Detroit Archbishop Supports Battle for the Core

Tweet

The common sense factor is coming into play at least in one diocese--Detroit. The question, "What is the purpose of a Catholic school?' is being ask in a far more serious way -- and answered. Apparently the purpose is NOT the same as a public school! As I stated in my introduction of this blog, one of the core issues affecting both society and the Catholic Church is the fact that the "old world view" is no longer being presented and has been replaced by a modernist viewpoint. I don't mean the Catholic heresy, I mean simply the idea that: "what is latest is automatically, without consideration, the greatest." When it comes to education--this includes ideas as being the latest and greatest. What are the latest and greatest ideas out there? Relativism, Nihilism, Scientism and Humanism. This is what our western world is buzzing about and in the face of these these ideas, just because they are popular, are what our Catholic schools lose their confidence in teaching truly Catholic ideas as correct. Archbishop: Catholic Schools Should Be Different Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit thinks that graduates from Catholic schools should be different. They should have “a conviction about the truth… a sense of order… [and] a sense of one’s purpose or mission.” But while speaking at a symposium sponsored by O’Meara, Ferguson, Whelan, and Conway, a Catholic financial advisory firm that has worked with several colleges and schools, Archbishop Vigneron began with a summary of what Catholic school graduates should not be: Today, of course, we face a different, and perhaps even more daunting, threat to our children’s faith: the threat that they will become pagans. It might help us to understand this danger better if we were to think for a moment about what we do not want to happen to our children in the course of their education. Another way of launching this little thought exercise, or assessment, I am proposing is to ask, “What kinds of freshmen do we not want to send on to the university?” I have put together a list of qualities which, while certainly not comprehensive, provides us with a sense of where we do not want our students ending-up: First, we do not want our students to become moral relativists. Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has spoken of the “dictatorship of relativism,” and it is the unfortunate case that children are particularly susceptible to falling under the sway of this dictatorship. Our culture tells us that there is no objective truth, that the best I can do is figure out what is “true” for me and to follow my own heart wherever it leads me. For obvious reasons, this deception has a strong appeal for the young. • Nihilism is another great danger for our students, and is closely related to relativism. If a young person does not believe in truth, then he or she has in a very real way already stepped off of the cliff’s edge and into the chasm of nihilism, viewing life as meaningless. We might see in the still-relatively-recent “Goth” movement some of the standard-bearers of nihilism among the young, but there are certainly others: recreational drug users, participants in the “hook-up” sub-culture, and countless other young people whose slogan—were nihilists inclined to create a slogan—would be, “Whatever.” • If there is one personality type that is a perennial source of frustration for parents, it is that of a “slacker.” Of course, there have always been slackers of one kind or another, but in a time and place of such prosperity as we enjoy (even during relatively difficult economic times), when children and adolescents so rarely work in order to help support their families, as was common when our society was predominantly agricultural, and when the abundance of leisure time this prosperity produces is largely taken up with the ubiquitous “noise” of the world—Internet, pop music, video games, texting—we have a breeding ground for slackers. • The final category I would like to mention is a bit more sophisticated, but I think you will see that it fits the religious perspective of many of our young people. Here I am talking about what the sociologist Christian Smith has called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This could be described as the “default” religious perspective of young people today. Although it has an innumerable variety of expressions, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has the following characteristics, generally speaking: • A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth. However, this view is not tied to any affirmation of the Incarnation or the Redemption. • God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. • The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. • God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem. • Good people go to heaven when they die. Archbishop Vigneron then offers a brilliant vision for Catholic schooling, reminiscent of Pope Benedict’s address to Catholic college and school leaders at The Catholic University of America in 2008. Here’s just a taste: …I believe that in the case of our Catholic schools, we need to do more than the ordinary, day-to-day kind of self-examination and conversion. We need to go down to the very roots of our school systems and re-think everything we are doing, being sure along the way that we and all of our coworkers have a laser-like focus on the mission of sharing Christ with our children. We need to work towards nothing less than a re-foundation of our Catholic schools here in the United States, if we are to meet the challenges of the Third Millennium and give our children a more ready opportunity to save their souls. …I would also propose that no matter what the composition of our classrooms between practicing Catholics, non-practicing Catholics, or non-Catholics, we need to be very clear about what we are offering to families as Catholic educators: a thoroughly Catholic environment in which all students will be offered a privileged opportunity to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ in the community of the Church and to achieve excellence in a range of academic disciplines and extra-curricular activities. The entire piece is worth reading. Click here to read Abp. Vigneron’s piece in its entirety. Good for his excellency. What is the answer to preventing students from turning out to be proponents of the above four characteristics of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism? (the other previous viewpoints were important to address too, but they happen to have the same solution) The answer of course is teaching the worldview in which Christianity developed and the philosophical tradition of Christianity. In short, we need to repropose Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Shakespeare and the classics of western literature at a much younger age, instead of allowing children's philosophical positions to develop unguided while teaching a purely empirical curriculum (i.e. science, math, factual account of history, "language arts"). By the way, religion class doesn't count--it is a matter of faith content, not about 'how to evaluate truth'. What happens when you teach a purely empirical curriculum with "religion class" on the side? Well, the implication is that the empirical sciences are the only way to know anything new about the world. Then of course we produce good little humanists in our Catholic schools because, well, they have no reason to "think" otherwise. They have not been taught about purpose, order and truth on a fundamental level! Why would we expect them to learn anything about it by studying biology or about how "Jesus loves them"? Bring back the liberal arts--without the implication that the latest is the greatest. Give kids even a chance to understand and decide whether they accept pre-"enlightenment" philosophy. What is wrong with asking a six-year old: "What is truth?" If you don't ask them, they will decide later based on other factors. Ask the question, "Quid est veritas?" Rather than facts and how to obtain them, the question mentioned gives a skill that IS education in the purest sense. Teach a man how to fish for truth rather than give them "what works". Here's the philosophy that get's taught when you don't teach philosophy. Please right click and download it so you can read it. and then we get this;

