The Decrees of Vatican II Compared with Past Church Teachings

This series of articles studying the heretical teachings of Vatican Council II first appeared in The Reign of Mary several years ago. Its purpose is to show in a side-by-side comparison how the official decrees of Vatican II explicitly contradict past official decrees of the Catholic Church.

Ecumenism  |  Non-Christian Religions  |  Sacred Scripture  |  Religious Liberty  |  Liturgy

Education

Vatican II Decree on Education

The decree first advocates a false moral freedom:

(P.1) “This holy Synod likewise affirms that children and young people have a right to be encouraged to weigh moral values with an upright conscience, and to embrace them by personal choice...” [i.e. no longer are they to be taught an absolute code of right and wrong, which they must accept.]

Next, the decree accepts the terrible state of modem schools, which have become melting pots of error from various sources:

(P.5) “Moreover, the school sets up a kind of center whose operation and progress deserve to engage the joint participation of families, teachers, various kinds of cultural, civic and religious groups, civil society, and the entire human community...” [...various kinds of... religious groups — is this not indifferentism in practice?]

Pluralism is bluntly defended:

(P.6) “For such a monopoly of schools] would militate against the native rights of the human person...and the pluralism which exists today in very many societies.” [Ed. note: Although we agree that the state ought not to have a monopoly over education, we deplore this approval of pluralism.]

Attendance at public schools seems to be implicitly approved.

(P.7) “To those large numbers of them students] who are being trained in schools which are not Catholic, she needs to be present with her special affection and helpfulness.” [Ed. note: Here is not mentioned the past practice of the Church to forbid her children to attend non-Catholic schools, which are a danger to faith and/or morals.]

Lastly, the decree continues to laud pluralism. This is totally unorthodox:

(P.7) “For this reason, the Church gives high praise to those civil authorities and civil societies that show regard for the pluralistic character of modem society, and take into account the right of religious liberty, by helping families in such a way that in all schools the education of their children can be carried out according to the moral and religious convictions of each family.”

Past Infallible Church Decrees on Education

In opposition to the errors listed above is a host of papal teachings — in particular, the magnificent encyclical of Pope Pius XI written in 1929, Divini Illius Magistri. In this document, Pius XI condemned many errors which, although more prevalent than ever, are totally passed over in silence by the Vatican II decree.

Pope Pius XI condemned naturalism in education and the false moral freedom promoted by the Vatican II decree:

“Hence every form of pedagogic naturalism which in any way excludes or weakens supernatural Christian formation in the teaching of youth, is false. Every method of education founded, wholly or in part, on the denial or forgetfulness of original sin and of grace, and relying on the sole powers of human nature, is unsound. Such, generally speaking, are those modern systems bearing various names which appeal to a pretended self-government and unrestrained freedom on the part of the child, and which diminish or even suppress the teacher’s authority and action, attributing to the child an exclusive primacy of initiative, and an activity independent of any higher law, natural or divine, in the work of his education.”

Sex education is condemned:

“Far too common is the error of those who with dangerous assurance and under an ugly term propagate a so-called sex education, falsely imagining they can forearm youth against the dangers of sensuality by means purely natural, such as a foolhardy initiation and precautionary instruction for all indiscriminately, even in public; and, worse still, by exposing them at an early age to the occasions, in order to accustom them, so it is argued, and as it were, to harden them against such dangers.”

Co-education is equally condemned:

“False also and harmful to Christian education is the so-called method of ‘co-education.’ This, too, by many of its supporters, is founded upon naturalism and the denial of original sin; but by all, upon a deplorable confusion of ideas that mistakes a leveling promiscuity and equality, for the legitimate association of the sexes. The Creator has ordained and disposed perfect union of the sexes only in matrimony, and, with varying degrees of contact, in the family and in society.”

Secular and mixed education are condemned, in total opposition to the Vatican II decree:

“From this it follows that the so-called ‘neutral’ or ‘lay’ school, from which religion is excluded, is contrary to the fundamental principles of education. Such a school, moreover, cannot exist in practice; it is bound to become irreligious. There is no need to repeat what Our Predecessors have declared on this point, especially Pius IX and Leo XIII, at time when laicism was beginning in a special manner to infest the public school. We renew and confirm their declarations, as well as the Sacred Canons in which the frequenting of non-Catholic schools, whether neutral or mixed, those namely which are open to Catholics and non-Catholics alike, is forbidden for Catholic children, and can be at most tolerated, on the approval of the Ordinary alone, under determined circumstances of place and time, and with special precautions.

“Neither can Catholics admit that other type of mixed school (least of all the so-called ecole unique, obligatory on all), in which the students are provided with separate religious instruction, but receive other lessons in common with non-Catholic pupils from non-Catholic teachers.”