In Catholic doctrine, parents are the first and principal educators of their children: it is neither the State, nor the school, nor even the Church that holds the primary right to educate, but the father and mother.[1][2] This right is not a concession that society would grant them out of benevolence: it is "original and primordial", rooted in the very gift of life, and it carries with it a duty as grave as itself.[3] Schools, the State and institutions come only afterwards, to assist, extend and support this mission — never to confiscate it.
From this principle follows a concrete and fundamental right: that of choosing the school that matches the family's convictions.[4][5] And from this right follows a duty for the public authorities: not to impose a single school system, but to guarantee a real freedom, including by distributing aid equitably so that this freedom is not reserved for wealthy families.[6][7]
This article treats the school question as an application of the Church's social doctrine: the foundation of parents' educational right, the order of the three educating societies, the right to choose the school and its guarantees, the duties that balance this right, the major contemporary objections (school monopoly, neutrality, affective education, homeschooling) and the exact place of the State. Related notions — subsidiarity, the family as the basic cell of society, religious freedom, freedom of conscience and the dignity of the human person — are left to their own articles.
The principle: parents, the first educators
The reference formula
The densest formulation is that of the Second Vatican Council, in the declaration Gravissimum educationis (1965) on Christian education. It connects the educational right to its origin — the transmission of life:
"Since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators." — Second Vatican Council, Gravissimum educationis, 3[8]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church takes up and synthesizes this doctrine. It first attaches education to the very fruitfulness of marriage:
"The fruitfulness of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation." — Catechism, § 2221[9]
Then it states the principle of primary responsibility:
"Parents are the first ones responsible for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule." — Catechism, § 2223[10]
Giving life is therefore not merely a biological act: it is the beginning of a mission that spans the whole of childhood and adolescence. The home is the first school — the one where, before any subject, one learns to love, to forgive and to serve.[11][12]
A right-duty: essential, original, inalienable
Catholic doctrine never separates the right to educate from the duty to educate: they are one and the same right-duty. Saint John Paul II, in Familiaris consortio (1981), gives its most precise and most quoted formulation:
"The right and duty of parents to educate are essential, since they are connected with the transmission of human life; they are original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of the loving relationship between parents and children; they are irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others." — John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, 36[13]
Every word carries weight. Essential: it belongs to the very nature of fatherhood and motherhood, not to a social function. Original and primary: it comes before every other educational right, because no educator has with the child the unique bond of love that parents have. Irreplaceable and inalienable: parents may entrust part of the task to teachers, but they can neither resign from it entirely nor let it be taken from them.[14][15]
The educational right is therefore not a property that parents would exercise for themselves: it is a charge received, ordered to the good of the child, which they can neither sell nor abandon. This is what radically distinguishes Catholic doctrine from a mere "property right" of parents over the child: the right exists because of the duty, and for the good of the one being educated.[16]
The foundation: the family precedes the State
Why would this right be primary? Because the family itself is prior to the State. This is the founding intuition of the whole of social doctrine, stated by Leo XIII in Rerum novarum (1891):
"The family, the society of the household, a society very small indeed, but a true one, and prior to every kind of State or nation, has rights and duties of its own, altogether independent of the State." — Leo XIII, Rerum novarum, 13[17]
If the family precedes the State, its own rights do not come from the State and therefore cannot be taken away by it. "Paternal authority can be neither abolished nor absorbed by the State," writes Leo XIII, "for it has the same source as human life itself."[18]
Pius XI radicalizes the argument in Divini illius Magistri (1929) with implacable logic: the child enters civil society only through the family, never directly.
"Before being a citizen, man must exist; and this existence he does not receive from the State, but from his parents." — Pius XI, Divini illius Magistri[19]
"The family therefore receives directly from the Creator the mission and consequently the right to educate the child, a right inalienable because inseparably joined to the strict correlative duty, a right prior to any right whatever of civil society and of the State." — Pius XI, Divini illius Magistri[20] This anthropological foundation governs everything else: since the child receives existence from his parents and not from the State, education — which is only the extension of generation toward human maturity — belongs first to those who gave life.[21][22] Saint Thomas Aquinas had put it in a single phrase: the father is "the principle of generation, of education, of discipline, and of everything related to the perfection of human life".[23] On this basis rests the direct link with the principle of subsidiarity: what the family can do, the higher society must not take away from it.