The common sense factor is coming into play at least in one diocese--Detroit. The question, "What is the purpose of a Catholic school?' is being ask in a far more serious way -- and answered.

Apparently the purpose is NOT the same as a public school!

As I stated in my introduction of this blog, one of the core issues affecting both society and the Catholic Church is the fact that the "old world view" is no longer being presented and has been replaced by a modernist viewpoint. I don't mean the Catholic heresy, I mean simply the idea that: "what is latest is automatically, without consideration, the greatest." When it comes to education--this includes ideas as being the latest and greatest. What are the latest and greatest ideas out there? Relativism, Nihilism, Scientism and Humanism. This is what our western world is buzzing about and in the face of these these ideas, just because they are popular, are what our Catholic schools lose their confidence in teaching truly Catholic ideas as correct.

Archbishop: Catholic Schools Should Be Different

Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit thinks that graduates from Catholic schools should be different. They should have “a conviction about the truth… a sense of order… [and] a sense of one’s purpose or mission.”

But while speaking at a symposium sponsored by O’Meara, Ferguson, Whelan, and Conway, a Catholic financial advisory firm that has worked with several colleges and schools, Archbishop Vigneron began with a summary of what Catholic school graduates should not be:

Today, of course, we face a different, and perhaps even more daunting, threat to our children’s faith: the threat that they will become pagans. It might help us to understand this danger better if we were to think for a moment about what we do not want to happen to our children in the course of their education. Another way of launching this little thought exercise, or assessment, I am proposing is to ask, “What kinds of freshmen do we not want to send on to the university?” I have put together a list of qualities which, while certainly not comprehensive, provides us with a sense of where we do not want our students ending-up:

First, we do not want our students to become moral relativists. Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has spoken of the “dictatorship of relativism,” and it is the unfortunate case that children are particularly susceptible to falling under the sway of this dictatorship. Our culture tells us that there is no objective truth, that the best I can do is figure out what is “true” for me and to follow my own heart wherever it leads me. For obvious reasons, this deception has a strong appeal for the young.

