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Homeschooling

 

What is Catholic Home Schooling?

Catholic Homeschooling is home schooling that:

  • incorporates elements of the Faith in all subjects, especially where it is important (religion, philosophy, ethics, science, history, literature)

  • features elements of the Faith and supports Catholic social teaching at every opportunity

  • rigorously avoids errors of faith and fact and includes accurate, balanced versions of world events

  • rigorously avoids unbalanced attacks on the faith - even passive ones, like images or seemingly benign statements and positions - i.e. evolution, and separation of church and state.

It is imperative for Catholic education to feature the authentic teachings of the Church in a effective manner for children to survive their school years with their Faith intact.

"GIVE ME A CHILD FOR THE FIRST 5 YEARS OF HIS LIFE AND HE WILL BE MINE FOREVER." - Vladimir Lenin

Most school districts have banned religious education entirely from the classroom in adherence to the dictum of separation of Church and State insisting on there being no mention of God or religion. But do they really? We are told that our children are getting a values-free education because all cultures are  treated equally. However, we know that is a lie because the truth is that the traditional values of the West are condemned and liberal and secular humanist "religious values", or even paganism, are promoted in the classroom. (NOTE: Both Secular Humanism and Paqanism are registered as religions and have their own ceremonies and rites.)

It's not just the type of religious instruction that is the problem in protestant or secular schools. It's hard enough for well-trained Catholic teachers to pass on accurate information. It's impossible for someone who is not trained in the Faith or worse, antagonistic to the Catholic Church and its teachings. Many Catholic schools have been forced to hire protestants and other religions as part of affirmative action programs. Studies prove that only a small percentage of Catholic teachers in the system are even attending Mass regularly.

There is a strong bias in most textbooks and instructional material against the Catholic Church and Church teachings. This is most pronounced in subjects like History, Literature, Geography and Sciences but it may also be true in unexpected places such as Mathematics, Art and Music.

Some Protestant institutions actually teach things about the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church that are throwbacks to the time when "papists" were drawn and quartered. Even if you aren't Catholic, it should be hard for anyone to support an organization that teaches such a distorted point of view and borrows its approach to Catholics from the Orange Lodge.

Another problem with instructional material is omissions. Contributions by great Catholics are ignored, downplayed or distorted in all areas.

There are hundred of examples. Here's a test.

  1. Who is Fr. de Smet and for what is he famous?

  2. What is the largest basilica in the world dedicated to St. Joseph and who built it?

  3. A war in the last century was fought between foreign supported  revolutionary Marxist communists and mercenaries against Catholic nationalist forces of the current government. Who were the "good" guys and who were the "bad" guys?

  4. The Inquisition, the most bloody and unjust example of persecution in history, was committed by the Catholic Church to crush opposition by innocent people. Yes or no?

(answers below)

The irony is that even the revised material has undergone additional revisions to satisfy modern sensibilities and political correctness.

The point is that if you use secular resources, you will subject your children to revisionist (inaccurate) history and literature that is lacking in balance and truth – or even hostile – where Catholics and the Church are concerned.

A Catholic education is not inferior. There are lots of good resources that maintain the highest standard of education. You will have to be careful to select the appropriate resources.

That's where we can help.

"THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE SCHOOLROOM IN ONE GENERATION WILL BE THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOVERNANCE IN THE NEXT." - Abraham Lincoln

 

 

ANSWERS:

  1. Fr. de Smet was a Jesuit priest who explored as much of the American west as did Lewis and Clark (300,000 miles) and in his day, he was known throughout the world. He was also the only white man that the Indians trusted to keep his word when treaties were being negotiated. Fr. de Smet is currently buried in an unmarked grave, forgotten by history and unrecognized by the Church.

  2. The largest basilica in the world dedicated to St. Joseph is St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, Canada. It was built by donations of ordinary citizens and the efforts of the "doorman" – Brother André, a Canadian version of St. Padre Pio, who at one time, had people lined up by the hundreds to obtain miraculous cures through the use of "St. Joseph's Oil".

  3. This is a trick question because more than one conflict could be described in this way. However, in every case, the communists are characterized by the secular press and history books as the "good" guys - starting with the Russian Revolution and including the Spanish Civil War, Cuba, Mexico and several conflicts in the Balkans, South America and Africa. History books universally proclaim the righteousness of the people's struggle to free themselves from a despotic and corrupt regime. In every case where the country lost the battle, a result of the conflict was to suppress the Catholic Church, religious and the people's practice of the Catholic Faith. Even the laws of probability would allow that the Catholic side would be in the right at some time.

  4. No. The Inquisition was not nearly the bloodiest, was not initiated by the Catholic Church and was not unjust persecution. Wrong on all counts. The Spanish Inquisition (there was more than one) was initiated by the government to crack down on subversives (mostly Jews and Moors) who were terrorizing society and undermining the government of Spain (sound familiar?) After the defeat of the Moors, who had occupied Spain for hundreds of years, Queen Isabella issued a decree that all Moors and Jews were to convert or leave Spain.

Some of the problems were being caused by those inside the Church and beyond the authority and expertise of secular courts. Some were priests and nuns. Those who were charged were not tortured to become Catholics. They were frequently convicted because they had lied about being Catholic and were involved in subversive activities. All were given a chance to recant.

The Church was called in to administer the examination of individuals because it served as a sort of court, the same as a Senate Hearing would in our day. In all cases, due process of law, typical of the time, was served and serious crimes were proved. Very few were executed (4,000  in 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition and 6,000 in all 500 years, which includes all the Inquisitions). However, we simply cannot view events in medieval times with modern sensibilities. Torture was the accepted way of extracting a confession by all authorities in those days.

By contrast, tens of thousands were slaughtered during the French Revolution and the English Reformation. The mock trials that were held should be the ones remembered in history as the ultimate example of unjust persecutions. King Henry VIII killed 72,000 Catholics and his daughter "Good Queen Bess" killed more Catholics in one year than the Inquisition had in 330 years. Millions died in each of the Communist Revolutions around the world (Russia, China, Cuba etc.) There were ten times more witches (60,000) killed by Puritans than those killed by the Inquisition. Popular history is composed of many examples of this sort of hypocrisy where the Church is concerned. Here's a link to an article. http://biblia.com/christianity/spanish.htm

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Last modified: November 06, 2005