Our Catholic schools can provide a way forward in changed times. Fr Gerry O'Shaughnessy SDB urges us to stand up for them, and for all of the children they educate. Photo: Fr (later, Bishop) Marshall, promoting funding for a Catholic school and church for the parish of St Malachy, Collyhurst, Manchester: courtesy of Lawrence Gregory

The history of Catholic Education in our nation is fascinating. The network of monastic communities provided an opportunity for excellence in teaching and learning that dates back centuries. The great universities of Oxford and Cambridge owe their origins to the Church. Of course, under Henry VIII AND Elizabeth I, Catholic education had to go underground with candidates for the then-illegal Catholic priesthood and undergraduates from wealthy recusant families going to France, Belgium, Spain or Italy for their schooling. In the nineteenth century, with Catholic emancipation, the reconstituted hierarchy of England and Wales saw the need for quality education, especially in the working class inner cities. The Church had already established seminaries at Ushaw and St Edmund's Ware, followed by teacher training colleges in London and Liverpool. Various religious orders were coming into the country to support impoverished parishes, with central government providing limited funds through poor law provision.

The 1852 Synod of Westminster mandated that each parish provide a school:

The first necessity, therefore, is a sufficient provision of education adequate to the wants of our poor. It must become universal. No congregation should be allowed to remain without its schools, one for each sex. Where the poverty of the people is extreme, we earnestly exhort you, beloved children, whom God blessed with riches, especially you who, from position, are the natural patrons of those around you, to take upon yourselves lovingly this burden, of providing, if possible, permanently, for the education of your destitute neighbours.

It went on to say that if funds were limited, even with rich patrons, and a choice had to be made between building a church and building a school, then a school MUST come first. This was a definitive statement that pointed to the importance of Catholic education in the British Catholic vision. Those re-founding fathers (and Rev Mothers) laid the basis of the solid parish, school and family partnership.

Amazingly, around the same time, an Italian priest was beginning an experiment in Turin that was to revolutionise education. He wanted to present a formative system for the poor working class—especially those lured to the big city in search of work—based on kindness and not repression. He wanted to give them a proper start so that they could be good citizens and faithful Christians making their mark in the world. By 1888, Don Bosco sent his Salesians to Battersea to join in the mission of education with the likes of the Jesuits, the Notre Dame Sisters, the DeLa Salle Brothers, Presentation Sisters, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Marists. Thousands of Religious men and women worked tirelessly, often in areas of great poverty. They offered quality primary and secondary education, enabling a whole new generation of Catholic working class to go to university for the first time ever.

With the ground-breaking Education Act of 1944, quality free education was seen as a right and not an aspiration. Catholic education was part of that social revolution that took place after the Second World War. The world would be changed by teachers who would make a difference in the lives of their students. As Don Bosco could proclaim:

Do you want to do a good deed? Teach the young! Do you want to perform a holy act? Teach the young! Do you want to do a holy thing? Teach the young! Truly, now and for the future, among holy things, this is the holiest.

St John Bosco

I was part of that cohort and will forever remain indebted to the likes of Sr Madeleine LSA and Fr Michael Scott SDB. Their dedication and care certainly gave me the desire to work in education myself. As the years moved on, the numbers of religious working in education dwindled; Vatican II reminded them to return to their roots and original charism; the education that they offered gave new generations a chance to enter any number of careers—the world was literally our oyster!

So many parochial primary and area secondary schools owe their foundation to diocesan clergy and to religious. They brought with them their own specific charism that dictated how the school would operate. In these modern times, it is the duty of parish, school and families to ensure that the charism is maintained. In reality, this is down to groups such as Trustees and Governors. The educationalist, Dr John Lydon, does the Church a great service in advocating that our parochial schools are more than just 'a school'! He recognises the importance of retaining the original charism that led to the foundation of these schools. The excellent work that he promotes in school leadership ensures that our schools can share vision and awareness.

