On the Fourth Precept of the Decalogue

On the schools of heretics. - "... Fathers and mothers become guilty of a most enormous sin all the more who, truly cruel toward the souls of their children, send them to the schools of Protestants; and even worse, if they compel them to go. The matter is evident: parents of this kind are to be reproved and detested in their crime, and their amendment is to be sought by all possible means; and at times they are to be kept far from the Sacraments, as being incapable and unworthy, until they have recalled their children from schools of this kind. - The children also, the matter considered in itself, certainly become guilty of grave fault by going to such schools. But in the case of true coercion, the confessor, having weighed the circumstances of the person and of the fact, should act toward them according to the rules proposed by approved authors for cases of this kind." Instr. of the Cardinal Vicar for the Parish Priests of Rome, 12 July 1878.

"Moreover, what had to fall under deliberation first of all was the very manner of instructing youth, proper and peculiar to schools of this kind, non-Catholic schools. This seemed to the Sacred Congregation, even of itself, full of danger and very adverse to the Catholic cause. For the students of such schools, since their own plan excludes every doctrine of religion, will learn neither the rudiments of faith nor be instructed in the precepts of the Church, and therefore will lack knowledge most necessary for man, without which one does not live as a Christian... In the aforesaid schools... teachers are used indiscriminately from every sect, so that it is free to pour errors and seeds of vices into tender minds. A certain corruption also threatens further from this, that in the same schools, or at least in many of them, adolescents of both sexes are gathered into the same room for hearing lessons, and males are ordered to sit on the same bench next to females. All these things bring it about that youth is miserably exposed to harm concerning faith, and morals are placed in danger. - But unless this danger of perversion is made remote from nearby, such schools cannot be frequented with a safe conscience. The natural and divine law itself cries this out... And these things indeed, as founded on natural and divine right, state a certain general principle and have universal force, and pertain to all those regions where this most pernicious method of instructing youth has unhappily been introduced... - Moreover, the Sacred Congregation is not ignorant that the circumstances of things are sometimes such that Catholic parents can, in conscience, entrust their offspring to public schools. But they will not be able to do this unless they have sufficient cause for so acting; and whether such a sufficient cause is or is not present in some particular case will have to be left to the conscience and judgment of Bishops. According to the things reported, it will then generally be present when either no Catholic school is at hand, or the one which is at hand is little suited for instructing adolescents suitably and congruently to their condition. But in order that public schools can be approached in conscience, the danger of perversion, which is more or less always connected with their own plan, must be made remote from nearby by opportune remedies and precautions. Therefore it must first of all be seen whether, in the school about whose attendance there is question, the danger of perversion is of such a kind that it plainly cannot be made remote, as often as there are either taught or done there certain things contrary to Catholic doctrine or good morals, which cannot be heard or done without loss to the soul. Truly such a danger, as is evident of itself, must be wholly avoided with any temporal harm whatever, even of life. - Moreover, in order that youth can in conscience be entrusted to public schools, they must duly and diligently receive the necessary Christian instruction and education, at least outside school time. Wherefore let parish priests and missionaries... diligently apply themselves to catecheses... But let the parents themselves, or those who are in their place, carefully watch over their children... It is manifest from Catholic moral doctrine that those parents who neglect to impart this necessary Christian instruction and education to their children; or who allow them to frequent such schools in which ruin of souls cannot be avoided; or finally who, although a suitable Catholic school is present in the same place and aptly instructed and prepared, or although they have the faculty of educating their offspring as Catholics in another region, nevertheless entrust them to public schools without sufficient cause and without the necessary precautions by which the danger of perversion is made remote from nearby, cannot, if they are contumacious, be absolved in the Sacrament of Penance." Instr. S. C. de P. F. on public schools to the Most Reverend Bishops in the United States of North America, 30 June 1875, approved by the Supreme Pontiff 24 Nov. of the same year.

