Everyone can see, although at times only intuitively, that there is a necessary link between the transmission of human life and the responsibility to educate one’s offspring. As the Magisterium of the Church has often stressed, “parents are the principal and first educators of their children.”[2] The notion that parents could forget about the children they have brought into the world, or that their obligation extends only to their material needs, neglecting their children’s intellectual and moral formation, is something everyone rejects. Underlying this natural reaction is the clear understanding that the primary place for the growth and development of each person is in the family.
Divine revelation and the Church’s Magisterium have given us a deeper understanding of why parents are indeed the primary educators of their children. “Since God created man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man.”[3] In the divine plan, the family “is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father’s work of creation.”[4] The transmission of life is a mystery of the cooperation between parents and the Creator in bringing into existence a new human being, each of whom is God’s image and called to live as his child. The responsibility of educating is an integral part of this mystery. Therefore the Church has always taught that “by its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory.”[5] Being open to life belongs to the very essence of marriage; this entails not simply having children, but also the obligation to help them live a fully human life and come close to God.
The mystery of Redemption sheds light on the parents’ mission to provide education as God wants. Jesus Christ, who by his words and deeds “fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling,”[6] wanted to become incarnate and grow up within a family. Moreover, he raised marriage to the level of a sacrament, bringing it to its fullness in God’s plan of salvation. As in the Holy Family, parents are called to cooperate in God’s loving providence and guide those entrusted to their care to maturity, accompanying and fostering from infancy to adulthood their children’s growth in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.[7]
John Paul II summarized all this teaching when explaining the three characteristics of the parents’ right and duty to educate their children.[8]
- First, it is essential, since it is tied to the transmission of human life.
- It is original and primary with respect to the educational role of others, because the relationship of love between parents and children is unique and involves the core of the educational process.
- Finally, it is irreplaceable and inalienable: it should never be usurped nor can it be completely delegated to others.
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Aware of this reality, the Church has always taught that the educational role of parents “is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute.”[9]
Footnotes:
[1] Vatican Council II, Pastoral Const. Gaudium et spes, no. 24.
[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1653.
[3] Ibid., no. 1604.
[4] Ibid., no. 2205.
[5] Vatican Council II, Pastoral Const. Gaudium et spes, no. 48.
[6] Ibid., no. 22.
[7] Lk 2:52.
[8] Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhort. Familiaris consortio, November 22, 1981, no. 36.
[9]VaticanCouncil II, Declaration on Christian Education, October 28, 1965, no. 3.
