Opinion: Why Catholic schools need Catholic teachers

If a Catholic school is serious about forming Catholic students, it must be equally serious about hiring Catholic teachers.

That shouldn’t be controversial. But in many circles, sometimes even within Catholic education itself, it is. There remains a strange reluctance among some Catholic institutions to affirm what should be self-evident: that Catholic identity begins with Catholic people. You cannot transmit what you do not live.

As St. John Henry Newman wrote, “practically speaking,” education becomes corrupted when it is separated from faith and fails to provide students with moral and personal formation; therefore, “the Church is necessary for its integrity.”

For Catholic schools, this means that faithful Catholic teachers are essential.

Hiring an all-Catholic faculty is not about discrimination but about mission. It’s about ensuring that a school’s Catholic identity is not just a decorative slogan, but the very culture that students breathe.

Pope Benedict XVI said, “The goal of all education, and in particular of Catholic education, is to form men and women who are committed to the truth, who are saints in the making.” It follows, then, that teachers must be models of sanctity, fidelity, and joy. They must speak from the heart of the Church and carry a unified vision of truth.

This doesn’t mean teachers must be perfect, but it does mean they must be faithful. The idea that a teacher’s personal faith is irrelevant to their subject matter has no place in a Catholic school. Every discipline, from theology to science, touches on questions of truth, meaning, beauty, and the nature of the human person.

In a school rooted in its Catholic mission, students learn to see the world with sacramental eyes. Math is not just numbers; it is the ordered logic of the Creator. History is not merely a timeline; it is the unfolding of Divine Providence. And the teacher is not merely an instructor but a witness, and that witness must be Catholic.

Faculty who love the Church and live their faith with joy are not just giving lectures; they are giving testimony. Their presence reinforces what is taught in class, what students do in the chapel, and what is modeled in a school’s culture.

When that faith is absent (for example, when a teacher dissents from the Church’s teachings or simply ignores them), a certain theological dissonance enters the classroom. Students notice. Over time, they begin to compartmentalize: theology on one side, “real life” on the other.

We cannot afford that split. Not today.

In 2025, the Church continues to hemorrhage young people. The next generation is growing up in a society flooded with moral confusion, digital noise, and cultural loneliness. If Catholic schools don’t form students in conviction and clarity, secular ideologies are ready to fill the void.

An all-Catholic faculty is not a silver bullet, but it is a kind of spiritual shield. It helps create the conditions under which authentic formation can take root. It sends a clear message: the people shaping students’ minds and hearts believe what they teach. They live it. They love it. Their lives reflect the freedom and joy of truth.

Some argue that requiring all faculty to be Catholic limits the hiring pool or stifles diversity of thought. But Catholic education does not exist for the sake of diversity; it exists for the sake of truth. The mission of a Catholic school is not to reflect every ideology or cultural trend. It is to form men and women of holiness, wisdom, and authentic freedom.

As St. John Paul II wrote in Veritatis Splendor, “freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” That kind of freedom requires fidelity. It requires teachers who are ordered toward the truth, not just intellectually, but personally.

Thankfully, there are schools that embody this well. Many of the institutions recommended in The Cardinal Newman Society’s Newman Guide uphold these ideals in amazing ways. Some require every faculty member to sign an oath of fidelity to the Magisterium. Others build their school culture around daily Mass, prayer, and ongoing formation.

These schools are thriving, not only in academic performance but also in spiritual vitality. Their students don’t simply memorize catechism answers; they internalize them. And when they graduate, they are far more likely to remain Catholic due to their holistic Catholic formation.

So yes, Catholic schools should hire only Catholic faculty. Not out of fear, but out of love: love for students, who deserve teachers who speak truth without compromise. Love for the Church, which deserves institutions that are fully hers. Love for the mission, because Catholic education is not ultimately about college prep; it is about souls.

We need joyful, bold, faithful educators. We need saints in the classroom. And they have to be Catholic.