The three educating societies
Education, for Pius XI, does not belong to a single authority but to three necessary societies, willed by God, distinct and yet harmoniously ordered: the family, the Church and the State (civil society).[24] The modern error, in all its forms, consists in absolutizing one at the expense of the others — most often the State. Catholic doctrine articulates them according to a precise order.
| Society | Title of its right | Proper role | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family | Natural, first, inalienable (transmission of life) | Educating the child for human life and for faith | Ordered to the good of the child, open to outside help |
| Church | Supernatural, "in a singular capacity" (mission received from Christ) | Forming for the fullness of Christian life | Respects the natural right of parents and the city |
| State | Subsidiary (at the service of the common good) | Protecting, supporting, guaranteeing, supplying | Can neither monopolize nor substitute itself for parents |
The family: the first and natural right
The family holds the first right because it is natural. It depends on no positive recognition: it is inscribed in the order of creation.[25][26] The education owed by parents is integral: it aims at every dimension of the person. The Code of Canon Law states its end:
"True education must aim at the integral formation of the human person, which has in view their ultimate end as well as the common good of society." — Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 795[27]
The child must be able to develop "harmoniously his physical, moral and intellectual gifts", acquire "a more perfect sense of responsibility and a right use of freedom", and become capable of "actively participating in social life".[28] An education that would form only technical intelligence, leaving moral conscience and spiritual life uncultivated, would not be, in the Catholic sense, a true education.
The Church: a singular title
The Church also claims a right to educate — but of a different order than that of parents and of the State. Its title is supernatural: it comes from the mission received from Christ to teach all nations.
"In a singular capacity, the duty and right of education belong to the Church, to whom God has entrusted the mission of helping men to be able to attain the fullness of the Christian life." — Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 794, § 1[29]
This right does not compete with that of parents: it serves it. Catholic parents baptize their children and undertake to raise them in the faith; the Church helps them through catechesis, the sacraments, and Catholic schools. The right of the Church and the right of parents converge toward the same end: leading the child to God.[30][31] This is why canon 798 asks Catholic parents to entrust their children, as far as possible, to schools that provide a Catholic education, or, failing that, to provide for it themselves outside school.[32]
The State: a subsidiary role, not a monopoly
There remains the State. Its right exists — it is not null — but it is of quite a different nature: it is subsidiary, that is, at the service of the families' primary right and of the common good. Pius XI formulates it unambiguously:
"It is the right, or better the duty, of the State to protect by its laws the prior right, defined above, which the family has over the Christian education of the child, and consequently also to respect the supernatural right of the Church over that same education." — Pius XI, Divini illius Magistri[33]
The State protects, supports, and, in case of failure, supplies — but it never substitutes itself for parents as a matter of principle. The declaration Gravissimum educationis specifies this supplementary function according to the exact logic of subsidiarity:
"According to the principle of subsidiarity, in case of failure on the part of parents or in the absence of initiatives by other groupings, it is for civil society, while taking into account the wishes of parents, to provide education." — Second Vatican Council, Gravissimum educationis, 6[34]
"In case of failure", "taking into account the wishes of parents": the State does not educate in place of families as if it held the primary title; it comes as reinforcement where they are lacking or request its help. That is exactly the meaning of subsidium: the higher authority is a reserve of assistance, never an occupying force.[35][36]
The right to choose the school
From this principle — parents as first educators — follows a decisive practical consequence: parents have the right to choose their children's school. It is undoubtedly the most concrete and most debated application of the whole doctrine.
A true freedom
The Catechism states this right as fundamental:
"As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose for them a school which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental." — Catechism, § 2229[37]
The Code of Canon Law speaks of a true freedom — not a nominal freedom, but a real one:
"Parents must enjoy true freedom in the choice of schools; that is why the faithful must see to it that civil society recognizes this freedom for parents and, observing distributive justice, guarantees it even by subsidies." — Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 797[38]
Gravissimum educationis had laid down the rule as early as 1965: "The first and inalienable right and duty of educating their children belongs to parents. They must therefore enjoy true freedom in the choice of school."[39]
A real freedom, not merely formal: distributive justice
Affirming the right is not enough: it must still be exercisable. A freedom to choose the school that remained theoretical — reserved in practice only to families rich enough to pay twice (taxes and tuition fees) — would be a betrayed freedom. That is why the doctrine insists on distributive justice: the fair distribution of public aid.
