Will The Synod Listen To Catholic Students?
By PAUL KRAUSE
The Synod on Synodality is fast approaching. Some of us engaged in “listening sessions,” compiling the concerns of Catholics (and even non-Catholics) for the Synod. In doing so, it is evidently clear why classical Catholic schools are growing and what Catholic students want: A Catholic education
The diocesan school system needs a self-examination. On the one hand, it is widely known and study after study affirms that Catholic education produces higher performance than their public school counterparts. On the other hand, this poses a danger. Is a Catholic school still Catholic or just an elevated and more exclusive form of public schooling?
Originally, the parish school system that still flourishes in the United States was the creation of Catholics excluded from the Protestant redoubts of American culture. Moreover, there was a need to guide and educate the future Catholic laity in a land that was, at the time, suspicious and often hostile to Catholics. As those suspicions and hostilities faded, and as American public schooling entered the throes of its crisis it has yet to resolve, Catholic schools became attractive for Americans seeking an exit from the crumbling corners of American public education.
However, these same parish schools which were once created to pass on the faith have, by and large, abandoned that banner and have become schools of secular excellence sprinkled with a bit of holy water every so often.
In talking to Catholic students from the parish system in undertaking synodal work, something became recurrent in their discussions with me. They all regretted the lack of Catholicity in their own Catholic education. To paraphrase one such student, “My theological education was bad.”
While one might chalk up to certain regrets about the Catholicity in their education to growing a little bit older and developing deeper interests as students approach 20 and 21, the fact remains that a great number of Catholic students coming out of the parish and diocesan school systems admit they received a public education that had a veneer of Catholicism and school Mass. Other than that, any significant learning of Catholic teaching, doctrine, or theology was minimal.
Looking back, these students who have developed an extensive interest in theology on their own wish that they had received better preparation after all their years of education.
Because of this problem, one that crosses many dioceses as someone who has lived in multiple states and has encountered students expressing the same problem whether in the Midwest, South, or Northeast, the bourgeoning classical Catholic school network has gained traction.
Here, schools are unapologetically Catholic — not just Catholic in name and appearance. In the growing classical Catholic school networks, these independent and loosely affiliated schools shepherd students through catechesis, the Bible, and a loving appreciation of the arts, drama, and culture: the good, true, and beautiful in all things.
The Synod on Synodality claims that it is interested in listening to the laity. I hope so and pray so. Specifically, the concerns and considerations of the next generation of Catholics should have the ear of the Holy See. Young Catholics want Catholicity, not a watered-down City of Man do-goodism.
The inclusion of the differing generations of Catholics, especially of young Catholics, should not be intentionally limited to a certain demographic with the goal of “finding” the voice of zeitgeist desires. It is true that there is a diversity of thought among Catholics, but it is equally true that within the concerns and hopes of Catholics are considerations for a deep Catholicity so often and frequently denied to them.
What is the Church for? This is undoubtedly a principal question that the Synod will deal with. It is the same question that many Catholic students are wrestling with.
Is the Church just a field hospital for the City of Man? Or is it more? Does the Church have something more to offer than excellence in secular education and bodily care and compassion to fallen members of the human race?
Much More To Offer
A great number of Catholic students are aware of what the Church has, and can, offer. For too long Catholics have received a lax education, one that has sought to be more like the world so as to please non-Catholics who are fleeing into the arms of the excellence that has historically defined Church education and social work. (And social work is something that many Catholic students are equally engaged in.) But these Catholics aware of what the Church has to offer wish that they had received it.
It is because the Church has much more to offer beside secular excellence that independent and private Catholic education — apart from the diocesan system — is growing and becoming more popular. Excellence in education is a great thing. But a combination of deep Catholicity with all-round academic excellence is the new cultivated medium that Catholics can offer.
In the upcoming Synod, we hope Church officials will see the great desire among the next generation of Catholics to have a deep Catholicity in their education and through all facets of their lives. Many Catholic students do not want what the status quo offers. They wish for a new, revived, Catholicity to seep into their souls. And there are many Catholics who are willing to undertake that shepherding task.
If listening to the laity is the real motive of the Synod, I am hopeful for what the future has in store. Hopefully, Synod leaders will be, too, and not close the desires of Catholic students and the next generation for whatever pre-desired wants they may have wished out of the Synod.
There is always hope in the darkness.