As a husband and home-schooling father of four by vocation, canon lawyer by profession, and chancellor of a diocese by employment, I feel the need to defend the canonical right of Catholics to home school as an answer to the mistaken notion that home schooling is somehow not a proper option for Catholic parents. I offer this argument as an assurance to Catholic home-schooling parents, and other honest seekers, that the decision to home school is fully in line with Church teaching and with canon law.

Parents' rights and duties to educate

The begetting and educating of children are intimately linked. One does not have to look very far in the teachings of the Church on marriage and family to find strong, repeated affirmations that parents have the innate right to beget and educate their children. The Second Vatican Council clearly teaches that marriage and conjugal love "are by their nature ordained toward the begetting and education of children" and that parents "should regard as their proper mission the task of transmitting human life and educating those [to] whom it has been transmitted" (Gaudium et Spes, 50). Since the very nature of marriage and conjugal love includes and is ordered toward procreation, parents have the right and obligation--based on the divine law, as manifested in the natural law--not only to transmit life to their children but also to educate that life that God has given them. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Divini illius Magistri, devotes considerable space to this right and obligation of parents.

In its Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum Educationis (GE) 3, the Vatican Council also forcefully reminds parents of this natural-law right and obligation to educate their children, teaching: "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." Vatican II's decree on the apostolate of the laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem (13), places a duty on Christian married partners "strenuously to affirm the right and duty of parents and guardians to educate children in a Christian manner." Likewise, Pope John Paul II affirms the right and duty of parents to provide for the education of their children by calling the right not only "essential" but also "irreplaceable and inalienable and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others." (Familiaris Consortio, 36)

Because parents have the duty to educate their children, they must also possess the right to do so, particularly if they choose to do so personally. It would be absurd in any legal system, whether natural or positive, to place a duty on a group of persons without also allowing for the right of those persons to carry out this duty. So much more would this be the case if the right and duty were primary and inalienable, such as the right of parents to educate children personally.

The primacy of parents

As the chief legislative document of the Catholic Church, the 1983 Code of Canon Law is understood to be "a great effort to translate this same conciliar doctrine and ecclesiology into canonical language." There is a "complementarity which the Code presents in relation to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council," Pope John Paul wrote as he promulgated the new Code in Sacrae Disciplinae Leges. The Code puts into action the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and should be understood in light of the Council. Conversely, the Second Vatican Council should also be understood in light of the Code, which clarifies and puts into practice these same conciliar teachings. This is clearly the case when it comes to the rights and duties of parents in the education of their children.

Like Gaudium et Spes, Canon 1055, the foundational canon on marriage, teaches that the matrimonial covenant is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children. Again, education of the children is acknowledged as a fundamental end to which marriage is ordered. As Catholics who believe in the grace inherent in the sacrament of Matrimony, we must conclude that Catholic parents who take seriously the obligation of educating their children can, with the help of God's grace, educate their children personally through home schooling. Canon 1134 clearly supports this notion in teaching that "a special sacrament strengthens and, as it were, consecrates the spouses in a Christian marriage for the duties and dignity of their state." Therefore, availing themselves of God's grace through the sacrament of Matrimony, parents are capable of fulfilling the duties of their state in life, including the education of their children. Of course, grace builds on nature, so parents must also avail themselves of the natural development of their intellectual and pedagogical abilities to be successful.

Flowing from this concept and basing itself on Gravissimum Educationis, Canon 226 §2 clearly re-affirms the duty and the right of parents in the education of their children, by declaring that since they have given life to their children, "parents have a most grave obligation and possess the right to educate them." The only qualifier is the stipulation that Christian parents particularly must make sure that the Christian education of their children is according to the doctrine handed on by the Church. In other words, regardless of the means of education that parents choose for their children, they must make sure that no heterodox teachings are involved in this formation. Nowhere in this canon is there a limitation on the legitimate option of Catholic parents to home school, so long as this home schooling is done in accord with the doctrines of the Church.

By examining not only the text but also the context of Canon 226 (as is required for proper canonical interpretation, according to Canon 17), we see that Canon 226 comes under the section in the Code of Canon Law devoted to the obligations and rights of the faithful. The Code, like the Council, sees this right and duty of parents in the education of their children as fundamental, since it is based on natural law. From this it is not difficult to see that home schooling is a wholly proper expression of this parental obligation by mothers and fathers who prefer to undertake this educative role personally rather than delegating it to others.

Peppered throughout the Code are repeated references to the primacy of parents in determining the education of their children. This natural-law right and duty obviously involves the religious education of their children, but also extends to their physical, social, and cultural education as well, as Canon 1136 makes explicitly clear. Parents must look for the ways in which all of these aspects are provided for as best they can. If the parents decide to accomplish this formation through home schooling, then they must be certain, at least to the best of their ability, that this is the best way to fulfill the duty. On the other hand, parents must also keep in mind that if they choose to delegate this task to other educators, such as a school system, the delegation does not absolve them from their responsibility. They are still primarily responsible for what is or is not taught to their children. In either case, parents still must see to it that the means or institutions chosen for the education of their children provide for the proper physical, social, cultural, moral, and religious education of their offspring.

