Divini Illius Magistri

Gustave Klimt (1862-1918)

Portrait of the Pianist and Piano Teacher Joseph Pembauer

Oil on canvas, 1890

27 1/8 x 21 5/8 inches (69 x 55 cm)

Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck

On 31st December 1929, Pope Pius XI issued his Encyclical on Catholic Education Divini Illius Magistri

In these days of financial crisis and cutbacks it is still a useful and important document.

I notice from the American religious blogs that members of the United States Supreme Court recently attended the Red Mass prior to the opening of the Court Term.

Which brings up the subject of Divini Ilius Magistri again.

Is this the only Papal Encyclical to cite and quote with approval from a judgement of the United States Supreme Court ?

"37. This incontestable right of the family has at various times been recognized by nations anxious to respect the natural law in their civil enactments. Thus, to give one recent example, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, in a decision on an important controversy, declared that it is not in the competence of the State to fix any uniform standard of education by forcing children to receive instruction exclusively in public schools, and it bases its decision on the natural law: the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to educate him and prepare him for the fulfillment of his obligations.[28]

...

Footnote 28. "The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to recognize, and prepare him for additional duties." U.S. Supreme Court Decision in the Oregon School Case, June 1, 1925."

For the Oregon School Case (Walter M. Pierce vs. The Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary) SEE HERE.