Applied Catholic Social Teaching: Preferential option for the poor and Catholic schools

Many of the Catholic schools established in the nineteenth century had an explicit mission to the poor. This mission was integral to the aims of Catholic schools, aims that included promoting literacy and numeracy and ensuring the inculcation of the Catholic faith and culture in further generations. By the late twentieth century, care for the poor and the preferential option for the poor described the mission to the poor in Catholic schools. The term the preferential option for the poor originated in Liberation Theology within a very specific sociological and ecclesial context, but the understanding of the term deepened as a key theme in Catholic social teaching. This article examines some key Vatican documents on Catholic education in the Conciliar and post Conciliar period and focuses on the strengths and limitations of the vision and implementation of the care for the poor or preferential option for Catholic schools.