It is clear that Canon 1136 (along with Canon 793 §1, which is examined below) puts the right and the responsibility of determining what are the best means to provide for the education of children in the hands of the parents. The idea that Catholic parents must, under normal circumstances, enroll their children in Catholic schools in effect usurps this right of parents. This usurpation would be unacceptable according to the standards set by Pope John Paul in Familiaris Consortio. It seems highly unlikely that the Church, after repeatedly emphasizing the right and the primacy of parents in seeing to the education of their children, would then so limit this right as to say that it can only be fulfilled, under normal circumstances, in a Catholic school system. As the noted canon and civil lawyer Edward N. Peters wrote:

One could hardly have expected, therefore, the Code of Canon Law to place juridical obstacles in the way of parents exercising their vocational charisms. To the contrary, the Code of Canon Law has taken great care to protect parental primacy in seeing to the education of children, whether that parental right and duty is legitimately entrusted to others, or whether it is directly exercised by those who will most immediately answer to God for the raising of their children.

In fact, nowhere does canon law mandate that parents must enroll their children in Catholic schools. (Canon 798, which only seems

to require this, will be examined below.) Rather, canon law requires parents to live up to their obligation and determine what is the best means by which a Catholic education can be transmitted to their children. If the parents can best accomplish this through home schooling, then home schooling is not only a legitimate means, it is a laudable labor of love for parents who are trying to take seriously their vocational duties. Of course, this does not imply in any way that parents who enroll their children in schools do not also take seriously their vocational obligations. The point is that among the various ways, home schooling is a legitimate and proper expression of the vocational duty of parents in the education of their children even when other means are available, including the existence of Catholic schools. Home schooling is not and should not be a decision that Catholic parents make when they have no choice, but rather should be the fruit of a reasoned, prayerful consideration of what is the most advantageous way in which each individual child of theirs can acquire a truly Catholic education.

"Primary," not "only" Educators

In nearly every document of the Church that addresses education, the primacy of parents is emphasized as a foundational concept. While some are quick to point to this concept to legitimize home schooling, others claim that this is an error since "primary" does not mean "only" educators. Certainly it is true that to recognize "parents as primary educators" does not prove that parents the "only educators." Those who claim that it does are simply in error. However, it is equally erroneous to claim that home schooling illegitimate simply because "primary" does not mean "only."

"Primary" here is a sequential and qualitative term, not a quantitative term. In other words, the parents of a child are the first educators to whom the child is exposed, and the most important educators. They indeed have a relational influence over the child that cannot be replaced, but also, and just as importantly, it is they who must make the determination of whether or not to delegate part of this child's formation to others--and, if so, to whom and how much. Thus home-schooling parents are on firm ground to invoke the principle of "primary educators" not because it allows them to be the "only" educators--it does not--but rather because it affirms the fact that they are the most important educators who must decide the course of the child's education. They are "primary" because it is they who must decide, prayerfully and reasonably, the proper means of education for their child under Canon 793 §1.

Home schooling and the Canons

While the now abrogated 1917 Code of Canon Law emphasized "schools" in its section on education, the current 1983 Code of Canon Law employs a more general "Catholic Education" as its focus, with "schools" being among the elements considered under Catholic education. Many canonists have pointed out that this was no accident. During the revision of the Code of Canon Law, the revision committees deliberately chose this broader title of "Catholic Education," fully knowing the significance of this change. Catholic schools, though undoubtedly vital in the life of the Church in the modern world, are not seen as the only means to foster Catholic education, but rather are among the means that foster Catholic education. In fact the Code, wanting to be absolutely clear on this point, saw it necessary to include an entirely new canon to emphasize this point:

Among the means to foster education, the Christian faithful are to hold schools in esteem; schools are the principal assistance to parents in fulfilling the function of education. (796 §1, emphasis added)

If any doubt still exists as to canon law's primary focus, the very first word under the first canon under the title of "Catholic Education," canon 793 §1, makes it clear: "parentes." Canon 793, before examining the role of schools or pastors or even bishops in Catholic education, begins the section with a forceful reminder: "Parents and those who take their place are bound by the obligation and possess the right of educating their offspring." It goes on to declare in no uncertain terms that:

Catholic parents also have the duty and right of choosing those means and institutions through which they can provide more suitably for the Catholic education of their children, according to local circumstances.

Under this canon, the right of Catholic parents to opt for home schooling as the means to provide for the Catholic education of their children is clearly protected. The canon declares that Catholic parents have the duty and the right to determine not only which institutions can help to provide for their children's Catholic education, but first and foremost, which means are the best means by which to accomplish this task. Catholic parents are well within their canonical rights to choose the institution of the family instead of the institution of the school to achieve this goal.

Pastors of souls should not be offended when parents choose home schooling to provide for the Catholic education of their children. Rather, they should feel proud that their teaching and pastoral leadership have fostered parents who take their Catholic faith and their vocational duties--especially the Catholic education of their children--seriously enough to make the often difficult decision to home school.

1 2