What is taught at Roman Catholic schools?

lesliedellow

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If I were to send a kid to a Roman Catholic school, would he/she be taught the Theory of Evolution? Would he/she be taught Creation or Intelligent design?



-H.
In the uk they would be taught the National Cirriculum (including orthodox science) plus whatever was specific to a Roman Catholic School.
 
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St_Worm2

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Catholic Answers says the following:

Concerning human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching. It allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from previous biological forms, under God’s guidance, but it insists on the special creation of his soul. Pope Pius XII declared that "the teaching authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions . . . take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God" (Pius XII, Humani Generis 36). So whether the human body was specially created or developed, we are required to hold as a matter of Catholic faith that the human soul is specially created; it did not evolve, and it is not inherited from our parents, as our bodies are.
H. L. Mencken expressed admiration for how Catholics handled the evolution issue:

[The advantage of Catholics] lies in the simple fact that they do not have to decide either for Evolution or against it. Authority has not spoken on the subject; hence it puts no burden upon conscience, and may be discussed realistically and without prejudice.
Pope Pius XII, a deeply conservative man, directly addressed the issue of evolution in a 1950 encyclical, Humani Generis. The document makes plain the pope’s fervent hope that evolution will prove to be a passing scientific fad, and it attacks those persons who “imprudently and indiscreetly hold that evolution …explains the origin of all things.” Nonetheless, Pius XII states that nothing in Catholic doctrine is contradicted by a theory that suggests one specie might evolve into another—even if that specie is man. The Pope declared:

The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experiences in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.

In other words, the Pope could live with evolution, so long as the process of “ensouling” humans was left to God (as we just saw was the case in the excerpt from Catholic Answers).

Basically, I don't think they want to be faced with another "Galileo" incident, so they seem to be careful not to take a firm stance one way of the other. My son attended a Catholic HS. He had both religion classes and science classes. His biology class, for instance, taught evolution, and so did his religious teacher ;) (at least he did in his freshman year when they studied the OT), calling the Creation narrative, a "myth" (which seems to go beyond what the RCC is willing to say or permit at this point).

If I had to guess, I would say that most parochial schools teach standard "public school" evolution to their students with the added qualifier that whatever is true about our origins, God is intimately involved with it.

I'm also sure that Creation is taught, in one manner or another, in their religion classes.

If this is important to you, and you are considering a particular Catholic school for your child, why not go to the school and see what the curriculum for both their science and religion classes look like. Also, wouldn't this have been a better question to ask in OBOB?

Yours and His,
David
p.s. - just FYI, much of the above was exerpted from http://www.catholic.com/tracts/adam-eve-and-evolution AND http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/vaticanview.html
 
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lesliedellow

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You know, there is a Catholic forum where you might ask, instead of getting responses from non Catholics who are guessing, and quite frankly usually don't know what they're talking about.

You do not have to be a Catholic to be familiar with uk law.
 
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Armoured

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If I were to send a kid to a Roman Catholic school, would he/she be taught the Theory of Evolution? Would he/she be taught Creation or Intelligent design?



-H.
General speaking, he'd be taught the science sylabus fo that particular educational jurisdiction.
 
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If I were to send a kid to a Roman Catholic school, would he/she be taught the Theory of Evolution? Would he/she be taught Creation or Intelligent design?


-H.

In Belgium, it wouldn't really matter.

The difference between "catholic school", "protestant school" and "public / state school" is only seen in what is being thought during the 1 or 2 hours per week of religious class.

The rest of the curriculum will be as good as identical.
 
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GrowingSmaller

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I imagine that they teach some good thinks like respect for life. Respect for intellect. Why they (in other business) have to go on a pro life pilgrimage with a crucifix raise as a standard though, I'll never know. A sacred heart - I might like that more.

Theres some good hymns too. I like "sweet sacrament divine", yet you rarely see kids (adolescents, young people) at mass unless theyre with school. Usually out of hours, its the older generation.

Theyll get to learn some latin and greek too. Greek (kyrie eleyson) and latin... well probably too much to mention in the order of mass.

Sweet sacrament divine, traditional hymn:


 
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essentialsaltes

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At the school I taught at...

In biology class, they learn evolution.

In religion class, they learn that God is the Creator (but they do not learn 'creationism' which is a pseudoscience).

I expect most US Catholic schools are the same.
 
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Gene2memE

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If I were to send a kid to a Roman Catholic school, would he/she be taught the Theory of Evolution? Would he/she be taught Creation or Intelligent design?

I went through 11 years of Roman Catholic (Jesuit) education in Australia. My teachers included Jesuit priests, laity and regular teachers, most of who were products of Catholic education themselves.

We were taught the fundamentals of evolutionary biology (and cosmology, geology, ancient history) to the best current understanding.

Creationism wasn't even remotely addresses and Intelligent Design wasn't a thing when I was at school (and even if it was, the Jesuits understand that its just gap creationism in stolen academic garb). The one time creationism was brought up by a student, the reaction from the teacher was pretty much stunned silence. I think the rest of the class just laughed.

Biblical inerrancy is not a point of Jesuit doctrine and Genesis was taught as purely allegorical.

We had five or six years of comparative religious studies. Here, along with ancient history, it was pointed out the the Genesis narrative is derived from the cross-cultural fertilisation of the creation stories of the Semitic peoples (including the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures), along with elements found in Minoan, Cycladic and Mycenaean cultures.
 
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Most US Catholic schools are not fundamentalist/creationist in nature. They tend to use mostly secular curriculum with religion/theology taught as a stand alone class. I only went to Catholic schools thru 8th grade and from what I can remember, we had secular texts for the basic academic subjects.
 
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fat wee robin

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Hopefully the theory of evolution, as it should be taught at absolutely every single school in existence, otherwise the future children won't know anything about biology....
Which theory of evolution ?
 
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Albion

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If I were to send a kid to a Roman Catholic school, would he/she be taught the Theory of Evolution? Would he/she be taught Creation or Intelligent design?



-H.

Recognizing that it's impossible for us here to know for certain, I'd be surprised if it were anything other than theistic evolution.

In other words, yes, species have evolved over a long period of time...but according to God's eternal plan. It would be extremely unlikely that an RC school would teach what fundamentalists call "creationism," i.e. that every species was created exactly as it is now and only a few thousand years ago.

On the other hand, Catholic schools don't make much of a deal out of this issue, either, whereas it's almost a litmus test among some Protestants.
 
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fat wee robin

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The theory that states that all life forms have evolved by mutation and natural selection over the past many billions of years.
Which means that you don't believe God created all of creation as a working whole .
I hope that this will never be forced on my grandaughter
If I were to send a kid to a Roman Catholic school, would he/she be taught the Theory of Evolution? Would he/she be taught Creation or Intelligent design?



-H.
Well a long time ago I spent a total of 13 years in Catholic schools ,plus one in Catholic
teaching college ,and they were pretty liberal, and non directive in these kind of subjects . They did not give me a good basic knowledge of God
in the New Testament ,as they tried to control your relationship with
God , never allowing any true discussion there .
They will probably allow a flexible attitude to evolution ,as after all it is only a 'theory ' , and there is much evidence against it, from a scientific point of view, as well as other sources .
 
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