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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.