The instruction comes in a new document about Catholic schools from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education.

"The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue" focuses on the schools' obligations to students and the wider community.

Catholic schools are obliged to protect and promote the Catholic identity. They are also expected to reach out to a broader community of students and teachers. This requires a commitment to dialogue, the document says.

Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, the prefect for the Congregation for Catholic Education, says the congregation was asked to write the document.

He says the request followed conflicts and appeals resulting from different interpretations of the traditional concept of Catholic identity by educational institutions.

Many of these concerned rapid social change including globalisation and growing interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

The document offers an in-depth, up-to-date reflection and guidelines on the value of the Catholic identity of educational institutions in the Church, Versaldi says. It provides criteria responding to today's challenges in continuity with the criteria that always apply.

Recruitment and school culture

Job applicants must be informed of the school's Catholic identity, its implications and their responsibility to promote that identity.

Schools should "formulate clear criteria for discernment" when considering candidates for positions in Catholic schools.

Schools are responsible for recruits who don't comply with its Catholic and church community requirements.

"A narrow Catholic school model" is not acceptable - it conflicts with the model of a ‘church which goes forth' in dialogue with everyone.

Everyone involved in conflicts over "disciplinary and/or doctrinal" matters must be told how "these situations can bring discredit to the Catholic institution and scandal in the community."

Catholic identity and mission

Catholic education is an essential part of the church's identity and mission. It is not strictly catechetical. Nor is it a "mere philanthropic work aimed at responding to a social need."

Catholic schools are open. They do not limit enrolment or employment to Catholics alone. Part of their mission is to promote "the complete perfection of the human person, the good of earthly society and the building of a world that is more human." (Second Vatican Council.)

To be open, Catholic schools must "practise the ‘grammar of dialogue". This is a profound way of relating to others. "Dialogue combines attention to one's own identity with the understanding of others and respect for diversity."

Everyone — administrators, teachers, parents and students — has "the obligation to recognise, respect and bear witness to the Catholic identity of the school," the Vatican's new Catholic schools' document says.

This identity should be clearly stated in each school's mission statement and presented to prospective employees and parents of prospective students.

"In the formation of the younger generation, teachers must be outstanding in correct doctrine and integrity of life," it says.

The entire school community is responsible for the school's Catholic identity. It cannot be "attributed only to certain spheres or to certain persons" like liturgical, spiritual or social occasions, or the school chaplain, religion teachers or principal.

Source

• CN
• Crux
• Image: The Journal

His decision was endorsed by financial authorities at the Institute for Works of Religion, commonly called the Vatican Bank or IOR.

Despite this, the loan was subsequently approved by the Holy See's central bank, APSA - possibly breaching international regulatory agreements.

Commenting on the situation, several Vatican officials say in 2014 Angelo Becciu and Giuseppe Versald were the cardinals who asked the IOR for the loan.

The loan would fund a for-profit partnership between the Holy See's Secretariat of State and a religious order, to buy the order's bankrupt Italian hospital.

The religious order had formed a new organisation with the Vatican Secretariat as its partner, in a bid to unburden itself from the hospital's massive debts.

The loan proposal was rejected in 2015, when the IOR board decided the order would never be able to repay the loan.

Pell was reportedly vocally opposed to the loan proposal.

The cardinals then made a similar loan request to APSA, the Vatican's central bank.

While APSA was considering the loan, Pell's office, which oversaw APSA'S s portfolio, refused to sign off the transaction.

Nonetheless, the loan proceeded, possibly violating APSA's international regulatory agreements.

A senior source at APSA says "there was no taking ‘no' for an answer," and that Versaldi and Becciu "passionately" insisted on the deal.

Becciu and Versaldi are said to have approached APSA for the loan because the bank had already shown itself resistant to the Vatican's financial reforms.

The Secretariat of State, where Becciu was the second-ranking official, was also reportedly resistant to Pell's efforts at financial transparency and reform.

After conflict over the loan, Pope Francis withdrew oversight authority over APSA's investment decisions from Pell's office. Multiple Vatican sources say that decision was strongly influenced by lobbying from Becciu.

Becciu was also responsible for cancelling a proposed external audit of all Vatican finances by PricewaterhouseCooper.

He also opposed Pell's intention to end the practice of keeping some Holy See assets and funds "off books."

The excuse they gave for objecting to the external audit was "because of the confidentiality required to conduct their work".

Senior sources at the Prefecture for the Economy and APSA say the cancellation of the audit was also explained, in part, by promises that an independent audit of APSA was already planned.

Sources at APSA and the Prefecture say no audits have been conducted.

Instead, there has been a "good faith undertaking" between APSA and the Vatican's Financial Information Authority.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Kelso Lawyers

Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, released a key document at a press conference in the Vatican last Friday.

Entitled "Educating to Fraternal Humanism", the document stresses "how urgent and necessary it is to humanise education, favouring a culture of networking and dialogue between educational institutions."

Versaldi says the new document contains the guidelines for this education and describes "the need to look after the good of others as if it were one's own" as "a clear priority for the political agenda of our civil systems".

The document will be distributed to all 216,000 catholic schools and universities around the world.

Catholic schools are well-equipped to help foster this attitude by educating students with Christian values, Versaldi says.

He went on to say solidarity and brotherhood can be promoted by Catholic schools and universities "through a formative experience capable of integrating science and conscience."

Because they know Christ's offer of salvation is open to all people, Catholic schools should be agents for "globalising hope," educating young people to promote solidarity, brotherhood and care for the environment.

Besides helping students find and share their talents, the document also aims to promote a culture of dialogue.

In this each person would be free to express his or her identity and thoughts while respecting the rights of others to do the same.

Versaldi says the Catholic schools' combined student population exceeds 60 million, with pupils from every faith and ethnic group.

Source

• Vatican Radio
• Crux
• Image: Holy Ghost Catholic School

"We need witnesses," said Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, at the Ateneo de Manila University on March 10.

He said four Missionaries of Charity nuns who were shot dead by terrorists in Yemen last week were "witnesses ... who testified with their faith."

Speaking before a gathering of Catholic educators, theologians, religious superiors, and seminarians, Cardinal Versaldi said "sanctity is the more convincing way" to attract people to the church.

"You must be saints," the cardinal said when asked by a student how priests and the religious can put into practice what they learn from the university.

Cardinal Versaldi was in Manila to deliver the keynote address of a two-day international theological symposium sponsored by the Jesuit-run Loyola School of Theology.

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