Old and New (#36)

Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical On Christian Education, helps us connect our studies of today with what we have received from our Catholic heritage:

These noble traditions of the past require that the youth committed to Catholic schools be fully instructed in the letters and sciences in accordance with the exigencies of the times. They also demand that the doctrine imparted be deep and solid, especially in sound philosophy, avoiding the muddled superficiality of those "who perhaps would have found the necessary, had they not gone in search of the superfluous." In this connection Christian teachers should keep in mind what Leo XIII says...:
"Greater stress must be laid on the employment of apt and solid methods of teaching, and... on bringing into full conformity with the Catholic faith, what is taught in literature, in the sciences, and above all in philosophy, on which depends in great part the right orientation of the other branches of knowledge."