Catholics attending Protestant School.. thoughts?

  • Thread starter Thread starter OrbisNonSufficit
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
O

OrbisNonSufficit

Guest
Hey everyone, I am not entirely sure if I chose correct category for this topic but I surely hope so.

Anyway, while I got to this question because of certain situation some family members are in, I am asking mostly for general view… in the end I have little to do with their situation and I do not have authority to meddle in. Yet, I couldn’t help but notice couple of things…

My Godmother/Aunt is Catholic. I wouldn’t call her practicing entirely, but occasionally she does receive Eucharist and Sacraments. She also seems to be concerned about some things connected to faith. Her husband (my unofficial Godfather since the were not married during my baptism, but my official Confirmation Sponsor) is grandchild of Eastern Catholic Priest. He seems to practice faith in similar manner to his wife. They have 2 daughters of age 20 and 14, as well as one son of age 8.

Couple years back, they chose to put their children into private Evangelical School. They have extensive religion classes and I actually think the older two did learn something about the faith (though they do reject being Christian in any way). Problem I see is with youngest one. When I was young I might not have been raised in the faith, but I had basics and I had sacraments. I attended Catholic religious education etc. He does not have such luck. I know roughly what School teaches about Church History from older two because we used to debate a lot… and Reformation stuff they teach seems to be quite biased (and while I can’t say it was not biased in my completely secular school, this seems a bit worse).

When we were at funeral I noticed difference between how my cousin (their youngest son) prays our Father and how confused he is by Rosary. All in all, I cam to conclusion that this could in the end have negative effect on him because he is baptized as Catholic. I am unsure what will they do with his first communion either.

Anyway, my main point is that in schools of other faith, one learns from their point of view. Especially since Protestantism is somewhat opposed to Catholic doctrines, this situation seems very dangerous to faith of individual- especially when we talk about little children. What is your opinion on this? Do you have similar experiences? I don’t imagine Church forbids this nowadays, but is there anything that suggests this is not prudent in eyes of the Church?

Thank you in advance, God bless you all.
 
Last edited:
Honestly, this isn’t ideal. All things being equal, I would rather send my kid to an average public school than a protestant school, or homeschool.

However, I also think it is very subjective.

First, not every parent/child has what it takes to properly homeschool.

If the public school is very bad (I mean spiritually - not academically), then a protestant school might be a better option. Also, if a the local Catholic school is very heretical, a protestant school might be a better option too (eps if the local public school is horrible).

If a Catholic parent sends their kids to a protestant school, then they better have a very active Catholic prayer life at home. If they don’t, then the kids will leave the Catholic faith.

Anyway, in general, I think Catholics should avoid sending their kids to protestant schools. But I can see a FEW ISOLATED SITUATIONS (esp in the inner cities and/or extreme far-left suburbs) where BOTH the local public & Catholic school might be so bad that sending the child to a protestant school would be unavoidable.
 
Last edited:
It would be better to homeschool him instead of sending him to a Protestant school.
 
Margaret_Ann said:
It would be better to homeschool him instead of sending him to a Protestant school.
Click to expand...
That is probably the case, yet I doubt he could not attend other school. When his older sisters got into the school, my Godparents formed pretty close relations with the school and are friendly. My Godmother is now also involved with school in her job and as such decided to put him there… it wasn’t for lack of other options for sure.
phil19034 said:
Anyway, in general, I think Catholics should avoid sending their kids to protestant schools. But I can see a FEW ISOLATED SITUATIONS (esp in the inner cities and/or extreme far-left suburbs) where BOTH the local public & Catholic school might be so bad that sending the child to a protestant school would be unavoidable.
Click to expand...
I quite agree. Of course world isn’t just black and white, but there need to be some very specific circumstances to endanger someone’s faith.
 
It isn’t always a problem.

Where I am, Anglican and Presbyterian schools are almost all ‘private’ (fee paying) and so they provide a very good education with a lot of opportunities.

Catholic schools here are not private, but funded by the state (unlike in America and other countries).

I went to an Anglican school for the purpose of the education and opportunities. I don’t see any problem with that. Others might.
 
catholic03 said:
I went to an Anglican school for the purpose of the education and opportunities. I don’t see any problem with that. Others might.
Click to expand...
I see. Thank you for feedback. Just out of curiosity, if you had Religious education, did you ever need to act as Anglican rather than Catholic in there? Though it is true that Anglicans are “motley” group and some are very close to Catholics I guess…
 
We did have limited religious education. We had to attend a ‘Chapel Service’ once per week, which was simply the Anglican priest talking about the Bible, Jesus, and how to imitate him. I was aged 10-13 when I was at this school so I can’t remember any theologically questionable assertions, but there may have been some.

There were other Catholics at the school, and they were very respectful of non Anglicans.

Most people there weren’t actually Anglican. Most people just attended because their parents could afford to send them and they wanted their child to have the best education possible. My youngest brother currently attends that school.

I enjoyed my time there, but I would think that if I had children, they would go to a Catholic school.
 
Last edited:
catholic03 said:
There were other Catholics at the school, and they were very respectful of non Anglicans.