"Public authorities, whose role is to protect and defend the freedoms of citizens, must see to distributive justice by distributing public funds in such a way that parents can enjoy genuine freedom in choosing their children's school according to their conscience." — Second Vatican Council, Gravissimum educationis, 6[40]
The Charter of the Rights of the Family (Holy See, 1983) draws the clearest consequence, explicitly targeting unjust burdens:
"Parents have the right to choose freely the schools or other means necessary to educate their children according to their convictions. Public authorities must ensure that public subsidies are distributed in such a way that parents are truly free to exercise this right, without having to bear unfair additional burdens." — Charter of the Rights of the Family, art. 5 b[41]
The idea is not that the State must finance anything whatsoever, but that it must not penalize financially the family that chooses a school consistent with its conscience. The criterion is justice, not favour: public money serves the education of children, whatever recognized establishment provides it.[42][43]
Recognition beyond the Church: international law
Notably, this Catholic right has been recognized, in its formulation, by international law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), in its article 26, proclaims it:
"Parents have, by priority, the right to choose the kind of education to be given to their children." — Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), art. 26, § 3[44] The words "by priority" (in English: "a prior right") say it all: when it comes to the education of the child, parents come before the State. Catholic doctrine and the law of nations converge here on a central point, even if the Church gives it its deepest foundation — the nature of the family and the dignity of the person — where international texts often merely state it as a legal fact.[45][46]
A right balanced by duties
The educational right of parents is neither absolute, nor arbitrary, nor a power of mere convenience. It is ordered to the good of the child and comes with precise duties. That is what distinguishes it from a whim or a property right.
The right is not a whim: it exists for the good of the child
The right of parents exists because the child needs to be educated, and so that he may be educated well. It therefore does not cover the right to educate badly, to neglect, or to deprive the child of what is due to him. The Catechism recalls that the education of children is a requirement of the natural law; parents are answerable for it.[47][48] Where parents seriously fail — abandonment, abuse, deprivation of schooling — the good of the child and the common good justify the intervention of civil society, precisely under its subsidiary function of substitution.[49]
Collaborating with the school, without offloading onto it
Entrusting the child to teachers does not extinguish the right-duty of parents: it extends it. Parents delegate part of the task, but they remain the primary persons responsible and must collaborate closely with the school.[50][51] John Paul II stressed this: the family is not alone, but it remains first:
"The family is the first educational community, but not the only one: the communitarian, civil and ecclesial dimension of man demands and leads to a broader and more structured work." — John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, 40[52]
The school, says the Code, is the "principal help" of parents in their task as educators; far from sidelining them, it presupposes their active cooperation.[53] The symmetrical trap exists: parents who would offload everything onto the institution, expecting it to provide moral and spiritual education in their place, would betray their right just as much as the State that would confiscate it.[54][55]
The duty of an education in the faith
For Christian parents, the right to choose education comes with the duty to transmit the faith. The Catechism places this transmission at the very heart of the parental mission: the home is the place where the child has his first experience of God, prayer and charity.[56] The Council asks pastors and the faithful to obtain, as far as possible, that civil laws secure the religious and moral education of young people in accordance with the conscience of parents:
"The faithful shall strive to ensure that, in civil society, the laws which govern the formation of young people secure, in the schools themselves, their religious and moral education in accordance with the conscience of the parents." — Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 799[57]
Contemporary questions
The doctrine is not abstract: it sheds light on burning debates about today's schools. Four questions keep coming back.
