Four Principles to Restore True Education

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, DD

Fulton John Sheen (born Peter John Sheen, May 8, 1895 – December 9, 1979) was an American bishop of the Catholic Church known for his preaching and especially his work on television and radio. Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919. Sheen quickly became a renowned theologian, earning the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy in 1923. He went on to teach theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of America as well as acting as a parish priest before being appointed auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York in 1951. He held this position until 1966 when he was made the Bishop of Rochester. He resigned in 1969[2] as his 75th birthday approached, and was made archbishop of the titular see of Newport, Wales. For 20 years as "Father Sheen", later monsignor, he hosted the night-time radio program The Catholic Hour on NBC (1930–1950) before moving to television and presenting Life Is Worth Living (1952–1957). Sheen's final presenting role was on the syndicated The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968) with a format very similar to that of the earlier Life is Worth Living show. For this work, Sheen twice won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, and was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Starting in 2009, his shows were being re-broadcast on the EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network's Church Channel cable networks. Due to his contribution to televised preaching, Sheen is often referred to as one of the first televangelists.

Modern education is at a crossroads. Will we form souls for truth—or citizens for the State? Here are four timeless principles to guide the renewal of Catholic and classical education today, written by the great Venerable Fulton Sheen.

1. Educate the Whole Man

First, educate the whole man, not the part man. The whole man is not only economic, nor political, nor sexual, but is moral.

Because he is moral, he is economic, political, and social, and not vice versa. The education of the whole man entails education on three levels: man must be informed about what takes place on the sub-human level, and thus become acquainted with the Natural Sciences; he must become acquainted with what takes place on the Human Level, and hence know the Humanities and Metaphysics.

Finally he must become acquainted with what takes place on the supra-human level, and hence be taught something about God and the moral law and his eternal destiny.

2. Defend the Family’s Right to Educate

Secondly, as a basic principle of the rights of education, the family, because instituted by God, has a priority of nature and therefore of right over civil society. Existence does not come from the State, hence the parents’ rights of education is anterior to a right of civil power and the State. The State derives its power to educate from the family; the State does not give it to the family.

3. Place Education in the Hands of the Church

Third, restore education back again to the Churches and to religion. We are at present in an era of transition in education, and coming into an era wherein education will belong to the family which insists on religion, or to the State which will exclude it. No one wants education to be the unique and fundamental right of the State because such is the essence of Nazism.

As H. M. Tomlinson put it in his All Our Yesterdays, “My church is down (I hear him saying), my God has been deposed again. There is another God now the State, the State Almighty. I tell you that God will be worse than Moloch. You had better keep that in mind. It has no vision: it has only expediency. It has no morality, only power. And it will have no arts for it will punish the free spirit with death. It will allow no freedom, only uniformity. Its altar will be the ballot-box, and that will be a lie. Right before us is its pillar of fire. It has a heart of gun metal and its belly is full of wheels. You will have to face the brute, you will have to face it. It is nothing but your worst, nothing but the worst of us, lifted up. The children are being fed to it.”

4. Uphold True Freedom

Fourth, in a country such as this where there are different religious beliefs, it is the duty of the State to leave free scope to the initiative of the Church and the family while giving them such assistance as justice demands. As we stated before, the pagan element alone in our population is given the benefit of tax money.

As Nicholas Murray Butler said: “Even the formal prayer which opens each session of the United States Senate and each session of the House of Representatives, and which accompanies the inauguration of each president of the United States, would not be permitted in a tax-supported school.”

Conclusion

Just how the principle of freedom and equality of all citizens is to be worked out is the business of the State. But the suggestion of the principle is sound Americanism, as President Hutchins has so well said: “The States may, if they choose, assist pupils to attend the schools of their choice. Since we want all American children to get as good an education as they can, since we know that some children will not voluntarily attend public schools, and since we are not prepared to compel them to do so, it is in the public interest to give permission to use Federal grants to help them to go to the schools they will attend and to make these schools as good as possible.”

We are at the crossroads of our national history. In the field of education we will either believe or we will obey. He who will not believe in Truth must submit to Power. Which will it be? Will we retain a set of beliefs in which we are all agreed, and on which we were all agreed when this country was founded, or, scrapping all beliefs, will we obey the State which will determine what these beliefs shall be and thus extinguish all freedom?

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This article is taken from a chapter in Philosophies at War by Venerable Fulton Sheen which is available from TAN Books.