On October 28th, 1965 the fundamental document on the education of children was published. We take part in the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council by recalling this text
A few days ago, October 28th marked the 50th anniversary of the Declaration Gravissimum Educationis, promulgated by the Second Vatican Council in 1965. The text explicitly deals with Christian education, for which, on one hand, both civil society and the Church are responsible while, on the other, the family bears the primary obligation. On this occasion, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the last great Council, we are publishing a short passage of the document that clearly exhorts Christian parents to be the first educators of their children.
“3. The Authors of Education
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. Parents are the ones who must
create a family atmosphere animated by love and respect for God and man, in which the well‐rounded
personal and social education of children is fostered. Hence the family is the first school of the social virtues
that every society needs. It is particularly in the Christian family, enriched by the grace and office of the
sacrament of matrimony, that children should be taught from their early years to have a knowledge of God
according to the faith received in Baptism, to worship Him, and to love their neighbor. Here, too, they find
their first experience of a wholesome human society and of the Church. Finally, it is through the family that
they are gradually led to a companionship with their fellowmen and with the people of God. Let parents,
then, recognize the inestimable importance a truly Christian family has for the life and progress of God's
own people.
The family which has the primary duty of imparting education needs help of the whole community. In
addition, therefore, to the rights of parents and others to whom the parents entrust a share in the work of
education, certain rights and duties belong indeed to civil society, whose role is to direct what is required
for the common temporal good. Its function is to promote the education of youth in many ways, namely: to
protect the duties and rights of parents and others who share in education and to give them aid; according
to the principle of subsidiarity, when the endeavors of parents and other societies are lacking, to carry out
the work of education in accordance with the wishes of the parents; and, moreover, as the common good
demands, to build schools and institutions.
Finally, in a special way, the duty of educating belongs to the Church, not merely because she must be
recognized as a human society capable of educating, but especially because she has the responsibility of
announcing the way of salvation to all men, of communicating the life of Christ to those who believe, and,
in her unfailing solicitude, of assisting men to be able to come to the fullness of this life. The Church is
bound as a mother to give to these children of hers an education by which their whole life can be imbued
with the spirit of Christ and at the same time do all she can to promote for all peoples the complete
perfection of the human person, the good of earthly society and the building of a world that is more human”.
