The Proper Role Of The Parents In Religious Education Of Their Family

What is the proper role of the parents in the religious education of their family? All one has to do is look at the number of students in Catholic schools. These figures have done nothing but continued to decline. The peak was reached in 1965 when 5.5 million students were enrolled in Catholic elementary and high schools. In 1930, there were more Catholic elementary schools (7,225), with 2.5 million students, than in 2004 (6,574), with 1.78 million students. Moreover, in the same seventy-five-year period, the Catholic population tripled: from 20.2 million in 1930 to over 66 million in 2004.

Since 1990, more than 400 new Catholic schools have opened in the United States. But during that period there has been a net loss of more than 760 Catholic schools. Most of the decline has been concentrated in urban, inner-city, and rural areas.

Clearly, the Church in America is facing a serious challenge in serving her children and young people, one that cannot be swept under the rug or dismissed as the inevitable result of an increasingly secularized society. This has put more and more pressure on religious education to the family or local parish. However, with less than 20% of the families attending Church on a regular basis and less than 70% of the people born after 1980 even confirmed in the Church- the outlook if we continue down this road does not look bright at all.

So once again I ask what is the role of the parent in the religious education of their children? To learn more we are going to look at two documents. The first from Vatican II and the second from Pope Leo XIII on this subject.

First, The Declaration on Christian Education # 3

Vatican Council II, 1965.

Since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators. This role in education is so important that only with difficulty can it be supplied where it is lacking. Parents are the ones who must create a family atmosphere animated by love and respect for God and man, in which the well-rounded personal and social education of children is fostered. Hence the family is the first school of the social virtues that every society needs. It is particularly in the Christian family, enriched by the grace and office of the sacrament of matrimony, that children should be taught from their early years to have a knowledge of God according to the faith received in Baptism, to worship Him, and to love their neighbor. Here, too, they find their first experience of a wholesome human society and of the Church. Finally, it is through the family that they are gradually led to a companionship with their fellowmen and with the people of God. Let parents, then, recognize the inestimable importance a truly Christian family has for the life and progress of God’s own people.

Second, Parents' Obligation for Educating Their Children Pope Leo XIII

5. Increase your diligence concerning domestic society, the education of youths and of priests, and the best manner of teaching Christian love. The soundness and honor of domestic life, from which health flows into the veins of civil society, must be sought first in the sanctity of marriage, which is indivisible when entered into according to the precepts of God and of the Church. In the next place it is necessary that the rights and duties between the spouses be inviolate and, as far as possible, supported by the greatest possible love and harmony. Parents must provide protection and advantages for their children, especially education. The best and most efficacious example for the children is the lives of their parents. Parents must realize that they can provide for their education properly and well only by exercising great vigilance. In choosing schools and colleges, they must avoid not only those where errors concerning religion are deliberately interspersed with the teaching, or where impiety reigns, but also those that consider Christian culture and morals inappropriate for instruction and offer no courses in them. For those, surely, whose talents are developed by letters and the arts also need to be taught the knowledge of and reverence for divine things. Nature itself admonishes that they must serve God even more than the state; in serving the state, they must direct their steps toward their permanent homeland in heaven. They must keep this goal in mind as they grow older and advance in civil culture both because youths today are urged to a greater desire for knowledge and because they are exposed daily to great dangers to their faith. The great losses we have suffered prove this. Now concerning the manner of teaching sacred doctrine, concerning the worthiness and knowledge of professors, and concerning the selection of books, the Church reserves her right to prescribe certain things. Nor can she fail to do so since she is bound by a most serious duty to see to it that nothing harmful to the well-being of the faith creeps in and injures the Christian people. The lessons which are taught in churches and meeting places advocating that the seeds of faith and love are nourished and grow should complement and strengthen the sacred instruction which is given in the schools.

We as parents can no longer set back and lose another generation of children to bad religious education. It is our job as parents to stand up and try to help out this problem. We can do so by doing the following:

Volunteering to teach religious education in your parish
Work with the local Religious Education Director in your parish
Work with your local priest
Have religious education in your home with your children every week
Read the Bible as a family together
If your children are older- take classes on religion with them- many colleges offer online classes for both high school-age students and their parents.
Set the example, be the leader in your household and parish. Do not let Satan take over your family’s religious education. Do not let their friends or the school provide their religious education. Brothers and sisters, the risks of doing nothing are too great here. Stand up and make a difference now and forever. Amen. Comment below