• Nihilism is another great danger for our students, and is closely related to relativism. If a young person does not believe in truth, then he or she has in a very real way already stepped off of the cliff’s edge and into the chasm of nihilism, viewing life as meaningless. We might see in the still-relatively-recent “Goth” movement some of the standard-bearers of nihilism among the young, but there are certainly others: recreational drug users, participants in the “hook-up” sub-culture, and countless other young people whose slogan—were nihilists inclined to create a slogan—would be, “Whatever.”

• If there is one personality type that is a perennial source of frustration for parents, it is that of a “slacker.” Of course, there have always been slackers of one kind or another, but in a time and place of such prosperity as we enjoy (even during relatively difficult economic times), when children and adolescents so rarely work in order to help support their families, as was common when our society was predominantly agricultural, and when the abundance of leisure time this prosperity produces is largely taken up with the ubiquitous “noise” of the world—Internet, pop music, video games, texting—we have a breeding ground for slackers.

• The final category I would like to mention is a bit more sophisticated, but I think you will see that it fits the religious perspective of many of our young people. Here I am talking about what the sociologist Christian Smith has called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” This could be described as the “default” religious perspective of young people today. Although it has an innumerable variety of expressions, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has the following characteristics, generally speaking:

• A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth. However, this view is not tied to any affirmation of the Incarnation or the Redemption.

• God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

• The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

• God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
• Good people go to heaven when they die.

Archbishop Vigneron then offers a brilliant vision for Catholic schooling, reminiscent of Pope Benedict’s address to Catholic college and school leaders at The Catholic University of America in 2008. Here’s just a taste:

…I believe that in the case of our Catholic schools, we need to do more than the ordinary, day-to-day kind of self-examination and conversion. We need to go down to the very roots of our school systems and re-think everything we are doing, being sure along the way that we and all of our coworkers have a laser-like focus on the mission of sharing Christ with our children. We need to work towards nothing less than a re-foundation of our Catholic schools here in the United States, if we are to meet the challenges of the Third Millennium and give our children a more ready opportunity to save their souls.

…I would also propose that no matter what the composition of our classrooms between practicing Catholics, non-practicing Catholics, or non-Catholics, we need to be very clear about what we are offering to families as Catholic educators: a thoroughly Catholic environment in which all students will be offered a privileged opportunity to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ in the community of the Church and to achieve excellence in a range of academic disciplines and extra-curricular activities.

The entire piece is worth reading. Click here to read Abp. Vigneron’s piece in its entirety.

Good for his excellency.

What is the answer to preventing students from turning out to be proponents of the above four characteristics of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism? (the other previous viewpoints were important to address too, but they happen to have the same solution)

The answer of course is teaching the worldview in which Christianity developed and the philosophical tradition of Christianity. In short, we need to repropose Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Shakespeare and the classics of western literature at a much younger age, instead of allowing children's philosophical positions to develop unguided while teaching a purely empirical curriculum (i.e. science, math, factual account of history, "language arts"). By the way, religion class doesn't count--it is a matter of faith content, not about 'how to evaluate truth'. What happens when you teach a purely empirical curriculum with "religion class" on the side? Well, the implication is that the empirical sciences are the only way to know anything new about the world. Then of course we produce good little humanists in our Catholic schools because, well, they have no reason to "think" otherwise. They have not been taught about purpose, order and truth on a fundamental level! Why would we expect them to learn anything about it by studying biology or about how "Jesus loves them"?

Bring back the liberal arts--without the implication that the latest is the greatest. Give kids even a chance to understand and decide whether they accept pre-"enlightenment" philosophy. What is wrong with asking a six-year old: "What is truth?" If you don't ask them, they will decide later based on other factors. Ask the question, "Quid est veritas?" Rather than facts and how to obtain them, the question mentioned gives a skill that IS education in the purest sense.

Teach a man how to fish for truth rather than give them "what works".


Here's the philosophy that get's taught when you don't teach philosophy. Please right click and download it so you can read it.

and then we get this;