Our faith in the Incarnation leads us to believe that God means to give substance and life to the whole of human culture. For we know that a vigorous Catholic culture can arise only in proportion to our wisdom in answering that question. Catholic education is the comprehensive system of interior formation which is ordered throughout by the concept and confidence in the Incarnation. The mystery of the Incarnation itself rests on an orderly sense of Creation and the confidence it gives is sustained in the face of sin by faith in the mystery of the Cross of Jesus. Some of this formation is pursued directly by giving information about the interior life, first of all about faith.
Theology is the intellectual expression of matters of faith.
Wisdom admonishes us to impart this information in such an attractive manner that students will open their hearts as well as their minds, and allow themselves to be formed by it. In a lesser sense, psychology and philosophy are also formative disciplines, especially when they are pursued in the light of faith. In various other disciplines, mental formation is pursued indirectly as we obtain in formation about the world about us. It should be clearly understood, however, that all in formation is form ative. In particular, it is important that general secular studies be pursued so as to help the student acquire an orderly understanding of the world.