“In this regard it is important that the natural and thus essential relationship between parents and their children be affirmed and supported, not undermined.”
Alex Newman
The New American
03 May 2012
As some totalitarian-minded governments escalate their attacks on parental rights and homeschooling, the Vatican’s delegation to the United Nations called on the world to respect families, the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their children, and non-governmental forms of education. The Holy See’s representatives also called on governments last week to stop indoctrinating the youth.
Noting that there are around 250,000 Catholic schools around the globe, the Church’s permanent observer mission to the UN said its religious educational institutions are there to help. Parents, meanwhile, “have the right and duty to choose schools inclusive of homeschooling, and they must possess the freedom to do so, which in turn, must be respected and facilitated by the State.”
Analysts heralded the strongly worded diplomatic statement to the UN as a “significant victory” for parental rights worldwide. Of course, there are well over 1 billion Catholics in the world today — about 20 percent of humanity — so when the Holy See says something, people and governments tend to listen. And those on the front lines of the battle for educational freedom celebrated the news.
“That’s huge,” media relations director Jeremiah Lorrig with the U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) told LifeSiteNews.com. “Having the support of the Vatican ambassador would invaluable to the homeschool movement.”
Seton Home Study School, America’s largest provider of Catholic homeschooling materials, applauded the Holy See’s statement as well. “This is really a huge step, not just from the point of view of the U.N., but from the point of view of the Vatican,” it said in an online posting. “The term ‘homeschool’ isn’t used much, if at all, in official Vatican documents, and this statement is a big show of support for homeschoolers around the world.”
The Church was responding to a troubling trend: there is a growing number of anti-freedom politicians around the globe who are becoming increasingly hostile to alternative education and the traditional role of families in raising the next generation. And Catholics and other Christians — often the victims of the persecution — have long said that tough measures to preserve freedom are sorely needed…
The article continues at The New American
