Faith and the Catholic Teacher
“By faith, the Apostles left everything to follow their Master (cf. Mk 10:28). They believed the words
with which he proclaimed the Kingdom of God present and fulfilled in his person
(cf. Lk 11:20). They lived in
communion of life with Jesus who instructed them with his teaching, leaving
them a new rule of life, by which they would be recognized as his disciples
after his death”
The above statement, taken from Pope
Benedict XVI’s announcement of the Year of Faith[1]
beginning on 11 October 2012, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the
Second Vatican Council, highlights four key themes in the context of faith and
the Catholic teacher:
§ The faith of the disciples of Jesus
§ Faith and the teacher – Vatican II and subsequent documents
§ Christian community life
§ Integrity of Life.
The faith of the disciples of Jesus
In a previous article for the Pastoral Review[2]
I highlighted the significance of the response of the first disciples of Jesus
to His call, encapsulated in the use of the Greek word ‘aphentes’, translated
in most texts as ‘they left’ but denoting a radical break with the past and a
commitment to a new venture. (Mark 1:16-18). It could be suggested that the word indicates
the disciples making a radical break from their former livelihoods and embarking
upon an unknown path of discipleship. Following Jesus means rupturing family
ties, echoing the promise made by Jesus of the rewards to be gained in return
for faithfully following him in
answer to Peter’s question “We have left everything to follow you, what then
shall we have?: (Mt: 19:27)
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or children or lands, for my
name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life.” [3]
This notion of trusting
abandonment is also present in the account of the call of the first disciples
recorded by Luke. This account, referred to sometimes as the ‘miraculous catch
of fish’ (Luke 5: 1-11), has several key distinctive features compared to the parallel
accounts in Matthew and Mark. There remains, however, the seminal concept that
the call marks a new departure in the lives of the future disciples. It is
interesting to note that ‘fishers of men’ is one of the two main images for ministry
in the New Testament, the other being ‘shepherd’. In the context of vocation the
use of the Greek word ‘katartizein’ (‘mending’ the nets) in the parallel
accounts is significant. The word is used elsewhere in the New Testament to
articulate the concept of building community within the Church (1Cor: 1-10) [4]
and John Fenton[5]
suggest that the word ‘casting’ reflects the missionary task of the disciple
while ‘mending’ reflects a catechetical role.
The Catholic teacher is called to
model the faith demonstrated by the response of the first disciples to their
initial call and throughout the Gospel. While the ‘Good Shepherd’ discourse
encapsulates the notion of modelling discipleship, it is Paul, however, more
than any New Testament writer who develops the theme of imitation or emulation
in the context of teaching. Paul makes it clear throughout his letters that
teaching is one of the key “functions of service”. Teachers are, in fact, placed
third in order of importance after apostles and prophets (1Cor12:29). While Paul
does insist that there is a specific tradition to be handed on[6],
he is more concerned to emphasise the importance of emulation. He is not afraid
to encourage his readers to imitate him and this is stated most explicitly when
Paul encourages his readers to “be imitators of me as I am of Christ” (1 Cor
11:1).” Imitator translates the Greek ‘mimetes’ and is used by Paul to mean to
‘strive to resemble’ or ‘follow as an example’. Paul is asserting that Christ
is the perfect example for all to follow. Since the Corinthians are unable to
witness the earthly Jesus, they must therefore strive to follow Paul’s example.
This theme of imitating Paul who himself imitates Christ appears with reference
to every community which knew Paul personally.
Formation in the early Christian
community was dominated by the concept of imitation reflected in St Paul’s
letters. As Joseph Grassi puts it “tradition was passed on in the lives of the
teachers themselves.”[7]
The Christian life was rooted in the standard of teaching about the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus which formed an essential part of what would now
described as the programme of formation in preparation for, at that time, adult
baptism.
The significance of the Second Vatican Council
There are ten references to ‘faith’
in the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Christian Education. While the
document reasserts the seminal nature of the role of parents in nurturing the
faith received at baptism,, rooted in Western Christian tradition, it emphasise
the significance of teachers in supporting parents:
“Beautiful indeed and of great importance is the vocation of all
those who aid parents in fulfilling their duties and who, as representatives of
the human community, undertake the task of education in schools. This vocation
demands special qualities of mind and heart, very careful preparation, and
continuing readiness to renew and to adapt.”[8]
Successive documents on Catholic education
deriving from the Congregation for Catholic Education deepen the principles of
Vatican II. There are forty four citations of the word ‘faith’ in The Catholic School (1977), particularly
in the context of the integration of faith and culture and faith and life.
