Bishop Edwin’s Address to the CES 14-19 Conference: What Does the First Letter of Westminster Say? 
 
My purpose is to share with you a sense of the story of our involvement in Catholic Education as the Catholic Church in England and Wales over the last 150 years, from the point of view of the bishops. Also, I wish to see if there is continuity between the Synod of Westminster and our concerns both at this conference and this present time. Finally, does the story of our past help us to ask the right questions for our future, so that a generation yet unborn may praise the Lord?

So I have four learning outcomes:

1. That you have an understanding of the contents of the letter of the Westminster Synod in 1852, and their relevance for us today. Note that the title of this talk is ‘does’ the Synod say, rather than ‘did’!

2. That you appreciate the consonance between the Westminster Synod and contemporary statements of the Bishops’ Conference on Catholic education.

3. That you can situate yourselves in this continuing story, this process of Catholic Education.

4. That you will be better equipped in discerning the future, in asking the right questions and forming the appropriate policies – and return to your schools and dioceses with a skip in your step.

It has been well said that the constant oscillation of the captain between the bridge and the engine room will not justify an increased head of steam if the ship is sailing around in circles.

On the other hand, if the captain is not aware of conditions in the engine room, an appeal for more power could blow up the boilers, or end in mutiny.

Thus we must have a sense of direction given us by the bishops – in consultation with the whole crew. From my minor position on the bridge, it seems to me that these nautical principles are being taken seriously – isn’t this exercise itself, facing these new challenges of education 14 – 19 - somewhat like the Titanic and the iceberg – if we do not discern our way in around this new iceberg - no Titanic.

There were a few icebergs floating about in 1852.

As you know, the Catholic Hierarchy of England and Wales was restored in 1850, and in 1852 the Bishops met in Synod at Oscott to consider the pastoral priorities of this new situation. Their decisions affected the future life of the Church, even to this present day.

The Synod gives us a snapshot of Catholic life in the 1850s. The Bishops in 1852 were concerned with the education of their Catholic poor, with the education of the Catholic middle class, with the venture of the Catholic University in Dublin, with the violent opposition that Catholics had to endure at that time.

They were concerned with the distinctiveness of Catholic Education. In 1996 we, their successors spoke on that same issue, in a statement entitled ‘Principles, Practices and Concerns’, – we identified five areas in which that distinctiveness is seen and promoted:
• The education of all
• The education of the whole person
• The uniqueness of the individual
• Moral principles
• The search for excellence

Let us see if those five principles are enunciated in the Westminster Synod.

Who were there? Westminster, Southwark, Hexham and Newcastle, Beverly, Liverpool, Clifton, Plymouth, Nottingham, Birmingham, Northampton, Salford – and also Menevia and Newport.

The Education of All.

The bishops were committed to the education of all Catholic children – and this commitment predates the restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850. In 1847 the Catholic Poor School Committee was set up – and the Vicars Apostolic wrote:
‘We clearly see and deeply lament the very general and most pressing want of a religious education for the children of the Poor in our respective districts; with our united voice we now proclaim to you with all the earnestness of our souls, that on the success of this our common effort on behalf of the children of the Poor, not only our religious progress and prosperity, but also the eternal salvation of thousands does depend.’
That is a very clear message from the bridge – followed four years later by the Synod’s letter, where the bishops famously declared:
‘Wherever there may seem to be an opening for a new mission, we should prefer the erection of a school, so arranged as to serve temporarily for a chapel, to that of a church without one. For the building raised of living and chosen stones, the spiritual sanctuary of the Church, is of far greater importance than the temple made by hands.’
The bishops also knew what it was like in the engine room – I find these words from Fr. Carroll in Merthyr Tydfil most moving, and give me a sense of proportion in our present trials:
In 1843 there were only four Catholic schools in Wales, at Merthyr, Wrexham, Cardiff and Newport. Fr. Carroll describes the difficulties of education in those days, when he alternated between Merthyr Tydfil and Tredegar, himself teaching sixty children.: I keep two day schools….the children of both sexes are employed so early picking or piling minerals or coals. They are removed about seven years of age, which early removal generally deprives them of all taste for instruction.’ (‘Immigration and Integration’ – Paul 0’Leary, p 62).
The first and paramount subject of the Bishops was the education of the Poor.
‘If we wish to have a generation of catholics to succeed the present one,
we must educate it: or others will snatch it up, before our eyes…
the first necessity, therefore, is a sufficient provision of education, adequate to the wants of our poor. It must become universal.’
This resonates with ‘Foundations for Excellence’ and ‘ ‘A struggle for Excellence’, two CES documents which the 1852 Bishops would have applauded – as you know, they tell the success story of Catholic primary and secondary schools situated in poverty areas.
The bishops then make a strong appeal to rich Catholics to help in this work. Many of these Catholic had already benefited from Catholic Education – many convent schools for girls, Ampleforth, Downside and Stonyhurst for boys – but the bishops also stressed the need to build up an educated Catholic middle class:
‘While we thus turn our most serious thoughts towards the education, in sound faith and virtuous morals, of our poorest children, who are most exposed to the evil arts and temptations of enemies, we cannot overlook the wants of other classes, no less dear to us. Where there is a sufficient Catholic population to warrant it, we earnestly recommend the establishment of a middle school as it is called, in which a good commercial and general education shall be given to the children of families in a better worldly position.’
The bishops were also concerned with Higher Education, and applauded the efforts of the Irish bishops who were seeking the establishment of a catholic University –
‘Should such an institution grow up so near to us, its advantages to us will be incalculable. We shall see open to future generations, the means of a liberal, scientific and professional education, united with solid religious instruction, a blessing denied to the present; and we may see revived, what formed the pride of Ireland in early days of Christianity, multitudes who loved heavenly, and well as earthly wisdom, sailing to her from distant shores, to obtain the still undivided treasure, at her hands.’

