As institutions commissioned by the Church to minister the salvation of Jesus Christ, Catholic schools have the sacred duty to give a counter-cultural witness of the Gospel in a world that has lost a sense of the sacred. We do so by instilling in our young people a sense of wonder for human life, the type of wonder that allows life to be seen as a gift, not an obstacle, nor a burden or problem to be solved. This is accomplished when we aid students in their formation to be able to "see reality as it truly is," and "To embrace the mystery, the beauty, the wonder of existence itself."

For the Church, “in fact, the service of the teacher is an ecclesiastical munus and office (cf. can145 and 936)” (#45) with particular canonical (Church law) duties, among which is the requirement to “be outstanding in correct doctrine and integrity of life (can 639, 803),” (#47). If this is the standard by which we are called to understand the mission and ‘job’ of the Catholic educator, then it stands to reason that the Dicastery would note that the role of the educator “cannot be reduced to professionalism alone, for the life of the Catholic teacher must be marked by an exercise of a personal vocation in the Church and not simply by the exercise of a profession,” (#24).

The "telos" of Catholic education stands in stark contrast to that of modern, mainstream education, which has defined its highest purpose as the human centric pursuit of personal and societal progress and freedom devoid of any orienting truth. It is in this context thus, as we hear from the Vatican’s document, that we come to recognize the great duty we have to educate and give witness to a radically different vision for education for our modern times, one that we believe is best for the world.