By Rev. Fr Celestine Arinze Okafor
There are unique attributes which distinguish it from other schools. This perception influences policy and practice. It ultimately determines how the Catholic school runs. The Catholic school has a dual identity: it is both a school and an ecclesial subject. The first identifier means that it is a school like any other, with all the characteristics thereof. Schools are primarily places of cultural transmission.
Cultural goals are pursued by all school in every civilization. The Catholic school shares this characteristic with every other school. If it did not, it would not be a school at all.
And if it were not a school in the first place, it cannot be a Catholic school.
The second identifier of the Catholic school is ecclesial subject. In Educating Together in Catholic Schools, the CCE identifies the Catholic school as a true ecclesial subject.
This identity is what gives the Catholic school its original characteristics and its ‘structure’ as a genuine instruments of the Church, a place of real and specific pastoral ministry. The use of ecclesial community by
Groome to qualify the Catholic school is followed by a definition of the traditional tasks of a Christian community, which are: preaching the word, witness to the word, worship via prayer and liturgy and bodily welfare of its members.
These tasks cannot be relegated to the chaplain, the
priests, or the religion department, every teacher should be involved. The management should
ensure that they are realized. Irrespective of how wonderful a Catholic school may be in the
transmission of such knowledge, its religious message is what makes it an ecclesial subject.
Pope John Paul II says as much in Catechesi Tradendae: “Catholic School would no longer deserve this title if, no matter how much it shone for its high level of teaching in non-religious matters, there
were justification for reproaching it for negligence or deviation in strictly religious education”.
