affections; it leads to admiration, enthusiasm, devotion,
love.” He might’ve said it leads to joy and wonder!

9
Education can be work for children, but it also ought to be fun! Catholic schools,
forming children for the delight of eternal life with the Lord, should foster joy. I
would submit to you that one reason students find so little joy in learning today is
that they’re not taught the meaning of things. They are not learning how everything
fits together as a whole nor how God gives meaning and purpose to reality and,
ultimately, their lives. Technology can also sap students’ imaginations of their natural
creativity and curiosity, leaving them anxiety-ridden, flat souled, and unmoored in a
culture of joylessness. There is a disturbing rise in mental health issues among young
people today connected to smart phones and social media (see The Anxious Genera-
tion by Jonathan Haidt).

Today, in a particular way, we must understand that we live in the age of the image,
the virtual, and the synthetic. All of us have been influenced by technology, and
our students have been especially harmed by too much of it. Their entire lives have
been lived in the age of the digital and the screen. To be sure, technology can help us
to do great things, but there is a kind of unreality about our time when we are too
immersed in its virtual reality.

“To mold saints, we must form vivid

and joyful Christian imaginations”
In times past, real experiences have formed our imaginations, as did the experience
of envisioning fairy tales, novels, songs, and poems. Today, as images are ubiquitous,
many students’ imaginations have become passive or, worse, started withering. Be-
cause of this crisis of the imagination, Catholic education in our time must nurture
the imaginations of children, especially in their early years, helping them to prepare
for a life of inspiration and hope. To mold saints, we must form vivid and joyful
Christian imaginations. Deliberately introducing the arts will awaken the imagina-
tion of students, moving them from technology-induced passivity to the attentiveness
needed to appreciate and reproduce the great works of the Catholic tradition.

We aspire to greatness more easily when our imaginations point us to something

beyond our own experiences. Our imaginations motivate us to strive for happiness,
excellence, purpose, and joy. They give us hope or cause us discouragement. They
can even lead us down the pathway to despondency and despair. The imagination
proposes possibilities and proposals that lie in the future, a future with hope. When
well formed, it leads us to the true, the good, and the beautiful. We aspire to be holy,
in part, because our imaginations inspire us to greater hope, faith, and charity than
we have experienced, or than we even believe possible. A Catholic worldview there-
fore demands the fostering of the imagination, and its integration into the whole
curriculum.

10
5. Sustained by Gospel Witness
Education is a form of friendship. In a genuinely Catholic school, teachers and
administrators foster friendship through the hard work of love. They inspire, form,
and lead students out of the virtual into the world of what’s real—to the true, good,
and beautiful—where they can encounter and glorify the Lord. Our call is to help
students experience the joy of being alive, the wonder of God’s creation, a love of
learning, and a hunger for faith. To do so, we must live these ourselves.

In other words, teachers give testimony to a Catholic worldview and the faith through
their lives. Nothing sours students to religion faster than hypocrisy, so it is crucial to
hire faithful Catholics whenever possible. This should be a top priority for principals
for, as Pope Paul VI famously wrote, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses
than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses”
(Address to the Members of the Consilium de Laicis, October 2, 1974).

Additionally, students discover themselves and the faith more readily when teachers
can share their life experiences. Teachers should feel confident to “teach themselves,”
allowing students to know them on a personal level (for instance, favorite hobbies,
the number of children they have, the story of their conversion or what made them
first start taking the faith seriously, etc.). Such details can be shared while maintaining
the hierarchical structure of the classroom, and help students connect on a relational
level.

A final important part of Gospel witness is ensuring priests and religious play a
central role in the education of students and the leadership of Catholic schools.
In the Lincoln diocese we are blessed to have 63 diocesan priests and 29 religious
sisters as teachers or administrators in our schools. Their presence witnesses to a life
consecrated to Christ and encourages young people to consider religious and priestly
vocations. Their service in our schools is a grace that enriches the vitality and health
of our entire diocese.

Today’s Challenges
As our students grow and mature, we must prepare them to confront directly the
challenges of our time. Since reason continues to erode from the public square, our
schools must prioritize the great philosophical treasures of the Church and western
civilization. As technocracy replaces morality, our schools should develop new uses
and approaches to technology in a manner consistent with Christian anthropology
and human dignity. The more individualized society becomes, the greater the crisis of
loneliness, and the more our schools must prioritize friendship and Christian civility.
As we face an ugly, crude, and banal culture, our schools should use literature, song,
poetry, and art to form a true and beautiful Christian culture. In a virtual age, Cath-
olic education must offer real experiences, with real things, preparing our students
for the countercultural experience of a holy and joyful Christian life. Ultimately, the

11
way our schools can address reductive, utilitarian, and functionalist worldviews is to
foster wonder, joy, and hope with Jesus at the center.

The Catholic tradition of education can overcome the challenges we face. Building
upon this tradition, I would like to make some suggestions for our schools:

• To be disciples our children must not only learn about the faith but have op-
portunities to live out what they are learning. To increase our efforts to form
disciples, therefore, we must teach our children how to pray so they can foster
their relationship with Jesus. We can do this by helping them to enter into
dialogue with God through lectio divina. We can also provide opportunities
for them to serve. Service to the poor and others in need is transformative and
essential to the Christian life.

• We must be deliberate in our use of technology so that it does not dominate

our classrooms. It should be used as a tool to assist the life of the mind, not
replace it. Children need time away from screens, which have become omni-
present, in order to think clearly and use their imaginations.

