Letters

Catholic schools (letter)

George Simpson

Contents - Jul 2004 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Separation of Church and State? - Michael Gilchrist Liturgy: New improved English Mass translation nears completion - Michael Gilchhrist Feminist 'rituals': no substitute for prayer - Joanna Bogle News: The Church Around the World Pastoral Letter: The secular challenges to our faith: how to respond - Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett Eucharistic Adoration: heart of evangelisation - Fr Sebastian Camilleri OFM Croagh Patrick, Ireland's Holy Mountain: 'Sure, it's a bit of a hill' - Paul Russell Letters: Synod (letter) - Lance Eccles Letters: Courageous lead (letter) - Tom King Letters: Ineffective system (letter) - John Mulholland Letters: Catholic schools (letter) - George Simpson Letters: Dating the Gospels (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Informative talk (letter) - Frank Bourke Letters: Gay lobby (letter) - Alan A. Hoysted Letters: Abusive letters - Maureen Federico Letters: Christian models (letter) - Brett Powell Letters: Christians the most vilified group (letter) - Arnold Jago Letters: Disappointment (letter) - Cathy Cleary Letters: The Passion of the Christ (letter) - June Forester Letters: Parish concerns (letter) - Peter Gilet Letters: No kneelers (letter) Letters: The power of one (letter) - Brian Harris Letters: Sacred Heart (letter) - V. Mulligan Letters: CD response (letter) - Melanie and Christopher Duluk Books: Flee To the Fields - The Founding Papers of the Catholic Land Movement - Peter Chojnowski (reviewer) Books: An Essay on the Restoration of Property, by Hilaire Belloc - John Ballantyne (reviewer) Books: Ethics and the National Economy, by Heinrich Pesch - John Williamson (reviewer) Redemptionis Sacramentum (Sacrament of Redemption) abridged version - Fr M. Durham Books: More new titles for 2004 from AD Books Reflection: No time to pray? Try contemplation - Fr Leo J. Trese

Elizabeth Alderton's claims about the theological qualifications of many of today's teachers (May AD2000) give no cause for comfort. The same claims could be made of the most notorious heretics in Church history.

Because theology is the study of the infinite God by finite minds, it must surely be more a spiritual exercise than a mere academic pursuit. It should, therefore, be undertaken with profound humility and a willingness to submit completely to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I would suggest that those theologians who are numbered among the Church's greatest saints have adopted this approach. The prayerful environment of a good seminary would seem to best foster the right attitude.

How can Catholic schools provide such a rigorous curriculum and opportunities of deepening of the Spirit, when over 40 percent of teachers freely admit they do not believe in the Real Presence and over half dispute other Church teachings? How can there be such an appalling lapse rate of over 90 percent of students if these opportunities exist?

Our Lord said, "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its fruit" (Luke 6:43-44). On documented evidence, today's Catholic education system on the whole cannot pretend to bear good fruit.

My eldest child started school in 1966 and my youngest graduated in 1998. During those thirty-two years I always had at least one child at school and I observed the system steadily deteriorate from being barely adequate to the sorry mess that it is in today. The problem has worsened because many of today's parents and teachers are products of the same ineffectual system.

It distresses me that so many good Catholic teachers and even a few good Catholic schools tend to be suppressed or side-lined by the system.

Modernistic feel-good humanism is no substitute for sound doctrine taught by those knowledgable of and loyal to the Faith. The success of the revised texts in Sydney and Melbourne will ultimately depend on the faith of the teachers.

GEORGE SIMPSON
North Blackburn, Vic

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 17 No 6 (July 2004), p. 13