Catholic schools are a living part of the Catholic community. We are not saying we are better that the non-faith school next door: we ARE saying that our Catholic schools offer a vision of community and faith that is different. It is a vision rooted in the inclusivity of Jesus' Gospel ministry, with his preferential option for the poor and those at the margins. Thus it is very important, especially in this era of testing, intense inspections, cut-throat competition and league tables, that we do well to remember the words of Bishop Ullathorn of Birmingham, as he strove to bring education to the poor of his community:

Woe, then to the parents, woe to the teachers, and woe to the blind politicians, who look only to the natural and forget the divine elements implanted in the children of God; who devote all culture to the child of nature, and have little or no consideration for the child of grace ... It is like cultivating the weeds and neglecting the corn.

W B Ullathorne, The Endowments of Man

We cannot forget that basic rationale of this pioneer as we continue to support our schools, especially those in poor areas.

In the necessary desire to maintain standards, we must never lose sight of our Catholic mission in education, a mission that is inclusive and not just to those who will gain A* at GCSE. In these post-Covid times, we can gain so much from our schools. It upsets me to hear of clergy refusing to visit schools as "we never see the kids in Church!" The reality is that, with churches closed, we saw nobody in Church for weeks. As we slowly get back to normal, it seems that this is an ideal time to rethink our way of being and 'doing' Church. Once schools are up and ruining again, why not offer a mass after school one evening for those who find it so difficult to take part at the weekend? In these complicated days the family unit is not what some would see as normal or ideal—we don't live in the 'ideal'; we live in the 'real'! Some children can only see a parent on a Sunday and, yet we might still INSIST that they HAVE to attend mass! We can lay down a whole series of hoops for them to jump through to be able to make First Holy Communion for example. As Pope Francis constantly reminds us, we work in a 'field hospital' and the sacraments can never be used as rewards system. Eucharist is food for the journey—it is literally of bread of LIFE, not a merit badge.

Creativity is the attitude we need to adopt: the school can be the focus for the parish whether it's the local venue for 'Slimming World', the Sunday Family Film Club, the Pensioners' Lunch Club or the Parish Youth Group. My answer to those clergy who argue that we should not have schools as young people do not come to Church, is that we must meet young people where they are—not where we want them to be. This was a valuable lesson I learnt early in my teacher training from my tutor and fellow Salesian, Fr James Gallagher SDB—it is a transferable skill that must be used in parish ministry too. Children will always be educated; there will always be schools, but we lose our Catholic schools at our peril.

As we move towards a new normal, we need to be careful that we do not get sucked into a 'culture of success' that is so often promulgated by central government. Do our diocesan education departments offer the same vision? What about those schools, often in areas of poverty and challenge, that are deemed to be in 'special measures'? We need to support children, families and staff rather than just throw them under a bus and give up. Look at your diocese and see where their educational priorities lie. Do they consciously and actively support those schools in areas of dire poverty? The Church must make a stand with those in most need as we make a counter cultural statement.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that it can take a simple virus to close the world down. The way we live life in Autumn 2020 is totally different to the way we started the year. Sporting fixtures, family gatherings, shopping, funerals, work and schooling have all had to make drastic changes. This year has also shown us just how resilient we are and how we can adapt even in the strangest of circumstances. I would urge you all to look at ways you can affirm your local Catholic school: how do YOU support your community of faith? Pope Francis reminds us just how special the Catholic school can be in the life of our Church as we move forward and try to pick the pieces in a post-pandemic world:

In your school you take part in various activities that habituate you not to shut yourselves in on yourselves or in your small world, but to be open to others, especially to the poorest and neediest, to work to improve the world in which we live. Be men and women with others and for others, real champions in the service of others. To be magnanimous with interior liberty and a spirit of service, spiritual formation is necessary. Dear children, dear youths, love Jesus Christ ever more

Pope Francis, 7th June 2013

Fr Gerry O'Shaughnessy SDB