“DIVINI ILLIUS MAGISTRI”
Encyclical of Pius XI, dated 31 Dec. 1929 (AAS, 22 [1930], pp. 49–86), on the Christian education of youth. The subject is of paramount importance in both pedagogy and religion, and is treated masterfully in this document, which may be called the educators’ “magna charta.”
The encyclical addresses three questions:
1) To whom does education belong?
a) First and foremost to the Church, by positive divine right, since it is specifically invested by Jesus Christ with the mission of teaching and regenerating souls to supernatural life. As mother and teacher, the Church has educated peoples, often alone, reaping the finest fruits of morality and civilization.
b) It also belongs to the family, by natural right, derived directly from the act of generation; this right is inalienable, anterior to any right of the State, and therefore inviolable.
c) It belongs likewise to the State, by the authority it holds to provide for the temporal common good of the community. Hence the State must protect the educational rights of the Church and the family, supply any deficiencies of parents, remove public obstacles to sound education, and may reserve certain branches of instruction to itself; indeed it may supplement the work of family and Church where these fall short or are inadequate, through its own schools and institutions. Safeguarding these rights naturally requires the coordination of the three societies.
2) Who is the subject of education? It is man “in his entirety,” body and spirit, fallen through sin and redeemed by Christ. Education therefore cannot be merely natural; it must also be supernatural, taking grace and divine law into account.
3) What is the environment of education?
a) The family, with its watchful care and solicitude.
b) The Church, with its Sacraments and institutions.
c) The works of vigilance and preservation, especially necessary today.
4) What is the end of education? The formation not only of man but of the Christian; hence education must embrace the whole scope of human life, shaping upright and mature characters after the incomparable example of Jesus Christ.