The Education of the Whole Person.

I shall let the bishops speak for themselves:
‘But while we thus wish to promote a secular instruction equal to what others offer, we consider sound faith, virtue and piety by far the most important elements of education.’
The bishops took some practical steps in that direction – they recognised that ‘the inspection, the rewards, the honours, derived from the state, are strictly limited to proficiency in worldly knowledge’ Thus they accepted the recommendations of the Poor School Committee, and appointed ‘ecclesiastical inspectors of Schools, whose duty will be to examine the scholars in the religious portion of their education, to grant certificates and award prizes for proficiency in it; and so give any one who aspires to be a teacher of Catholic children, the means of proving himself morally fitted for the office, and prevent the unworthy from obtaining so serious a trust.’
Thus began NBRIA – and the bishops immediately asked for increased contributions to pay for this new service to Catholic schools. Plus ca change!

The Uniqueness of the Individual.

Seen through the eyes of faith, every individual is a microcosm of the whole plan of God’s love for humanity in Jesus Christ. The whole story of the universe is here, in you and me. We are a sacrament of God’s love for the world. The Spirit of God blew breath into us, an eternal breath – it is sometimes hard to see this when teaching year 11 on a wet Friday afternoon. It was also hard to see it in the past – let me quote not from 1852 but 1859 – the Provincial Synod of Westminster – the bishops are again asking for money from the well-heeled Catholics
‘If you enter the school today which you visited six years ago, you seem to see the same objects before you, and feel tempted to exclaim, ‘Are we no more forward yet with this everlasting education?’ ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ might be the honest reply. Yes’ you contemplate before you what looks identical: the same eyes, the same casts of countenance, the same varieties of character, the same sprightliness and the same dullness – perhaps the very same rags, and certainly the same squalidness and destitution – and yet in the most essential respect, No! All that it profits to care for is different. These are the new immortal souls should that have to be saved, and we must do for them what we have done for others.’
We are facing a possible physical dispersal of our pupils 14 – 19 – it is interesting that a dispersal is occurred also in the past, in 1939, when Cardinal Hinsley realised that many Catholic evacuees would lose their Catholic school education by being dispersed into the countryside. He made sure that his clergy were fully briefed, and that the clearest lines of communication were kept open.

Moral Principles.

The bishops of 1852 were greatly concerned about moral and doctrinal apathy. They write:
‘The innumerable contradictions of doctrine, which have long prevailed in every system out of the Catholic Church, fretting and clashing together, have worn themselves down into a smooth apathy; and the simplest hypothesis for getting rid or the scandal of contention about sublimest truths has been adopted – that they are matters of indifference.’
They were also convinced that the moral life of the school depended greatly on the teacher. I was struck by these words from ‘Consecrated Persons and their Mission in Schools’ (Congregation for Catholic Education – CTS 2003)
‘The task for teaching to live, discovering the deepest meaning of life and of transcendence, to mutually interact with others, to love creation, to think freely and critically, to find fulfilment in work, to plan the future, in one word, to BE, demands a new love of consecrated persons (and all teachers) for educational and cultural commitment in schools. 82.

The Search for Excellence.

The bishops are forthright and indeed utilitarian in their approach to the search for academic excellence. They say
‘We must take advantage of the means afforded to us, to render the secular part of our education as effective, as that which others offer. …we must remove the temptation (of state schools) as far as possible from human frailty: we must not even leave an excuse to lukewarmness. Make your schools equal in every respect to those which are opened to allure away our children.’
They did indeed understand what it was like in the engine room!

