[Updated 10 Sept. 2026, after rereading Divini Illius Magistri, which I highly recommend.]
In our age of increasing state regulation and cultural confusion, it is necessary to reaffirm the divinely appointed order of education and the proper roles of the family, the Church, and the state. According to natural law, parents are the primary educators of their children. But because Christ gave authority to His Church to teach all nations and baptize them (Mtt 28:18-20) ordering the human soul to its supernatural end, the primacy of education belongs to the Church, because only the Church is a perfect society that can teach without error. Both the family and the state have roles to play in the education of the young, but these roles are subordinate to and can never usurp the primacy of Holy Mother Church (Divini Illius Magistri par. 13-20).
Education, rightly understood, is not merely about academic achievement or professional advancement. It is the formation of the whole person: emotionally, intellectually, physically, and most importantly, spiritually. Education is ordered to man's final end, which is union with God. As St. Thomas Aquinas affirms, the perfection of man consists in the acquisition of virtue and the knowledge of divine things. Thus, any system of education that neglects moral and spiritual formation is incomplete and ultimately harmful.
The Catholic family is the first school of virtue. St. John Chrysostom urged Christian parents to take up this task seriously: "You should rear them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Homily on Ephesians 6:4) The Church Fathers recognized that it is in the home where the child first learns love, justice, obedience, prayer, and sacrifice. St. Augustine taught that the family was the building block of the "City of God," and the first place where the soul is formed for eternal life.
St. Thomas Aquinas echoes this teaching. In the Summa Theologiae (II-II, q.10, a.12), he explains that it is according to natural justice that children remain under the authority of their parents until they have the use of reason. Parents have a grave duty to form their children in virtue, truth, and faith. To remove a child from this authority without just cause is to act against the order of nature.
But the Catholic family is always subordinate to the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. Parents do not have authority to make up their own religion or decide what to believe or not believe. Error has no rights. Parental authority is given by God through the Church for the formation of children.
The Church has the right and duty to ensure that baptized Catholic children are catechized and have access to the sacraments. The Church has the responsibility to ensure her children are prepared for the reception of confession, worthy communion, marriage, and holy orders. And since this task is impossible without the cooperation of parents, the mission of education has always belonged both to parents and the Church, working in harmony.
Since young children, especially, are formed first by their parents, the Church entrusts this mission to parents and ought to provide supplemental education for parents who are in ignorance of the Church’s teachings on parenting and education. As children get older, parishes ought to provide parish catechesis and a Catholic school for parents unequipped or unwilling to homeschool.
The state, likewise, has a legitimate interest in the moral and civic education of its citizens. Aquinas teaches that human law should lead men gradually toward virtue (I-II, q.95, a.1). A good state will therefore promote education that fosters civic virtues such as justice, honesty, respect for life, and stewardship of property. It may also provide vocational and practical training. But all of this must respect the principle of subsidiarity: that which can be done by the smaller unit (in this case, the family and the Church) should not be taken over by the larger.
This principle is strongly affirmed in the Church's magisterium. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Divini Illius Magistri (1929), teaches that the right and duty of parents, together with the Church, to educate their children, is inalienable and therefore incapable of being usurped by the State. Non-sectarian state education, then, is only justified as a supplement to parental education and Catholic education, never as a replacement.
The mere fact that a school gives some religious instruction (often extremely stinted), does not bring it into accord with the rights of the Church and of the Christian family, or make it a fit place for Catholic students. To be this, it is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organization of the school, and its teachers, syllabus and text-books in every branch, be regulated by the Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church; so that Religion may be in very truth the foundation and crown of the youth's entire training; and this in every grade of school, not only the elementary, but the intermediate and the higher institutions of learning as well (Divini Illius Magistri, par. 80).
When parents choose to utilize Church or state educational institutions, they are delegating certain tasks while maintaining oversight and responsibility, together with the Church, for the whole formation of the child, in accordance with reason and divine law.
The procreative end of marriage is not primarily oriented toward the conception of children so much as it is oriented to the education and upbringing of children.
In cases of gross neglect or abuse, both the Church and the state may intervene to protect the child. However, such intervention must always be exceptional and carried out in a manner that respects the family’s dignity and natural rights. Aquinas allows for such intervention only when there is grave danger to the child's moral or physical well-being.
Importantly, the state has no authority to suppress the Church’s mission in education or to restrict the sacraments. As St. Augustine articulated in City of God, the spiritual authority of the Church is higher than the temporal power of the state. Aquinas supports this order, teaching that divine law and the guidance of the Church surpass civil law in authority and dignity.
Thus, a healthy society is one in which the family is respected as the first school of virtue under the direction of Holy Mother Church. The Church is aided in her mission to teach faith and morals by parents who are well formed in their faith; but where parents are not well formed, parents have a right to demand of the state and the Church access to Catholic education.
The state’s role is to encourage virtue and civic order without overreaching the educational rights of the family and the Church. When these roles are rightly ordered and work in harmony, the child is nurtured in truth and love and prepared to live as a faithful Christian, who make the best and most responsible citizens.
The path forward in our confused age is not to reinvent education, but to restore it to its proper place: rooted in the home and the Church, and supported—not supplanted—by the state. Only in this way can we hope to raise up a generation formed in wisdom and holiness, capable of rebuilding a truly Christian society.