There is, however, a more explicit emphasis on the importance of the life of
faith of the individual teacher in the context of the faith development of
young people:
“The
extent to which the Christian message is transmitted through education depends
to a very great extent on the teachers. The integration of culture and faith is mediated by the other integration of
faith and life in the person of the teacher. The nobility of the task to
which teachers are called demands that, in imitation of Christ, the only
Teacher....”[9]
This statement associates an
emphasis on the faith of the teacher with the mandate to imitate Christ, a
theme which permeates Vatican and other documents of Bishops Conferences
internationally[10] and
which is revisited in the Congregation’s 1982 document Lay Catholics in School: Witnesses to Faith. In a document in which
the marked decline in numbers of religious involved in the teaching
apostolate was recognised, officially, for the first time, there is an accent
on the importance of lay teachers particularly in the context of maintaining
the distinctive character of Catholic school. The faith of the teacher is
axiomatic and, among the fifty four references to faith and its cognates, the
connection between faith and being a role model is particularly apposite:
“It is in this context that the
faith witness of the lay teacher becomes especially important. Students
should see in their teachers the Christian attitude and behaviour that is often
so conspicuously absent from the secular atmosphere in which they live. Without
this witness, living in such an atmosphere, they may begin to regard Christian
behaviour as an impossible ideal.”[11]
The centrality of witness in this statement is evocative of Pope
Paul VI’s suggestion that “modern man listens to teachers only when they are
witnesses[12]”.
Thomas Groome sums this up in the aphorism “bringing life to Faith”, ensuring
that, in the midst of the doctrines and the dogmas of the Church, the fact that
the Person of Jesus is at the core of the Christian faith:
“....our [the teacher’s] approach should be inspired by his [Jesus’]
teaching style....his welcome......respect for learners, the way he actively
engaged with them...and invited them to discipleship.”[13]
Christian Community Life
There are seventy six references to faith in the Congregation’s 1988
document which, building on previous documents, continues to focus on the
relationship between faith and culture/life. One of the distinctive features of
this document in relation to the teacher is its emphasis on teachers working
collaboratively. While recognising that the school community encompasses
parents, students and governors, the document insists that “prime
responsibility” for maintaining the distinctive ethos of a Catholic school
rests with teachers “as individuals and as a community”.[14]
When speaking of lay teachers working alongside priests and
religious, the document also links faith, witness and community in suggesting
that “lay teachers
contribute their competence and their faith witness to the Catholic school.”
(n.37) This witness of the lived faith of teachers should be modelled Christ
and should, therefore, have a profound effect on the lives of students:
“Most of all, students should be
able to recognize authentic human qualities in their teachers. They are
teachers of the faith; however, like Christ, they must also be teachers of what
it means to be human.” (n.96)
The theme of the sign-value of witness permeates
the Congregation’s 2000 document and while
it is made clear that the focus is specifically on “the
specific contribution of consecrated persons to the educational mission in
schools”[15],
reference is made to the need for consecrated persons to introduce programmes
of formation in schools for which they hold the trusteeship. It is made clear
that the purpose of these programmes of formation or mentoring focuses on “the
vocational dimension of the teaching profession in order to make the teachers
aware that they are participating in the educational and sanctifying mission of
the Church.” [16]
Apart from the reference to the term ‘vocation’, affirming, in common with
previous documents, that lay, as well as consecrated persons, are called to share in the educational mission of the
Church, there is also an insistence on living
the values espoused in formation programmes as opposed to merely engaging in
conversations. Such an insistence formed a central feature of programmes
introduced by groups of religious in the USA
The latest document[18]
continues to focus on the value of programmes of formation. While emphasising
the role of religious in the Church’s educational mission, the document
recognises that responsibility for such programmes in many parts of the world
has been transferred to lay teachers. It is in this context that the heightened
significance of the role of lay teachers is presented. There is again an
emphasis on living their faith, the
term ‘witness’ appearing seventeen times within the document. The lay teacher
must, firstly, be a witness to “a living encounter with Christ” in order to
“demonstrate Christian life as bearing light and meaning for everyone”.