In our search for excellence, we must not forget what the voyage is all about. We define excellence according to the Gospel standard, where the poor and the weak have priority. We face the same temptation as did some parents back in 1852, of taking academic excellence as the norm.
As the Catholic Poor School Committee noted in 1854,

‘Assuredly there could not be, in a moral and religious aspect, a worse school that one in which secular instruction should be scientifically and persuasively imparted, while religious knowledge should be confined to a perfunctory repetition of the catechism, and devotional affections not cultivated at all. The mischievousness of children so educated would be in proportion to their knowledge and cleverness.’

The excellence to which we aim is that which has the Gospel as its standard. It will demand a constant Copernican revolution, as we resist the centrifugal market forces that seek to dislodge us from Christ who is at the centre. As leaders in the Catholic community, we must constantly strive to make sure our principles are translated into practice, and I recognise the tensions that arise when you are allocating scarce resources. This topic would require much more time than is at our disposal today, but it is at the heart of the Catholic endeavour. Just listen to this statement from ‘Consecrated Persons and their Mission in Schools:

‘When the preferential option for the poorest is at the centre of the educational programme, the best resources and most qualified persons are initially placed at the service of the least, without in this way excluding those who have less difficulties and shortages. (70)

I would add another area in which our distinctiveness is seen and promoted – one that was not so evident to the Bishops of 1852 but which is very prominent today in our reflections on Catholic education – our contribution to the Common Good. Our striving after excellence which is Person-centered is a much needed contribution to the public debate on education. We are all aware of the dumbing down of the meaning of education, as if it were the only acquisition of skills and facts, devoid of moral and spiritual values, to serve the national economy. We need a public debate on the true meaning of education, we need to make our voice heard strongly and robustly, and thus we have an important contribution to make to the common good. Our voice is validated by our commitment to our Catholic schools and colleges – it is they who give bishops and our agencies a certain validity in speaking to Government about values in education.

I was asked to speak about the Westminster Synod of 1852. Perhaps the time has come for the Bishops to reflect again on the involvement of the Catholic community in education. We need to consider the question, ‘How do we educate in this postmodern world? What of the new contexts of the impact of globalisation, and the explosion of the internet? We will need to listen to the views of all the crew, even those who are critical of the course on which we are on, but above all, to remember under whose orders we are sailing.

The Bishops in 1852 tried to strengthen their people in the fact of the vicious attacks that were being made upon Catholics. After the lengthy section on Catholic education, the Bishops encouraged their people to lead good Christian lives, and not to turn to revenge for acts of violence against Catholics. ‘Only one and only one revenge can we permit you, that of praying for all who afflict, or persecute, or hate you…pray daily, though it be one short Hail Mary, for the return of your fellow-countrymen to the one Fold of Christ; that we may all be one, even as He and his Father are one..

We are facing different modes of attack today – and one common accusation is that Catholic schooling is divisive and undermines the cohesion of society. Archbishop Nichols said recently that the three main issues in the field at present were the place of faith schools and the challenges to demonstrate their effectiveness, the funding of schools and the concern to preserve the rights of the Church, and Government plans for educating 14-19 year olds. The Bishops have again defended and supported Catholic schooling – last November we referred to the CES Position Paper on Catholic Education in Schools and Sixth Form Colleges, and particularly to these words:
‘The (our) students come from a wide economic, social, cultural and faith spectrum. In welcoming and responding to this diversity, Catholic schools and colleges are active in equipping their students to live in a multi—cultural and multi-faith society.’

We, the Bishops said, ‘we urge support for our Catholic schools and colleges through parents seeking such education for their children. The quality of what is offered in our institutions is, almost without exception, highly regarded and commented upon favourably in Ofsted inspections. Far from being a divisive influence, all the available evidence points to denominational education making a significant contribution in preparing young people to take a proper part in the diverse society in which we live.’

That statement is a continuum from the 1852 letter to this day, and beyond.

I hope I have achieved my learning outcomes – and I am grateful for the opportunity of studying the 1852 letter. I’d also like to record my thanks to Maurice Whitehead for his chapter on Catholic education in ‘From without the Flaminian Gate’, which gave a certain shape to my contribution today.

I maintain, in communion with the Bishops of 1852, that Catholic education has a built-in distinctiveness, for it is concerned with –
1. the education of all
2. the education of the whole person
3. the uniqueness of the individual
4. moral principles
5. the search for excellence
6. for the common good.

And all this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, for the glory of the Father, and for the good of God’s People.
Edwin, Bishop of Wrexham.