School in Mission Territory

SCHOOL IN MISSION TERRITORY. - The school problem was of greater importance in the modern period of the missions, but certainly not to the extent it deserved.

The pontifical bulls, which contain the numerous privileges of the Spanish and Portuguese Patronate, do not have even a word about schools, which, however, in many villages of America and the Philippines were opened almost out of necessity, solely for the teaching of Christian doctrine. The teaching of letters and sciences was reserved to some college and to the seminaries. This mentality, so narrow, did not prevent the Jesuits from opening, in the reductions of Paraguay, some schools of arts and crafts. In the territories outside Spanish and Portuguese sovereignty the situation was no different, although the many instructions given by Propaganda to the apostolic vicars had always insisted on the necessity of erecting in every parish, and especially in the more important villages, a school for the teaching of the truths of the faith, of grammar and of the liberal arts. The Ordinaries, however, were too concerned with the formation of the native clergy and took an interest in teaching only insofar as it could be a preparation for the seminary. Moreover the fear of being innovators with respect to the majority of the missionaries, the deficiency of personnel, especially teaching personnel, the scarcity of financial means, did not permit even the most willing to give a greater development to the schools. One can therefore conclude that until the beginning of the 19th century the organization of primary instruction, more or less generalized, with the complement of secondary and higher instruction, had in the missions a very unimportant part.

With the missionary revival in the last century the school problem began to have its importance, and everywhere numerous schools were opened through the work of the old institutes and especially of the new ones, male and female, founded for this purpose. Today the schools in the missions present a great variety because of the many factors that influence their organization. In the countries where a precise school system has been established by the government, as, for example, in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and a few others, the Catholic schools must follow its norms; in the other regions the conditions of the environment, the needs and the character of the peoples advise the missionaries to give the school that direction held to be most suited to the purpose.

Numerous are the difficulties and obstacles that prevent a greater development of schools in the missions. The lack of adequate means often places such schools in a condition of inferiority with respect to government and Protestant schools. Moreover the recruitment of qualified personnel, notwithstanding the contribution of the institutes, of the brothers and of the sisters, is not sufficient to satisfy the numerous requests coming from the mission territories.

According to the statistical data published by the Missioni cattoliche (Rome 1950, pp. 484-91), at the end of 1949 the school organization in the territories dependent on the S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide was the following: eluded the laws against illiteracy or concerning the so-called school age. But even with respect to schools organized collectively by private initiative the State must respect freedom in the use of methods, of schedules, of programs different from those in force in State schools, when the common norms of hygiene and morality are observed. It is not reasonable to impose a complete uniformity on the State school, as if this were a single model of perfection. Even when in fact it proceeds in so satisfactory a manner as to acquire for itself a high credit, there remains intact the demand of the human spirit to be left free in the manner of developing its various faculties, among which is also that of educating. Free schools have, if nothing else, the function of constituting attempts and trials of new methods and educational means which the State school too may benefit from, if it does not wish to crystallize in a presumption of unattainable superiority. Therefore the custom that has become established, whereby the State recognizes and approves non-State schools only if they conform in everything to what is practiced in the State school (the present pareggiate or parificate schools), is not to be approved. It is true that in this way it is easier for the State to exercise its control; but not always is what is easier more useful and more just. The criterion for evaluating a school should be its overall result, that is its real performance in the formation of the pupils. This is what counts; and when this is achieved it remains indifferent whether the teachers are endowed with more or less select qualifications, whether the schedules and methods are these or those. On such a realistic (and quite reasonable) consideration is based the principle of parity between the State and non-State school, recognized by the Italian Constitution.

Art. 33: 'Art and science are free and teaching is free. The Republic lays down the general norms on instruction and establishes State schools for all orders and grades.

Bodies and private individuals have the right to establish schools and insti-

SCHOOLS

The ecclesiastical regime of schools in the missions presents some notable particularities. Their purpose is not only to educate the children of Christian families, but to contribute, in a direct and indirect way, to the conversion of the infidels, accepting also pagan youths in accordance with precise instructions on the matter. Since, therefore, the purpose of Catholic teaching is merged with the very purpose of the apostolate, can. 296 § 1 gives the Ordinaries of the mission a full power over the direction of the schools, save for the privileges of exemption granted to some missionary institute.

Saverio Paventi