Education in Perula Orientis
by Daniel Tyler Chua
Catholic educational institutions in the Philippines are experiencing a very serious crisis.
While they seek to form the next generation of Catholic leaders who can build the social kingdom of Christ in their families, communities, and country, producing not only professionally excellent graduates, but saints committed toward the common good, they have in many ways fallen short.
While many graduates from Catholic educational institutions end up in positions of great influence and power, structures of injustice and sin continue to abound and continue to grow stronger day by day. One may point to the fact that graduates of Catholic educational institutions end up becoming purveyors of sin themselves, whether in government, the workplace, or even in their personal lives.
It is tempting to say that these graduates simply forgot the values they learned in school; however, the problem goes deeper:
Catholic educational institutions prepare Filipinos to operate the very structures of sin they condemn.
The same System that provides obstacles, tollhouses, and red tape for small businessmen, informal workers, and provincial families also provides young, educated Catholics with enough know-how to operate it, enough comfort to remain in it, and enough conscience to legitimize it. The “job market” that gives universities their market value is integrated into this System.
The crisis is also intellectual.
Students are often taught to interpret Catholic doctrine through narratives that legitimize the same “powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency” (St. John Paul II, Evangelium vitae, 12).
This is worsened by what Benedict XVI called to as “the excessive segmentation of knowledge,” especially between science and theology, which makes it “harder to see the integral good of man in its various dimensions” (Caritas in veritate, 31).
It is therefore not surprising that many Catholic educational institutions have now been infected with ideological currents contrary to the teachings of the Church, but which are conducive for the System’s particular goals.
Hence, instead of transforming the world, Catholic education risks being transformed by the world.
In other words:
Catholic educational institutions depend on the same System that produces the injustices and structures of sin they condemn;
Catholic educational institutions tend to interpret the Catholic faith and life through narratives which reinforce the System; and
people who go to top Catholic schools and universities do so in order to become comfortable (highly paid) employees of the System.
As a result:
many graduates of Catholic educational institutions only superficially absorb the spiritual and doctrinal formation provided, and their Catholic life is significantly diluted;
many graduates of Catholic educational institutions do not know how to properly build or embody the common good according to Catholic social doctrine, even within their own families; and
many anti-Catholic practices and ideologies, under a false sense of progress, are now actively encouraged even in Catholic educational institutions insofar as they are useful for the System.
Can we save Catholic schools?
Not by conventional means.
Catholic educational institutions do not exist in a bubble. They depend both on the general educational agenda set by the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education as well as the priorities of the job market, which often determines the priorities of the student market.
The reason why top Catholic institutions enjoy their dominant status (and are rewarded by enrollments) is because they provide quality professional training for the job market. This job market, however, is dominated by structures of sin. Hence, Catholic educational institutions materially depend upon these structures of sin for their continued role in Philippine education.
Hence, in order to resolve this problem, we must find a way to insulate Catholic education from its role in the System, which means working on a different paradigm altogether.
This is where we step in.
Perula Orientis provides a supplementary, whole-person education to capable people who seek to embody the common good according to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Our education is supplementary, because it goes beyond what people usually learn in school. It is whole-person, because it seeks to help its members love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love their neighbor as themselves.
What sets us apart?
While other institutions do say that they seek to “form men and women for life rather than the workplace,” Perula Orientis actually does so by bringing together people who already have careers and educational attainments but seek to pursue higher things.
Moreover, because we are not a degree granting institution, we have absolute freedom to come up with our own course of studies without the external interference of the State.
Why should we care?
As children of God blessed with many privileges, talents, and opportunities, we have a duty before Him to perfect our own nature and help others to do the same (Leo XIII, Rerum novarum, 22).
Our happiness does not lie in honors, achievements, or pleasures of this world, but only in the vision of God: “the glory of God is living man, but the life of man is the vision of God” (St. Irenaeus).
But we can only come to the vision of God by fulfilling, through His grace, the two greatest commandments: to love the Lord our God, with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with our whole mind, and with our whole strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mk 12,30—31).
Hence, we have a special duty to put all that we have and are to the service of God and neighbor. But due to the sheer gravity and difficulty of this task, we must help one another in its fulfilment.
Hence, Perula Orientis was formed in order to provide its members with the necessary support so that they can effectively live out their noble calling together with others.
How do we achieve this?
Find out by clicking the button below.