(n.15) While the term ‘sacramental
perspective’ is not used in the document, the whole tone is dominated by the
notion that Christ is the foundation of all educational enterprises and that
commitment to modelling their lives on Christ
is the only effective way in which teachers can translate this vision
into practice.
Integrity of Life
In his Apostolic Constitution on ecclesiastical universities and
faculties Pope John Paul II stated that:
Teachers are invested with very weighty responsibility in fulfilling
a special ministry of the word of God and in being instructors of the faith for
the young. Let them, above all, therefore be for their students, and for the
rest of the faithful, witnesses of the living truth of the Gospel and examples of fidelity to the Church.[19]
The key themes articulated in
this article, witness and linking faith with life, are summed up in this
assertion. In a recent study which involved in-depth interviews with a range of
Catholic teachers[20],
the author found evidence of a deeply held conviction that vocation and
commitment, made real in self-sacrifice, were synonymous, with some responses
indicative of a convergence between the religious and lay vocation articulated
by the Congregation (2007: 20 & 39). Building community was also germane,
particularly in the context of solidarity around the school mission realised in
practice by engagement in rituals and extra-curricular activities. Several
teachers devoted a considerable amount of time to leading liturgy and pilgrimages
which represents a critical role in sustaining Catholic culture including
celebrating Christian values in Word and Sacrament.
Teachers
were, however, slightly more equivocal in regard to what integrity of life,
defined here as “combining
personal conviction and practice of the faith”[21], might mean and its
implications in the context of the leadership of Catholic schools. If
Thomas Groome is right in maintaining that the good Catholic school is one in
which “Catholic educators allow their faith commitments to shape the whole
curriculum”, then it is essential that a core group of Catholic teachers
articulate their faith and witness to that faith. Groome goes on to
define exactly what putting faith to work in practice might mean in a Catholic
school. He insists that such faith is not simply the personal faith of the
individual educator which, though important, must reflect the teachings of the
Magisterium:
“For what else is Catholic education but an education that reflects
the foundational convictions of Catholicism. Following on, Catholic educators
must take these deep rivers of faith that define Catholicism and allow them to
become operative commitments through their vocation – to put them to work in
their teaching.”[22]
The extent to which Catholic
teachers align their faith with operative commitments and its significance for
Catholic schools going forward could be the subject of a future article.
[2] September/October 2011
[3] Mk 19:29 cp. Mk10:29-30 – emphasis inserted
13:11; Gal
6:1; Eph4:12; 1Thes 3:10
University
of Santa Clara:54
Christian Education), London, CTS n.5
[9] Congregation for Catholic Education, (1977), The Catholic School, London, CTS: 43 – emphasis in
serted
[10] see, for example, USCCB, (1972), To Teach as Jesus Did, Washington, Daughters of St Paul
[11] Congregation
for Catholic Education, (1982), Lay Catholics in Schools: Witnesses to Faith, London,
CTS
: 32 – emphasis inserted
[12]Pope Paul VI, (1975), Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii
Nuntiandi, London, CTS : 41
[13] Groome, T H., (2011), Will
There Be Faith?, Dublin, Veritas
[14] Congregation for Catholic Education., (1988), The Religious Dimension of Education in a
Catholic School, London, CTS : 26
[16] ‘CPMS’ n.59
[17] Keating, K and Travis, M.P., (2001), Pioneer Mentoring in Teacher Preparation, St Cloud , Minnesota , USA
[18] Congregation for
Catholic Education
(2007), Educating Together in Catholic Schools: A Shared Mission Between
Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful, (ETCS), London, CTS
[19] Pope John Paul II, (1979), Apostolic
Constitution Sapientia Christiana, www.vatican.va - emphasis inserted
[20] Lydon, J., (2011), The
Contemporary Catholic Teacher: A Reappraisal of the Concept of Teaching as a
Vocation in a Catholic Christian Context, Saarbrücken, Germany, Lambert Academic Publishing
[21] McMahon, Bishop M., (2009), Memorandum on Appointment of Teachers to
Catholic Schools, published on the Catholic Education Service website www.catholiceducation.org.uk/
[22] Groome, T H., (2003), Forging In the Smithy of the Teacher’s
Soul in Prendergast, N., & Monahan, L., (Editors), (2003), Re-imagining
The Catholic School, Dublin
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