VATICAN - Pope tells Bishops of Region South 3 and 4 of Brazil: “The Catholic school can neither be conceived of nor exist apart from other educational institutions. It is at the service of society."

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The university and the school, the two classic areas in which culture is formed and communicated, with particular regard to the "catholic" community, were the topics addressed by the Holy Father Benedict XVI in his address to the Bishops of Region 3 and 4 of Brazil, whom he received in an audience on December 5th, for their Ad Limina Apostolorum visit. "The school is 'Catholic', because the principles of the Gospel become school standards, inner motivations and ultimate goals," said the Pope, quoting the document of the Congregation for Catholic Education, "The Catholic School" (No. 34) , in the hope that it will, “in a synergy with families and with the ecclesial community, promote the unity of faith, culture, and life, which is the fundamental aim of Christian education."
Referring then to the state schools, the Holy Father recalled that these can be helped in their educational role by the presence of professors who are believers, by pupils raised in the Christian faith, and the collaboration of families and the Christian community itself. The Pope commented: "A healthy secularism of the school does not imply the denial of the transcendent, or even a mere neutrality before those requirements and moral values that are the basis for the formation of a genuine person, including religious education." Finally, Benedict XVI emphasized that "the Catholic school can neither be conceived of nor exist apart from other educational institutions. It is at the service of society. It carries out a public service...and is not reserved only for Catholics, but open to all who wish to take advantage of qualified educational opportunities."
The educational process takes place "in the highest and most specialized in universities," and "The Church has always maintained unity with the university and its role in leading man to the highest level of knowledge of the truth and dominion of the world in all its aspects." Expressing his satisfaction with the various religious congregations that have founded and supported renowned universities, Benedict XVI recalled that "they are not the property of those who have founded or of those who attended, but an expression of the Church and its heritage of faith." In this connection, the Pontiff recalled the 25th anniversary of the Instruction "Libertatis nuntius" of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on certain aspects of liberation theology, with these words: "it emphasized the danger of an uncritical acceptance by some theologians of opinions and methods derived from Marxism. Its consequences more or less visible including rebellion, division, dissent, insult, and anarchy, are still felt, and create in your diocesan communities great pain and great loss of vital forces. I implore those who somehow have felt attracted, involved, and affected by certain deceiving principles of liberation theology, to once again review that Instruction, welcoming the benign view that it offers with outstretched hands."
The Pope concluded his speech by asking them to take the Virgin Mary, so loved and revered throughout Brazil, as a model: "In her we find, pure and undeformed, the very essence of the Church and so, through her, may we learn to know and love the mystery of the Church that lives in history, feeling ourselves to be very much a part of it and becoming in turn 'ecclesial souls', learning to resist the 'internal secularization' that threatens the Church and her teachings." (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 7/12/2009)