unbeatable

Two and a half centuries after Marquis de Pombal took schools and universities away from the Church, which had created them, and put them under the control and influence of the secular state, the Church remains the best educational institution in the country.

.

This seems like a mystery and the question that arises is thus the following: is the Catholic Church unbeatable as an educational institution? The answer is: most likely it is. To understand this we must first understand the reasons that led early Christians to set up the Catholic Church. And the first and by far the most important of these reasons was that Christianity needed a teaching institution.

.

From the begining the Catholic Church is first and foremost a teaching institution. If God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to teach men the way to salvation it seems unlikely that he would have liked his teachings to be restricted to his generation only. An institution was thus needed to spread his teachings throughout the World and throughout the ages and the Catholic Church was such an institution.

.

Thus when governments and private companies enter the business of teaching in competition with the Church they are doomed to lose. First, because they are competing with the older, the most experienced, the teaching institution par excellence of our civilization. Where governments and private companies in the field of education are still experimenting with and searching for the best teaching methods, techniques and curricula, the Church has already experimented with them all and knows the solutions that others are still looking for.

.

Second and more important, teachers in government schools answer to the minister of education and ultimately, under democratic conditions, to public opinion which is the opinion of the average man. In the case of schools held by private firms, teachers answer to their CEO's who, in turn, answer to shareholders who are still common men. By contrast, Church teachers answer to the Pope who ultimately answers to God, that is, to Truth.

.

This is the main reason why the Church is unbeatable in educational matters. Not only in teaching as such but in scientific research as well. Her teachers and researchers answer ultimately to truth whereas their counterparts in government and private firms' educational and research institutions answer ultimately to the interests of the common man.