The school monopoly: a condemned injustice
The Church has explicitly condemned the State school monopoly, that is, the obligation imposed on families to send their children only to public schools, against their conscience. Pius XI is categorical:
"Unjust and unlawful, therefore, is any monopoly of education and teaching which physically or morally obliges families to send their children to the schools of the State contrary to the obligations of the Christian conscience." — Pius XI, Divini illius Magistri[58]
The Charter of the Rights of the Family returns to this by targeting the subtlest form of monopoly — the single school from which all religious formation would be banished:
"The rights of parents are violated when the State imposes a compulsory system of education from which all religious formation is excluded." — Charter of the Rights of the Family, art. 5 d[59]
School pluralism is therefore not, for the Church, a weakness to be tolerated: it is a demand of justice. A society that recognised only a single model of school would violate the primary right of parents.[60][61]
False neutrality: a school is never "neutral"
A frequent argument opposes the pretended neutrality of the public school to the right of parents: it would impose no worldview, merely transmitting objective knowledge. Catholic doctrine replies that this neutrality is largely illusory. All education presupposes a conception of man, a hierarchy of values, an implicit answer to the questions of good, freedom and the end of life.[62][63] Dignitatis humanae, the conciliar declaration on religious freedom, precisely denounces the imposition of "a single form of education from which all religious formation is excluded":
"Violence is done [...] when [...] a single form of education is imposed from which all religious formation is excluded." — Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis humanae, 5[64]
A school that claims to teach "no religion" in fact teaches that religion is merely a private, optional affair, with no bearing on truth — which is already a philosophical position, not neutrality. The real question is not "must there be a vision of man?" (every school has one), but "which vision, and who has the right to choose it for the child?". And the Church's answer is constant: that choice belongs first to parents.[65][66]
Affective and sexual education
The most disputed ground today is that of affective and sexual education. Doctrine applies its general logic here: this domain touches on intimacy and moral conscience, so it falls eminently within the primary right of parents. John Paul II affirms this in Familiaris consortio:
"Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centres chosen and controlled by them. In this regard, the Church reaffirms the law of subsidiarity, which the school is bound to observe when it cooperates in sex education, by entering into the same spirit that animates the parents." — John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, 37[67]
The school may cooperate, but by placing itself "in the same spirit" as the parents, never against them nor without their knowledge.[68] The Charter of the Rights of the Family also recognises the right of parents to prevent their children from receiving, at school, teachings contrary to their moral and religious convictions, "in particular in matters of sex education".[69] Dignitatis humanae grounds the same conclusion in religious freedom: it belongs to parents "to decide, in accordance with their own religious belief, on the religious formation to be given to their children".[70]
Home schooling
Home schooling is the most direct implementation of the parental educational right: parents exercise their primary right-duty themselves, without any intermediary. Doctrine does not make it an obligation — the school remains the "principal" and ordinary help[71] — but it recognises it as a legitimate exercise of the freedom of choice guaranteed by Gravissimum educationis and canon 797, provided it truly secures the integral formation required by canon 795 (intellectual, moral and social dimensions).[72][73][74] The subsidiary logic applies here in full: what the family can accomplish itself, no one has the right to forbid it in principle, as long as the good of the child is secured.
Historical landmarks
The educational right of parents is nothing new: it runs through the whole of social doctrine, from Leo XIII to the present day, with remarkable continuity.
- 1891Rerum novarum — Leo XIIIthe family before the State
The family is a real "domestic society" and "prior to any civil society"; its rights cannot be absorbed by the State.[75]
- 1929Divini illius Magistri — Pius XIthe founding text
- 1948Universal Declaration of Human Rightsinternational recognition
Article 26, § 3 recognises the right of parents "by priority" to choose the kind of education for their children.[78]
- 1965Gravissimum educationis & Dignitatis humanae — Vatican IIconciliar confirmation
- 1981Familiaris consortio — John Paul IIthe classic formulation
The educational right-duty is "essential, original, irreplaceable and inalienable"; the school cooperates without taking its place; law of subsidiarity in sex education.[82][83][84]
- 1983Charter of the Rights of the Family & Code of Canon Lawcodification
- 1992-1997Catechism of the Catholic Churchthe synthesis
Synthesis: a primary right, a State at its service
The Catholic doctrine of the school comes down to one guiding principle: parents educate first; everything else is there to help. The child belongs neither to the State, nor to the school, nor to a societal project: he has been entrusted to a father and a mother, whose right to educate is the reverse side of a duty received from God.[89][90]
This principle draws a clear boundary between two symmetrical drifts. On one side, school statism, which would make the school the instrument of a single vision of man, imposed on everyone against families' conscience — what the Church calls monopoly and declares "unjust and illicit".[91] On the other, the disengagement of parents who would offload all educational responsibility onto the institution, forgetting that their right is first and foremost a duty.[92] In between, social doctrine outlines the rightful place: a family that comes first and takes responsibility, a school that helps it, a State that guarantees freedom and steps in where there are gaps, without ever confiscating the primary right.[93][94]
It is, at bottom, a direct application of subsidiarity: "not taking from families what they can do themselves, but supporting them when their strength is no longer enough". And it is, more deeply still, a demand of the dignity of the human person: respecting in each child a being called to the truth, and in each family the community of love best placed to lead him to it.[95][96]
Further reading
- Subsidiarity — the principle of which parents' school right is the typical educational application.