• We must strengthen our focus on forming the whole person: the mind in
the truth, the will in the good by forming virtue, and the imagination with
beauty. We should lead with beauty—via classic works of literature, poetry,
theater, and the fine arts—to inspire our children with a love of learning.
Pope Francis underscores this forcefully in his 2024 letter “On the Role of
Literature in Formation.” Even more crucially, as Pope Francis wrote, “Every
expression of true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading to an
encounter with the Lord Jesus” (Evangelii Gaudium, 167). In our highly sec-
ularized and relativistic culture, truth and goodness often have a diminished
ability to move minds and hearts. But the via pulchritudinis (way of beauty)
still has the power to capture the imagination and win souls.

• We should emphasize the liberal arts, particularly the use of primary sources,
classroom discussion, critical and logical thinking, discovering the legacy of
the Western and Catholic traditions, and effective oral and written commu-
nication. The classroom can provide opportunities to experience the wonder
of reality, engage all of the senses in a process of discovery, and form the
dispositions needed to recognize and defend the truth amid opposition.

• We must continue to provide an academic program of the highest excellence,

as we remember that our schools do much more than prepare for success
in standardized tests and future careers. As we prioritize ordering minds and
hearts rightly, we will prepare our graduates for future success, but more
importantly to live a good and happy life and respond to their vocations.

• We should provide opportunities for extracurricular activities such as sports,

drama, or a host of other activities that help form the student in his or her

12
 social, physical, and emotional development. A balanced formation is life-giv-
ing for the student.

Of course, there is not a singular path along which all our schools will develop.
Instead, the Lord is inviting us to commit to the principles that build authentically
Catholic schools. In so doing, we answer His call to be good, courageous, and creative
stewards.

In the years to come, we must all continue to discern how to form our children,
sustainably and responsibly, in the midst of changing times and changing circum-
stances. We may be called to try new models or approaches and be invited to new
kinds of sacrifice. We must seek wisdom from the Lord, generously responding to the
movement of the Holy Spirit, and consult and collaborate with one another. Our call
is to trust in the Lord, who has made us in His image to know and love Him. Let us
ask Mary, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, to make us docile
to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And may Jesus, the master teacher, form all of us for
the freedom of holiness.

+James D. Conley
Bishop of Lincoln
September 3, 2024
Feast of St. Gregory the Great

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 Resources
Magisterial Documents
Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) #22
and 24 – Vatican II
Gravissimus Educationis (Declaration on Christian Education) – Vatican II
Code of Canon Law – cannons 793-821
The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue – Congregation for
Catholic Education
Address to Catholic Educators at the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C., April 17, 2008 – Pope Benedict XVI
Divini Illius Magistri (Encyclical on Christian Education) – Pope Pius XI
Evangelii Gaudium #167 – Pope Francis
Letter on the Role of Literature in Formation – Pope Francis
Letter to Artists – Pope John Paul II

Online Resources
Institute for Catholic Liberal Education: Inspires and equips Catholic educators via
formation, events, and resources (https://catholicliberaleducation.org)
Chesterton Schools Network: Provides a turnkey academic and operational model
to help create more affordable, classical, joyfully Catholic high schools
(https://chestertonschoolsnetwork.org)
Classical Learning Test: Offers assessments to help educators equip the whole
human person—intellectually, emotionally, and ethically
(https://www.cltexam.com)
Boethius Institute: Forms educators in traditional liberal arts and sciences (https://
boethiusinstitute.org)
Evangelization and Culture: Issue 17 of this journal produced by the Word on Fire
Institute specifically focuses on education and the classics
(https://institute.wordonfire.org/journal-17-education)
Catholic Textbook Project: Creates textbooks proceeding from the insight that
mankind and history are transformed irrevocably by Christ and his Church
(https://www.catholictextbookproject.com)
Catholic Education Partners: Fosters parental empowerment by expanding
education choice initiatives and protecting religious liberty (https://catholiced.us)

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Books
Beauty for Truth’s Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education by Stratford Caldecott
Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education by Stratford Caldecott
A Benedictine Education by John Henry Cardinal Newman
From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age by the
University of Mary
Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB
iGen: Why Today’s Superconnected Kids are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant,
Less Happy and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood by Jean M. Twenge
John Senior and The Restoration of Realism by Fr. Francis Bethel, OSB
Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education by James S. Taylor
Renewing Catholic Schools: How to Regain a Catholic Vision in a Secular Age by the
Institute for Catholic Liberal Education
Rewiring the Mind: A Reader in the Philosophy of Catholic Education by Ryan N.S.
Topping
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic
of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
The Case for Catholic Education by Ryan N.S. Topping
The Catholic School Playbook by Michael Ortner and Kimberly Begg [expected
publication January, 2025]
The Crisis of Western Education by Christopher Dawson
The Heart of Culture: A Brief History of Western Education by the Habiger Institute
for Catholic Leadership
The Idea of a University by St. John Henry Cardinal Newman
The Restoration of Christian Culture by John Senior
Truth on Trial: Liberal Education be Hanged by Robert Carlson
Words Made Flesh: The Sacramental Mission of Catholic Education by Jared Staudt

Recommended Publishers
Ignatius Press (https://ignatius.com)
Magis Institute (https://www.magiscenter.com)
Cluny Media (https://clunymedia.com)
Word on Fire (https://www.wordonfire.org)
Secretariat of Catholic Education ([email protected],
https://www.usccb.org/committees/catholic-education)

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