DESPITE SOLID CATHOLIC religious instruction, many parents are disappointed to find that when their child enters college, their faith falls apart like a broken Rosary.
According to Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ, founder of the Magis Institute for Reason and Faith — the seeds of doubt begin much earlier, by age 13 or before. Fr. Spitzer doesn’t want to wait until senior year to provide Catholic high schoolers with the tools they need to step out into a world hostile to faith.
Fr. Spitzer has dedicated the past 20 years to the Magis Institute’s efforts to prove to high school and college students the connection and interdependence of Scientific reason and Faith in God.
“The number one reason children abandon their faith is that they believe that faith conflicts with science and reason,” he said.
Now, Fr. Spitzer is bringing reason and faith to middle school, where children start to question everything, including the existence of God. Pax Christi Academies, a newly formed collaborative group of five Catholic K-8 schools serving neighborhoods in north and central Orange County, is collaborating with Fr. Spitzer to implement the curriculum for its middle school students.
“In our studies,” he shared,” we have learned that among high school seniors, 83% of students can hold onto their faith when they leave home if they take our course in reason and faith. We are now taking this to the middle school students because a 13-year-old doesn’t believe until you have enough evidence to increase their belief.”
According to Pax Christi’s president Dr. Christina Arellano, Ed. D, “Pax Christi is choosing Fr. Spitzer’s curriculum’s holistic approach that integrates faith, \ science and philosophy in a way that resonates with Catholic teaching.”
Pax Christi Academies will soon incorporate this specialized curriculum for grades six to eight are La Purísima, Orange; St. Justin Martyr, Anaheim; and in Santa Ana, St. Anne, St. Barbara and St. Joseph.
La Purísima is launching this curriculum in the spring and all five schools will be launching it next year.
The course covers four categories. The first is to integrate faith and science. It is commonly thought that to be a scientist is to reject theism. But the facts don’t bear this out. While 51% of scientists are atheists, the next generation of young scientists, 66%, are more inclined to be believers. Of the 30 most influential scientists in history, 22 were believers in God.
Fr. Spitzer points out that physics and cosmology align with Catholic teaching. They are complementary, not contradictory. The second category is moral and ethical formation, which focuses on the big questions in life, purpose and the universe using intellectual rigor. This begins with the scientific and historical evidence of Jesus Christ and, by implication, the truth of who He was and what He taught.
Fr. Spitzer draws on recent scientific evidence that debunked findings in the 1970s and ‘80s on the veracity of the Shroud of Turin.
In a scholarly paper on the MagisCenter.com website, Fr. Spitzer offers a lengthy description of the serious flaws in early testing and new evidence supporting the veracity of the image.
“The bottom line is that science has shown the image on the cloth is an ‘impossible’ image — one that cannot be replicated. One of the main reasons is, as scientists have now confirmed, the image on the Shroud had to be caused by a mysterious burst of light — that is, electromagnetic radiation.”
If Jesus, both human and divine, existed then the truth of His life and teachings, as C.S. Lewis put it, is of infinite importance. The only thing is it cannot be moderately important.
The third category introduces intellectual depth by encouraging deep thinking and critical analysis of the big questions in life. Students learn that science and faith explain the same phenomena – that the beginning of physical reality implies a creator.
Fr. Spitzer states, “Prior to a beginning, physical reality would not exist. Nothing can become something by itself. Essentially, a transcendent creator had to create something to light the fuse on the Big Bang.”
Finally, the course applies the previous lessons to the proper formation of character and virtue. The course explains how the Catholic seven virtues — chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience and humility are keys to a joyful life and not a list of “thou shalt not.”
Striving for virtue results in a well-formed Catholic with the foundation to accept and thrive through life’s challenges.
Fr. Spitzer and Dr. Arellano hope these courses will be so successful that all Catholic schools in Orange County — and perhaps beyond — will incorporate them into their educational programs.
In the meantime, middle school science students will be able to understand that their faith teaches them to put on the armor of God by embracing the science behind his perfect universe.
And what emerging scientist doesn’t want to stand tall with the likes of Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger, Arthur Eddington, Fred Hoyle, Kurt Godel, Albert Einstein and, most importantly, Jesus Christ.