Youth and Catholic Education

CEAP is embarking on highlighting the Youth Sector in our 2013 National Convention in Cebu City in September with a National Bidahan Youth Camp. The theme of the National Convention is Set forth in Faith (Mission: Youth). CEAP has two milestone events for the youth this year which excite us the NFCYS 2013 and the National Bidahan Youth Camp.

February 2012 Archbishop Villegas called for a meeting with CEAP and other key groups convening the Office for the Promotion of New Evangelization (OPNE).

The task of the OPNE will be to focus on 4 Pillars of New Evangelization:

1.bringing Good News to the poor 2.reaching out to those who have drifted from the faith and the church 3.missio ad gentes 4.animating the Youth c/o CEAP

February 2012- First meeting of the Youth Group of OPNE to plan March 2012 - CBCP-ECY was invited to join OPNE Youth group December 2012 - CEAP and CBCP ECY conceived the plan to update the 2002 NFCYS

Pre-Convention Activity Catholic Youth Survey 2013 - to be conducted with CBCP-ECY and research offices of member-schools

Day 1: 2013 National Convention

1. Opening Eucharistic Celebration (Presider: Most Rev. Jose S. Palma, D.D. - Archbishop of Cebu)

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3. 4.

Opening Ceremonies
Input: Presentation of the Results of the Catholic Youth Survey Panel Discussion with Youth representatives

The Filipino youth today is one of the most complex demographics in our society.

Many of them are from families that are severely affected by economic realities and the phenomenon of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
More than 10 million Filipinos are abroad, mostly migrant workers, leaving behind their children.

The children of OFWs are mainly from the middle-class who can afford to send them to good schools; most of these types are enrolled in our Catholic schools. These children together, with other young Filipinos, are spending more time online and are gadget-savvy.

They are the young people the Church wants to reach out to and to form into productive citizens and faithful members of the Christian community.

The Catholic schools are very few relative to the other educational institutions (public schools and other non-sectarian institutions).

A growing phenomenon nationwide is the presence of non-catholic fundamentalist private-educational institutions belonging to the numerous born-again sects.

Another segment of the Catholic youth from those who are poor and without any formal catechetical training and yet still connected to the general Catholic population by a thin thread of parochial community tradition and parishbased youth work.

Many Catholic youth are becoming not only alienated but hostile towards the Catholic community.

The Catholic Church and Education

The history of Catholic education has been strongly intertwined with the history of the Church itself. Any commitment to Catholic education has its origin in the command of Our Lord Jesus Christ that the Good News should be preached to everyone: And he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation (Mk 16:15).

Evangelization and Human Development

The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education released a document entitled, The Catholic School (Rome, 1977) which outlined the aim of evangelization:

1. to bring people into contact with the person of Jesus Christ 2. to spread the gospel message 3. to promote an active faith.

Catholic education clearly aims to develop the whole person and to produce better human beings.

The origin of our present university system

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 4th Century, all formal intellectual pursuits were abandoned. In the Catholic Church, the bishops and priests were able to preserve some semblance of education.

The monks started to preserve books from the ancient Greek and Roman learning centers. Within the confines of monasteries in the 7th Century especially the communities founded by St. Benedict, education among the monks and children of the local gentry and lords was heading towards formalization.

Then Charlemagne made a magnificent effort to revive learning.

In the 11th Century, a great revival and intellectual awakening happened and the monasteries and cathedral schools were replaced by the universities growing from them. In Northern Europe and Italy, vital centers of learning were established mostly by learned churchmen. The most successful was Thomas Aquinas, whose synthesis of Aristotle and the Gospel in his Summa Theologica represents the summit of Christendoms intellectual achievement.

As the Church evolves, it has seen itself responding to the innate rights of the human person. The Second Vatican Council Declaration on Christian Education: Gravissimum Educationis (GE) released in 1965 emphasized that education is universal and inherent. The Philippine Church through the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) released their reflection on Catholic Education on June 05, 1965. The first CBCP document that tackled Catholic Education was the Joint Pastoral Letter on Catholic Education released by the CBCP on June 6, 1965.

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Christian Education is defined as, integral education, for it takes cognizance of the whole man -- all his powers, all his needs, all his strivings. It seeks to develop the physical, mental and moral faculties of the child in such a harmonious way that he may be prepared not only for the pursuit of happiness in this life, but especially for external happiness in the life to come. It trains man's intellect in right habits of thought and enriches it with the truths about God and man that are our cultural and religious heritage. It directs the will by holding before it worthy ideals and powerful, lasting motives for right human conduct. It disciplines man's emotional powers by subjecting them to a will motivated by Christian principles and by forming them in habits of appreciation for what is the truly good and the truly beautiful.

Ex Corde Ecclesiea

Christian Education is not

self-seeking. It is not given for the purpose of gaining power but as an aid towards a fuller understanding of, and communion with man, events and things. Knowledge is not to be considered as a means of material prosperity and success, but as a call to serve and to be responsible for others.

The Contribution of Catholic Education 1.The Philippine Educational System benefited from the foundations laid by the Catholic schools establishing formal education in the Philippines. 2.The Catholic schools nationwide generally provide quality education and are better managed, have better facilities and train personnel mostly unaided by the government. 3.The Catholic school nationwide encouraged advanced studies and researches, thereby contributing to the advancement of society. 4.Furthermore, a number of these schools are not exclusive to Catholics, but serve peoples of other faiths; others are dedicated to out of school youths, to the handicapped, to cultural minorities, and those in the periphery. 5.Catholic schools assist the government in providing education to the rest of the citizens who opt for Catholic education as well as those who cannot be accommodated in public schools.

Will

the government be able to absorb all the students and provide the same quality education as many of these Catholic schools provide given the present circumstances in public schools?

The Cultural Gap

We and the young are faced with the digital age, information explosion, relativism, consumerism, and destructive exaltation or profanation of the body and of sexuality and all their implications. We are constantly barraged by varying and contradicting views of progress. These may eventually lead to fragmentation and dissipation of the spirit of the young. Such fragmentation, will consequently lead to the weakening of the soul of a nation.

In a study on the Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality conducted in 2002, it was revealed that though 95 per cent of young adults have heard of HIV and AIDS, 73% believe they are immune to the virus. With 23 % of Filipino youth engaging in premarital sex, young Filipinos have a higher chance of acquiring the disease in their sexual encounters which are becoming more casual.

Catholic Education, faithful to the social teaching of the Church, will continue to strive towards total human development.

Catholic Universities has produced almost 90% of our leaders and who mostly profess the Catholic faith. It is essential to redefine the meaning of a catholic institution to understand how to convey to the young the objectives of the Catholic academic community. A Catholic school is not a school in which students are segregated; not a school that is staffed by Catholic teachers; not a school in which religion is taught for two hours a week, Basically, a Catholic school is one in which God, his truth, his life are integrated into the entire syllabus, curriculum and life of the school. Abp. Philip Pocock, Ontorio, Canada

1.

we must renew our attention and zeal toward the reawakening, fuller formation and animation of young people and youth groups, in both urban and rural settings.

2. Year 2013: Integral Faith Formation. Faith Formation has one objective: a more intimate relationship between Jesus and his followers. 3. Year 2019: Youth. New methods, new expressions and new fervor of evangelization are imperative.

Evangelization is transforming the heart of man to lead him to be attuned to the voice of God within.
Our academic communities are in the best position to reach out to the youth because we train them to become leaders, good citizens and Christians.

We can take inspiration from the statement of Jesus about himself and his life; he defined himself by service to others, The Son of Man, he says, came to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk:10: 45).

THANK YOU.