This is the third in a series of articles, rooted in the teaching of Divini Illius Magistri, which seeks to assist parents in preparing their children to live as mature Christians in dangerous times. This series began on 18 January 2023 with The goal of education: A timeless message for parents from the Lion of Münster.
As noted in the last article, Archbishop von Galen wrote to various government officials, and even to Hitler himself, warning them of the danger that forcing a pagan ideology on young people represented to the German state. His top priority, however, in line with the teaching of Divini Illius Magistri, was the salvation of souls.
“Christian parents, you must keep an eye on all these things, or else you will be neglecting your most sacred duty; you will not be able to be justified before your conscience and before Him who entrusted those children to you so that you would show them the way to heaven!”1
According to Pope Pius XI, Christian education has two aims which are inextricably linked:
“ … the work of Christian education … aims at securing the Supreme Good — that is, God — for the souls of those being educated, and the maximum of wellbeing possible here below for human society …”2
Later in his encyclical, Pope Pius XI goes on to lay down, solemnly, the Christian law for those engaged in education:
“ …every Christian child or youth has a strict right to instruction in harmony with the teaching of the Church, the pillar and ground of truth. And whoever disturbs the pupil’s Faith in any way, does him grave wrong, inasmuch as he abuses the trust which children place in their teachers, and takes unfair advantage of their inexperience and of their natural craving for unrestrained liberty, at once illusory and false.”3
It is in this context that the current spiritual onslaught of gender ideology on little children and young people must, above all, be considered, including the curriculum and reading materials used in St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, Warrington (cf. part one of this series).
In light of the calamitous situation within Catholic institutions, those with responsibility for the Christian education of children — in particular parents — have a fearsome task. It is essential for them recall Pope Pius X’s stark reminder to the Catholic faithful of the eternal consequences of failing to teach Catholic doctrine:
“Our Predecessor, Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: ‘We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment suffer that everlasting calamity due to ignorance of those mysteries of Faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.”4
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