- The family, the basic cell of society — the social foundation of parents' educational right.
- The dignity of the human person — the root of every educational right.
- The common good — the end that orders the State's action in school matters.
- Religious freedom — the right of parents in matters of religious formation (Dignitatis humanae 5).
- Freedom of conscience — why the school cannot impose a vision contrary to families' conscience.
Notes and References
Second Vatican Council, Declaration Gravissimum educationis on Christian education, 28 October 1965, n. 3: "Since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators. This role in education is so important that only with difficulty can it be supplied where it is lacking." Official text on Vatican.va.
1 8 31 79 95Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2223: "Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues." Official text on Vatican.va.
2 10 11 87 96John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio, 22 November 1981, n. 36: "The right and duty of parents to give education is essential, since it is connected with the transmission of human life; it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of the loving relationship between parents and children; it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others." Official text on Vatican.va.
3 13 14 16 54 82 89Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2229: "As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators. Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right and of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise." Official text on Vatican.va.
4 37 66 88Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 797: "Parents must enjoy true freedom in the choice of schools; therefore the Christian faithful must be concerned that civil society recognize this freedom for parents and, with distributive justice duly observed, guarantee it, even by means of subsidies." Official text on Vatican.va. The canon takes up the doctrine of Gravissimum educationis 6.
5 7 38 73 86 94Second Vatican Council, Gravissimum educationis, n. 6: "The primary and inalienable right and duty of educating their children belongs to the parents. They must therefore enjoy true freedom in the choice of the school." The text adds that public authorities "must see to distributive justice in distributing public funds in such a way that parents can enjoy genuine freedom in the choice of their children's school according to their conscience", and that, according to the principle of subsidiarity, "in case of the failure of parents or the lack of initiative by other groups, it is for civil society, with due regard however for the wishes of the parents, to provide for education". Official text on Vatican.va.
6 34 35 39 40 42 49 72 80 93Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2221: "The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation." The Catechism cites Gravissimum educationis 3 and Familiaris consortio 36. Official text on Vatican.va.
9 47Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, 7 December 1965, n. 52: the family is "a school of deeper humanity"; children find in it the first place of learning for human and social virtues. Official text on Vatican.va.
12Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 793, § 1: "Parents, and those who take their place, are bound by the obligation and possess the right of educating their offspring; Catholic parents also have the duty and the right of choosing those means and institutions through which they can provide better for the Catholic education of their children according to local circumstances." § 2: "Parents also have the right to make use of the help which is to be provided by civil society and which they need in order to provide for the Catholic education of their children." Official text on Vatican.va.
15 26 48Leo XIII, Encyclical Rerum novarum, 15 May 1891, n. 13: "For now the family is thus constituted, that is, the domestic society, a society very small indeed, but real and prior to all civil society, to which, consequently, certain rights and certain duties absolutely independent of the State will of necessity have to be attributed." Leo XIII affirms that paternal authority can be neither abolished nor absorbed by the State, for it has its source where human life takes its own. Official text on Vatican.va. See The family, the basic cell of society.
17 18 75Pius XI, Encyclical Divini illius Magistri on the Christian education of youth, 31 December 1929: "Man must, before being a citizen, exist; and this existence he does not receive from the State, but from his parents." The child enters civil society through the mediation of the domestic community, not immediately by himself. Official text on Vatican.va.
19Pius XI, Divini illius Magistri (1929): "The family therefore holds directly from the Creator the mission and consequently the right to educate the offspring, a right inalienable because inseparably joined to the strict obligation, a right anterior to any right whatever of civil society and of the State, and therefore inviolable on the part of any power on earth." Official text on Vatican.va.
20 21 25 46 62 76 90Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 102, a. 1, and Suppl. q. 41: the father is the principle of generation, of education, and of discipline, and of all that pertains to the perfection of human life. Education is a natural extension of generation, which is not completed at birth but leads the child to human maturity. Cited and taken up by Divini illius Magistri (1929).
22 23Pius XI, Divini illius Magistri (1929): education belongs to three necessary societies, distinct and harmoniously united, willed by God — the family, civil society (the State), and the Church — each having over education a title proportioned to its nature. Official text on Vatican.va.
24Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 795: "True education must aim at the integral formation of the human person, which looks to its final end as well as to the common good of society; therefore children and young people are to be formed in such a way that they can develop harmoniously their physical, moral, and intellectual gifts, that they acquire a more perfect sense of responsibility and a proper use of freedom, and that they may become capable of participating actively in social life." Official text on Vatican.va.
27 28 63 74Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 794, § 1: "In a special way the duty and right of education belong to the Church, to whom has been divinely entrusted the mission of assisting men and women, that they may be able to arrive at the fullness of the Christian life." § 2: pastors of souls have the duty of arranging everything so that all the faithful may benefit from a Catholic education. Official text on Vatican.va.
29 30Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 798: parents are to entrust their children to those schools which provide for Catholic education; if they cannot do this, they are bound to see that a proper Catholic education is provided for them outside the school. Official text on Vatican.va.
32Pius XI, Divini illius Magistri (1929): "It is the right, or rather the duty of the State to protect by its laws the prior right, defined above, that the family holds over the Christian education of the child, and consequently also to respect the supernatural right of the Church over this same education." The State must promote, aid, and complete the action of families and of the Church, without substituting itself for them. Official text on Vatican.va.
33 36Holy See, Charter of the Rights of the Family, 22 October 1983, art. 5: "Since they have given life to their children, parents have the original, primary and inalienable right to educate them; hence they must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children." Art. 5 b: "Parents have the right to choose freely the schools or other means necessary to educate their children in keeping with their convictions. The public authorities must ensure that public subsidies are so allocated that parents are truly free to exercise this right without incurring unjust burdens. Parents should not have to bear, directly or indirectly, extra charges which would unjustly prevent or limit the exercise of this freedom." Document published by the Pontifical Council for the Family, on Vatican.va.
41 43 85Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, 10 December 1948), art. 26, § 3: "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children." The English wording — "a prior right" — stresses the anteriority of parents' right over that of the State. Source: official text of the United Nations (un.org).
44 45 78John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, n. 40: "The family is the first and fundamental school of social living: as a community of love, it finds in self-giving the law that guides it and makes it grow." The Pope also deals there with the relationship between the family and the school, and with the State's duty to protect and promote the educational right-duty of parents. Official text on Vatican.va.
50 52 55 84 92Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 796, § 1: among the means of education, the faithful are to hold schools in high esteem, for they are the principal help to parents in fulfilling their role as educators. § 2: parents must cooperate closely with the teachers of the schools to which they entrust their children. Official text on Vatican.va.
51 53 71Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2226: education in the faith by parents begins in the earliest years; it takes place already when the members of a family help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life. Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of teaching in the faith. Official text on Vatican.va.
56Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 799: "The Christian faithful are to strive to secure that in civil society the laws which regulate the formation of the young provide also for their religious and moral education in the schools themselves, according to the conscience of the parents." Official text on Vatican.va.
57Pius XI, Divini illius Magistri (1929): "Hence, unjust and illicit is any monopoly of education and of teaching which physically or morally obliges families to send their children to the schools of the State contrary to the obligations of Christian conscience, or even to their legitimate preferences." Official text on Vatican.va.
58 60 77 91Holy See, Charter of the Rights of the Family (1983), art. 5 d: "The rights of the parents are violated when the State imposes a compulsory system of education from which all religious formation is excluded." Text on Vatican.va.
59 61Second Vatican Council, Declaration Dignitatis humanae on religious freedom, 7 December 1965, n. 5: "Since it is for parents to decide, according to their own religious conviction, on the religious formation to be given to their children, civil authority must therefore recognize the freedom of parents to choose, in true freedom, the schools or other means of education [...]. Violence is done to the rights of parents when children are compelled to attend, at school, courses that do not correspond to the religious conviction of the parents, or when a single form of education is imposed from which all religious formation is excluded." The text adds that this freedom must not serve as a pretext for imposing unjust burdens on families. Official text on Vatican.va. See Religious freedom.
64 65 70 81John Paul II, Familiaris consortio, n. 37: "Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centers chosen and controlled by them. In this regard, the Church reaffirms the law of subsidiarity, which the school is bound to observe when it cooperates in sex education, by entering into the same spirit that animates the parents." Official text on Vatican.va.
67 68 83Holy See, Charter of the Rights of the Family (1983), art. 5 c: parents have the right to obtain that their children are not obliged to attend courses which are not in agreement with their moral and religious convictions; in particular, sex education, which is a basic right of the parents, must be imparted under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centers chosen and controlled by them. Text on Vatican.va.
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