Catholic Quotes on the Importance of a College

EducationGeneral and Women Specific

Revised: March 8, 2013Please contact UWEI@utahsbr.edu if you

have additions.

“The right to develop one's intelligence and freedom in seeking and knowing the truth is one of our basic human rights.”

Pope John Paul IICentesimus Annus

Intelligence and Freedom

“Authentic democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law, and on the basis of a correct conception of the human person. It requires that the necessary conditions be present for the advancement both of the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and of the ‘subjectivity' of society through the creation of structures of participation and shared responsibility.”

Pope John Paul IICentesimus Annus

Authentic Democracy

“A nation has a fundamental right to build its future by providing an appropriate education for the younger generation.”

John Paul IIAddress to the Fiftieth General Assembly

of the United Nations

Access to Education

“The demands of the common good . . . Concern above all the commitment to peace, the organization of the State's powers, a sound judicial system, the protection of the environment, and the provision of essential services to all, some of which are at the same time human rights…

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Social Benefits (1 of 2)

…food, housing, work, education and access to culture, transportation, basic health care, the freedom of communication and expression, and the protection of religious freedom.”

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Social Benefits (2 of 2)

“The overcoming of cultural, judicial, and social obstacles that often constitutes real barriers to the shared participation of citizens in the destiny of their communities' calls for work in the areas of information and education.”

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Community Strength

“The planning capacity of a society oriented towards the common good and looking to the future is measured also and above all on the basis of the employment prospects that it is able to offer.”

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Employment

“The high level of unemployment, the presence of obsolete educational systems and of persistent difficulties in gaining access to professional formation and the job market represent, especially for many young people, a huge obstacle on the road to human and professional fulfillment.”

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Professional Fulfillment

“In the work of education, the family forms man in the fullness of his personal dignity according to all his dimensions, including the social dimension.”

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Education & Family

“The family, in fact, constitutes a community of love and solidarity, which is uniquely suited to teach and transmit cultural, ethical, social, spiritual and religious values, essential for the development and well-being of its own members and of society.”

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Love & Solidarity

“By exercising its mission to educate, the family contributes to the common good and constitutes the first school of social virtue, which all societies need. In the family, persons are helped to grow in freedom and responsibility, indispensable prerequisites for any function in society. With education, certain fundamental values are communicated and assimilated.”

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Family Values

“The family has the responsibility to provide an integral education. Indeed, all true education is directed towards the formation of the human person in view of his final end and the good of that society to which he belongs and in the duties of which he will, as an adult, have a share.”

Second Vatican Ecumenical Council Declaration Gravissimum Educationis

Family Responsibility

“In the family, which is a community of persons, special attention must be devoted to the children by developing a profound esteem for their personal dignity, and a great respect and generous concern for their rights.”

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio

Rights of Children

“Parents are the first educators, not the only educators, of their children. It belongs to them, therefore, to exercise with responsibility their educational activity in close and vigilant cooperation with civil and ecclesial agencies.”

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church

Parents as Educators

“As well as being a source, the parents' love is also the animating principle and therefore the norm inspiring and guiding all concrete educational activity, enriching it with the values of kindness, constancy, goodness, service, disinterestedness and self-sacrifice that are the most precious fruit of love.”

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio

Parental Love

“The right and duty of parents to educate their children 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; and it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others.”

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio

Duty to Educate

“Man's community aspect itself — both civil and ecclesial — demands and leads to a broader and more articulated activity resulting from well-ordered collaboration between the various agents of education.”

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio

Community (1 of 2)

“All these agents are necessary, even though each can and should play its part in accordance with the special competence and contribution proper to itself.”

John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio

Community (2 of 2)

“Paul VI had an articulated vision of development. He understood the term to indicate the goal of rescuing peoples, first and foremost, from hunger, deprivation, endemic diseases and illiteracy. From the economic point of view, this meant their active participation, on equal terms, in the international economic process.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate

Education & Economics (1 of 2)

“From the social point of view, it meant their evolution into educated societies marked by solidarity; from the political point of view, it meant the consolidation of democratic regimes capable of ensuring freedom and peace.”

Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate

Education & Economics (2 of 2)

“Let us feel a common responsibility towards present and future generations, especially in the task of training them to be people of peace and builders of peace . . . let us pool our spiritual, moral and material resources for the great goal of educating young people in justice and peace.”

Pope Benedict XVI, World Day of Peace 2012

Social Responsibility

“Catholic teaching affirms that all persons, even those on the margins of society, have basic human rights: the right to life and to those things that are necessary to the proper development of life, including faith and family, work and education, housing and health care.”

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Basic Human Rights

“Catholic schools are among the best anti-poverty programs, offering first-rate education, moral truth, and discipline in communities across our nation. We welcome and resettle many refugees fleeing conflict and repression. We offer relief and development in more than eighty countries.”

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

A Place at the Table

“The Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental provider of education, health care, and human services in our nation. We are helping families and communities to combat hunger and homelessness, overcome poverty and dependency, build housing, resist crime, and seek greater justice.”

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Social Change

“All discovery and research are an exploration of the mind of God; all knowledge is a share in the infinite life of God. In all that is true, good and beautiful the mind glimpses a marvelous reflection of the reality, which we call God.”

Cardinal Hume

Mind of God

“It is fundamental to our religious tradition to regard all reality as God-given and therefore to rule out in advance any possibility of contradictory truths. Religion and knowledge of every kind can never be in conflict.”

Cardinal Hume

Knowledge & Religion

“So often people say that we should look to the elderly, learn from their wisdom, their many years. I disagree. I say we should look to the young: untarnished, without stereotypes implanted in their minds, no poison, no hatred in their hearts. When we learn to see life through the eyes of a child, that is when we become truly wise.”

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Eyes of a Child

“It has always therefore been one of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that first-hand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.”

C.S. Lewis

Power of Education