This brief paragraph kicks off a subsection that deals with Catholic educational institutions. The Aparecida bishops begin here with a succinct statement on the mission of the Church:
331. The primary mission of the Church is to announce the Gospel in such a fashion as to assure the relationship between faith and life in the individual person and in the socio-cultural setting in which people live, act, and interrelate. Thus it strives to transform through the power of the Gospel, mankind’s criteria of judgment, determining values, points of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of life, which are in contrast with the Word of God and the plan of salvation.(Evangelii Nuntiandi 19)
The whole evangelical impulse is an effort to permit faith to be lived out in the context of each Christian’s life. In order to be faithful to the Church’s mission therefore, Catholic schools serve to form people to be transformative elements in the culture–where we live, work, play, learn, and do all the things that make us both human and Christian. Institutional elements that do not forward this mission are peripheral to the cause. If they get in the way, they may need to be set aside. If they are sinful, they need to be cut out and abolished.
For deeper examination, an English translation of the 2007 document from the Aparecida Conference.
Catholic Sensibility 