As the Director of Seton Home Study School, there are many happy moments, such as at our high school graduation, which give public evidence of the fact that the Faith still lives in young Catholic families. But there are difficult times at Seton, too. The most difficult is when I have a parent call and tell me that she has five children, and that all but the last child has lost the faith. She wants to enroll in Seton Home Study School to try to save her last child. Think about that for a moment. Of all the children given to this family, all but one has lost the faith. The parent understands that if she does the same things with this last child, that last child will be lost as well. "Help me save my last child," the mother pleads, sometimes sobbing!

I think the work that Christendom College (in Front Royal, VA) is doing is tremendous. It is training the leaders of the future. It is giving them a strong education in theology, and philosophy, and political science that is rarely available elsewhere.

But what I see at Seton, and what I am told by parents, is that countless numbers of children are lost before they ever make it to college. Without a grounding in the faith, starting at a very early age, and going through the high school years, these students will never have a chance to have a truly Catholic college education. They have been lost long before college.

When I was growing up in the 1950's, parents had little concern about turning their children over to others for their Catholic education. Even those who went to public school rather than parochial school could count on the society to reinforce most of their Christian faith. Even those who grew up with a merely superficial acceptance of the Faith were not likely to lose their faith in high school or college.

However, with just vague ideas about the faith and perhaps not living the faith as deeply as they should have, many parents of the l960's and l970's were ill-equipped to deal with the challenges. Society, even Catholic educators, started telling their children that the Catholic Faith was old-fashioned and useless and that they ought to find answers for themselves. Young people wanted answers and their parents, who weren't experienced in defending their faith, didn't readily have the answers. And so, many young people were lost. Without real understanding, how tenuous is our hold on that plank of faith that Pope Benedict mentions?

The Bible tells us that our attitude toward faith should be one of totality. In the Old Testament, parents are told to teach their children the faith when they got up and when they lay down and all the time in between. Besides formal teaching, the Church teaches there is also the necessity of daily example of living the life of holiness in the family. Our faith should be all around us, in what we see, in what we hear, in how we are spoken to, in what we listen to, in what we read, in how we dress, and in our manners and courtesy with each other.

One of the principles that we stress for our Seton families is living the liturgical year. The Church in its wisdom understands that our Faith should give structure to our daily lives. And so we have the seasons of Lent and Advent to anchor the year, and all the holydays and feasts of the saints to sacramentalize our lives. Feast days such as St. Patrick's Day, St. Valentine's Day and All Saints' Day are not merely excuses to throw a party or have a parade. They are truly part of our Catholic identity. They remind us what we believe and what our lives are about, in this world and in the next.

Another point we stress at Seton is Catholic art. The heritage of sacred art is so vast and so beautiful, yet we rarely see Catholic art outside of Church, and in many cases today, not even in Church. At Seton, we have made it a point in the books we publish to include great Catholic art, from Raphael and Fra Angelico and Murillo and Rubens and Rembrandt. In the days before printing presses, when the ordinary people did not have books to read, they learned their faith mainly through religious art. We believe that our Catholic children, and we ourselves, can come to love our Faith, and to draw closer to Jesus and Mary, through great religious art. In fact, without Jesus and his beautiful Blessed Immaculate Virgin Mother as inspirations of art, would there ever have been great art?

A family which is immersed in Catholic culture provides a home in which children have a real opportunity to learn the faith and to live the faith. Such a family is, in the words of the theologians a "domus ecclesia"-a domestic church. Such a family is a domestic church because it sanctifies and strengthens its members in the Faith.

The Church is clear in its documents, especially in the encyclical letter Christian Education of Youth. Pope Pius XI repeats the traditional teaching of the Church that all education should be permeated with Catholic teachings. It is based on these teachings of the Church that Seton has produced about 100 Catholic textbooks.

The late Father John Hardon said that times are coming when only extraordinary families will survive as Catholic families. I believe that the best way for families to become extraordinary, and to survive as Catholic families, is through home education. Catholic Home education gives a child the protected surroundings and space he needs to grow intellectually and spiritually, without constantly having to be on guard against the assaults of the secular world, without having to daily resist the popular classroom ideas against family, marriage, and children.

The Catholic home schooling movement is one of the great movements in history. Father Joseph Fessio, the founder of Ignatius Press, has likened the Catholic home schooling movement to the monasteries of Europe during the Middle Ages. The so-called Dark Ages following the fifth century were very similar to the age we are in now. The Roman Empire was invaded from without, and corrupted from within. >From the outside, the barbarians destroyed much of the civilization that had been built up by Rome. >From within, the Arian heresy, which denied the Divinity of Jesus, had damaged the Church beginning in the fourth century.

However, in the first half of the sixth century, God raised up St. Benedict, who established the first Benedictine monastery, followed by many more monasteries. These monasteries quickly spread throughout Europe, restoring the culture and making it Catholic.

At the height of the Middle Ages, there were 37,000 monasteries in Europe. The population of Europe at that time was about 25 million people, approximately one-tenth the current population of the United States. If the United States had the same proportionate number of monasteries, we would have 370,000 monasteries in this country, or about 1,000 monasteries in every American diocese.

We do not have that number of monasteries in our country today, but we do have the home schooling families who are preserving our Catholic Faith and our Catholic culture. One thousand Catholic home schooling families in each diocese would surely cause a cultural revolution in this country.

The monasteries grew throughout Europe because the people were attracted to what the monks had to offer. Those who saw how the monks lived, wanted to live that way themselves. Those who saw the faith and joy of the monks, wanted that faith and joy themselves.

Today, more and more people see Catholic home schooling families and realize that they want what those families have. They want that type of committed family and home life. They want that type of active faith. They want to know where to go and what to do with their lives.

What they see are Catholic home schooling families regularly receiving the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Penance, saying the daily Rosary, revolving their family life around the feasts of the liturgical year. They see Catholic home schooling families active in pro-life activities.

Catholic Home Schooling is not superficial to the life of the Family, Catholic Home Schooling is not superficial to the life of the Church, it is not superficial to the life of the nation. It is central. Catholic home schooling is a principal cause for hope to overcome the secular values of our society. Catholic Home Schooling is an important key to authentic Catholic renewal.

Finally, I would like to say a few words about Front Royal, Virginia. Within a stretch of about a mile in Front Royal are located the campus of Christendom College, as well as the world headquarters of Seton Home Study School and Human Life International. There are many stories about the origin of the name Front Royal. It is believed that during the Revolutionary War, when captains were mustering their troops, they called the men to "Front the Royal Oak Tree".

If we look carefully, however, there is another meaning for the term Front Royal. When a country is at war and the king has gone to battle, the area or "front" where the king is located to lead his soldiers, that area is called the Royal Front or Front Royale. So we believe it is no coincidence that Seton, Christendom, and Human Life International, certainly in the forefront of the Catholic battle against the secular culture, are to be found at the Front Royale. Because we are engaged in a battle royal, with the Heavenly King of Kings at our side.

St. Peter tells us to be ready to give reasons for the hope that is in us. If you would like to see more reasons for hope, I invite you to come to the Front Royale and visit us. You will find it is worth your effort to visit the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and drive down the stretch of road where Jesus Christ is King.

Praised be Jesus Christ.

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