What to expect from the book

This book is designed to meet the needs of all with an interest in Catholic education in schools. This broad group includes school managers and those members of the Church who are charged with overseeing the operation of Catholic schools. The Church’s educational community is well served with a variety of writings on Catholic education’s role in the mission of the Church. The present volume recognises the contribution of this work to the general success of Catholic education globally.

Drawing on this vision, we suggest that a Catholic educational culture should focus on two key fields of action. First, it should seek to improve all forms of education by sharing its well-trodden tradition of educational thought with all who are concerned with good education. Catholic thinking on education, in keeping with the outward vision articulated by Gaudium et spes, is not designed simply as a guide for the operation of a Catholic educational system. Second, it should offer the Catholic school an opportunity to act differently from other schools and to engage fruitfully with, and ‘speak truth’ to, the modern state’s far-reaching network of educational agencies.