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Parents as Primary Educators and Advocates: An Ecclesial Understanding

Parents as Primary Educators and Advocates: An Ecclesial Understanding. Rev. Mark T. Reeves.

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Parents as Primary Educators and Advocates: An Ecclesial Understanding

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  1. Parents as Primary Educators and Advocates: An Ecclesial Understanding Rev. Mark T. Reeves

  2. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. ” -- Deuteronomy 6:5-7

  3. Introduction “In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties.” -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2203 “By baptism, one is incorporated into the Church of Christ and is constituted a person in it with duties and rights which are proper to Christians, in keeping with their condition . . . .” -- Canon 96, 1983 Code of Canon Law

  4. Introduction “. . . The fundamental questions any person asks deal with the search for meaning, of life and history, of change and dissolution, of love and transcendence. At its best, education provides everyone with the tools to contribute a creative participation in community, to reflect and give an appropriate answer to the unavoidable profound questions of meaning, to live with others, to discover one’s nature and inherent dignity as a spiritual creature.” -- S.E. Mons. Silvano M. Tomasi, Intervention by the Delegation of the Holy See to the 48th International Conference of Unesco on Education, November 26, 2008

  5. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as educators of their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents concerning the education of their children? “The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. "The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.“1 The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable.”2 -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2221 1 Paul vi, Gravissimumeducationis, October 28, 1965, and 2 John Paul ii, Familiarisconsortio, November 22, 1981.

  6. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as educators of their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents concerning the education of their children? “Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven, they educate their children to fulfill God's law.” -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2222

  7. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as educators of their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents concerning the education of their children? “Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery - the preconditions of all true freedom.” -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2223

  8. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as advocates for their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents to advocate for their children? “Children are no longer the object of a human project, but the are recognized as an authentic gift, springing forth at the beginning of human life, to be welcomed with an attitude of responsible generosity in deference to God.” -- Benedict xvi, Message to the Participants at the international Congress for the 40th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae , October 2, 2008.

  9. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as advocates for their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents to advocate for their children? “Let the children to come to me,” says Jesus in the Gospel, showing us what ought to be the respectful and welcoming attitude to be afforded to every child, especially when the child is weak and in difficulty, when the child suffers and is defenseless.” -- Benedict xvi, November 15, 2008.

  10. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as advocates for their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents to advocate for their children? “As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible, parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators.3 Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise.” -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2229 3 Paul vi, Gravissimumeducationis, October 28, 1965

  11. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as advocates for their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents to advocate for their children? “The dignity of every person is truly guaranteed only when all of his or her fundamental rights are recognized, protected and promoted . . . . Human rights are, thus, ultimately founded in God the Creator, who has given intelligence and freedom to every person. . . . I accompany these remarks with a prayer asking that God, the Father of all, allow us to build a world in which every human being feels welcome with full dignity and where the relations among individual and between people are regulated by respect, dialogue and solidarity.” -- Benedict xvi, following a concert in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, December 10, 2008.

  12. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as advocates for their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents to advocate for their children? “Since they are called by baptism to lead a life in keeping with the teaching of the gospel, the Christian faithful have the right to a Christian education by which they are to be instructed properly to strive for the maturity of the human person and at the same time to know and live the mystery of salvation.” -- Canon 217, 1983 Code of Canon Law

  13. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as advocates for their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents to advocate for their children? “Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of God, who has made them stewards of his gifts:4 "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. . . . Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God.”5 Their loyal collaboration includes the right, and at times the duty, to voice their just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the dignity of persons and to the good of the community.” -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2238 4 Rom 13:1-2 5 1 Pet 2:13, 16

  14. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as advocates for their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents to advocate for their children? “The Christian faithful are to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs . . . and their desires.” -- Canon 212 §2, 1983 Code of Canon Law

  15. What does the Church tell us concerning parents as advocates for their children? • What are the rights and obligations of parents to advocate for their children? “According to the knowledge, competence and prestige which the Christian faithful possess, they have the right, and even at times the duty, to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to the common advantage and the dignity of persons.” -- Canon 212 §3, 1983 Code of Canon Law

  16. Synthesis “Closely connected with [the value of the family is] . . . serious intellectual and moral formation, indispensable for planning and building your future and that of society. “ “There is, we know, an educational urgency, which, to be confronted, requires parents and teachers to be capable of sharing as much as is good and true as they have to share, explained and elaborated in the first person.” -- Benedict xvi, Meeting with the Young People of Sardegna in Piazza Yenne, December 7, 2008.

  17. Synthesis “Recommending that you sustain the education of children and young people: You know that the educational challenge is quite urgent, because without an authentic education of man, man does not go far.” -- Benedict XVI, Meeting with the Chapter Canons and the members of consecrated life in the Cathedral of Saint Lawrence in Genova, May 18, 2008.

  18. Synthesis “While a more humane and inclusive society should care for the most vulnerable – and attention in educational policies to the right of the child is a significant aspect of this principle – school should constitute an environment in which educators could answer to the affective and cognitive needs of the child, not only in transmitting information, but also in being relevant for the children in this delicate phase of their lives. Then, educators should remain aware that they carry out their service in cooperation with parents, who are the first ‘educational agency’ and have the priority right and duty to educate their children.” -- S.E. Mons. Silvano M. Tomasi, Intervention by the Delegation of the Holy See to the 48th International Conference of Unesco on Education, November 26, 2008

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