Citizenship and Education
An Historical Perspective for
Catholic Schools
. Leonardo
Franchi – University of Glasgow
In
this post I explore Citizenship Education through the lens of Catholic teaching
on Education. I also make reference to Pope Leo XIII’s teaching on Citizenship.
I show that there is such a thing as a Christian ‘idea’ of citizenship. This
might not sit comfortably in a society which seeks to marginalise
(intentionally or unintentionally), the Christian voice.
How Citizenship Education in the Catholic school is both understood
and taught makes it a crucial feature of the contemporary educational scene.
Citizenship Education flows from a
political/civic desire to build community cohesion – universally deemed a ‘good
thing’. How to promote, far less achieve, this in a multi-cultural society
remains problematic.
For some, Citizenship Education is a
‘secular’ version of Religious Education: values emerge, it seems, from reason
alone without a concomitant contribution from revealed religion. Although religious belief and practice should
be fundamental parts of Citizenship Education, contemporary articulations of Citizenship
Education minimise discussion of the difficult issues arising from religious
faith/identity. Nonetheless, the number of children of
all faiths and none who are educated in Catholic schools should place the
Catholic school not at the margins but at the heart of Citizenship Education.
Religions, of course, are an
expression of diversity. This leads to the following question: is contemporary education
a means of monopolising thought and values within a conceptual framework which
purports to be inclusive but, intentionally or otherwise, fails in this
objective?
In saying a tentative ‘yes’ to this question, it is important to
offer some historical roots. A Catholic vision
of citizenship is evident in the corpus of Pope Leo XIII (Pope from 1878-1903) for whom the Catholic school is the crucible in which a ‘Catholic
mind’ is formed. For Pope Leo, a well-formed Catholic is a leaven in society: the
good Catholic is a good citizen.
3. Pope Leo’s short Encyclical to the Bishops of Scotland, Caritatis studium (1898) returned to the theme of Christian faith and citizenship. One of Leo’s first acts as Pope was to restore the Scottish hierarchy in 1878. This Encyclical shows how the Catholic Church in Scotland, while a major institution in the history of the Scottish nation, had lost influence and status after the Protestant Reformation. Leo knows of the challenges facing the small and increasingly immigrant Catholic community in Scotland. He is also aware that there is common ground between Catholics and Christians from the Reformed traditions, with both traditions under threat from religious liberalism. Leo asks the Catholic community to move away from an intellectual and cultural ghetto in order to engage with wider Scottish society. This will show that Catholicism, far from being an alien culture to Scotland, has much to contribute to the welfare of the nation: ‘nothing else contributes so much to the honourable and successful discharge of social duties’ (1898: 11).
CiCitizenship and Catholic Education Today
In Catholic educational thought,
education is more than the accumulation of qualifications to enhance
employability. At the heart of the vision is something radical and
counter-cultural: the gradual building of the Kingdom of God - while remaining aware that this is always a
work in progress owing to the fallibility of humanity. Essentially, the good
Christian citizen is first and foremost a good person - one who has responded
to the grace of God impelling him or her to the love which demands sacrifice
for the ‘other’.
Christian thinking accepts the
notion of human virtues which, by definition, are not explicitly religious. We
all want schools and wider society to be underpinned by such tolerance, good
humour, fairness etc. The issue is how to define what the values mean in
practice and, crucially, identify what lies at their root.
The Catholic vision of doctrinal
development is one of continuity, not rupture. Catholic teaching on education
and citizenship is part of this continuity. It will be interesting to follow
developments in light of contemporary papal initiatives like Scholas Occurrentes and the Global Compact on Education.
1. A rediscovery of the link between the ‘good Catholic as the good
citizen’ should encourage Catholic educators to look again at the key
principles of Catholic education. How will this be done?
2. Can the modern secular state accept
Pope Leo’s claim that the good Christian is the ideal citizen?
A version of this post was presented at a World
Union of Catholic Teachers Webinar on February
2, 2021.
