Catholic Homeschooling: Supported by U.S. and Canon Law

June 28, 2024 685 Views

Summary

Deacon McGuirk shows how Canon Law and U.S. Organic Law support the right and duty of parents to choose the means for their children’s Catholic education.

Two Pillars of Homeschooling

Building his case on two prominent pillars of strength, Deacon McGuirk makes the case that Catholic homeschooling conforms to Canon Law and the laws of the United States.

The Organic Laws of the U.S.A.

An act of Congress in 1873 defined four documents as the Organic Laws of the United States of America.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, organic laws are “the body of laws (as in a constitution or charter) that form the original foundation of a government.”[i]

In the 1873 Act of the Revised Statues of the United States, Congress declared the following four historical documents to be the Organic Laws of the United States of America. These four documents are:

The Declaration of Independence,
The Articles of Confederation,
The Northwest Ordinance,
The Constitution of the United States[ii]

The Declaration of Independence proclaims the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Under the Constitution, the Supreme Court used this precedent in its ruling on Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923). “According to the Court, the liberty protected by the due process clause includes the right of a person to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”[iii]

Notice the important liberties enumerated by the Court that apply to homeschooling. First is the right “to marry, establish a home, and bring up children.” Homeschooling is done by families in their established homes to help them raise their children.

Homeschooling is their chosen way to help their children “to acquire useful knowledge,” especially knowledge about their faith in God and how properly “to worship God according to the dictates of (their) own conscience(s).”

All of this so their family can “enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.” It is as if the Court decision was written to protect homeschooling in America.

Canon Law of the Catholic Church

The Canon Law of the Catholic Church has even more direct support for homeschooling. Paragraph 1 of Can. 793 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states, “Parents and those who take their place are bound by the obligation and possess the right of educating their offspring. Catholic parents also have the duty and right of choosing those means and institutions through which they can provide more suitably for the Catholic education of their children, according to local circumstances.”[iv]

Note that this Canon addresses all parents, Catholic or otherwise:

“Parents and those who take their place are bound by the obligation and possess the right of educating their offspring.” This Church law includes all parents and all education. The qualifier of “those who take their place” means official, legal substitutes, like court-appointed guardians. It does not mean the babysitter or the D.R.E. We can be certain of this because the following sentence specifically addresses Catholic parents and the Catholic education of the children. “Catholic parents also have the duty and right of choosing those means and institutions through which they can provide more suitably for the Catholic education of their children, according to local circumstances.”

The Right to a Catholic Education

Canon Law supports the compatibility of Catholic homeschooling with the Organic Laws of the United States. It states that parents have the right and even the duty to choose the means and institutions to provide a Catholic education for their children. This includes the choice of books and school programs like Seton Home Study School.

In the case of homeschooling, the Church and the Organic Laws of the United States align, reinforcing the compatibility of Catholic homeschooling with both sets of laws.

Footnotes:

[i]https://www.merriam-webster.com/legal/organic%20law, [ii]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/organic_law/, [iii]https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/meyer-v-nebraska/, [iv]https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib3-cann793-821_en.html