
Catholic Education: “Ever Ancient, Ever New”
By Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone
I have noticed that those who work in Catholic schools are continually thinking about and discussing what is distinctive about a Catholic education. The social, academic and civic advantages of a Catholic education are well known, but Catholic schools are not distinctive because their graduates are successful. Their success, rather, is due to what is distinctive about the kind of education that Catholic schools provide.
The great fourth- and early fifth-century theologian St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is perhaps best known for his spiritual masterpiece, “Confessions,” a work that is thankfully still read in many high school and university courses. In one of the timeless text’s most famous passages, Augustine describes God as “O Thou Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new!” (“Confessions,” Book X). St. Augustine finds in God not only the origin of all of creation, but also the font of his continued source of joy and new life. Beauty ever ancient, ever new.
There is a tendency in many educational contexts to focus on utility and usefulness, sometimes framed as “college and career readiness.” Preparing young people for college and career are fine goals, to be sure, and Catholic schools excel in doing both. However, the reduction of education to usefulness will, in the end, render such an education useless. Today’s students will face challenges that their parents and teachers could not have anticipated. An education that tries to merely move with the times will always fall short because no human mind can anticipate each and every challenge and question that might arise. Such an education can only guess at which skills and concepts will benefit a student for the future.
Today’s teachers and parents may feel ill-equipped, for example, to guess at how exactly to prepare students for a world with artificial intelligence. But Catholic education is not a guessing game. It is founded on timeless truths about the human person that endure in every age. Because Catholic education emphasizes virtue over usefulness and forms the whole child in his or her capacity for truth, beauty and goodness, it forms young people for doing human things well, no matter the context or challenge. The educational questions raised by the advent of AI have less to do with how to use it and more to do with how to use it humanely and virtuously.
Put succinctly, a Catholic education is so useful because it does not put usefulness first. And yet, Catholic schools continue to form young people and to prepare them for a fruitful life, whatever their vocation might be and whatever new challenges they face. Catholic schools are successful because the formation they offer young people and families doesn’t fit neatly into the categories of the age, be they political or pedagogical. They are rooted in a tradition that does not simply move with the times and trends. This is not to say, of course, that Catholic schools are not on the cutting edge of learning and innovation. They must always be “alert to developments in the fields of child psychology and pedagogy” (“The Catholic School,” 52). Pope Francis has described the importance of tradition for Catholic schools in order even to respond to what is new. The Holy Father explained, “Without roots, no progress can be made. …There is a need for this relationship with the roots, but also to move forward. And this is the true tradition: taking from the past to move forward. Tradition is not static: it is dynamic, aimed at moving forward” (Audience with the delegation of global researchers advancing Catholic education project, April 20, 2022).
Catholic education is timeless. It is “ever ancient, ever new” because it has Christ as its “means and model” (“Lay Catholics in Schools: Witness to Faith,” 18). Like a tree with deep roots, it bears new fruit year after year while holding firm no matter which way the winds blow. They can be at once on the cutting edge and invulnerable to the whims of passing trends and movements – “ever ancient, ever new.” This is a mark of their distinctiveness and the reason for their success. Catholic Schools Week is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate Catholic schools and to consider what sets a Catholic education apart. As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, I invite you to join me in praying with thanks to God for Catholic schools and their families in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. May our schools continue, with the Lord’s grace, to excel in providing an education that is “ever ancient, ever new.”
Photo: Dennis Callahan