Pope: Catholic Colleges Must Shape Hearts as Well as Form Catholic Minds
John Paul II, issued his apostolic letter "Ex Corde Ecclesia" (At the Heart of the Church) affirming the vital mission of the Catholic College.
In that letter, Blessed John Paul II wrote: "Since the objective of a Catholic University is to assure in an institutional manner a Christian presence in the university world confronting the great problems of society and culture, every Catholic University, as Catholic, must have the following essential characteristics: 1. a Christian inspiration not only of individuals but of the university community as such; 2. a continuing reflection in the light of the Catholic faith upon the growing treasury of human knowledge, to which it seeks to contribute by its own research; 3. fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the Church; 4. an institutional commitment to the service of the people of God and of the human family in their pilgrimage to the transcendent goal which gives meaning to life"
The Catholic College is not a private College with a church affiliation. It is a Catholic College. Catholic identity is not an "add on" to its mission but the very lifeblood which animates it. In his masterful letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul calls all Christians to a "renewal of their minds". (Romans 12:2) This renewal of the mind is the essence of Catholic education.
In an age being enslaved by the Dictatorship of Relativism, the Catholic College affirms the existence of truth and insists that there is a constitutive connection between truth, freedom, education and the ability to form an authentically human and just culture. This commitment to truth characterizes the entire Catholic educational mission.
The Purpose of a Catholic College is to teach, form and prepare students in Christ, through Christ, and with Christ, who has been raised and continues His redemptive mission through the Church. It is that Church which is vested with His authority to teach the whole world concerning truth.
In the words of the great Western Bishop Augustine: "Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but Christ himself. Do you understand and grasp, brethren, God's grace toward us? Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ. For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we together are the whole man. . . . The fullness of Christ then is the head and the members. But what does "head and members" mean? Christ and the Church."
The living Christ still teaches and directs His Church. Through that Church he continues to influence all of human culture. The faithful of the Church are called to inculcate and live the truth as articulated under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the teaching office of the Church. At the forefront of the mission of the Catholic Church is the education of the next generation of faithfully Catholic men and women who do just that. It is Christ the Teacher who teaches His children in the Catholic College. As Blessed John Paul II said so succinctly in an address to educators in 1979 "Catholic education is above all a question of communicating Christ, of helping to form Christ in the lives of others."
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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
Keywords: Catholic College, Catholic University, Ex Corde Ecclesia, Pope Benedict XVI, academic, academy, Deacon Keith Fournier
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Greetings.I am a 28 year old male High School teacher in Zimbabwe wishing to start a Catholic related independent co-educational High School, part of whose curriculum will involve teaching the Catholic faith.The idea came after I had observed that our generation, particularly those younger than I am, do not even know the meaning of what we do in the Catholic Church. It is therefore my wish to start a formal independent co-educational high school, some of whose curriculum will involve teaching our Catholic faith to our children. It is to that end that I am looking for sponsors or partners who may be willing to fund the initiative. To guarantee the good use of donated funds, the donor will handle all finances by themself, or appoint an independent team of individuals to cater for that. All I am appealling for are funds to buy the land for the proposed school, as well as to construct two or three blocks of classrooms to start with. I repeat that we will not handle your finances, but as the donor/ financer you are free to appoint an independent team who are responsible for that. You are also free to visit the country , Zimbabwe and access everything by yourself. All we are looking for are the finances to buy the land, and to build a few blocks of the school.My email addresses are: nmasakure@gmail.com and nmasakure@yahoo.co.uk. If any of you want to help by sponsoring of partnering , or visiting Zimbabwe and finance the project, that would be most welcome. I have faith that this project will start. Thank you. Yours in Christ, Noel T. Masakure
There is no such thing as Catholic colleges anymore, I'm sorry. Modern colleges are disgusting playgrounds of moral filth and vile evil. Why the Church is not more confrontational on this issue appears to me to be a serious disconnection between It and the post-modern world, if not flat out ignorance.
The Church of Christ should be understood in terms of a Body. Its meaning goes into a basic family structure like saying A man, His wife & children, where the man represents Jesus, his wife the bride & the children being their body, around the bride. In the universal sense of the old or fallen order is to the body of Adam. In the new or redeemed is to the Body of Christ again to a universal application which is by salvation off the Covenant to be called a Redeemed Family in the continuation of the basic structure. Then & now the existence of man is by the family structure, except the redeemed is to the fulfillment where the gates of hell cannot prevail against it, for it is re-founded in God upon the Rock Christ, where as the old family structure without God is to attack by the adversary in splitting the basic structure as seen through divorces , gay relations, abortions , population controls to taggings to every evil under the sun using Sorcery(appeasings) to the breaking & hatred to keep man away from being redeemed to join the redeemed family in Christ, which is to the basic Catholic/Christian understanding.