On non-Catholic Universities. - "By letters given on 3 Feb. 1865 to the Right Reverend Fathers and Lords, the sacred Prelates of England, the Sacred Council called Propaganda signified that it had most willingly confirmed the opinion unanimously proposed by the praised Bishops in the recent London meeting, concerning colleges not to be erected near the English Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and concerning Catholic parents to be opportunely persuaded not to send their sons to those Universities; namely, because the same Sacred Council had seen the judgment of the Bishops to be especially consonant with the principles handed down by itself according to the mind of the Supreme Pontiff, as often as it had been consulted concerning the dangers of mixed schools... But since not all have carried the same judgment concerning non-Catholic Universities to be avoided, and since there were even some who judged that it could be tolerated that Catholic youth frequent the aforesaid institutes, either because of the temporal advantages which are obtained in them, or because in their opinion no certain law appears by which access to them is absolutely prohibited, I think it worthwhile that Your Excellency explain clearly in the Pastoral Letter the doctrine concerning proximate occasions of sinning gravely which are to be avoided, to which no one can expose himself without lethal sin, unless grave and proportionate necessity urges, and unless such precautions are employed by which the proximate danger of sinning is removed. Now truly in the matter of which there is question, to which, from the declaration of the Supreme Pontiff, there belongs an intrinsic and most grave danger, not only for honesty of morals, but especially for faith, which is altogether necessary for salvation, who does not see that there scarcely can, or indeed scarcely even can, be given those circumstances in which non-Catholic Universities may be frequented without sin? The lightness of mind and instability of adolescents, the errors which are drunk in, as it were with the air, in the said Institutes without the antidote of sounder doctrine, the very great force which human respect and mockeries of companions exercise upon youths, bring upon adolescents so present and so proximate a danger of falling that generally no sufficient reason can be conceived on account of which adolescents may be entrusted to non-Catholic Universities..." Instr. S. C. de P. F. 6 Aug. 1867.

On mixed schools of heretics. - "1. Whether it is lawful for parents to entrust their children to be instructed in schools of this kind, mixed schools? - Resp. Generally speaking, it is not lawful, but in particular cases this must be left to the judgment and conscience of the Ordinary; nevertheless it will be his office to take diligent care that not only by himself and by parish priests, but also by individual parents, opportune remedies be applied by which the danger of perversion is removed from the students, and at the same time to strive with magistrates and presidents that violence not be done to the conscience of Catholics by using books which are hostile to the Catholic religion; and finally assiduously and earnestly to admonish and exhort all, and especially those who have the means, that they send their children to other regions where they may be educated as Catholics."

2. "Whether it is lawful for a priest in the aforesaid schools to hand down the teachings of the Christian faith, or to discharge the office of Chaplain? - Resp. In the affirmative and according to the mind; the mind is that care is to be taken that priests, or upright laymen of well-known religion, be placed in charge, as far as can be done, not only of handing down the Christian faith, but also of schools of other disciplines. But so that every fear of scandal may cease, the people are to be admonished that this is done so that the evils which flow from schools of this kind may be averted as far as can be done; and that this therefore ought to serve no one as an excuse not to send his children to merely Catholic schools, in which their faith and morals are in no way endangered."

3. "Even if those mixed schools can somehow be tolerated, is it lawful for the Catholics of the Jura to send notice that they renounce their right founded on public agreements, by force of which it is unlawful for anyone to take up the office of teaching in their public schools who does not profess the Catholic religion?" - "Resp. In the negative, whether there is question of an express cession, or even of a tacit cession from silence and culpable tolerance. Therefore, although care must be taken that nothing be done imprudently by which the ferocity of adversaries is stirred up to inflicting graver evils, nevertheless nothing is to be remitted of industry and constancy, so that legitimate means which are in the power of Catholics may be employed to recover the aforesaid right together with the sanctity of the compact and the indemnity of the Catholic Religion." Instr. S. I. C. to the Bishops of Switzerland, 17 Jan. 1866.