Most people there weren’t actually Anglican. Most people just attended because their parents could afford to send them and they wanted their child to have the best education possible. My youngest brother currently attends that school.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Evangelical Christians are quite the minority in our country, and while Evangelicals who are very convinced about their religion attend those schools, majority of students are indifferent to religion from my experience. For those, learning about Reformation from Evangelical viewpoint is nothing that much different… but for Catholics I would imagine that this is somewhat different. They also attend Services during day and pray together (which is a good thing), but sometimes those Services offer Communion and he technically should not receive that as a Catholic… oh well.
catholic03 said:
I enjoyed my time there, but I would think that if I had children, they would go to a Catholic school.
Click to expand...
I have very similar view. In the very least I would not send them to other school than Catholic or secular. We had Evangelical teacher of History in our secular school, but she did nice job explaining Conciliarism vs Ultramontanism and other stuff without bias. Reformation was handled as it was in the book (not perfect imo, but in the end there was no real bias from her). She actually made us fill out paper about difference between Catholicism-Orthodoxy and two branches of Protestantism. I was just in part of my life where I started attending Mass alone and knew essentially nothing about those things, so that was helpful. Then I once found an anti-Papacy error in one of books different Professor wrote (I do suppose he is Jehovah’s Witness or something very sectarian) wrote and she told me that while she is not expert on the topic, she does think I am correct 😃 so she was very nice.
But Priests and Catechists who taught us Religious Education were amazing. I remember many things from those lessons, despite not being religious at the time. I actually started going to Mass because we had religious education with one amazing Priest… so secular school helped me with my faith essentially 😃 oh and somehow half the class was from Catholic Basic School nearby (elementary and then up to 9th grade in our school system).
 
Last edited:
I live in a country where non religious people are the majority. Catholics and Anglicans used to be almost everyone in the country but Christians are only about 40 percent of the population now.

I attend a secular secondary school currently.
 
Last edited:
catholic03 said:
I live in a country where non religious people are the majority. Catholics and Anglicans used to be almost everyone in the country but Christians are only about 40 percent of the population now.
Click to expand...
Well, here most population professes to be Catholic but it is more of a thing of culture and tradition. Based on statistics alone Catholics are majority but Churches aren’t as full as they once were. Churches are full of older generation… yet when you see someone younger who is in the Church, their beliefs are very sincere. It always makes me happy to see those people.

Though, I am studying at university right now and I found out that many of people from my country are actually religious there. They even formed their “club” and there are Masses in our language each week. It is pretty nice.
catholic03 said:
I attend a secular secondary school currently.
Click to expand...
Good luck then! 🙂 Cherish these moments, I really miss my secondary school now 😃 not saying university is bad or something, but there are things I haven’t valued before and I miss them now. God bless you in your journey.
 
It is a bad idea. The kids are left confused and unsure. What device did the serpent use against Adam and Eve? Doubt, uncertainty. . . .
 
Last edited:
I’m in America and don’t have children, but in America I would be afraid what an Evangelical School would teach my child. Like will they be watching videos of Jerry Falwell and the Fundamentals? Will even the theology of the Bible be correct? Will they spend inordinate times on Fire and Brimstone, Hell and the Devil? Will they be concerned about an elect? Will they end up learning Calvinism or Prosperity Gospel?

I’m not big on science, but I would like them to learn science as separate from religion. I also want them to learn governance as separation of Church and State. I want them to learn History without a religious perspective. The Founding Forefathers of America were primarily Deist. I’d like them to see the Salem Witch Trials as a cult gone wrong that the government had to intervene. I want them to know Manifest Destiny was wrong and lead to the Trail of Tears…etc…

But again, I’m in America I don’t know what Evangelicals are like in your country. I don’t have children but no way would I want them in an Evangelical School.
 
I think it very much depends on the quality of the education they would receive. In my city, the catholic school is very good as are the public schools. This may not be the case elsewhere. The evangelical schools are terrible. Besides doing their best to keep out Hispanics, they also have no ability to educate the learning disabled, the physically disabled or the advanced student. Their science curriculum is terribly deficient and their testing scores are ok for English and low on math.

But, that’s my city and it could be the opposite elsewhere. Besides doing the research of test scores and asking parents their thoughts, a visit will show if they seem inclusive, engage the kids well and have a representative mix of minorities for your area.
 
There is a reason that there are Catholic schools in the United States.
 
I had to do a double-take. I couldn’t believe I read what I did the first time.
 
OrbisNonSufficit said:
What is your opinion on this? Do you have similar experiences?
Click to expand...
Each denominations teach religious understanding based on scriptures.
Every denomination has a fellowship .
Understanding what is decipleship is all about . depends what group you join
 
The vast majority of non-liturgical Protestant, Evangelical, Fundamentalist or Non-Denominational Christian Schools in the US exist to raise up good children trained in their version of Christianity.
They will accept your Catholic kids, and be happy about it because they can then get your kids saved, they will be a missionary project.

Most have a Statement of Faith that a Catholic cannot in good conscience sign. All I have seen have some form of Sola Scriptura phrasing.

Private schools run by liturgical non-Catholic denominations (Anglican, Episcopal, some Lutheran or Methodist, etc.) will respect your family’s Catholic beliefs and work to accomodiate.
 
TheLittleLady said:
The vast majority of non-liturgical Protestant, Evangelical, Fundamentalist or Non-Denominational Christian Schools in the US exist to raise up good children trained in their version of Christianity.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
TheLittleLady said:
They will accept your Catholic kids, and be happy about it because they can then get your kids saved, they will be a missionary project.
Click to expand...
IMHO, disagree.
TheLittleLady said:
Private schools run by liturgical non-Catholic denominations (Anglican, Episcopal, some Lutheran or Methodist, etc.) will respect your family’s Catholic beliefs and work to accomodiate.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top