PARENT-FOUNDED SCHOOLS FOR THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION OF CHILDREN: CONSIDERATIONS FOR CANONICAL RECOGNITION IN THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTEXT

Abstract

Philip A. Creurer Parent-Founded Schools for the Catholic Education of Children: Considerations for Canonical Recognition in the North American Context The issue of schools founded at the initiative of Catholic parents for the Catholic formation of their children has not been analysed from the canonical perspective. The thesis supplies this need and concludes with practical applications to assist both parents wishing or already engaged in founding a school, and pastors who are faced with such a foundation in their parish or diocese. The first chapter roots the parents’ initiative in their particular ecclesial vocation and mission, tracing the line of development of their vocation in papal and conciliar documents to its concrete application in apostolic works. The normative value of this vocation and mission is analysed by a consideration of the canons regarding parental rights and duties and those regarding Catholic education and schools. Finally, the jurisdiction of the local bishop over education and schools is considered. The second chapter takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyse the current context of Catholic education in North America. The pressures faced by Catholic schools arising from social, political and ecclesial changes in recent decades provide the framework within which the parental rights outlined in the first chapter are actually exercised. These same pressures are relevant to parental initiatives to found schools: financial constraints, secularisation, state control of curriculum including religious education, the dwindling numbers of members from religious institutes actively involved in schooling, and growing educational trends outside the mainstream, such as home-schooling. The third chapter focuses on the adaptive organisational structures Catholic schools have undertaken to meet the pressures analysed in the second chapter. In particular, with an increasingly crowded field of education options open to parents, Catholic schools have sought to expressly embed their distinctive contribution, namely their Catholic identity, through modifications to governance bodies and documents. Canonical structures, such as juridical persons, are available to help in this process of adaptation, but so far have been little used. The fourth chapter turns to an analysis of Catholic health care institutions and institutions of higher education to draw out some useful developments as they faced similar challenges to those confronting Catholic schools. In particular, the emergence of lay sponsorship models and the insistence on institutional or corporate identity provide a rich experience from which parents wishing to found their own schools can draw. The chapter concludes that the canonical structure of the private juridical person provides a hopeful canonical solution to assist both parents and pastors address the many issues and pressures faced by parental initiatives to found schools for the Catholic education of their children. Draft articles for the statutes of such a juridical person are proposed in an appendix.