Monday, August 25, 2008
Vidal urges schools to give room for academic freedom, teach truth
WHILE denying that Catholic schools convert or “proselytize members for the Church,” Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal asked that they be unashamed in proclaiming Jesus’ truth.
He said the words while celebrating mass during the Sacred Heart School-Jesuit (SHS-J) Canduman, Mandaue City campus inauguration yesterday morning, which President Gloria Arroyo attended.
“(A Catholic school) is not an institution of propaganda or mind control; nor is it an enterprise of profit and business,” Vidal said during the homily attended by politicians and businessmen, who were all SHS-J alumni.
Teachers and an estimated 1,500 students, who numbered more than half of the school’s population, assembled for the mass, which was held in a covered court.
Aside from Arroyo, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district), Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes, and businessmen Bobby and Andoni Aboitiz and Mario King were also around.
Though he was not present, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is among the school’s notable graduates.
Vidal reminded the SHS-J board, officials and students, that they must measure success by the “moral quality of its (school) alumni,” not “by the breadth of its campus or the number of its topnotchers”.
Saying this, he challenged the school to guide students in forming good conscience, as he warned that official Church teachings must prevail over opinion.
In particular, he said, “Catholic schools must not present controversies regarding morality as if they are still issues to be debated.”
He hailed the “critical thinking” and “academic freedom” that he said are common in Catholic schools like SHS-J.
After her arrival, Arroyo pulled the rope on a velvet-draped stand at the main lobby, parting the curtains that revealed the school’s marker.
With Fr. Ernesto Javier, SHS-J director, Arroyo then marveled at the glass-enclosed miniature of a completed SHS-J campus.
The president toured the still unfinished 8.5-hectare campus after the blessing and inauguration. (KAB)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 25, 2008 issue)
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