Education/Portugal: Bishops call for freedom of choice for parents and Catholic schools “open to all”

Message marks the 25th anniversary of APEC, an association that represents institutions

Lisbon, 08 May 2024 (Ecclesia) – The Episcopal Commission for Christian Education and Doctrine of the Faith asked that parents have freedom of choice for their children’s school, in a message in which they welcome parents and students of Catholic educational institutions, in Portugal.

“As the first educators of your children, we hope that you can choose the school you wish, without financial or other obstacles”, indicate the bishops, in the text published on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Portuguese Association of Catholic Schools (APEC), which is marks this Thursday.

The body of the Portuguese Episcopal Conference calls for the “promotion of freedom of education”, hoping that Catholic schools can be “open to everyone, giving priority to the most fragile”.

The document, sent to the ECCLESIA Agency, evokes “all the students who grew (and grow) in wisdom, stature and grace within a Catholic School” and the parents who believed “in an education that is based on evangelical values”.

Those responsible underline the importance of “collaboration with families in the construction of the education project” and the role of the institutions that make up APEC for the educational system and the school network, “filling gaps and affirming a peculiar, irreplaceable brand that is so significantly sought after ”.

We congratulate ourselves on the good that APEC has done during this quarter of a century: as an ecclesiastical reality on the path of evangelization and in promoting the identity and mission of Catholic schools; in stimulating communion, sharing and cooperation, generating synergies”.

The note is addressed to those responsible for religious congregations, diocesan schools or private associations of faithful, sisters, brothers, priests, lay people, who, “overcoming difficulties of various kinds”, keep the doors of their schools “open to whoever wishes to enter”.

“Never give up, because the mission of your schools is fully part of the plans of the Church, as the ecclesiastical space that they are”, write the bishops.

The greeting extends to the “teaching and non-teaching educators” who bring the educational project of each institution to life, on a daily basis.

“We want to express our joy at feeling alive and with renewed enthusiasm a sector of the Church that we have always welcomed, with all our attention and with all our affection”, highlights the note.

It is essential for the Catholic School to live intensely its identity and mission and adapt it to a changing world, mostly secularized and with many challenges. And in this not always favorable scenario, be a response to the deepest desires of the human person, opening them to their vocation of transcendence”.

The Episcopal Commission for Christian Education and Doctrine of the Faith assumes the need to “find answers to challenging and pressing questions”, such as the decline in vocations and its impact on the continuity of educational projects, the “shortage of qualified collaborators identified with the faith Christian, the need for strong and stable leadership”.

“It is necessary to promote the harmonious articulation of all the educational actors of the Catholic School, in interaction with the ecclesiastical reality, but also with the surrounding social reality and – without forgetting the determining responsibility of the State, in matters of freedom and subsidiarity – the reality politics, in the construction of the ‘Global Educational Pact’ that Pope Francis has insistently told us about”, maintain the bishops.

APEC and the National Secretariat for Christian Education (SNEC) will promote the II National Congress of Catholic Schools in Fátima, on the 10th and 11th of October, as part of the association’s 25th anniversary.

According to a statement sent to the ECCLESIA Agency, the congress aims to “promote the identity and mission of the Catholic School”, “affirm the remarkable and irreplaceable role of the Catholic School in the Church and in Portuguese society” and “encourage debate in around the seven commitments to the Global Education Compact”.

PR/OC

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