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Perspectivesin Catholic Higher Education

An insistence on spreading the Churchs socialdoctrine among all Catholics, especially byeducational programs or the laity, runs throughoutthe modern papal Magisterium, beginning with Leo

XIIIs exhortations to the laity o the late 19th cen-

tury. At that time, it was indeed somewhat unusualor a pope to appeal directly to the people and to askthem to acquire the intellectual and moral trainingrequired to conront successully the ever-growingchallenges o the modern world. Yet by the time wereach Pius XI and Pius XII, it is taken or grantedthat the main audience or papal teachings on eco-nomics and politics must be Christs lay aithul, whoare striving to impress the divine law upon and applythe natural law to the changing situations o theirtemporal lie.

Tus, while even the orward-looking Leo XIII ad-dressed his celebrated 1891 encyclical Rerum Novar-um on labor and capital (or the rights and duties o

workers and employers) to the bishops o the world,Pius XI, commemorating the 40th anniversary o thesame with his 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno onthe reconstruction o the social order, added to hisaddressees likewise all the aithul o the Catholic

world. Tis is only to be expected, or while theclergy have as their primary task the internal gov-ernance and strengthening o the Church, believers

living in the world have the corresponding task opuriying and sanctiying secular realities with a viewto leading souls to salvation in Christ.

I there is a denite Catholic doctrine on social, po-litical, and economic lie and o course there is just

Catholic Social Teaching at the Catholic Universityby Peter A. Kwasniewski, Ph.D.

June, 2010

Copyright 2010 The Center for the Advancement

of Catholic Higher Education

9415 West Street, Manassas, Virginia 20110

703/367-0333 ext. 105

www.CatholicHigherEd.org

such a thing: a rich and detailed corpus o teachingrooted in Scripture and radition, rened by cen-turies o experience then it only stands to reasonthat educating the Catholic aithul in this body odoctrine is o paramount importance, a basic and

necessary component o their ongoing catecheticaland theological training.

Along these lines, Blessed John XXIIIs great encyc-lical Pacem in Terris o 1961 stated (and these wordsare representative o many other papal documentsthat might be cited):

We must rearm most strongly that thisCatholic social doctrine is an integralpart o the Christian conception o lie.It is thereore Our urgent desire that

this doctrine be studied more and more.First o all it should be taught as part othe daily curriculum in Catholic schoolso every kindOur beloved sons, thelaity, can do much to help this diusiono Catholic social doctrine by studying itthemselves and putting it into practice,and by zealously striving to make othersunderstand itIt is vitally important,thereore, that Our sons learn to un-derstand this doctrine. Tey must be

educated to it.

Te natural conclusion is that Catholic colleges anduniversities (or chaplaincies connected with non-Catholic ones) must make room in their curricula ormandatory instruction and optional specialized workin this crucial area o the Magisterium.

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Many schools that once oered sound instruction inthe area o social ethics abandoned it together withmuch else that was jettisoned in the wake o theSecond Vatican Council. Tis is particularly ironic,since the Council contained the strongest endorse-ment to date o the apostolate o the laity and em-phasized the pervasive role Catholic social teachingmust play in the modern world, i our world is tobe saved rom every-growing utility and violence.

Worse still, the academic milieu and campus liestyleat many Catholic colleges and universities contradictthe Churchs social teaching on nearly every head.Courses in social ethics may inculcate distorted andreuted models such as Marxist-liberation theologyor eminist theology. It is not hard to imagine thatstudents might end up worse o than they began,like the clean-swept room in which seven demonssettle down (c. Lk. 11-24-26).

oday Catholic educators have the opportunity tomake needed changes with the support o interestedstudents. Young people today are encounteringelements o Catholic social teaching, albeit oten bychance and in an over-simplied orm, and they ndit exciting, because it oers a genuine alternative tothe stale, predictable solutions o analysts and poli-

ticians. Tis small but robust vanguard o what wewill soon be calling the Benedict XVI generationsurely aords educators a providential opportunityto ollow up with programs oering solid, orthodoxinstruction and campus support systems or those

who are called to dedicate themselves to applyingthe Churchs social doctrine to the enormous prob-lems acing us in the Church, in the nation, and inthe world.

We are already seeing this occur at some o the

small, staunchly Catholic institutions o higher edu-cation. Although on a worldly scale o values theirinfuence would seem a whisper behind the roar ocontradiction, graduates o thesecolleges will to onedegree or another have engaged authentic Catholic

social teaching, at very least by gaining an acquain-tance with some o its major sources and themes.

Teir minds will have been opened to the mas-

sive political and economic problems o modernity,problems to which the Catholic Church alone, inher divinely-guided wisdom, oers sane, reasonableanswers that comport with human dignity and mansultimate end.

Students who attend a more traditional Catholicliberal arts college will learn rsthand, usually bydiscussing infuential Great Books, the decayed rootsand atal consequences o sel-destructive ideolo-gies. I the program is well designed, it will not ail

to include something o the Churchs own Magiste-rium, whether it be a selection o social encyclicals othe modern popes rom Leo XIII down to Benedict

XVI, the excellent summary oered in the relevantportions o the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nn.1961-2557), or the synthesis given in the Compen-dium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

I am reminded o Fr. James Schalls wonderul bookrom 20 years ago, Another Sort of Learning, thesubtitle o which begins with this phrase: How -

nally to acquire an education while still in college oranywhere else. It is possible, even i not ideal, or astudent to educate onesel in Catholic social doc-trine. One can nd good resources on the internet,sometimes one can nd a good discussion group inones area; best o all, one might reach out to like-minded Catholics and start such a group. Te read-ing list is obvious: the aorementioned documentso the Magisterium, above all the papal encyclicals.

o commit some ree time to working through thismaterial is ar better than remaining in the dark.But

it would be even better, o course, i Catholic collegesand universities would seize upon the opportunityto provide coursework in authentic Catholic socialteaching or students who are hungry to learn. Inthis way Catholic schools can rediscover their birth-right and oer it generously to their students.

Dr. Peter A. Kwasniewski is a Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Wyoming Catholic College, Lander, Wyo. This Perspec-

tives in Catholic Higher Education is available online at CatholicHigherEd.org. The views expressed by the author are not necessarily

those of The Center for the Advancement of Catholic Higher Education.