On Children to Be Sent to Non-Catholic Schools

298. Declarations. 1. Non-Catholic schools are of diverse kinds: a. positively non-Catholic, in which heresy or impiety is openly taught; b. neutral, which in instruction and education wholly prescind from positive religion. These are also called mixed schools, because they admit pupils belonging to any sect whatever.

2. Pupils of schools of this sort are exposed to proximate danger of perversion both as to faith and as to morals. This danger chiefly flows from a threefold cause: from teachers, from books, and from fellow pupils. Nor do neutral schools lack this danger; for by the very fact that pupils are neither instructed in the faith nor educated to live in a Christian manner, indifferentism is fostered and the way is prepared for atheism. Moreover, it can scarcely happen that instruction wholly prescind from religion; but what is said about religion in schools of this sort is usually contrary to the Catholic religion.

3. What is said here about non-Catholic schools is valid not only of elementary and middle schools but also of higher schools: for in all, even the highest, which are not truly Catholic, grave dangers in faith and morals threaten the pupils.

¹ Instruction of the Holy Office, 24 Nov. 1875, to the bishops of North America. Cf. I. Aertnys, Fasciculus theol. moral.^4 (Tornaci: Castermann, 1888), tract. 1, n. 38 ss.; Genicot, I, n. 352.

299. Assertions. 1. Never, not even for avoiding the gravest damage, is it licit for parents to send children to non-Catholic schools in which the proximate danger of perversion can in no way be removed; nor is it ever licit for the children themselves to frequent schools of this sort, even if parents force them to this, because it is never licit to expose oneself to a proximate danger of sinning which cannot be removed.

Schools of this sort are those in which those things are taught or done which cannot be heard or performed without grave spiritual detriment, as if openly evil doctrines are proposed, if pupils are forced to recite heretical prayers, to be present at false rites, if fellow pupils are so evil that scarcely anyone can be preserved from contagion.

2. Although of itself it is always illicit to send children to non-Catholic schools, nevertheless from a just cause it is licit to send them to those schools in which the proximate danger of perversion can be made remote. The reason for the first is that parents do not satisfy their obligation if they procure for children an education which is only not openly opposed to the true religion, unless it is also truly Christian and Catholic. The reason for the second is that from a just cause it is licit to expose oneself to a remote danger of perversion.

a. A sufficient cause on account of which a non-Catholic school can be approached is present if no Catholic school is had, or if the Catholic school which is available does not suffice for the condition of the children, while the parents lack the resources by which they can send the children into another region to a Catholic school. Moreover, the excusing cause must be greater in proportion as the danger of perversion is greater. But judgment both concerning the quality of the school and concerning the sufficiency of the cause belongs to the ordinary.

b. The means by which the proximate danger must be removed are these: alpha. to instruct and educate the children suitably outside school in those things which are necessary for believing and living in a Christian manner; beta. to teach and confirm them suitably in those things which are usually chiefly attacked in schools of this sort; gamma. to watch diligently lest children suffer damage in faith and morals either from bad books or from evil companions.

c. The Holy See itself declared that it could now be tolerated, what had previously been prohibited, that Catholic youths approach the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, because a Catholic university was lacking in England; and at the same time it determined what cautions had to be employed for removing the dangers arising from it.¹

Note. From these things the following are now inferred for practice:

a. Parents cannot be absolved: alpha. if they send children to non-Catholic schools because they approve their principles and prefer them to Catholic schools; beta. if they commit children to be instructed in positively non-Catholic schools; gamma. if they hand over children to a non-Catholic school and do not take care that the danger of perversion be removed.

b. To parents who without sufficient cause send children to a non-Catholic school, but take care that the dangers of perversion be removed by a good education of the children, absolution cannot be denied, unless by reason of scandal or cooperation in promoting bad schools they sin gravely; because they do not expose them to proximate danger of perversion, and they are not bound under grave obligation to avoid a remote danger.

c. That priests teach Christian doctrine in mixed schools and Catholic men teach other disciplines in the same schools, the Holy See not only permits, but greatly commends. Yet at the same time it wills that the people be warned that this is done so that the evils which flow from schools of this sort may be turned away as far as can be done, and that parents are not for this reason excused from sending their children to merely Catholic schools, in which their faith and morals are in no way endangered.²

¹ Holy Office, 26 Mar. 1895. S. C. de Prop. Fide, 17 Apr. 1895, to the Archbishop of Westminster.

² Holy Office, 26 Mar. 1866, to the bishops of Switzerland.