On February 24, the reflection process on Church and Education promoted by the Spanish Episcopal Conference ended, which has been taking place since October 2023 and in which practically all educational areas in which the Church is present in one way or another were analyzed. The first thing that draws attention is the enormous presence of Christians in the Spanish educational world, both institutionally and individually in non-denominational schools or universities. Of the more than 2,400 concerted centers in Spain, more than 60 percent are Catholic.
Focusing on schools, there are many challenges they face, starting with the difficulty of attracting students due to the drop in the birth rate. Added to the demographic winter is the enormous cultural diversity in the classrooms due to the massive incorporation of immigrant children, added to the difficulties derived from family crises. They are not different obstacles from those of other public or subsidized educational centers.
As a whole, these centers stand out for their educational quality. The data from the Pisa report show that subsidized schools have a better level than public ones, an objective finding that should make those who systematically harass subsidized education reflect.
A much bigger problem, however, is making the ideology effective. It is expected from a Catholic center that, in addition to skills and knowledge, it provides its students with a vision of life and a conception of the human being in accordance with Christian principles. And it is clear that many schools are lame in this, to the point that they cannot distinguish themselves from those that are not. The germ that inspired the creation of the center is not current in practice. The ownership of the religious institution is maintained, but the ideology only persists as the text framed in an office box or deposited in the trunk of memories, without any practical effectiveness.
Those who are in charge of some schools must question whether the “Catholic” attribute corresponds to reality. It is fair to affirm that it is a challenge that is difficult to solve for the majority of religious educational institutions despite good will. They make efforts that deserve applause, but the sharp drop in vocations in recent decades prevents replacement in management and teaching bodies, which have become occupied by lay people. It would not be a special problem if they assumed the apostolic principles and objectives that inspired the creation of the respective center, but it is well known that in many cases this is not the case.
Consequently, thousands of boys and girls who have spent several or many courses in schools of this type leave there illiterate in their religious training. They were not taught even the rudiments of prayers and religious practices, nor did they have the conviction and audacity to treat, for example, sexuality from a Christian perspective, pointing out aspects as elementary as that sexual relations are something great, wanted by God, but reserved for marriage. Since many families do not do it either, the result is deductible.
And in an effort to ensure that no one accuses them of indoctrinating – when everyone indoctrinates – many Catholic centers have lowered their standards by changing religious training to what they call “values training.” It has its positive side, but it is very ethereal and in the end everything fits. There is experience of its results. For this reason, I would remind those responsible for these schools of the phrase written by the American writer and political scientist George Weigel, author of the book Witness to Hope, biography of Saint John Paul II: “Light Catholicism leads to zero Catholicism.”