On Catholic schools without religious instruction. - "By a very recent decree the catechism is cast out of the municipal Catholic schools; a decree worthy of censure, it removes the barrier against rampant heresy and unbelief... But while, in the name of Religion, we lift up our voices to defend its sacred rights, we also will that it become known to anyone how much a mad plan of this kind is opposed to the good of society... For it is not lawful to renew upon the child the judgment of Solomon and irrationally and inhumanely to divide the same in the middle as regards his intelligence and will; because while the first is cultivated, the second must be directed to acquiring virtuous habits and pursuing the ultimate end... And the matter shines with such splendor that it would be held as true, even at the price of contradiction, by those same persons who desire that the document of Religion be cast out of schools; while they direct their efforts not only to the intellect, but to the will also, striving that ethics, which they call civil and natural, be taught in schools, and taking care that youth be directed to the acquisition of civil and social virtues. But moral philosophy of this kind not only is unable to lead man to the higher end, constituted by the Divine Goodness in the beatific vision of God, but also becomes unequal to this, that the mind of the child be instructed toward true virtue and be able to remain constant on the right path. And rightly have we used the word cast out: because the method devised of offering religious instruction only to those children whose parents expressly request it becomes altogether a mockery. For it is not easy to grasp how the authors of an impious plan did not weigh with what bad feeling a child would be affected who would see himself undertaking religious instruction by a manner wholly different from others... But if there should be parents, as is not difficult, driven either by depravity of mind or by ignorance and sluggishness, who would not ask the benefit of religious instruction for their children, a great part of the young would lack most salutary teachings, with the greatest risk not only to the innocent souls of those children, but also to civil Society itself.

When benefits of lesser moment also were expected, elementary instruction was made obligatory by law, with parents being driven by fines to send their children to schools. Who now will dare to snatch away from Catholic youth religious instruction, which presents itself as a wiser protection for living life uprightly? Is it not cruel to require that children of this kind grow up without any notion of religion...?" Letter of Leo XIII to the Most Eminent Cardinal Vicar, Tot inter, 26 June 1878.

"The Church, guardian and vindicator of the integrity of faith, which, by the authority handed to it by God its founder, must call all nations to Christian wisdom, and likewise carefully see by what precepts and institutions youth, which is within its power, is cultivated, has always openly condemned schools which are called mixed or neutral, having admonished fathers of families again and again that, in a matter of such importance, they should turn their mind to caution." Encyclical Letter of Leo XIII, Nobilissima Galliarum, to the Bishops of France, 8 Feb. 1884.

On mixed schools of Catholics. - "... It can be tolerated that Schismatic girls be admitted into a college which sisters direct, provided that they show a good disposition, that they be instructed according to the things set forth, and yet that they not be obligated to assist at the Sacrifice of the Mass and other ecclesiastical functions, but that this be left to their judgment; with it forbidden indeed that they ever have disputations with Catholic girls about matters pertaining to religion, or go to a Schismatic temple to receive sacraments from Schismatic ministers. But if in some case this can in no way be prevented, let the sisters behave passively. And likewise with it forbidden that the girls be visited by friends and relatives, except parents and tutors, without the license of the Ordinary. Concerning all these things, the parents or tutors of the same girls are to be clearly and explicitly instructed and to consent to them before the girls themselves are admitted to the College. And let this be written to the Right Reverend Archbishop, the Ordinary, with the warning that he take care of the execution of all these things and of the spiritual good of the girls, as far as can be done, even after departure from the college; and let the sisters be instructed that if any girl asks to be converted to the Catholic faith, the matter is to be referred to the Archbishop himself, who will prudently provide according to the circumstances of the case, and should carefully take care that from the admission of Schismatic girls there be no danger, not even the least, of perversion or indifferentism for the Catholic girls. Feria VI, place IV, 1 June 1866." From this decision it can be concluded what is the mind of the S. C. S. O., and what precautions were prescribed by it in this matter. Nevertheless the decree reported cannot be held as a general rule to be applied to any other mixed boarding school, because of the diverse circumstances of each particular case. Instr. S. C. de P. F. 25 April 1880, n. 66. Cf. Collectan. Constit., etc., for the use of Apostolic Workers, Paris, 1868.