In the United States, the Archdiocese of Newark, in New Jersey, has taken advantage of the start of the 2026-2027 school year to recall the role of parents in the Christian formation of their children and the importance of ensuring that the education received at school and in the parish also continues at home.
Family prayer, Sunday Mass, sacramental life, formation in the virtues, and attention to the spiritual development of children are part of ¡La fe vive en casa! | Regreso a Clases, a resource published by the Archdiocese’s Office of Ongoing Faith Formation on the occasion of the return to the classroom. The initiative coincides with the recent reminder from Leo XIV that parents are the “first responsible for the education in the faith of their children.”
The family, “the first place of formation in the faith”
During his pastoral visit to San Marino on August 22, Leo XIV addressed priests, catechists, and educators and placed their work as a support to the educational responsibility that belongs first and foremost to families.
Parents are, the Pontiff affirmed, the “first responsible for the education in the faith of their children.”
“The family, in fact, is the first place of formation in the faith, the natural womb in which the Gospel, from childhood, is learned and breathed daily,” the Pope added, calling for strengthened collaboration between families and ecclesial communities.
The same principle is contained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which describes the right and duty of parents in the education of their children as “primary and inalienable.” It also notes that education in the faith begins from early childhood and that family catechesis “precedes, accompanies, and enriches” other forms of religious instruction.
The faith within the routines of the school year
The initiative of the Archdiocese of Newark translates these principles into the usual circumstances of the beginning of classes, when family schedules are once again organized around school, work, and extracurricular activities.
The material proposes incorporating simple habits of prayer into these routines and pays special attention to Sunday Mass, given the possibility that sports, academic, or social commitments may also end up occupying Sunday.
Among the proposals are also various sacramental and devotional practices linked to the start of the school year, such as going to Confession as a family, participating in a Holy Hour, receiving a blessing for the new academic year, or choosing a saint to accompany students throughout the year.
The guide mentions, among other possible models, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Saint Carlo Acutis.
The virtues beyond grades
Newark’s proposal also dedicates space to the formation of virtues in school life. Alongside academic or athletic performance, it suggests that families pay attention to aspects such as effort, honesty, kindness, humility, patience, or generosity.
The usual situations at school—the relationship with classmates, difficulties, successes, or failures—appear in the material as opportunities to talk about the faith and its connection to daily life.
The proposed questions vary according to age. With younger children, they may focus, for example, on how they treated a classmate or how they faced a difficulty, while with teenagers and university students they expand to their relationships, decisions, and the way they live their Christian identity.
The approach is based on the idea that religious formation is not limited to catechesis or specific moments of prayer, but also extends to the ordinary circumstances that are part of the education and growth of children.
The role of parents before the educational center
The guide also addresses the relationship of families with the school. Among its proposals is getting to know the teachers and making present from the beginning of the school year the educational criteria and expectations of the family.
Also in this area, the Catechism recognizes parents’ fundamental right to choose a school in accordance with their own convictions and indicates that, as far as possible, they should opt for those institutions that can help them in their responsibility as Christian educators.
The question of the role of parents in education has recently resurfaced in various European countries. In Poland, the bishops have called for respect for the rights of families in the face of changes introduced in Religion classes and the new Health Education. In Germany, for their part, several families have questioned before ecclesiastical authorities the framework of sex education applied in Catholic schools in Hamburg.
With the beginning of the new school year, Newark’s proposal thus recovers a teaching repeatedly affirmed by the Church: parishes, catechists, and schools participate in the Christian formation of children and young people, while the family constitutes their first sphere of transmission of the faith, as Leo XIV recalled last August in San Marino.