Sunday School

DOMENICALE, SCUOLA. — According to G. Everette’s definition, “the S. d. is the school of the Church of Christ, gathered together on Sunday, in which the word of God is taught to everyone, adults and children alike.”

I. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

Arising from the initiative of Robert Raikes (1735–1811), who in 1780 in Gloucester began gathering street children every Sunday to teach them to read and write, using the Bible as their textbook, the Sunday school rapidly spread throughout England. Five years later, the first Sunday-school society was established, with Raikes himself as its president; by 1811 it had 100,000 members. In the United States, the institution was welcomed as an excellent means of supplementing the non-denominational instruction provided by government schools, and it was extended to young people and adults as well. The Sunday schools were subsequently supported by special national and international organizations. On the occasion of the First World Sunday School Congress, held in London in 1889, the “World Sunday School Association” (W. S. S. A.: World Sunday School Association) was founded with the aim of coordinating individual activities, studying proposals for improvements, preventing obstacles, determining the venue of the four-year congresses, etc. In 1907 the Fifth Congress met in Rome. In 1932 there were 361,145 schools with 36,000,829 pupils (in Italy, 350 schools with 10,000 pupils).

II. OPERATION

Those enrolled (from 5 to 20 years of age and older) are divided into 8 sections: infant, preparatory, primary, junior, intermediate, senior, youth, and adult. Before or after Sunday worship, a chapter of the Bible is explained, and the memorized recitation of certain previously assigned verses is required; some supplementary study of exegesis or catechism is added, and, after hymns and prayers, the session concludes with the apostolic blessing (sic) or with the Gloria. The programs are chiefly standardized according to the system of graded lessons: each section has lessons different from those of the preceding section, but the lessons in each section concern the same subject. Officials of the S. d. are: the pastor, who supervises the pupils’ progress; the superintendent, who oversees the administration and the selection of texts and of the teaching and auxiliary staff; and the teacher, who provides instruction and is chosen from among the best teachers in the public schools or trained in special institutes.

The S. d., harmful in Catholic countries, where they spread among pupils from Catholic families prejudices against the Church of Rome, contribute in Protestant countries and in the missions to the propagation of certain truths of Christianity, unfortunately mixed with the errors of the various sects.